The Magic Land
- A magical visionary novel by Michael Conneely
BOOK REVIEW
- by Pauline Stephenson of The Book Case, Hebden Bridge
Well-known local astrologer and tantric counsellor Michael Conneely has now branched out as a novelist. His two new novels, which are on sale at The Book Case, put into fictional form some of his immense knowledge of more spiritual ways of being. Michael and his wife Janet spent five years on a social anthropological field study of rituals and meditations, to identify how individuals in the modern west are using new forms of spirituality to understand their personal identity.
'The Magic Land' is about a young man's rite of passage which he has to find and create for himself against the wishes of his domineering father. Martin begins by falling in love with the peace and power of a stone circle and joining the people who gather there to protect it from the developers. To the society Martin comes from these new friends are troublemakers and riff -raff and his father sees them as vermin to be cleared away. Martin however rapidly begins to see that they have far more important and ancient values than those he has grown up with and starts his own journey of discovery. As with all initiation rites it has its perils and Martin learns that everything has a price. Michael Conneely's deep knowledge of astrology, Goddess rites and ancient traditions gives a firm base to the story. This is a novel that will speak to many people who are beginning to question the accepted Western way of life and its inevitable consequences and they may well find that this book gives them a map by which to begin their own explorations.
Michael Conneely is clearly very knowledgeable about shamanism, eastern religions and American Indian traditions and uses this knowledge to good effect as he develops his theme of the necessity of spiritual practices if mankind is to have any future other than a totally brutal one. |
