A Circle of Stones: Journeys and Meditations for Modern Celts - Erynn Rowan Laurie 1995

Preface

Ever since Circle of Stones went out of print, people have been asking when I would be making it available again. I've had a PDF of the book up on my website for some time but, like many people, I prefer an actual book in my hands to a PDF file on a computer when I'm doing my spiritual work. In early 2011, sixteen years after the book originally went to press, I was finally persuaded that getting physical copies of Circle of Stones back into readers' hands was probably a good idea.

This is not really a new edition of the book. There are no substantive changes in the text, beyond some grammatical corrections and the correction of the Irish and Gaelic texts and pronunciations. You hold it in your hands now, warts and all. If I were to write it today, it would be an entirely different creature, but every author knows that you can't keep rewriting one book, or you'll be at it for the rest of your life. I had to set this one down and move on, and I don't regret that in the least. I've learned a lot in the last sixteen years and many of the things asserted in the text as it stands are not what I think now. That is only as it should be.

In those same sixteen years, new archaeological discoveries have been made, new translations of primary texts have appeared, new scholars have come into the field, and new theories have been propounded. Our knowledge is in a constant state of flux, and it's necessary to keep up with this always-shifting body of material if we're going to do our spirituality justice. Writers, like everyone else, grow and change their minds as new information arises. I've done a lot of writing and work on ogam, on sacred madness and poetry, and on the Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan movement as a whole in the time since this book was first written and have tried to integrate what I have continued to learn into those writings.

When this book was written, there were no other books out there by Celtic Reconstructionist Pagans for other CR Pagans. The movement itself was very young — it still is — and everything was under discussion and debate. We were, and still are, trying to define ourselves and discover our boundaries and the shapes of our spiritualities. There still aren't many books out there written by members of the community for use within the community, but new resources do exist and new venues for discussion continue to be created and to pass into the aether when their usefulness diminishes. As the earliest specifically CR book, Circle of Stones still gets cited fairly often on reading lists, and it is obviously still popular enough that I was persuaded to do a reprint. I hope that many newer books will come along and offer more up to date and accurate information, and that new and talented scholars and authors will come forward and share their own work and insights with us, with poetic grace and judicious wisdom.

Without the kindness of Immanion Press, this current edition would not exist. Storm Constantine and Taylor Ellwood were excited to bring my first work back into print, and I appreciate their enthusiasm more than I can say. Herb McSidhe provided clean scans of old artwork for this edition, and Bob Daverin created the new and much cleaner Fionn's Window glyph, also used in my book Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom. Caera Aislingeach has done a spectacular job of cleaning up the Irish and Gaelic in the text, and providing a pronunciation guide. She may also do a sound file for the prayers in the book, so keep an eye on my website, The Preserving Shrine, at http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas for updates on that possibility.

Many thanks are due to my dear friends in the Seattle area CR community, who are a constant source of support and encouragement. Their wisdom and insight, their research, and their discussions and debate have been invaluable to me over the years. Their friendship has been a joy and their thoughts and comments an inspiration.

Erynn Rowan Laurie

erynnrowanlaurie@gmail.com

Everett, WA

August, 2011