A guide to direct communication with the spirits and the Gods

• Offers practices for seekers and groups to learn to hear and respond to the spirits and the Gods as well as what to do (and not do) if you receive a message

• Explains how to authenticate spiritual messages with divination

• Discusses how to avoid theological conflicts when someone’s personal gnosis differs from that of their Pagan group

For our ancestors the whole world was alive with spirits. The Gods bubbled forth from rivers and springs and whispered in the breezes that rustled through cities and farms. The ground underfoot, the stones, the fire that cooked the food and drove off the darkness, these all had spirits--not just spirits in some other dimension, but spirits in them who could be spoken to and allied with. In today’s world we are led to believe that the spirits long ago went silent and that spiritual wisdom can only be gained through established religious doctrine.

Providing a guide for opening two-way conversation with the spirits of daily life as well as direct communication with the Gods, Kenaz Filan and Raven Kaldera explore how to enrich your spiritual path with personal gnosis--asking your Guides for assistance or teachings and receiving a response. They explain how to develop your sensitivity to the voices of the Divine, discern genuine spiritual messages from the projection of internal psychodrama, and what to do (and not do) with the messages you receive. Confirming their own personal gnosis with Northern Tradition Pagan beliefs and Greco-Roman, Celtic, Egyptian, and indigenous hunter-gatherer lore, the authors discuss how to avoid theological conflicts when someone’s personal gnosis differs from that of their Pagan group as well as how to authenticate messages with individual and group divination. Offering practices and principles for seekers and groups, they reveal that the spirits never went silent, we simply forgot how to hear them.

Kenaz Filan (Houngan Coquille du Mer) was initiated in Société la Belle Venus in March 2003 after 10 years of solitary service to the lwa. Filan is the author of several books, including The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook, and coauthor with Raven Kaldera of Drawing Down the Spirits. Filan lives in Short Hills, New Jersey. Raven Kaldera is a Northern Tradition Pagan shaman who has been a practicing astrologer since 1984 and a Pagan since 1986. The author of many books, including Moon Phase Astrology, and coauthor of Neolithic Shamanism, Kaldera lives in Hubbardston, Massachusetts.

Introduction
Reclaiming Our Gods, Reconstructing Our Faith

1 Why Personal Gnosis?

2 Definitions

3 Divine Downloads
What Personal Gnosis Feels Like

4 Legends, Lore, and Living Faith
On Primary Sources and Holy Writ

5 Delusions, Lies, and Skepticism

6 So Who Can Be a Mystic?

7 Judging the Message by Yourself
The Process of Discernment, Part 1

8 Mad Wisdom
Mental Illness and Personal Gnosis

9 Signal Clarity
Hearing the Divine Voice

10 Solo Divination
The Process of Discernment, Part 2

11 Silence and Faith

12 Neo-Paganism and Its Attitudes

13 Historical Precedents
Gnosis in Ancient Times

14 Responsibilities
Sorting Out the Tangled Mass

15 Community Divination
The Process of Discernment, Part 3

16 Groups and Gnosis

17 Judging the Message in Groups
The Process of Discernment, Part

18 The Rocky Road to Intrafaith Dialogue

Epilogue
The Future of Peer-Corroborated Personal Gnosis

Notes

Index