One of my favourite offerings from Moon Book’s Pagan Portals series is Morgan Daimler’s Gods and Goddesses of Ireland: A Guide to Irish Deities (2016). There are certainly other texts that present Irish deities within the context of greater Celtic culture. (E.g., the excellent and scholarly Celtic Myth and Religion by Sharon Paice McLeod, which was published in 2012 by McFarland.) This however, is the best single-volume work of the subject.

I also appreciated the final chapter in the book, “Honoring the Irish Gods.” Here the author discusses five practices for developing one’s spiritual life:

1) Read the mythologies in different translations.
2) Learn about specific geographic locations that are associated with particular deities.
3) Make pilgrimage to those locations.
4) Facilitate developing relationships and reciprocity by making offerings to the deities.
5) Make your faith a way of life (including reading and celebrating holidays.)
6) Set aside a space at home for your deity/deities.
7) Study Irish culture (including language, literature, music, food, art.)

Daimler states that “I wrote this because for many years I searched for this exact book: a text that would let me look up basic information about Irish deities” (p. 81). I have long desired this text as well. It is destined to become a classic in the area of Celtic spirituality.

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