Conversations with the Goddess
by Peter Knight
Published by Stoneseeker Publications, 2007, price £8.99
Review by Willowwind
Thirteen Moons by Peter Knight styles itself as a
semi-autobiographical novel in the tradition of The Celestine Prophecy and
more latterly The DaVinci Code. Subtitled Conversations with the
Goddess and told in the first person, the plot revolves around the
revelations from the Goddess to an ostensibly quite ordinary person of the
ancient wisdom that must be revived if the earth is to survive. Each of these
conversations will take place over a year's time at a sacred spot during the
precise time of the full moon (hence the title). Each conversation contains a
necessary lesson for mankind which has been lost to patriarchal modern society.
These conversations are summarized as Thirteen Insights at the end of the book.
The action centers around the protagonist's efforts to discover the exact
location where the Goddess's message will be delivered through various clues he
receives during the preceding month.
The text contains a wealth of information
about sacred sites, megalithic monuments, ley lines and folk tradition in the British Isles. This is the author's area of expertise. As
interesting and valuable as this information is, I felt the book had some
problems in other areas. Most of those shortcomings result from its
attempt at accessibility and the stylistic results of that attempt. I ended up
having a hard time making myself read this book. I don't consider myself a
literary snob but I can only take so many references to pop culture. By the
time the author had been freaked out three times in the first chapter, made
numerous references to being beamed up by Scotty and was treating The
DaVinci Code as a spiritually significant document, the message of the
Goddess was getting lost in aggravation at the colloquialisms. Whatever you
think of the actual material in Dan Brown's work, The DaVinci Code is a
tightly plotted work of fiction that unwinds at breathless pace. (How did they
stay awake and alert for all those hours?) The book itself invites comparison
with the wide reception of the ideas Brown popularized and hopes to be as
influential. But the plot of Thirteen Moons does not have the same
characteristics of writing technique. Finding the next place of revelation does
not convey the compelling suspense as the deadly pursuit in Brown's thriller.
The narrative tends to bog down. As for spiritual content, some of
Knight's insights are good but the insistence that All is the way it is meant
to be as Reality is continually co-crafted by the will of the individual and
the Goddess was a bit too New Age for my tastes. In terms of spiritual
information this is light reading. A number of subjects are covered, such as
totem animals, the Green Man and crop circles but none in any great depth.
I won't say "Don't read this
book". My tastes in style are not everyone's and you may enjoy it. The
information on monuments and ley lines (which is the author's strength) is very
interesting. But don't look for compelling action or great depth in the
subject matter.
See author's web-site for further info (+ to buy a signed copy)
Also available from Amazon.co.uk
