Thirteen moons

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