Overview: Poetry talks to the heart as well as the head. It can move us, make us think and guide us. This book explores how poetry can help develop a Pathworking through exploring wisdom hidden in plain view.

It is a look at creative processes, inspirations, how nature and the Divine move us – and how to apply this on a personal level to Pagan Pathworking.

Verdict: In truth, and we in this household read a lot of this genre of book, for me personally, Fiona Tinker’s book Pagan Portals: Pathworking Through Poetry - Exploring, Knowing, Understanding and Dancing with the Wisdom the Bards Hid in Plain View (phew) is, and without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most unique set of collective prose that I have had the pleasure to read in some time.

My partner is a pagan who is following a rather bardic path, thus she herself found this book invaluable in the stories it tells and the insights into deities and myths that she would otherwise perhaps never have got, so to speak. Furthermore, so she tells me, since I handed it over to her once myself read, she has now reached the pathworking exercises and is very excited about that next chapter.

As for my thoughts, I have read many a book on paganism and all that encircles and embodies it, and yet Pagan Portals: Pathworking Through Poetry truly resonates with me as something beautifully refreshing to read; and even, perhaps, something written in a way that I have not myself beheld before.

Focusing on the work of three poets who found their home in the British Isles - MacLeod, Yeats, and O’Sullivan - all early contemporary Pagans of centuries past who found their place in the world through their moving spiritual poetry, we are lovingly guided through their works; in a way that not only informs and sculpts our minds, but also has the ability to act as an impassioned guide for deeper connection via the tool of pathworking - the ability to traverse the inner realms.

Fiona delves between the words, burrows under the lines, to bring forth hidden meanings and highlight lore that, for the most part, might well have been long forgotten about, or for the most part, not even passed on and into the past few generations. In doing so she also highlights some of the most creative works of the past allowing for the hope that a greater connection to the present self can be cultivated.

About the Author - Fiona Tinker was born in Glasgow in 1961 and at 17 decided there was a world to explore. After many adventures and travels covering several thousand miles and three countries, she now lives by the sea in in the North of Scotland.

Fiona is a post-graduate alumna of Southampton University. She has been teaching English to secondary school pupils in both England and Scotland for around thirty years.

Fiona Tinker is Pagan and has been actively involved in civic advocacy work in Scotland, including serving two terms as the elected Depute Presiding Officer of the Scottish Pagan Federation, as a legal celebrant; and as their education officer for a decade.

She regularly gave talks and presentations to a variety of audiences through these dual roles. Although she has now retired from these public roles, she still gives talks and presentations when invited.

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