In the same way as the Goddess has been reclaimed in recent years, so this book reclaims the God. Nicholas Mann shows how the figure of the God has become monopolised, marginalised and distorted, to our great loss.

The restoration of the God liberates our individual spiritual experience. It enables us to see with new insight the reality of good and evil. It allows us to understand the true nature of our sexual passions, of our relationship to others, and to the world. It enables us to understand what it means to be a man. Here we revisit and redefine the Trickster, the Hunter, the Shape-Shifter, the Protector, Craftsman, Lover – the Gods of Wisdom, Fertility, Wealth and Laughter that still resonate in our lives today. In this important and original work Nicholas Mann establishes himself as one of the most provocative commentators on contemporary spirituality.

From the text:

… a form for the God is beginning to shape up. Not the God before the Neolithic, undifferentiated from the Great Mother, nor the transcendent God of history, but the God who emerged from the former and from whom a prototype was taken for the latter. This God is Lord of the Waxing Year and Lord of the Waning Year. Then—perhaps simultaneously in his lunar hierophany—he is the God of Fertility and God of Death. He is present as the wild, vivifying life energy and then he is absent. He is always rising and falling, coming and going. He is either entering the earth or rising from it. The God is the metaphor for the increase and departure of the life force of Nature. The God is the active manifestation of and the subject of the cycle of change. He is Youth, Man and Ancient. He undergoes birth, life, sex and death, while the Goddess is those things.

Reviews:

“The delightful Mr. Mann just keeps writing invaluable keys to the Men's Mysteries, Avalon and The Matter of Britain. Profound, revelatory, impeccably researched, this is a cornerstone text for anyone seriously pursuing study of the ancient Celtic mysteries.” Morgaine of Avalon

“If you enjoyed the Farrar's "The Witch's God", you'll enjoy this book even better. Mann starts out with an interesting way of dichotomizing the various aspects of the God within the chapters by entitling them "Guide to the Underworld", "Shape-Shifter", "The Destroyer and the Destroyed", "The Rising, Climaxing and Falling God" and of course "The God of Games". There are 25 short chapters in all and they are all independent of one another. Mann basically discusses the various mythological aspects of the God in each chapter and then he gives two or more examples of Gods from different mythological pantheons who fill that role. And to his credit, he does not merely just list the Gods for that particular role, but he explains how the God fits into that role as well.

I give this book 5 stars from the fact that it's chock full of material to consider about the Male aspect of Deity when so much is written and doted upon the Female aspect within the Neo-Pagan community. It's also laid out well and the material is first rate. I think every Wiccan or Pagan practitioner who decides to want to work with Deity, should consider obtaining a copy of this particular work.” zodiacbistro.com Amazon Reviewer.