Ogmios—Messenger from the Light

A debut author provides a divinely inspired prayer book for Christians. Right out of the starting gate in his slim book Friedrich declares: "I am a spiritual messenger and gifted clairaudient." He can, he informs his readers, hear voices from angels and has been having these and similar supernatural experiences since his childhood. He also mentions that in February 2017, he was contacted by Jesus directly, who told him he would shortly begin receiving messages from the archangel Michael and the Celtic deity Ogmios. The rest of the work consists of Friedrich's transcriptions of the communications he received from these two over the course of the next two months; as Jesus informed the author, these would resonate with readers and grant them direction in their lives. Friedrich offers no explanation for why, once they started talking to each other, Jesus didn't simply deliver these messages himself. In fact, the author after that point simply steps out of the way and lets Michael and Ogmios do all the talking, in the form of incantatory prayers presented as somewhat strident meditations on the Christian faith. Contrary to Jesus' characterization, there's actually very little in these prayers that would give direction to a life--instead, most of them consist of platitudes that supply a kind of satisfying directness. "Place your fear on one side of the scale / Place your conviction or All Mighty / God our Lord on the other," Ogmios challenges. "To which will it tilt?" At one point, Michael asserts: "The angelic souls that whisper in the wind / Know the truths of All Mighty God. / They will assist you and bring forth signs." Both Ogmios and Michael consistently urge the faithful to open their hearts to God--bracing exhortations that will be familiar to many of Friedrich's readers from hearing them at weekly worship services from eloquent human sources. An intense series of incantatory prayers for Christian readers to ponder.

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