"In this how-to book, Rob Brezsny builds a case for 'cagey optimism,' a perspective which engages rather than represses difficulty and views the universe as inherently friendly"--Provided by publisher.
Millions of people already live their lives in accordance with Rob Brezsny's "Real Astrology" prophecies. But the time has come for a deeper dose of Brezsny's brain. The Televisionary Oracle is an archetypal roller-coaster that would make Rumi dizzy and leave Carl Jung gasping for breath.
More than twenty years ago, Jon Kabat-Zinn changed the way we thought about awareness in everyday life with his now-classic introduction to mindfulness, Wherever You Go, There You Are. He followed that up with 2005's Coming to Our Senses, the definitive book for our time on the connection between mindfulness and our well-being on every level, physical, cognitive, emotional, social, planetary, and spiritual. Now, Coming to Our Senses is being repackaged into 4 smaller books, each focusing on a different aspect of mindfulness, and each with a new foreword written by the author. In the fourth of these books, Mindfulness for All (which was originally published as Part VII and Part VIII of Coming to Our Senses), Kabat-Zinn focuses on how mindfulness really can be a tool to transform the world--explaining how democracy thrives in a mindful context, and why mindfulness is a vital tool for both personal and global understanding and action in these tumultuous times. By "coming to our senses"--both literally and metaphorically--we can become more compassionate, more embodied, more aware human beings, and in the process, contribute to the healing of the body politic as well as our own lives in ways both little and big.
2012: Crossing the Bridge to the Future is an engaging personal narrative through the author’s apprenticeship with master astrologer William Lonsdale who teaches him how to access a source of great power and creativity buried within the human soul. The book begins in August 1987 on the slopes of Mount Shasta in Northern California as Borax witnesses the Harmonic Convergence, a spiritual and astrological event sparking a 26-year countdown to 2012, the year that marks the “end of history” in the Mayan calendar. Signs indicate that a “major energy shift” is occurring, a turning point in Earth’s collective karma powerful enough to change the global perspective of humankind. Borax’s mountaintop experiences compel him to seek solutions to his personal turmoil. He meets Lonsdale and together they launch a mystery school to study how the twenty-five-year period between 1987 and 2012 can be used for a cosmic purging of negativity to release humanity’s core forces and restore universal balance. En route, Borax and his fellow students discover truths about life after death, karma, reincarnation, past lives, human evolution, and the purpose of our existence on earth. In the tradition of The Teachings of Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda’s tales of his shamanic master, 2012: Crossing the Bridge to the Future is a gripping sorcerer’s apprentice story driven by mystical forces, encouraging readers to expand their everyday awareness and challenge their fundamental beliefs about their place in the universe.
Readers were instantly beguiled by Rob Brezsny's new approach to the humble horoscope when his "Free Will Astrology" column first appeared in 1996. Instead of the generic, one-size-fits-all style of similar columns, Brezsny used witty parables, tender rants, cultural riffs, pagan wisdom, and lively rituals in his playfully positive readings. He brings that same sensibility—and the same message of a smiling universe—to this self-help book for people who may be skeptical about self-help books. Brezsny persuasively advises readers to go along with the universe's good intentions, but his rejection of cynicism and a bleak view of human nature isn't rooted in denial. On the contrary, he makes a case for a cagey optimism that requires a vigorous engagement with the dark forces. He asks us to rethink life as a sublime game created for our amusement and illumination. The book is a chameleon of a tome. You can read it straight through, slowly and surely, or else pick it up and open it at random for tasty hits of inspiration as the spirit moves you. You can even start at the end and weave your way backward. Brezsny has substantially updated this edition—he added nearly one hundred pages—by expanding various sections, adding more than a dozen new pieces and a new chapter, and providing readers with a number of playtime activities and exercises that let them participate through their own writing and drawing. "Brezsny's horoscopes are like little valentines, buoyant and spilling over with mischievousness. They're a soul prognosis." —The New York Times
Why you are a different you at different times and how that’s both normal and healthy • Reveals that each of us is made up of multiple selves, any of which can come to the forefront in different situations • Offers examples of healthy multiple selves from psychology, neuroscience, pop culture, literature, and ancient cultures and traditions • Explores how to harmonize our selves and learn to access whichever one is best for a given situation Offering groundbreaking insight into the dynamic nature of personality, James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber show that each of us is comprised of distinct, autonomous, and inherently valuable “selves.” They also show that honoring each of these selves is a key to improved ways of living, loving, and working. Explaining that it is normal to have multiple selves, the authors offer insights into why we all are inconsistent at times, allowing us to become more accepting of the different parts of who we and other people are. They explore, through extensive reviews, how the concept of healthy multiple selves has been supported in science, popular culture, spirituality, philosophy, art, literature, and ancient traditions and cite well-known people, including David Bowie and Beyoncé, who describe accessing another self at a pivotal point in their lives to resolve a pressing challenge. Instead of seeing the existence of many selves as a flaw or pathology, the authors reveal that the healthiest people, mentally and emotionally, are those that have naturally learned to appreciate and work in harmony with their own symphony of selves. They identify “the Single Self Assumption” as the prime reason why the benefits of having multiple selves has been ignored. This assumption holds that we each are or ought to be a single consistent self, yet we all recognize, in reality, that we are different in different situations. Offering a pragmatic approach, the authors show how you can prepare for situations by shifting to the appropriate self, rather than being “switched” or “triggered” into a sub-optimal part of who you are. They also show how recognizing your selves provides increased access to skills, talent, and creativity; enhanced energy; and improved healing and pain management. Appreciating your diverse selves will give you more empathy toward yourself and others. By harmonizing your symphony of selves, you can learn to be “in the right mind at the right time” more often.
Gnosticism is a countercultural spirituality that forever changed the practice of Christianity. Before it emerged in the second century, passage to the afterlife required obedience to God and king. Gnosticism proposed that human beings were manifestations of the divine, unsettling the hierarchical foundations of the ancient world. Subversive and revolutionary, Gnostics taught that prayer and mediation could bring human beings into an ecstatic spiritual union with a transcendent deity. This mystical strain affected not just Christianity but many other religions, and it characterizes our understanding of the purpose and meaning of religion today. In The Gnostic New Age, April D. DeConick recovers this vibrant underground history to prove that Gnosticism was not suppressed or defeated by the Catholic Church long ago, nor was the movement a fabrication to justify the violent repression of alternative forms of Christianity. Gnosticism alleviated human suffering, soothing feelings of existential brokenness and alienation through the promise of renewal as God. DeConick begins in ancient Egypt and follows with the rise of Gnosticism in the Middle Ages, the advent of theosophy and other occult movements in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and contemporary New Age spiritual philosophies. As these theories find expression in science-fiction and fantasy films, DeConick sees evidence of Gnosticism's next incarnation. Her work emphasizes the universal, countercultural appeal of a movement that embodies much more than a simple challenge to religious authority.
Two of America's most experienced and respected psychic teachers present their system of the subtle energy of interpersonal relationships in a book that will appeal to anyone wishing to understand and improve their relationships within their families, partnerships, workplaces, and wider communities This useful guide from two of America’s preeminent psychics is unique in its focus on individual psychology and interpersonal relationships. It begins with simple meditations during which practitioners learn how to recognize their own psychic energy—and also determine if that energy is constrained. Psychic Psychology shows how to free energy through such tools as grounding, clearing psychic enmeshment, and finding the space from which to respond most openly, resourcefully, and generously to life. An entire chapter is devoted to exploring the specific energies men and women have based on their biological differences and helping them to deal with their own energy and that of the other sex. Friedlander and Hemsher present the everyday usefulness of clairvoyant skills within a big picture where they explain that we create our reality, but do not control it; and that the personality—like the soul—is eternal and always growing. The final section describes how psychic skills can be applied in real-world contexts, which are often ambiguous and contradictory. The book explores common issues such as dealing with selfdoubt without jumping to unwarranted, blind confidence and how to communicate effectively, with clear boundaries.