The Chronicles of a Wandering Soul

Bay Area Fisher King Press Authors at Harms Vineyard and Lavender Fields Open House in Napa, CA.

2010-06-10T07:01:00.004+02:00

On June 19, 2010, at 4:30 pm Bay Area Fisher King Press Authors will read at Harms Vineyard and Lavender Fields Open House in Napa, CA.

Paul Watsky will read from his recently published poetry collection, Telling the Difference.

Karlyn Ward will read from Anchored in the Heart and from her new book, Visitation in a Zen Garden.

Naomi Ruth Lowinsky will read from, The Sister from Below and from her newest book of poems, Adagio and Lamentation.

Patricia Damery will read from her recently published memoir, Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation.

The reading will follow the annual Harms Vineyard and Lavender Fields Open House on June 19, 2010. Please join in the fun of this all-out sensory experience when the lavender fields will be in full bloom. Sample lavender culinary treats, tour our Biodynamic® ranch, pet the goats.

Open House 10 a.m. to 4 p.m
Authors Event: 4:30 pm.

Location: 3185 Dry Creek Road, Napa, CA 94558
between Linda Vista and Orchard.
RSVP: info@harmslavender.com

Mel Mathews, is the author of several novels, including the Malcolm Clay Trilogy (Fisher King Press). His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order and www.malcolmclay.com
© 2010 Mel Mathews

Remembering Mother

2010-04-25T08:11:00.000+02:00

With Mothers Day fast approaching, perhaps the following books would fit just fine for a Mothers Day gift:

The Motherline: Every Woman's Journey to find her Female Roots
by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky.

Product Description
The Motherline takes the perspective of the mother who is always also a daughter. It is a book for women who have mothers, are mothers, or are considering becoming mothers, and for the men who love them. Telling the stories of women whose maturation has been experienced in the cycle of mothering, it urges a view of the psyche of women that does not sever mother from daughter, feminism from "the feminine," body from soul.

It argues that the path to wholeness requires us to reclaim aspects of the feminine self that we have lost or forgotten in our struggle to free ourselves from constricting roles. It describes a woman's journey to find her roots in the personal, cultural, and archetypal Motherline.

Our mothers are the first world we know, the source of our lives and our stories. Embodying the mysteries of origin, they tie us to the great web of kin and generation. Yet the voice of their experience is seldom heard. We have no cultural mirror in which to envision the fullness of female development; we are deprived of images of female wisdom and maturity. Finding our female roots, reclaiming our feminine souls, requires us to pay attention to our real mothers' lives and experience. Listening to our mothers' stories is the beginning of understanding our own.

Reviews
“(In) this perceptive and penetrating study . . . (Naomi Ruth Lowinsky) imaginatively applies Jungian, feminist and literary approaches to popular attitudes about . . . mothers and daughters and movingly, to personal experience.”

—Publisher’s Weekly

“A combination of years of scholarship and recordings of personal journeys, this book belongs in every woman’s psychology/spirituality collection.”

—Library Journal

“In this accessible volume, Jungian psychologist Lowinsky explores the pain that women feel when their mother-love is undervalued or erased.”

—ALA Booklist

About the Author
Naomi Ruth Lowinsky is the author of The Sister from Below: When the Muse Gets Her Way and The Motherline: Every Woman's Journey to Find Her Female Roots and numerous prose essays, many of which have been published in Psychological Perspectives and The Jung Journal. She has had poetry published in many literary magazines and anthologies, among them After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery, Weber Studies, Rattle, Atlanta Review, Tiferet and Asheville Poetry Review. Her two poetry collections, red clay is talking (2000) and crimes of the dreamer (2005) were published by Scarlet Tanager Books. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize three times and the recent recipient of the Obama Millennium Poetry awarded for "Madelyn Dunham, Passing On.” Naomi is a Jungian analyst in private practice, poetry and fiction editor of Psychological Perspectives, and a grandmother many times over.

Order The Motherline directly from Fisher King Press

Re-Imagining Mary: A Journey Through Art to the Feminine Self
by Mariann Burke

Artists plumb the depths of soul which Jung calls the collective unconscious, the inheritance of our ancestors' psychic responses to life’s drama. In this sense the artist is priest, mediating between us and God. The artist introduces us to ourselves by inviting us into the world of image. We may enter this world to contemplate briefly or at length. Some paintings invite us back over and over again and we return, never tiring of them. It is especially these that lead us to the Great Mystery, beyond image. Re-imagining Mary: A Journey through Art to the Feminine Self is about meeting the Cosmic Mary in image and imagination, the many facets of the Mary image that mirror both outer reality and inner feminine soul. Jungian analyst Mariann Burke explores symbolic meanings of paintings and sculptures by several famous artist from the renaissance period on up to our modern age including: Fra Angelico, Albrecht Durer, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Nicolas Poussin, Parmigianino, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and Frederick Franck.

Aspects of Mary explored include: Mary not only as Mother of God, a title from the Judeo-Christian tradition, but as Mother God, a title reaching back to an ancient longing for a Female Divinity. In western Christianity this Mary bears the titles and the qualities worshipped for thousands of years in the Female images of God and Goddess. These titles include Mary as Sorrowful One and as Primordial Mother. Recovering Mary both as light and dark Madonna plays a crucial role in humanity s search for a divinity who reflects soul. Also discussed is Mary as the sheltering Great Mother that Piero della Francesca suggest in the Madonna del Parto and Mater Misericodia. Frederick Franck s The Original Face and the Medieval Vierge Ouvrante also suggest this motif of Mary as Protector of the mystery of our common Origin. Franck s inspiration for his sculpture of Mary was the Buddhist koan 'What is your original face before you were born?'

Reviews
"In this beautiful book, recounting her personal journey of discovery, Mariann Burke offers us her awakening to the experience of the Feminine. We follow her as she encounters and responds to images of Mary which hold meaning for her: Mary as Virgin Mother, Mary as Mirror, Mary as the Compassionate Sanctuary for suffering humanity, Mary as Temple, Mary as Black Madonna and Divine Wisdom. Through her contemplation of these images, she leads us deeper into an understanding of the Feminine and into unexplored dimensions of the soul. This is a book to savor and return to often."

--Anne Baring, co-author of The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image.

"Mariann Burke has undertaken the remarkable and urgent task of grounding one of the major icons of Christian history, Mary. She plants Mary side by side with her ancient sister colleagues: Isis, Kali, Demeter, Tara and others, revealing Mary's ancient roots. This reading is critical for the 21st century since, through Mary, one expression of the Feminine archetype, matter can again be seen as divinized and the idea of incarnation pushed solidly into the matter of all things. Re-Imagining Mary is really re-imagining ourselves as women and men giving birth to God in newer and more relevant ways today. It is reimagining not only our own personal soul s journey but also the deep sacredness of the soul of the world itself."

--Fred Gustafson, author of The Black Madonna.

About the Author
Mariann Burke is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Newton, MA. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, Andover-Newton Theological School, and the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. She has done graduate work in Scripture at Union Theological Seminary and La Salle University. Her interests include the body-psyche connection, feminine spirituality, and the psychic roots of Christian symbolism. She is a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ).

Order Re-Imagining Mary directly from Fisher King Press

The Rising Sign and New Life

2010-03-04T10:31:00.001+01:00

a book review by Mel Mathews

Well known and respected internationally for her ground breaking work in Archetypes of the Zodiac, Kathleen Burt now offers us a phenomenal distillation of her life work in: Beyond the Mask: The Rising Sign, Creativity and Spirituality in the Second Half of Life, Part I: Aries - Virgo. ISBN 978-0-9813939-3-3

Beyond the Mask illustrates how midlife urgings bring forth cycles of death and rebirth. Antiquated identities and roles must die, old 'masks' must be pealed away before we can discover a new path in life. Kathleen Burt addresses specifically how each of the rising sign patterns guide us into new life and fresh experiences.

With the keen eye of an astrologer examining the biography of creative writers and inspired people, Kathleen Burt brings a depth of understanding to the Rising Sign. This unique volume of wisdom offers decades of scholarly study and practical experience in esoteric astrology, psychology, mythology, and biography and examines the underlying archetypal patterns inherent in our lives.

About the Reviewer
Mel Mathews’ book reviews have been published in USA Today and many other notable publications. He is the author of the Malcolm Clay Trilogy. learn more at: www.melmathews.com.

Permission to reprint granted.

a courageous offering: Farming Soul

2010-02-28T03:58:00.002+01:00

“the psychological problem of today is a spiritual problem, a religious problem . . .”

—C.G. Jung, C.G. Jung Speaking: Interview and Encounters,
“Does the World Stand on the Verge of Spiritual Rebirth?”

a review by Mel Mathews

A psychological and spiritual reckoning, Farming Soul questions theories and assumptions that date back to the early 1900’s and the days of Freud, assumptions which have too often separated spirituality from psychology. Suffering the trials of her own individuation process, Patricia Damery finds answers through a series of unconventional teachers and through her relationship to the psyche and to the land—answers that are surprisingly deeply intertwined.

One strand of Farming Soul is about redeveloping a relationship to the land—Mother Earth—being rooted in a particular place and being guided by the tenets of Rudolf Steiner’s Biodynamic agriculture. Another strand is about Patricia Damery’s professional path of becoming a Jungian analyst, which includes the exploration of four aspects of the body: the physical, the etheric, the astral, and the mental. We are acquainted with and have similar assumptions about the physical body, but we are mostly unfamiliar with the three supersensible bodies. Jung and two of his closest and well-respected colleagues, Marie Louise von Franz and Barbara Hannah, address the subtle body in their writings, but analytical psychology (and psychology in general) has avoided this aspect of Jung’s work.

Farming Soul is a courageous offering that will help to reconnect us to our deeper selves, the often untouched realities of soul, and at the same time ground us in our physical relationship to self and Mother Earth.

Patricia Damery is an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco and practices in Napa, CA. She grew up in the rural Midwest and witnessed the demise of the family farm through the aggressive practices of agribusiness. With her husband Donald, she has farmed biodynamically for ten years.

Mel Mathews' book reviews have appeared in many syndicated publications. He is the author of the Malcolm Clay Trilogy, a series of novels that portray a man’s struggles as he goes against the grains of his upbringings and emerges as a renewed man who is guided by his own inner truth and hard-won wisdom. Learn more about this reviewer and his publications at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

Permission to reprint this article is granted.

Tips for Accessing your Creative Spirit

2010-01-26T12:34:00.000+01:00

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking makes for a fine companion to Lawrence Staples’ The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness. If you are looking to tap into your own creative spirit, both of these fine publications will help.

Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking
by David Bayles and Ted Orland
ISBN 978-0961454739. Trade Paperback, 122 pages

What is your art really about?
Where is it going?
What stands in the way of getting there?

These are questions that matter, questions that recur at each stage of artistic development - and they are the source for this volume of wonderfully incisive commentary.

Art and Fear explores the way art is created, and the reasons it often does not get created, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. This is a book about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do. It is about committing your future to your own hands, placing Free Will above predestination, choice above chance. It is about finding your own work.

The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness by Lawrence H. Staples.
ISBN 9780981034447 (ISBN 10: 0981034446) Index, Biblio, 100 pp., 2009.

Who we most deeply are is mirrored in our artistic work. Our need for mirroring simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from our creative callings and relationships. It is one of life's great dilemmas.

Artist's block and lover's block flow from the same pool. Often, we fear deeply the very thing needed to create original art, to experience intimate relationships and to live authentic lives: we are frightened by the impulse to be fully revealed to ourselves, and to others, as this most often entails exposing the unacceptable shadowy aspects of our humanity and risking rejection.

Mirrors in all their manifold guises permit us to safely see and experience ourselves in reflection and become better acquainted with the rejected, ostracized aspects of our personalities. Creative work is one of the few places where we can truly express and witness lost aspects of our authentic selves.

Within us a treasure beckons. This is what we spend our lives pursuing. What slows and distracts us is not the object we long for, but where we search. To find this precious gem, we must eventually return to our own creative spirits.

A few of the topics explored in THE CREATIVE SOUL include:

THE CREATIVE INSTINCT
OUR UNIQUE IDENTITY
SOME ELEMENTS OF CREATIVITY
SOME PREREQUISITES OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
GIVING VOICE TO THE MANY LIVES WITHIN
DREAMS AND ACTIVE IMAGINATION AS TRIGGERS TO CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE
ART AND THE QUEST FOR WHOLENESS
THERAPY AS ART
FEAR OF SELF-REVELATION BLOCKS CREATIVITY
INTIMACY AND CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY, GUILT, AND SELF-DEVELOPMENT
CREATIVITY AND LONELINESS

Art & Fear and The Creative Soul, along with many other worthy publications can be purchased at the Fisher King Press online bookstore.

Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada, International +1-831-238-7799

Mischievous Minds Meet

2009-11-23T23:40:00.004+01:00

by Mel Mathews

Not long ago I had the opportunity to meet with John and Renee Atkinson at their home in Gwynn's Island. The Atkinsons were marvelous hosts. Amongst many other dishes, Renee's coconut cake is exquisite! Her secret recipe—love, for life, for all of humanity.

John Atkinson is a most gifted writer and I encourage one and all to read his books. With his masterful storytelling ability Atkinson brings us the murder mystery thriller par excellence in his most recent publication Dark Shadows Red Bayou. Here’s a taste:

Sugar Roll Davis pays no mind to sweat running down his neck. He’s tuned out the heat and high humidity of the bayou. He wears a buckskin jacket with hood to hide a face city folks would fear. His tiny outboard motor hums as it labors through the bog. It’s a familiar sound, but he’s listening to a voice in his head.

“I want you to cleanse your mother’s sins, Sugar. You hear?”

“Yes, Lord, I hear.”

Life is simple in the swamp—Kill or be killed. What isn’t after its next meal is trying not to become one. Sugar recalls the last sinner as though the hand of God had served her to him. She tried to escape, but Sugar was faster than a bug’s life on black water.

John’s first language is metaphor and alliteration. Painting with words is what he does best, and he proves it time and time again. In Timekeeper Atkinson delivers a moving story of a young man’s difficult journey to overcome illiteracy and the mean-spirited abuse of one’s own dysfunctional family.

Within the first few pages, Timekeeper had weaved its essence around my heart and refused to let me go. Written in the same spirit as Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, Timekeeper is a magnificent tale of a young boy who can't read, or at least he hasn't found the means to do so up to this point in his life. Misunderstood by his teachers and elders, and physically beaten into the ground by his father, Johnnyboy runs away from home at the age of fourteen and sets off into the unknown to find himself. What he couldn't find in his own father, the universe provides for him in a multitude of miraculous ways. In spite of all his suffering and adversities, Johnnyboy's spirit remains in tact . . . better yet, like a boxer taking a relentless barrage of punches, he spits his beating into the ringside pail and comes out dancing like never before into the next rounds/chapters of this magnificent tale of redemption.

In Timekeeper as well as in Dark Shadows Red Bayou Atkinson’s diverse imagination and talent shines through. Yet, had his name not been on the cover of these two books, I’d have never guessed them to be the work of the same author. Atkinson has been blessed with the gift that many writers long for—the ability to fall into the life and voice of a multitude of characters. You don’t just read words; you taste, you feel, you become a part of his stories. Undoubtedly, Atkinson is a master at his trade who consistently delivers highly entertaining, cutting edge 21st century fiction, that someday will join the eternal ranks of the timeless classic tales.

Articles and book reviews by Mel Mathews have appeared in many syndicated publications. He is the author of several novels, including the Malcolm Clay Trilogy (Fisher King Press). Learn more about the reviewer at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

© 2009 Mel Mathews
Permission to reprint is granted.

Malcolm Clay and the Timekeeper putting their heads together—Watch out World!
Mel Mathews(left) and John Atkinson(right).

The Malcolm Clay Trilogy Revisited: an essay

2009-11-13T13:00:00.001+01:00

by Joey Madia

“As an avid reader, writer, and writing teacher, I’m always on the lookout for new authors and new forms of literature, especially re-inventions of the novel. My own experimentations with what constitutes the novel form have paralleled the innovations found in film and music—using technology to aid with research, presentation, formatting, marketing, and all the rest.

“In Mel Mathews’ novels I have found a new form that leaves modern innovations behind and instead goes for a simplification of the novel into its earliest roots—as a kind of hybrid journal, fairy tale, travelogue, and reiteration of fact thinly veiled as fiction. At least, it seems to be fact thinly veiled as fiction. The parallels between Mel and his main character abound, and the lines of reality are often crossed (“You’re in the next book,” his main character says to people along the way). Samsara (the third book in the series) opens with a potential clue: “The lies will be honest.” In Menopause Man there is even an extended discussion of the fairytale allegory of LeRoi that serves not only as a vehicle for an illustration of the narrow view of an “Old Mockingbird” named Mrs. Shams I talk about later but as an explanation from the author to the reader about what he was trying to accomplish.

“Toward the end of Samsara, Malcolm meets a drunk in a pub called “The Wicked Wolf” (names of places and people in the books always seem to have some underlying meaning—along the way we meet women named Sarah and Sophia, a man getting married named Freeman, and a town called Five Points). The drunk, upon hearing his name, says “Malcolm, you know there’s a Saint Mel…[my emphasis],” to which Malcolm answers “’That wouldn’t be me,’ I proudly announced.”

“If I am wrong, and the books aren’t thinly veiled fiction, then Mel’s work represents an ultra-realistic form of fiction that rides the structure of a nearly day-by-day accounting of the main character’s experiences over a relatively short amount of time—weeks, usually. Samsara, for instance, covers the time period December 21, 2000 to April 24, 2001 and is presented as a daily diary, with many days having multiple entries.

“The parallels extend beyond the story to the storyteller as well. As Mel says on his websites www.melmathews.com & www.malcolmclay.com he is a storyteller—an ex tractor salesman, and not a novelist. His counterpart in the novels, Malcolm Clay, also an ex tractor salesman, says in Menopause Man, “I write, but I’m not a writer.” Fair enough. Mel doesn’t concern himself much with the high artistry of the writer—the toiling for hours over the construction of the sentence, painstakingly taking out typos and finding the perfect rhythm and combination of words as proscribed by such literary luminaries as GB Shaw and Mark Twain—but instead he viscerally and straightforwardly relates Malcolm’s journey—a journey that takes place physically as well as metaphorically, using references to Jungian psychology, the trixter, Mary Magdalene, and the sacred feminine (e.g., Kali and Lilith), and the traps and trappings of being Male and Female. Along the way we are treated to both explicit and implicit explorations of such motifs as the slaying of the dragon, the rescuing of the princess, and the dethroning of the wounded, ailing king.

“A unique element of Mel’s novels is that he has said that you needn’t read the three books in any particular order, even though they are all built around the same main character. The experiences happen somewhat out of time, and one book’s ending does not lead to the start of the next. Adding to this disunity is the fact that Mel has also broken convention by writing the first and last novels in first person and the middle novel, Menopause Man, in the third person. Given these facts, it seems pretty clear that taking this review novel by novel would be a mistake, so I am going to talk in generalities, considering the main character, the considerable amount of people who come in and out of his life, and the larger themes and symbols I found to be at work in these books. When appropriate I will mention specific passages from the three books and parallels between them.

“Malcolm made his money young and has or had all the things that go with it—he is very proud of his Tony Lama boots, he owns a plane, which he is trying over the course of the books to sell, as he no longer needs what it once represented (i.e., he no longer needs to be the Eternal Child, the Puer Aeternus, of Marie Louis von Franz), and he has an MG that certainly is more status symbol of middle-aged male virility than reliable mode of transportation (its breaking down is the preceding circumstance of the novel LeRoi).

“Malcolm is somewhat the middle-aged American archetype in other ways as well—he is a recovering alcoholic and addict, divorced, and trying to realign his Maleness in the anti-macho modern world so carefully considered by the likes of Robert Bly in books like Iron John. His “rigid Calvinistic heritage” even applies if you insert your own applicable religious upbringing if it felt, like his, more of a prison sentence than a path to enlightenment. But he is trying to change and is making a committed search to do so. Over the course of the novels we find him reading such books as Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Hawking’s Brief History of Time, and Coehlo’s The Alchemist. A strong selling point of the books is that for Malcolm, like the rest of us Seekers who have read these and similar titles, the initial embracing of the theories is far, far easier than actually applying them as a means to profound and long-term change. Too often a character in a modern novel meets his or her guru/guide and within 200 hundred pages undergoes a wholesale transformation. If only it was that easy…

“In the third book, Samsara (a Hindu word meaning the death and rebirth cycle), Malcolm takes a physical journey across several countries (Switzerland, France, Italy, and Ireland) in pursuit of the feminine—spiritually (at a conference on the Magdalen in Florence) and physically (as he pursues a woman named Kelli in Ireland).

“LeRoi, published first, opens with the following unattributed quote: “Woman cannot be contained./Real or ethereal,/she cannot be harnessed.”

“This pursuit of both the symbolic and physical woman (the “mystical union”) truly is the meat of the matter in these books. Malcolm talks in detail about the mechanics of the chase (“…it was always the woman who came to the man. Man chases, pisses on tires, jumps up and down like a baboon drooling all over his red-assed self, but if the woman doesn’t come to him and open herself to him, he might as well take his shriveled up hard-on back upstairs…”). I found it incredibly refreshing that Malcolm more often than not wound up back upstairs, alone. He also has many at-length discusses about matriarchal, patriarchal, and man–woman matters along the way, especially with the members of the Magdalen conference, a section of the books that provided the most thought-provoking and interesting passages for me. There is lots of good information on sacred feminine art in Florence, the symbolic union of Mary M. and Jesus as the nexus of the male and female aspects in all of us (the hieros gamos), the birth of the Divine Child, and issues of Gnosticism and the Gnostic gospels such as the one attributed to St. Thomas.

“Along the way Malcolm meets many women who seem to be male-bashers—militant in their feminism to the extent that they find fault with any man simply for being one. In my own experience, I have found some Wicca covens to be a cover for this sort of attitude, and this issue of Maleness in the postmodern world is one with which many men struggle. One of my favorite lines in any of the books is when Malcolm says in Samsara: “I love women who love men.”

“Amen.

“There is plenty of attention given to the child–parent (especially son–mother) relationship and the larger metaphors of how males and females relate. Characters like the diner owner Flo and the landlady Mrs. Shams (who fully lives up to her last name, at least in Malcolm’s eyes) represent the stuck-in-time, all too grounded matriarch who hands down proclamations of exactly how a middle-aged man like Malcolm should be living his life, while younger, more vital women such as Sarah in LeRoi and Sheila in Menopause Man represent the continued evolution of the soul and psyche that comes with the adventure of fully living life, no matter one’s gender or age. Stuck unpleasantly in the middle (as is Malcolm) is Jenny, who wants a platonic experience with Malcolm. She has forsaken sex, claiming menopause at 30, and thus is neither male nor female, and yet somehow both. A pet name she uses for Malcolm in a letter in Samsara turns out to be the source of the second book’s title. Add in Cassi, the wife of his best friend, Turner (they have three children) and we have the Triple Goddess—the maiden (Sheila and Sarah), the mother (Cassi), and the crone (Flo and Mrs. Shams). There are plenty of other examples throughout the three books that reinforce this model.

“Perhaps most intriguing of all, Malcolm is not always an easy character to like. Most disturbing to me was his homophobia. He makes remarks about “queers,” “gays,” and “fags” on numerous occasions (sometimes right on the heels of a philosophical–spiritual exploration) and there is even a point in Menopause Man where the narrator breaks into first person and describes a “faggy pair” of teal colored shorts. Malcolm also refers to someone as a “preppy little faggot.” He is absolutely vicious about the French (months before it became über-vogue after 9-11). Malcolm is also, at the end of the day, a wolf-like womanizer; a self-proclaimed “ass-end” man who judges women in very physical, sexualized terms, and he turns such disparaging phrases about unattractive women as “her pink polyester two-ton ass” over the course of the books. This turning on a dime from the spiritual to the physical, at times with unsettling speed, really makes his faults hard to overlook. He can be talking about making one woman “divine” and then make a biting comment about another woman who just came into his view.

“He is nothing if not complex.

“Characters like Jimmy, Sarah, and Flo, the staff at the diner/boarding house where Malcolm waits out the repairs to his MG in LeRoi, are all archetypes representing the different aspects of Malcolm’s ever-evolving psyche. Malcolm knows it, too, saying “…the people I encountered who had the ability to upset me were often reflections of unacceptable parts of myself.” This dovetails nicely with the Jungian dream analysis in Samsara. Jung said that every member of the dream-cast is an aspect of who the dreamer actually is.

“The idea of one’s identity is a key aspect of the books. Mel–Malcolm often comments about people making you into what they need you to be. It seems clear that this practice also applies to the gods and goddesses they choose to worship. Malcolm struggles with trying to find a definition of God, traveling back and forth between the Old Testament god of vengeance and wrath (Yahweh) and the New Testament god of compassion and forgiveness.

“The novels all revolve around eateries and those that work in them, which is an excellent device for bringing a lot of different archetypes and life stories into the mix. There are philosophical and spiritual exchanges, long conversations over coffee and sandwiches full of the same, and plenty of “bullshit sessions.” The transience of such an atmosphere also serves the overall theme that life is fleeting and it is the small moments rather than the big ones that chart the course of one’s life—a philosophy that informed Joyce’s work, especially in his collection of short stories, The Dubliners.

“There is the very Jungian imagery of fishing in a stream in LeRoi, searching in the depths of the psyche for treasures and trophies. That elegant struggle to land the fish, whatever it may be—money, love, respect, actualization. Being a catch and release man (“all you get to keep of the fish is its tale”), Malcolm is trying to extricate himself from the tangle of material symbols he has anchored himself with in life—replacing them with experience and memory—so the metaphors of the fish and water are apt ones indeed. In many ways, as he sits in those myriad restaurants, he is fishing for tales—he is, after all, a writer, whether he chooses to admit it or not. Like Yeats, he knows about the Masks we all wear, and he is trying to change his—to transition from the lunar to solar phase, as we all must begin to undertake around our fortieth year.

“Also in line with the Jungian aspects of the novels, Malcolm is increasingly interested in exploring and explaining his dreams (a practice that finds its full fruition in Samsara). Adam, his chief advisor (although he has many older males with whom he engages in philosophical discussions), has been his biggest help in this way and it is Adam who brings us Samsara, after receiving it via mail from Ireland, where Malcolm spends a good deal of time in the third book.

“Perhaps most compelling (and realistic) of all is the fact that in the course of three books and hundreds of pages Malcolm barely changes at all. He gets out of Mrs. Shams’ house in the third book (a major step) and begins to give away to strangers or leave behind many of his possessions—even his cell phone as he begins to become enlightened, and this manifesting of the spiritual with the physical is a very positive sign, but he still has a long way to go.

And, no doubt, many more books to write.”

Joseph Madia is an Author & Playwright for the New Mystics Theatre Company. Be sure to visit the New Mystics' sites: www.newmystics.com & www.myspace.com/newmystics

LeRoi ISBN 0977607607
Menopause Man ISBN 0977607615
SamSara ISBN 0977607623

To learn more about Mel & Malcolm Clay be sure to visit: www.malcolmclay.com

An Aphrodisiac . . . A Timeless Treasure . . . An Elegant Gift . . .

2009-10-25T07:59:00.010+01:00

Gentlemen, if you are looking to woo the ladies, or a certain special woman, you can't go wrong with Love Letters of a Musician by Peter Alan Rush.

Love Letters of a Musician
by Peter Alan Rush
—ISBN 978-0-9773237-0-8, 164 pp. $35.00

With elegant simplicity and passion, the lost art of the love letter returns to life in these pages. Welcome to a realm where the magic of love is illuminated through the written word . . . a timeless gift from one heart to another.

"In this world of confusion and chaos, we must not forget what is real. Love is the mysterious connection with life that can lead us back to our true selves."

This quality book comes in a beautiful gift box. This hard cover purple linen cloth is stamped in gold foil on the spine, front cover, and on the front of the gift box. The pages are of a lightly textured parchment paper and a purple ribbon marker adds to this tasteful limited edition publication and makes a great gift for any special occasion!

Love Letters of a Musician—by Peter Alan Rush
ISBN 978-0-9773237-0-8 Hard Cover Limited Edition
~~$35.00 USD~~ On Sales for $29.95

Jung's Red Book

2009-09-18T07:02:00.008+02:00

Just in case you have some 'spare change' in your pockets, THE RED BOOK by C.G. Jung is now available for Pre-Ordering from Fisher King Press.

The Red Book by C.G. Jung / Edited by Sonu Shamdasani, 416pp, Hardcover. Click to order directly from Fisher King Press

Product Description
The most influential unpublished work in the history of psychology. When Carl Jung embarked on an extended self-exploration he called his “confrontation with the unconscious,” the heart of it was The Red Book, a large, illuminated volume he created between 1914 and 1930. Here he developed his principle theories—of the archetypes, the collective unconscious, and the process of individuation—that transformed psychotherapy from a practice concerned with treatment of the sick into a means for higher development of the personality.

While Jung considered The Red Book to be his most important work, only a handful of people have ever seen it. Now, in a complete facsimile and translation, it is available to scholars and the general public. It is an astonishing example of calligraphy and art on a par with The Book of Kells and the illuminated manuscripts of William Blake. This publication of The Red Book is a watershed that will cast new light on the making of modern psychology.
212 color illustrations.

About the Author/Editor
Sonu Shamdasani, a preeminent Jung historian, is Reader in Jung History at Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. He lives in London, England.

Visit the Fisher King Press online bookstore at www.fisherkingpress.com

Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US & Canada, International +1-831-238-7799.

Mel Mathews is the general editor of Fisher King Press, a publisher who specializes in analytical psychology books. Mel is the author of the Malcolm Clay Trilogy. His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order them directly from his website at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

© 2009 Mel Mathews

a Snappy Reading Mystery Thriller Filled with Wisdom and Wit: Sulfur Creek

2009-07-21T21:00:00.001+02:00

a review by Mel Mathews

Drawing from a depth of knowledge and feelings, Thad McAfee masterfully delivers first-rate storytelling in Sulfur Creek. Twelve year-old Anna Marie Cochran has lost her life on the railroad tracks at the Sulfur Creek crossing in a small Midwestern town. Much as the little stream meanders across the countryside, the lives of the mourners who have gathered from afar twist and turn before a heinous crime is uncovered.

For twenty years Sonny Mac has avoided his past. This successful corporate man has had no need or desire to return to his origins to face those old ghosts. But now he is called upon to support a childhood best friend and his grieving family. The local Sheriff, the Railroad Police, and the Coroner are quick to deem the case an unfortunate accident. But things just don’t add up to Sonny Mac, and he manages to drag his best buddy’s younger sister, Emmy Lou Cochran, into this amateur detective case that soon turns into a passionate love affair.

Unsettled by an incomplete accident report, Colonel Rupert Mason of the Ohio State Police decides to pay a visit to this small community and junior State Policewoman Rebecca Steen, the reporting officer who arrived on scene soon after the incident. At a small social gathering, Sonny Mac by chance meets Rupert Mason and expresses his unsettled sentiments about Anna Marie’s death to the Colonel, and from there on, things seem to unravel for the complacent Sheriff and the unsavory Railroad Police investigator, while sweet Emmy Lou helps to finally exorcise Sonny Mac’s old demons.

For those who enjoy a snappy reading Mystery Thriller filled with wisdom and wit, Sulfur Creek is highly recommended.

Give me that old time religion, it’s good enough for me . . . or is it?

2009-07-09T05:57:00.012+02:00

by Mel Mathews

Perhaps that 'Old Time' religion has failed us, or at least the deeper meaning of symbols and metaphors have been lost to misinterpreted literalism and that 'old king,' religious fundamentalism. Blindly following old time beliefs and attitudes in their many forms and guises is following our forefathers right over the cliff and into a vast sea of disillusionment and meaninglessness. Will we repeat this by following along with a host of fundamentalist ideals, the endless pursuit of materialism at the expense of our ecology, and other forms of meaningless neurotic suffering, or we will be moved to willingly and consciously suffer the unknown, until these old time religious symbols become alive within and take on authentic meaning as opposed to being a useless, lifeless, hand-me-down relic?

Instead of completely running away from, or blindly following, perhaps we could begin to question these old religions and fundamentalisms, begin to confront and dialogue with these calcified God-Images, and find that lost nugget of gold - the transcendent. After all, like a reoccurring nightmare, these haunting literalized religious concepts and other 'old king' values will not go away until their embedded images are exposed and truly given their due.

Edward F. Edinger’s Transformation of the God-Image and Lawrence W. Jaffe’s Celebrating Soul are two fine Inner City Book publications that address such concerns.

Transformation of the God-Image
by Edward F. Edinger
with a foreword by Lawrence W. Jaffe

"Whoever knows God has an effect on him."
--C.G. Jung, Answer to Job.

From Lawrence W. Jaffe’s Foreword of Transformation of the God-Image:

Despite the Biblical imagery, this book is not concerned with traditional religion. Its subject, rather, is psychology, the scientific study of the soul. References are to Job, God and Christ because our deepest feelings still resonate to that imagery. Put another way, the reason for the Biblical references is because "Jungian psychology has the task of introducing to the world a new world view" (Edinger, Aion). The roots of this new world view lie in the Judeo-Christian myth.

If, as Edinger predicts, Jung's works are one day read as Scripture once was--for sustenance of our souls, for moving words that touch us to the heart, for reassurance, guidance and orientation--Answer to Job will surely occupy a unique place in the Jungian canon. The special status of Answer to Job as the most complete statement of Jung's essential message has long been acknowledged by Jungians, who have discussed it in countless seminars and conferences since its publication in 1952.

What has sparked all this interest is that the central theme of Answer to Job--the transformation of God through human consciousness--is the central theme, too, of Jungian psychology. Not long before his death Jung himself affirmed its importance, remarking that he would like to rewrite all of his books except Answer to Job, which he would leave just as it stands.

Answer to Job contains the kernel, the essence, of the Jungian myth, and Edinger's study of it, at once erudite and down-to-earth, thoughtful and heartfelt, evokes that essence with unequaled clarity and power.

Celebrating Soul by Lawrence W. Jaffe

"Man has a soul and there is a treasure buried in the field."
--C.G. Jung

People are beginning to bump up against the limits of materialism and rationalism, realizing that these fail to offer something essential, a purpose in life. Although a few turn back to institutional religion for orientation, many find that road barred to them by their reason and their skepticism. Whatever form the new religion takes it must leave a large place for reason. The new religion will therefore be the product of a marriage between reason and faith, science and religion.

We cannot do without meaning in our lives. Meaning cannot be established objectively; it arises only through a relationship with the inner, subjective world. But it is precisely that realm that has been discredited in our day by the misapplication of the scientific spirit. In compensation, this book describes and gives examples of the inner life in order to help the reader sense the reality of the soul. It explores the spiritual significance of Jungian psychology--its message of personal and cultural renewal for a civilization that has lost its sense of purpose.

In Celebrating Soul, Lawrence Jaffe helps to expose what has been lost in literal translations and brings us into deeper relationship with the symbolic and metaphoric value of concerns such as:

* The New Religion
* The Jungian Myth
* Jungian Spirituality
* What Is Our Purpose in Life?
* The Hymn of the Pearl
* Breaking the Chain of Suffering
* The Golden Rule and the Iron Rule
* The Wounded Inner Child in the Bible
* The Lesson of Job
* The Meaning of Suffering
* Holding the Opposites As Service to God
* Wrestling with the Angel
* The Redemptive Value of Consciousness
* A New Form of Worship
* The Healing of Childhood Wounds
* Success Versus Consciousness
* Jung on the Life of Christ
* Studying Torah and Studying Jung
* Redemption Through Shadow Work
* A Psychological View of the First Commandment
* Testimony to the Holocaust
* Death and Resurrection
* Being "Born Again"
* Individuation and the Bible
* Jung and the Bible on Love
* New Life in Late Life
* A Psychological Gloss on a Benediction
* The Problem of Prayer
* Christ As a Model for Individuation
* Reason and Statistics
* Self-Knowledge Gives Meaning to Life
* The Answer Lies Within
* Psychotherapy As Sabbath

Mel Mathews' book reviews have appeared in many syndicated publications. He is the author of the Malcolm Clay Trilogy, a series of novels that portray a man’s struggles as he goes against the grains of his upbringings and emerges as a renewed man who is guided by his own inner truth and hard-won wisdom. Learn more about this reviewer and his publications at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

Permission to reprint this article is granted.

Along with many other fine publications
Transformation of the God Image and Celebrating Soul
can be ordered by calling Fisher King Press at
1-800-228-9316 in the US, or +1-831-238-7799 from abroad.
Also available at www.fisherkingpress.com

An Authentic 21st Century Man

2009-06-30T04:08:00.020+02:00

a review by Mel Mathews
of Resurrecting the Unicorn:
Masculinity in the 21st Century

Not long ago while listening to a NPR broadcast concerning Masculinity in the 21st Century, I was caught up by an interview of a woman journalist who had written about 'what it means to be a man in the 21st century.' The concept of a woman reporting on and defining, or attempting to define, masculinity was a bit off-putting. We tread on thin ice when a woman, or women define manhood and/or masculinity, just as we do when a man, or men attempt to define women and femininity. Sure, we all carry these contra-sexual aspects within, but that doesn’t make Man an authority on femininity, nor Woman an authority on masculinity, anymore than it makes a lefty an authority on a righty. The interview soon shifted away from a woman’s definition of masculinity to pop-cultural definitions of manhood. Perhaps I was still ruffled by this lefty-righty thing, but I also considered it quite shallow to have masculinity or femininity defined by fleeting fashions of pop-culture, for as naturally as DNA defines genetics, archetypal patterns define the psychological and spiritual makeup of masculinity and femininity—not passing trends.

Now, speaking as a man about masculinity, I can say that many 21st century men have been raised by women—without a masculine role model—and what they've learned about being a man has been defined by the media, the women’s movement, and many other distorted social norms. Often, such men discover that they are no longer able or willing to carry these externally imposed values and instead seek alternative definitions of masculinity and lifestyles. Some would call these periods of change a crisis; others would consider this a step in the direction of mental health. Regardless of how we label this time of soul-searching, it ultimately calls for a willingness to suffer the unknown. The rewards for such courage often prove quite beneficial. For those willing to take on the task of becoming an 'authentic' man, one can expect to gain a more defined sense of self who is moved by his own internal values, and in turn experience a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

However, all the compensatory posturing, chest-pounding or drum-beating in the world won't revive this great masculine spirit. This can only be accomplished by developing a deeper relationship to soul, to the archetypal patterns or energies that comprise the core aspects of our beings. The mental landscape of metaphors—dreams, stories, myths, fairy tales—deal with the eternal truths of human nature and are the language of soul. In the recently published book Resurrecting the Unicorn: Masculinity in the 21st Century, Bud Harris masterfully guides readers deep into the realm of metaphors where we can examine the evolution and development of human consciousness and reclaim discarded, yet much needed, integral aspects of our masculine natures.

"True masculinity—not the macho type—is needed for men to be strong enough to meet the feminine in themselves. For this they must find their own masculine face—not a face defined by women," suggests Bud Harris in Resurrecting the Unicorn. Harris then delves into the fairy tale, "Fyrtoiet," better known as "The Tinder Box" by Hans Christian Andersen, where an "Elemental Blueprint for Developing Masculinity" is extracted from the symbolic metaphors of this wise old tale.

Perhaps it’s time to pick up where Robert Bly's Iron John and Sam Keen's Fire in the Belly left off in the last part of the 20th century. If you're ready to explore and claim an 'authentic' masculinity from a place that calls for a great deal of courage, where truth, values, and integrity are defined from within, not by antiquated beliefs or pop-culture, then Bud Harris' Resurrecting the Unicorn is certainly worthy of your time and attention. Makes for a great gift to a husband, father, bother, and particularly for women who are raising boys.

Resurrecting the Unicorn: Masculinity in the 21st Century, ISBN 978-0-9810344-0-9 is available from the publisher, Fisher King Press at www.fisherkingpress.com or by calling 1-831-238-7799. This timely publication is also available from your local bookstore and from a host of online booksellers.

Mel Mathews' book reviews have appeared in many syndicated publications. He is the author of the Malcolm Clay Trilogy, a series of novels that portray a man’s struggles as he goes against the grains of his upbringings and emerges as a renewed man who is guided by his own inner truth and hard-won wisdom. Learn more about this reviewer and his publications at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

Permission to reprint this article is granted.

SISTER GETS HER WAY

2009-06-21T07:44:00.004+02:00

Sister Gets Her Way
A Review by Mel Mathews of

The Sister from Below:
When the Muse Gets Her Way

Who is this Sister from Below? She’s certainly not about the ordinary business of life: work, shopping, making dinner . . . She speaks from other realms. If you’ll allow, She’ll whisper in your ear, lead your thoughts astray, fill you with strange yearnings, get you hot and bothered, send you off on some wild goose chase of a daydream. She's a siren, a seductress, a shape-shifter . . . Why listen to such a troublemaker? Because She is essential to the creative process: She holds the keys to the doors of our imaginations and deeper life—the evolution of Soul.

The Sister emerges out of reverie, dream, a fleeting memory, a difficult emotion—she is the moment of inspiration—the muse. Naomi Ruth Lowinsky writes of nine manifestations in which the muse visits her, stirring up creative ferment, filling her with ghosts, mysteries, erotic teachings, the old religion—bringing forth her voice as a poet. Among these forms of the muse are the "Sister from Below," the inner poet who has spoken for the soul since language began. The muse also appears as the ghost of a grandmother Naomi never met, who died in the Shoah—a grandmother with ‘unfinished business.’ She visits in the form of Old Mother India, whose culture Naomi visited as a young woman. She cracks open her Western mind, flooding her with many gods and goddesses. She appears as Sappho, the great lyric poet of the ancient world, who engages her in a lovely midlife fantasy. She comes as "Die Ür Naomi," an old woman from the biblical story for which Naomi was named, who insists on telling Her version of the Book of Ruth. And in the end, surprisingly, the muse appears in the form of a man, a long dead poet whom Naomi loved in her youth.

The Sister from Below is a personal story, yet universal, of giving up a creative calling because of life’s obligations, and being called back to it in later life. This tasteful publication describes the intricate patterns of a rich inner life; it is a traveler’s memoir, with outer journeys to Italy, India and a Neolithic cave in Bulgaria, and inward journeys to biblical Canaan and Sappho's Greece; it is filled with mythic experience, a poet’s story told. The Sister conveys the lived experience of the creative life, a life in which active imagination—a technique of engaging with inner figures—is an essential practice.

I highly recommend The Sister From Below to all those who long to tap into their creative source and fulfill an unlived promise—those on a spiritual path, those who are filled with the urgency of poems that need to be written, paintings that have to be painted, stories that must be told . . .

You might also find of interest that Naomi Lowinsky has recently been awarded first prize in the Obama Millennium contest for her poem “Madelyn Dunham, Passing On” in which she imagines the spirit of of Obama’s deceased grandmother visiting him as he speaks to the crowds in Chicago after his election. The poem will be published in the literary magazine New Millennium Writings this fall. To learn more about Naomi Lowinsky and The Sister From Below visit www.sisterfrombelow.com

Mel Mathews' book reviews have appeared in many syndicated publications. He the author of the Malcolm Clay Trilogy. Learn more about this reviewer and his publications at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

Permission to reprint this article is granted.

Expanding our Creative Horizons

2009-02-23T01:05:00.020+01:00

"Highly recommend to all with a desire to expand their creative horizons -- The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness."

review by Mel Mathews

"Who we most deeply are is mirrored in our artistic work. Our need for mirroring simultaneously attracts us to and repels us from our creative callings and relationships. It is one of life’s great dilemmas.

"Artist’s block and lover’s block flow from the same pool. Often, we fear deeply the very thing needed to create original art, to experience intimate relationships and to live authentic lives: we are frightened by the impulse to be fully revealed to ourselves, and to others, as this most often entails exposing the unacceptable shadowy aspects of our humanity and risking rejection.

"Mirrors in all their manifold guises permit us to safely see and experience ourselves in reflection and become better acquainted with the rejected, ostracized aspects of our personalities. In The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness, Lawrence Staples explains how creative work is one of the few places where we can truly express, witness, and reclaim lost aspects of our authentic selves.

"Within us a treasure beckons. This is what we spend our lives pursuing. What slows and distracts us is not the object we long for, but where we search. To find this precious gem, we must eventually return to our own creative spirits. I highly recommend The Creative Soul to all with a desire to expand their creative horizons."

The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness is available from your local bookstore, from a host of online booksellers, and directly from Fisher King Press: The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness by Lawrence H. Staples / ISBN 13: 978-0-9810344-4-7 / Publication Date: Feb-2009 / Order your copy at www.fisherkingpress.com or call +1-831-238-7799.

In addition to being the artist who painted the cover image for The Creative Soul, Mel Mathews' book reviews have appeared in many syndicated publications and he is the author of several novels, including The Malcolm Clay Trilogy. His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order them directly from his website at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

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"wise, clever, earthy..."

2009-02-04T06:29:00.008+01:00

by Grady Harp

"For those who have had the pleasure of discovering Mel Mathews through his first two books, 'LeRoi' and 'Menopause Man', the wandering, questing central figure of Malcolm Clay has become a new literary icon. The promises so obviously made in the first parts of this (to date) trilogy happily have come to fruition in 'SamSara' - a novel of sophisticated writing, thoughtful ruminations, keen humor, informative explorations of themes from religion to traits of visited countries, and so many clever double entendres - that Mathews' place in the ranks of fine contemporary writers is assured.

"Mel Mathews has developed a style of interlocking his many characters, placing them strategically throughout the three books whether in flashbacks or dreams or weighing comparisons, of narrating in first person with his 40-year-old protagonist who has waded through a life of addiction, child abuse, frustrated love affairs, the success and boredom of being a tractor salesman, to the point of confrontation with his basic inner demons that prevent his success with women. In 'SamSara' he has reached a plane where he is seeking spiritual guidance, rolfing, and ultimately joining a group of twenty women in a trek to Florence, Italy for a seminar "Exploring the Images in Word and Art of Mary Magdalene: central to the theme is developing one's inner image of the feminine psyche". That is how committed to change is Malcolm Clay!

"From Carmel, California to Zurich, to Florence for the seminar (a period in which Mathews details so much interesting information about the feminine aspect of Christianity, Gnosticism, the concept that Mary Magdalene as the Holy Grail bore a child named Sara Kali by Christ and escaped to a French village Saintes Maries de la Mer where the annual celebration of Sara AKA the Black Queen still exists), to France, and to Ireland Malcolm Clay writes in diary fashion, emails, and in dreams shared about his progress in dissembling his dysfunctional approach to women and in the process finding the validity of his own existence. 'You know, there's something about becoming more aware of what unconsciously runs a person. Awareness is a thief. It's robbed me of an illusion; it's robbed me of the belief that the only way a man can make love to a woman is by physically penetrating her.' And from this stance Malcolm grows into an enlightened man, forgiving his past, and getting in touch with his internal masculine and feminine counterparts.

"One of the uniquely beautiful aspects of Mathews' writing is his ability to explore these thoughtful (even profound) topics with a effervescent sense of humor and a gift for communicating details of living in Florence, struggling with the French attitude, and seeking out the funky little eateries and Internet cafes in Ireland. For after all, the main reason for this meandering journey to Europe is to follow-up on a brief but meaningful encounter with a lass named Kelli whom he met in Carmel and agrees to meet in Ireland in hopes that he has finally found his perfect mate, hopefully with the added growth of his own sense of self. But the ending leaves some unanswered questions that suggest we may still be following Malcolm Clay through future novels!

"After reading three books by Mathews, growing with his developing facility with construction of a novel, with his finessing of his style, the gifts of this author become increasingly apparent. He is wise, clever, earthy, and has many surprises up his sleeve. Example: 'SamSara' as a title for this book references the Hindu/Buddhist word for 'cycle of rebirth, of flowing together from this life into a reincarnation, an ignorance of True Self', yet it also is the name of the Irish pub where he comes to an awareness of his plight with Kelli, and in separating SamSara with the capital 'S' he also pulls in the name 'Sara', the product of Mary Magdalene coupling with Christ. That is the pleasure of reading Mel Mathews - he takes the reader on an engaging journey of self realization peppered by countless chuckles and observations of the human condition. He is an important author: he deserves to be widely read!"

Grady Harp's reviews appear in a host of syndicated publications and he is an Amazon.com Top Ten reviewer.

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To learn more about the Malcolm Clay series, visit www.malcolmclay.com.

Vive le roi: A Powerful Kick at the American Way of Life

2008-12-14T02:00:00.004+01:00

"LeRoi is ostensibly a novel, and not overtly psychological, but it lays bare the psychic plight of a middle-aged salesman looking for meaning. It is a powerful kick at the American way of life——ambition, success, money and power——but it is redemptive in the narrator's search for internal Eros and an outer relationship he can trust himself to believe in."

—Daryl Sharp, Publisher, Inner City Books

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visit www.malcolmclay.com to learn more about LeRoi and the Malcolm Clay series published by Fisher King Press: LeRoi ISBN 0977607607, Menopause Man ISBN 0977607615, SamSara ISBN 0977607623

Authentic, close to her feelings, a compelling novel

2008-09-03T18:45:00.008+02:00

by Mel Mathews

Authentic, close to her feelings, honest, true to self . . . this is what makes Nora Caron’s work so compelling. Journey to the Heart carries an eternal, universal message that many a lost-soul will turn to as the years unfold.

Nora Caron has been blessed with the ability to see through social, cultural, political, and religious illusions, and in time she will build a readership based on her foresight and unique storytelling abilities. Nora well understands that we evolve as human beings, and that often it’s important to not be fully understood. There’s charm in not having all the answers, in being the student as well as the teacher, and this comes through in Lucina and Señora Labotta, fictional characters in Journey to the Heart, yet without a doubt also living aspects of this writer’s soul.

Burned out, depressed, and let down by life and others, 25 year-old Lucina finally makes a break, leaving behind a neurotic mother, shallow friendships and her ‘pull yourself up by the bootstraps’ psychologist, and courageously sets off into the unknown. Only then does Lucina ‘by chance’ meet her real guide, Señora Labotta, who with the mysterious spirit of many great teachers, seduces the curious Lucina away from her linear scientific and technological way of seeing and believing and into a life of adventure, spirit and reward.

With the wise assistance of Señora Labotta, Lucina and her spirited willingness to suffer through lost love and not escape her experience is what gives her the edge. In other words, Lucina doesn’t try to escape her joy and pain or whatever else comes her way. Instead, courageously, she feels it, lives through it and doesn’t remain life’s victim. As opposed to a large group of people who turn to drugs, chemicals, false religions and other abusive dependencies and escapes, Lucina’s suffering is not in vain.

A great deal of the world’s population continues to suffer in vain; yet, this type of suffering is meaningless. One never finds redemption in neurotic suffering—one may find false comfort, but not redemption! This is where Nora Caron shines, in leading her readers away from false comforts and into the unknown where one can obtain a renewed and authentic life.

I highly recommend Journey to the Heart ISBN 978-09776076-6-2. This refreshing novel is sure to quench the thirst of many people, young and old, longing to find deeper meaning and greater fulfillment in life.

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Mel Mathews' book reviews have been published in USA Today and many other notable publications. He is the author of several novels, including the Malcolm Clay Trilogy. His books are available directly from his website at: www.melmathews.com or from Fisher King Press

© 2008 Mel Mathews - permission to reprint this article is granted

Oedipus Denied . . . not so quickly!

2008-09-02T03:31:00.008+02:00

by Mel Mathews

Whether we know it, or not, whether we care to or are able to admit it, every human being is influenced by psychological ‘complexes’. In The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego, Erel Shalit explains the difference between an ‘autonomous complex’ and an integrated complex. Shalit explains, “The fundamental task of the complex is to serve as a vehicle and vessel of transformation…” In other words, psychological complexes are necessary aspects of our being and when we are able to recognize and develop a dialogue or an ongoing conscious relationship with these complexes, these aspects of our humanity can be expressed and honored in a healthy and often creative manner.

A complex becomes troublesome when it is denied and splits off from our greater whole, as is the case with the Oedipus myth. In studying and deciphering the symbolic meaning of the Oedipus myth, Erel Shalit explains how a complex that has the potential to bring us into living a fuller, more conscious existence, is often denied and splits off into an ‘autonomous’ complex. Denying a complex, an aspect of who we are, does not cause this entity to go away. Instead, the denied castaway becomes ‘autonomous’ energy and unconsciously continues to live a life of its own, often wreaking havoc that is acted out in a host of neurotic symptoms.

In recognizing and welcoming home these prodigal complexes, vital pieces of our beings, we are able to reclaim lost aspects of our souls, and in turn unblock the stymied flow of psychological and creative energy that often gets dammed up and diverted into neurotic symptoms and suffering.

This publication addresses far more than just the Oedipal Complex. Dr. Shalit also delves into the Father Complex and the Mother Complex in both negative and positive forms. Client’s dreams and case studies are also discussed to bring theory into more concrete and practical terms.

For those interested in psychology, myth, religion, and philosophy, but even more so to those who might be suffering from a host of neurotic symptoms, including addictions or obsessive compulsive tendencies, I highly recommend The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego (ISBN 978-0919123991) as well as Erel Shalit’s most recently published book Enemy, Cripple & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path (ISBN 978-0977607679).

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Life as an Elephant, aka...

2008-08-27T05:05:00.007+02:00

by Mel Mathews

This wonderfully warm, humorous, entertaining and beautifully written book gives an overview of Jungian Psychology. That’s right, warm, humorous, entertaining, beautifully written, and a psychology book. Jungian Psychology Unplugged: My Life as an Elephant is comprised of six chapters. Chapter one addresses Jung’s Basic model of Psychological Types. Chapter two deals with ‘Getting to know Yourself’ and explains the basics of archetypes and complexes, persona, shadow… Chapter three, ‘The Unknown Other’ is about projection and identification, including the challenges involved with intimacy and relationships. Chapter four deals with the ‘Anatomy of a Midlife Crisis’ which is most often fueled by the need to develop a relationship with one’s self, or with the unexpressed aspects of our personalities that have not been honored and given a voice earlier in life. In chapter five Daryl Sharp writes about 'The Analytical Experience,' including his own, which I found most refreshing. All to often, one will pick up a psychology or self-help book in hopes of finding a recipe to improve one’s life. That’s not what happens in Jungian Psychology Unplugged: My life as an Elephant. Instead, in vulnerable fashion, Daryl Sharp shares some of his more personal moments during the period when he was seeking council. The author well knows that another person’s recipe is worthless when it comes to finding one’s self and living an authentic life, and he doesn’t pretend to be an authority and try to prove otherwise. Chapter six is about 'Psychological Development,' the process of becoming more conscious by developing a relationship to one’s soul. Sharp addresses the need to be true to our vocations, our true callings in life, and venerates those who have the courage to do just this—listening and being true to one’s inner voice. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in living an authentic life, not just those who have an interest in Jung or psychology.

Daryl Sharp is the author of 17 books. He is also the General Editor of Inner City Books: Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analyst. The entire list of Inner City Books are available for purchase at www.fisherkingpress.com

Mel Mathews' book reviews have been published in USA Today, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Powell's Books, Chapters.indigo.ca and in many other venues. He is also the author of several novels, including the Malcolm Clay Trilogy (Fisher King Press). His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order them directly from his website www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

Tree of Life: Opposites Reflecting the Center of Soul

2008-08-17T14:27:00.005+02:00

I've been spending an awful lot of time editing other people's manuscripts and promoting their publications at the expense of having my own work fall by the wayside. It's not that the other work isn't valid or valued; it's just that once again, I'm lopsided, a little bit like this painting, which in reality isn't lopsided at all. It just looks a bit out of kilter because of the way it was scanned, but if you were to view the 'real thing' you'd find this mandala far more balanced.

Since I haven't been tending to my own work as of late, it felt right to pay attention to this ten year-old painting, to sit and meditate on these most necessary opposing forces. The first thing that came to me . . . the thought was that my parents have just celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary. At 47 years of age, I suppose that makes me a legitimate child. Isn't that really a funny concept, being legitimate, or not. How can one be legitimized by religious or social standards? Hell, that’s a crock of crap! One is legitimized by the fact, or better yet, in the mystery at that very moment when we were conceived, the moment when two opposing forces were mysteriously unified. To contemplate how I am comprised of what was once two, the sperm and the egg—that simply blows me away. Sure, there are millions of us walking the face of this earth, but each one of us is in fact a unique miracle, no matter how modern day science might like to slice and dice, and categorize us otherwise.

Anyway, back to Mom and Dad and their 49th wedding anniversary and to yet another miraculous fact that they are still together after all of these years. Just to have gone through all of the ups and downs together for nearly five decades. I mean, come on, love plus intimacy doesn't equal bliss, and seldom is it as pretty as the happily-ever-after picture that has been painted by a world longing for inner reconciliation within our very own souls.

Intimacy, I get a kick out of people who like to refer to 'sex' as being 'intimate' or 'making love'. Anyone can have sex, or be sexually intimate, or whatever else you might want to doll it up as, but how many long-time 'lovers' can pass gas in the presence of the other or sit on the shitter and have a conversation? That's far more intimate than having sex, in my humble opinion anyway. I’m not suggesting that people need to relate this way, but how many people are free to be this vulnerable, that is without experiencing a deep-seated since of guilt or shame? And what about all of those 'I love yous' that are so often expressed out of habit, duty, or just to keep peace in the home. Anyone can speak such falsities, when in reality they are feeling or thinking something quite the contrary. What about the good old fashion 'F#$% off fat ass' or 'I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than to have to eat another meal with you staring at me from across the table.'

4 days or 49 years of togetherness, neither seems all so easy in my little world. Perhaps I'm just a freak who has never experienced 'true love'? Perhaps I'm just a disillusioned, bitter, narcissistically wounded, selfish middle-age man who has missed out on the loving wedded bliss that so many others have shared? Perhaps; perhaps not? Consciously, or unconsciously, a person who is so-called glued together or socially adjusted most likely entertains a vast range of feelings and fantasies that include lust, jealousy, rage, disgust, hate, discontent, betrayal, and the desire to screw his best buddy's wife if the opportunity ever comes a knocking. One may not have to act on such desires and fantasies, but entertaining such thoughts and feelings may well be part of the compound that binds people in marriage for such long periods. Sure, love and a commitment to one's values and family, the need for home and companionship, not to mention the many psychological complexes that run us from behind the scenes also comprise this binding compound, but dancing with one's shadow certainly must play a great role in long-lived marriages or relationships.

Marriage and legitimacy have always intrigued me. Being legally married versus being married within, just as being legally legitimized versus claiming nature's law and legitimizing one's self are far different things. I know a woman whose father wouldn't claim her until she was eight or nine years old. Although, I think the man's obstinacy had more to do with the mother than it did with claiming his daughter. The couple was divorcing, they had split up and ended up in bed for a one last ‘go’ at things and the woman 'miraculously' got knocked up. I'm not assigning blame to either, but the man wanted a divorce and the woman didn't, and here she ends up pregnant on their very last tumble. No doubt the man felt trapped and perhaps rightly so. The mother spent several years in court, pursuing her ex to legitimize their daughter. Hell, you didn't need a court or 'the law' to legitimize this young girl. It was plain as day that she was his daughter, a spitting image of the fellow, I'm telling you. But beyond that, the very moment she was conceived, nature deemed her legitimate. I dare say the mother was legitimizing the marriage that they once shared, or perhaps the mother was trying to legitimize her very own existence, far more than she was her daughter's.

Anyway, I'm a rambling on and really don't know what I'm talking about. I’m just trying to occupy myself and stay out of my lady friend’s path. She’s really been on a pisser for the past few days, and when she reads this, I’ll probably catch all the hellish furry she’s got bottled up inside. She’s trying to be really nice, trying to pretend that the sun’s shining and life is grand, when in fact, darkness hangs all around her. Funny thing is, the more you pretend it’s sunny out, the darker the day becomes. Normally, I’d hop in my truck and drive and drive and drive. But my truck’s not at my disposal, so I’ll just weather the storm. Perhaps that’s part of what has kept my parents married all of these years, the capacity to weather storms. Some people just drive and drive and drive; some people weather storms. Then again, perhaps it’s a combination of driving and weathering storms. Who really knows?

I recall one visit to my family home a few years back, to the very house I was brought home to after being born. Dad had been retired for nearly ten years and mom was, and still is, working four, twelve-hour shifts weekly. Dad’s always been the kicked back one, solid as a rock and mom’s always been the one running around in circles. Anyway, I woke up there one morning to find my parents sitting just outside on the front porch, one on each side of the door. I walked out between them and before I could say good morning, mom pipes in: “I just don’t know what I’d do if I retired. I mean, what would I have to do. . .” Dad sips his coffee, looks at me with a smirk and says, “It’s not about what you have to do; it’s about doing what you want to do.” I just looked at them both and thought, good god almighty, that’s me, the both of them: Solid-as-a-Rock and Running-around-like-a-Headless-Chicken, and though I no longer live in this home, I cross this threshold countless times a day. And I always will; it’s part of the mystery of who I am—two opposing energies.

Whatever it is that unified my parents and held them together for all these years . . . in spite of my cynicism and all the other quirky things that split me apart and bring me back together again, I am most grateful to these two dynamically opposing forces and the mystery of their existence and insoluble everlasting love.

Now, I better go rub my lady’s back. There’s no way in all of creation that I can rescue her from her dark cloud—that she’ll have to deal with on her own. Sure, she’s gonna blame me for her discontent, just like I blamed her for burning my tongue on a cup of boiling hot tea the other evening. If you can’t crap on the one you love, who can you crap on? Before it’s all done, there will probably be a f#%@ you and a, no f#%@ you, you selfish… truth be told, there may well be a lot more of those ahead of us, along with all those I love yous. But isn’t that how it really is in life, intimacy not always being so pretty.

Mel Mathews' book reviews have been published in USA Today, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Powell's Books. He is also the author of several novels, including the Malcolm Clay Trilogy (Fisher King Press). His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order them directly from his website www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

A Best-Kept Secret

2008-07-20T10:22:00.012+02:00

The Hero’s Journey par Excellence: The Sun Singer

a review by Mel Mathews

This is simply a case where the best-kept secret is one that can and must be told. Robert Adam’s has the good fortune of having a wily grandfather disguised as half-baked old man and parents who full well understand the importance of allowing their son to suffer through the unknown as he comes to terms with life’s complexities and learns to listen to the only real truth—that which comes from within. The Sun Singer by Malcolm Campbell is the Hero’s Journey par Excellence! Grandfather unexpectedly passes away, leaving Robert Adams holding a bagful of mystery. Mom and Dad have answers, but they know it will mean nothing until Robert comes to terms with this mystery on his own, as we all must do at different times in our lives. This magical coming-of-age tale takes the reader through a labyrinth as a teenage boy/man sets off into the cosmic dimensions of the unknown to redeem his ‘grandfather’s’ kingdom and rightfully claim his position in life as a true leader. What I’d give to have Malcolm Campbell’s imagination, wisdom, wit, and mastery of the written word. Buy it, steal it, borrow it from your local library—one way or another, get hold of The Sun Singer and tell your friends.

The Sun Singer - ISBN 0595316654
Available from a host of booksellers, including amazon.com

Abandoning the Cacophony - not on your life!

2008-07-03T19:53:00.001+02:00

Often, while painting, or preparing to paint, much like writing, or preparing to write . . . well, I just said something that I don't believe in. I don't believe we prepare to paint or write; it simply must be done. One must pick up a paintbrush or a pen and begin, without allowing the 'thinking' brain to interfere with accusations or judgment, not allowing anything to crush one's creative spirit. Thinking can come later, in an editing phase, but the act of true creativity must be expressed without the imposition of an oppressed mind. Without fearing that what comes from within is good or bad, right or wrong. Like a newborn child, it must simply be allowed to a flow and authentically become whatever it may be.

These images were not painted with 'thinking' on my mind. I just picked up the paintbrush and began. This was painted in August of 2000 while spending time in Big Sur. I painted another favorite of mine just after completing this particular piece. This was the warm up you might say, dipping into paints (and the unconscious) and playing, not unlike an orchestra that is just assembling, removing their instruments from the case, testing, tuning, rehearsing . . . preparing for the real thing.

My approach to writing comes in much the same way. Most often when I begin to write, I'll take a dream and begin to explore the images, the people, the era, the setting . . . this is a way to expose all of the images, explore them and allow them to be or become what they are meant to be. It is usually in this stage of chaos that a story or a painting will begin to take form, or an image will begin to be transformed. I may spin off of a dream image that I was writing about, it may spark a memory and lead me into a completely different realm and ten or fifteen pages later, I'll look up and ask, Whoa, where did all that come from? It's like visiting a different country, or a different world, but without ever even leaving your chair, or your home, or the cafe you might be sitting in while you're away on 'vacation.' It is a most gratifying encounter, an experience that a dear friend of mine refers to as 'being kissed by an angel.' Being allowed to participate in such an act is what I call experiencing grace.

OK, the following image is what came after painting the jumble of images that you find above at the beginning of this blog. To most they are nothing special. Certainly, a skilled painter . . . alright, most children and even amateurs could paint a far prettier bed of blooming flowers. Yet, this is my bed of flowers, my flower bed where new life has taken form and now blossoms, and beyond words, this painting has deep meaning for me. It represents a time when I experienced a shift in consciousness, when my world or my image of life and the world changed. During periods such as this, one revels in the reality that things, or my blighted view of what once was, will never again be the same -- without a doubt, the Kiss of an Angel.'

Mel Mathews, is the author of several novels, including the Malcolm Clay Trilogy: LeRoi ISBN 0977607607, Menopause Man ISBN 0977607615, & SamSara ISBN 0977607623 (Fisher King Press). His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order them directly from his website at: www.melmathews.com or www.malcolmclay.com

Facing the Underworld Demons

2008-06-19T03:46:00.002+02:00

This was painted in the fall of 2005. Being the healthy hypochondriac that I am, I've supposedly been dying from a host of fabricated maladies over my life span. For several years now, I often have dreams about illness or 'dis-ease.' Usually, the case being that I am 'ill-at-ease' with myself - as in not being congruent with my soul.

When these spooky dreams come, most often, I'm compromising in some fashion, living an unauthentic life of duty and pleasing others as opposed to being true to my soul's calling. My unconscious has an uncanny way of drawing my attention to my dis-ease, or to the things that are 'eating at me' from behind the scenes. Soul knows that if it really wants my attention, an image filled dream will come and then at the end of the dream, it will have something to do with illness, possibly cancer, or someone I've know from the past who has died of some dreaded illness. The unconscious does this to spoke me, to startle me awake so that I will pay tribute to these haunting apparitions. This is souls way of demanding my undivided attention.

This particular painting was done after such a dream. I've learned that to avoid such dreams and images is only an invitation for greater psychological disturbance - more unsettling dreams. So, I will often meditate on a dream, often record the dream in journal, and occasionally something clicks and along comes a shift of awareness and I move deeper into relationship with my self, and my truth, whatever it may be during a particular day or period in my life. Other times, journaling isn't enough, and the images must be approached in another fashion - without words or intellect. Seldom does the soul move from a linear pragmatical position, but instead answers and communion can only come by stepping into the non-linear imaginal real, where the attempt to literally translate is set aside and one's imagination is free to roam in areas that otherwise might be deemed as silly, stupid, childlike or childish, immature, bazaar, irresponsible, and at times even bordering on insane. This is where painting comes in for me. For others it can be honored in a host of different mediums.

Instead of telling you about the dream that prompted this painting, I'm going to let the images speak for themselves, or better yet, I'll remain silent and instead, let your imagination take over. I will say this, though: Over the years, most of what has haunted me in dreams often, after time passes, after I have engaged these 'spooks' in some sort of meditation and creative artistic expression, these so called 'dis-eases' and 'ill-at-ease' aspects of my dreamworld (my psyche/soul) have transformed into some of my closest and healthiest friends and have been the fueling catalyst behind my writing, the Malcolm Clay Trilogy included.

Writer's Block: Fact or Fiction?

2008-06-08T15:48:00.002+02:00

by Mel Mathews

Actually, I didn’t have writer's block when I painted all of these funny little symbols. Can't really say that I ever have had writer's block. Now, that's not to say that all that I write has commercial value—quite the contrary. Yet, everything that I write has soul value and is in service to my evolving existence and authenticity. It may well be chaotic, insane, profane, and lack an ounce of structure or reason; however, it is still in service to my soul and creative process, much like these silly paintings that are posted on my blog, as they too share the same intrinsic value.

When these particular primitive images were painted, I was in the midst of writing my first novel LeRoi and wanted to believe that I had writer's block, because I was lacking clarity about the direction in which the book was going. In reality, I was standing in my own way, believing that I could logically wrap my mind around the unconscious and squeeze it like an orange until my thirst was sated. That's one of the biggest lies I've told myself over the years, that I'm the one running the show and the unconscious is on a leash.

Occasionally words don't come, but that usually means that I'm written out, all that wanted or needed expression has been expunged. When a vessel has been emptied, it is only normal that it should sit in an empty silence and organically complete this natural cyclical process of birth, life, death, and renewal, or as some might say, 'being born again.' This can be a difficult task when it is called for, to sit and wait in silence, in reverence of something far greater than me. I was brought up in a society and family whose values are rooted in hard work and forthrightness. I was taught to work hard, be honest and put forth my best efforts, and sooner or later I would be rewarded. And this very attitude often pays off when one is living in the conventional world and places value in the acquiring of material possession and the illusion of security that accompany such goods.

I understand and support humanity's call to acquire material goods in order to meet the needs of our physical existence and wellbeing. However, when it comes to the creative process . . . well, no matter how well-off a person is materially, if one is not pregnant, how can one will one's self to give birth? Birth happens to us, we are birthed; our creative impulses are given form from something far greater than our limited capacity—and most often futile attempts—to manipulate the cosmos. Sure, man and woman must come together and unite in order for a child to be conceived. Still, it is far more than just physical intercourse that creates us, that breathes the spirit of life into our bodies. We, as is the case with all living creatures, are miracles who for all practical, logical, reasons, should not even exist. Artistic expression, no matter the form, must also have this miraculous spirit breathed into it as expression takes form, and it can't be willed into existence any more than one can will their heart to take its next beat.

When I am at a loss for words to write, or lacking clarity, I will often turn a brown paper bag inside out, or take some other scrap of paper or cardboard that is lying around and begin to paint. I may meditate on my feelings of emptiness, or of feeling artistically impotent, perhaps a feeling of sadness, confusion—I am usually writing when I have access to my joy, sense of humor, anger and/or rage—but during these times of sadness, emptiness, impotence... I will meditate on the feelings and paint. And I don’t practice this ritual so that I can dispose of these negative feelings—quite the contrary. I sit with my self and meditate and paint my feelings in order to honor these very aspects of my humanity, pieces of me that want and need to be honored with something other than words. Then most often, after time passes, and when I'm able to step aside and not stand in the way by trying to force something—or better yet, stand aside and not BLOCK the creative process—this renewed energy can flow forth, refilling the empty vessel and breathing spirit into new forms.

Free the Children - Beyond Psychology

2008-05-09T11:19:00.004+02:00

Filled with insight and wisdom, Free the Children is most unique and original in its own sense, yet equal in rank to the works of Carlos Castaneda and Don Miguel Ruiz. This beautifully written story is about a love shared between a father and son. Yet, it is not about a father ‘fathering’ a son. Quite the opposite – Boye, with an innocent wisdom that has not been distorted by the conventional impositions of social institutions, teaches, or better yet, ‘boys’ a Father. Bruce Scott reclaims and liberates his own lost innocent self as he and Boye travel the country, meeting up with bizarre people in the most uncanny places, and sharing profound experiences that bring about a shift in awareness and alters their way of seeing and being in the world. One of the scenes that remain with me is when Bruce is trying to convince Boye that he needs to become free of a certain belief that supposedly has him imprisoned. Eight or nine-year-old Boye simply explains to his father that all is well in his world, and instead it is Bruce who must become free. Then, turning on a dime, Boye shifts back to the wonder of living in the moment, in search of an ice cream or a handful of candy. In other words, Boye is fine just as he is, and by remaining true to this inner wisdom and innocence, and speaking his truth, he forces his father back upon self, where he must face his own trauma and not hand it off to his son to be redeemed. Free the Children has a dream-like quality and reads like a fine piece of literature as opposed to the many modern day self-help books. If you are looking for concrete answers and direction in life… well, you’ll be hard pressed to find such things in this publication. However, Free the Children has the potential to lead us back to our own original voices that may well have been lost years ago when we learned to say ‘yes’ to social impositions and false belief systems, and ‘no’ to our authentic selves.