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Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult, by Paul Wyld

Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult: A Journey to the Other Side, by Paul Wyld
Inner Traditions, 979-8888500804, 256 pages, September 2024

Lizard King and shaman-poet Jim Morrison (1943-1971), a fork-tongued prophet of the Age of Aquarius, slithered out of the depths of the 1960s counterculture as the iconic frontman of the psychedelic rock band The Doors. His raucous Dionysian incantations conjured otherworldly forces and awakened dormant powers within the souls of the masses. Paul Wyld’s Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult: A Journey to the Other Side offers a fresh perspective on this legendary rock star, revealing Morrison to be a disciple of ancient wisdom, tapped into cosmic consciousness, channeling its energy into his music and poetry.

Wyld, himself a singer-songwriter and poet, writes about Morrison’s creative process with the intimate understanding of a kindred spirit. Delving into his fascination with the occult and its influence on his work, Wyld challenges the conventional portrayal of Morrison as a drug-addled rebellious rocker. Instead, he paints a portrait of Morrison as a spiritual guide, drawing parallels between the singer’s life and the teachings of ancient mystics. By illuminating Morrison’s exploration of the occult, Wyld provides a deeper understanding of this complex and multifaceted artist.

“This book focuses on Jim Morrison’s role as a secret teacher through his music and writings,” Wyld says in the introduction. “It’s my hope that this new vision of Jim Morrison’s life will further magnify the beauty and strangeness that’s to be discovered in the living quality of Jim Morrison’s art.”1

Through the sonic labyrinth of psychedelic rock music and lyrics, The Doors channeled echoes of primitive rituals. Morrison’s potent incantations were delivered through a wide range of emotive vocal expressions, from a seductive, silky smooth baritone to a raspy whisky voice, accompanied by guttural grunts and primal screams. In the velvet darkness of closed eyes, their music is an immersive sensual experience, a journey into the abyss of the soul.

As keyboardist Ray Manzarek once said in an interview, “If you’re in harmony with the planet–and that’s what opening the doors of perception are all about–if you had the courage to open the doors of perception, you’re gonna find a whole new world inside of you, man.”2 The band’s name was derived from the title of Aldous Huxley’s book The Doors of Perception, which in turn drew inspiration from the following line in William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, Infinite.”3

By closing the curtains of our eyes, cutting off external stimulation and distractions, and immersing ourselves in their music, we can experience the theater of cosmic consciousness within. The robust sensory overload is a crucial part of the visceral, Dionysian ecstasy, demanding our full bodily presence. From carnivalesque rock ballads to the blues and beyond, few bands have ever been capable of such experimental genre-bending versatility. Describing the unique sound of The Doors to someone who hasn’t heard them is like a person with synesthesia trying to describe how a color tastes. You really have to experience it for yourself.

Wyld taps into astrological insights to explore the mystical synergy between the band members. “The strong winds of Ray’s Aquarius air sign and carnival organ sound complemented Jim’s Sagittarius fire sign and strange, avante-garde surrealist/Symbolist lyrics,”4 Wyld says. “Jim went into shamanic trances and ecstasies onstage, making all kinds of wild animal sounds while drummer John Densmore thrashed away on his drums to aid Jim in summoning the healing magic of the spirit world.”5 According to Wyld, Morrison followed the calling of his Leo North Node to bring his secret teachings out into the spotlight with his larger-than-life persona. 

“Jim’s timeless appeal partly lay in his capacity to put us in touch with very distant times, very old places, and the intense longing to go back and connect with its primitive magic, for among all primitive and ancient peoples there existed an ever-present reverence for the Great Mystery,”6 Wyld says.

Wyld deep dives into Morrison’s occult odyssey, tracing his journey from teen magus to psychedelic prophet. A copy of Seligmann’s The History of Magic & the Occult, checked out from the library and never returned, exerted a profound influence on his adolescent psyche. Additionally, Wyld traces Morrison’s literary lineage, highlighting his astral travels through the psychic landscapes of the Beat poets and the Symbolists.

“Jim lived on the fringes to remain in touch with the ‘new, alien and other,’ both within and around him just as his heroes Jack Kerouac, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Antonin Artaud did before him,”7 Wyld says. Morrison’s work was also inspired by his favorite artist, Hieronymous Bosch, who “viewed the world as a hell in which we pass through the devil’s digestive system.”8

According to Wyld, “Creating concert venue chaos that felt like being in a sinful, beautiful, terrifying, and ecstatic Bosch painting was one of Jim’s original visions he’d once dreamed of achieving as a filmmaker.”9 That surreal cosmic vision is eloquently expressed in his poetry, such as in the following excerpt Wyld shares from Morrison’s collected works: “The Universe, one line, is a/ long snake, & we each are/ facets on its jeweled skin.”10

Drawing on insights from Jean Bolen’s Gods in Everyman, Wyld delves into how Jim Morrison’s life and music were deeply intertwined with the Dionysian archetype. This ancient Greek god, associated with wine, ecstasy, and chaos, embodies the primal, irrational forces of the human psyche. Morrison’s wild stage performances, drug-fueled lifestyle, and poetic explorations of the darker aspects of human nature mirrored this Dionysian spirit.

By embracing the Dionysian, Morrison sought to transcend the boundaries of conventional reality and connect with a deeper, more primal level of existence. His music served as a conduit for this Dionysian energy, inviting listeners to embark on a journey of spiritual exploration and sensory overload. As Bolen notes, individuals embodying the Dionysian archetype are prone to internal conflict and psychological turmoil, struggling to reconcile opposing forces within themselves. This constant tension, akin to “dismemberment or crucifixion”11 by conflicting desires and impulses, is a hallmark of the Dionysian experience.

Morrison’s high voltage channeling of primeval cosmic forces was destabilizing and dangerous for him. “To feel the destructive sword of spiritual awakening upon ordinary consciousness, to share this with so many waking up, was to both participate in and witness nothing less than a spiritual apocalypse,”12 Wyld says. The intense pressure of being a spiritual leader for a massive new age movement may have exacerbated Morrison’s substance abuse, and his drunken alter ego, “Jimbo,”13 often took over.

He also drank to silence the voices of “indwelling spirits”14 that had haunted him ever since he witnessed a horrific car accident at the tender age of four years old. Scarred by this traumatic encounter with death, he believed that the spirits of Indians dying on the roadside had entered his body and merged with his own soul. He referenced this experience in the song “Peace Frog” with the following lyrics: “Indians scattered on dawn’s highway bleeding./Ghosts crowd the young child’s fragile eggshell mind.”

Perhaps consumed by the intense cosmic forces he was channeling, he met a sudden and mysterious death, succumbing to apparent heart failure, at the age of 27. Despite his incredible rock legacy, Wyld notes that “Jim’s greatest desire was to be known and remembered as a poet,”15 and he lamented his hyper-sexualized public persona, even regretting posing for pictures. I wonder if he was referring to those famous Christ-like shirtless photos that are still to this day plastered on all kinds of Doors paraphernalia, from t-shirts and posters to books and greatest hits album covers. This inner conflict, perhaps rooted in his Dionysian archetype, highlights the complexity of the man behind the myth.

The Christ-like images of Jim Morrison were the first ones I saw as a teenager in the nineties, when I was immersed in the alternative rock scene, which was heavily influenced by the resurgence of 60s counterculture, popularized by films like The Doors (1991), starring Val Kilmer. I was introduced to the band through one of my pothead friends, who fell in love with Jim Morrison after watching the movie. We would get high and play Super Mario on her old school Nintendo with The Doors album Waiting for the Sun (1968) softly playing in the background as a psychedelic soundtrack to the game.

The song “Strange Days” off their second album was my favorite song, and, while listening to it on repeat after smoking a joint laced with Dionysus knows what, the doors of perception opened wide enough for me to hear Jim mumbling alternate lyrics to the song, which I dutifully transcribed in poetry form. Even as a sober adult, the song’s sonic landscape and Morrison’s distorted vocals continue to mesmerize and inspire. This experience taught me that writing poetry can be a mediumistic act, a channeling of spirit voices.

Morrison still exerts a profound influence on me, and The Doors remain one of my all-time favorite bands. After earning my bachelor’s degree in English, I delved deeper into Morrison’s work, studying his first book of poetry, The Lords & the New Creatures (1970), and his poetry album An American Prayer (1978). Wyld’s book has inspired me to revisit the band’s discography with fresh ears, uncovering new depths in their music. 

Jim Morrison remains an enigmatic figure, a cultural icon whose influence continues to shape our collective consciousness. Wyld’s book offers a compelling exploration of Morrison’s mystical side, shedding light on the spiritual and intellectual underpinnings of his art. Diving into the depths of Morrison’s legacy, we are reminded of his enduring power to inspire and provoke. Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult is a must-read for fans of The Doors and anyone interested in the intersection of music, mysticism, and the Universal Mind.

The Persistence of the Soul, by Mark Ireland

The Persistence of the Soul:  Mediums, Spirit Visitations, and Afterlife Communication, by Mark Ireland
Inner Traditions, 9781644117187, 288 pages, October 2023 

Mark Ireland’s book, The Persistence of the Soul:  Mediums, Spirit Visitations, and Afterlife Communication, marks his journey from the death of his 18-year-old son to the creation of a group to support grieving parents called Helping Parents Heal. Ireland is the son of famous psychic Medium Richard Ireland, who was a medium to the stars in Hollywood. Ireland grew up going to many of his father’s meetings and appointments. After the passing of his own son, Ireland decided to do research and learn more about psychic phenomenon and after-death communication. 

This is his second book on this topic; he has also published a manuscript written by his father.  He runs a medium certification program where he tests mediums in blind studies. You can learn more about this at his website.

In his “Note to Readers” Ireland does a great job of laying out the book, offering several different ways to enjoy the material. He lets you know that the book is about real people and real situations and that real names have been used. He begins the Introduction with his son Brandon’s story and shares his journey of grief. He also shares a story about his conversation with a woman who came to him during her grief:

“I explained that I had written down my feelings, visited with close friends and relatives, and openly shared my emotions with other people. I told her that writing about my son and telling people about his nature as a person, allowed me to purge my feelings–fully exposing them and embracing the essence of my grief. Family members, Brandon’s friends and I each wrote a letter to him, explaining what we loved about him and how much he meant in our lives.”7

Ireland goes on to say that he wrote Brandon’s eulogy and began writing a series of emails that became the basis for his first book. Soon he began to share these practical tips as well as refer people to mediums that he knew and trusted. In 2011, he founded the group Helping Parents Heal, which now has 24,000 members.16

This book has a little of everything, ranging from research and history to personal stories of people that have lost children, siblings, or other friends and family members. The chapter titled “Psychic Phenomena and Mediumship in Religion and History” is a chronicle of everything you need to know about this subject. Within this chapter he hopes to “address the fear and apprehension that some people harbor towards psychic phenomena and spirit communication as a result of their religious upbringing.”17 It was interesting to learn that his father never really understood the fear and negative connotations of mediumship. Ireland is interested in not only understanding this fear but also dispelling it for the grieving people that he ministers to.

In another chapter, Ireland presents his thoughts on reincarnation and includes a personal story of a conversation he and his dad had when he was between three and four years old. In this conversation Ireland recounts a past life where he lived a full life and died at 83.

Ireland also sprinkles in information about research and scientific studies regarding mediumship. Early in the book he quotes Julie Beishel, Ph.D. who is director of the Windbridge Research Center. The results of her study indicate that mediumship readings may be helpful for grieving people. Beishel relates:

“The combination of traditional psychotherapy and mediumship readings may prove to be more beneficial than either intervention separately. … Spontaneous and induced ADCs (after-death communications) can have tremendous impacts on the grieving process, and my observations as well as pilot data we collected at Windbridge suggest similar positive effects after readings with mediums.”18

My favorite chapter is the one entitled “Robin’s Flight”. Ireland tells the story of his sister Robin– her diagnosis with pancreatic cancer and the journey they took together before her death. Although he had only previously read about deathbed visions and near-death experiences, he came to know first-hand about both through his sister and her passing.

I love the structure of the book and the personal stories of actual people that are woven throughout the narrative. With the Table of Contents, the reader has a great way to refer to chapters or passages of interest. He also includes a nine-page index with additional ways to find information, people, or stories. Additionally, Ireland includes a section called “References” which is a type of bibliography, where you can go to find more specific information. The book is easy to navigate and easy to read. It is written in a conversational style that is almost like sitting across the desk from Ireland himself.

The Persistence of the Soul is great for anyone who is interested in mediumship or after-death communication. It would also be a comfort for someone who is grieving a loss. The stories that Ireland shares of hope and optimism are very encouraging. I plan to give this book to a friend of mine who is beginning her training to become a psychic medium. I feel that the book will inspire her on her journey to learn how to support those who are grieving.

Sacred Geometry in Ancient Goddess Cultures, by Richard Heath

Sacred Geometry in Ancient Goddess Cultures: The Divine Science of the Female Priesthood, by Richard Heath
Inner Traditions, 1644116553, 256 pages, March 2024

Sacred geometry, the divine language of geometric patterns, numbers, and shapes found throughout the natural world, has long been revered as a key to understanding the universe and our place within it. At the heart of this mystical tradition lies the belief that these geometric codes and patterns are fundamental to the creation and structure of the cosmos, embodying the unity between the physical and spiritual realms. Sacred Geometry in Ancient Goddess Cultures: The Divine Science of the Female Priesthood by Richard Heath embarks on an exploratory journey into the sacred geometry origins within ancient goddess cultures, unveiling the profound spiritual wisdom and technological sophistication these societies possessed that has been lost in modern times.

Heath begins by teaching readers about the origins of megaliths in the Mesolithic cultures, “people of the Middle Stone Age”19 who lived in matrilineal societies, in order “to study astronomical time.”20 He challenges the idea that it was Neolithic societies that created megalith in western Europe, noting how they “would have been completely preoccupied with finding and farming good enough land to feed their families.”21 IHe asserts the archaeological timeline and history point towards self-sufficient matriarchal tribes that were already established through self-sufficient foraging.

Heath delves into the symbolic significance of geometric patterns and shapes found in artifacts, monuments, and architectural designs from these ancient civilizations, noting that these geometrical designs were not merely decorative but held deep spiritual meanings and were integral to the daily practices and celestial worldviews of these societies. Heath writes, “Where megalithic art has survived, it is congruent with the art of the goddess in general.”22 He then traces the path of this sacred geometry wisdom passing from the megaliths Gobekli Tepe in Turkey to those in the southern Mediterranean island of Malta to the maritime culture of Crete, drawing the “conclusion that the matrilineal tribes build the Mediterranean megaliths and –extrapolating from that–the Atlantic megaliths, too.23

Through the book there is lots of discussion about the role of women in these ancient societies, suggesting that the reverence for the goddess figure and the use of sacred geometry in rituals and art reflect a societal recognition of the importance of women and the feminine principle in the creation and maintenance of life, most notably through a focus on birth and fertility rituals. Heath’s work invites readers to reconsider the significance of sacred geometry in these ancient civilizations, seeing it not just as a mathematical curiosity of the Pythagorean, Ptolemaic, and Platonic traditions, which have come to dominate in the realm of sacred geometry,  but as a vital component of spiritual practice and cultural identity of these earlier goddess-centered cultures too.

As readers, we need to change our vantage point to better understand how sacred geometry evolved from these cultures, and Heath does a wonderful job explaining how the world would have been seen from these ancient cultures. From pointing out that Mesolithic astronomers wouldn’t have used decimals but still relied on factorization to their focus on whole-number numeracy, readers gain insight into the mathematical mindset that was used to build their society’s megaliths to monuments. There’s a lot of nuances to understand, yet Heath moves slow enough for readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of how geometry and astronomy came together to create calculated celestial patterns that were then mirrored in the landscape.

“Using horizon astronomy, prehistory could only hope to measure average time periods between repeated celestial events. In contrast, natural science and physics has developed instrumentalities, such as the degree circle and telescope, to directly measure angels in the sky without using horizon astronomy and its limits to gain data only at those limited moments when the Sun or Moon rose or set. This has made modern science blind to how the average periodicities uniquely express significant patterns such as the Fibonacci golden mean ratios or the musical intervals between celestial periods.”24

In particular, I enjoyed reading about how the mysteries of numbers and sacred geometry shifted from goddess-centered to focused on a biblical god, as up until now I’ve mostly studied “modern” sacred geometry. Heath writes, “Modern sacred geometry discounted numbers-as-length, perhaps because arithmetic was a different department to the traditional arts. In a 3-4-5 triangle, numbers-as-lengths are sublimated through the abstract numbers and are often given in the center of each line. This shows us what number symbols are-an intensive magnitude rather than an extensive length.”25

He cover topics the Neolithic origins of the Bible, numerological calculations of Easter, sacred geometry of Roman and Orthodox churches, the Chaldean model, and how these calculations have evolved into dominant belief systems. Yet there’s so much history hidden in the ancient past, which has been carefully revived by Heath in this book, that reveals the secrets needed to restore balance once again. There’s a lot to take in, and this is definitely a book someone could take months to integrate.

“The heliocentric and geocentric models of the planetary system were two views of the same phenomenon, but the heliocentric was taken to be the only adequate view of reality, and, because of that, the spiritual view connecting the Earth to the cosmos was rejected by the recently civilized mind. This shut down the meaning of spirituality for the vast majority, who instead serviced desires for economic growth and an improved standard of living.”26

Might we need to rediscover these ancient hidden truths of the natural world in order to make necessary changes in the modern area? Seems like it is a good start!

Overall, through a rich tapestry of historical accounts, archaeological findings, and theoretical insights, Sacred Geometry in Ancient Goddess Cultures reconnects modern readers with the ancient wisdom of overlooked matriarchal cultures, offering a new perspective on the origins of sacred geometry. By understanding the principles and practices of ancient goddess cultures, readers are invited on a transformative journey to rediscover the sacredness embedded in the astronomical patterns, once revered by these societies, encouraging a deeper connection with the natural world from this ancient perspective. This exploration not only pays homage to the visionary women of these ancient societies but also illuminates a path toward spiritual harmony with the cosmos, guided by the enduring legacy of sacred geometry, to create a better aligned future for humanity’s development.

For those interested in learning more about these topics, Heath’s areas of research include sacred geometry, megalithic astronomy, and cosmology. His previous works are Sacred Number and the Origins of Civilization, The Harmonic Origins of the World, Sacred Number and the Lords of Time, Matrix of Creation, Precessional Time and the Evolution of Consciousness, and Sacred Geometry: Language of the Angels. You can learn more about him on his website.

The First Alchemists, by Tobias Churton

The First Alchemists: The Spiritual and Practical Origins of the Noble and Holy Art, by Tobias Churton
Inner Traditions, 1644116839, 320 pages, November 2023

Alchemy can sometimes feel like a buzzword, especially in modern times where it has taken on a heavily psychological context due to Carl Jung’s work and been co-opted by every influencer promising instant change. For those who begin to research alchemy in a more historical context, it quickly becomes exceedingly clear that the path is long and jumbled. Weaving through the different strands throughout time and global cultures amid intentional secret-keeping become a quandary. In his introduction to The First Alchemists: The Spiritual and Practical Origins of the Noble and Holy Art, Tobias Churton writes:

“Well, it is hardly surprising that confusion has inhibited understanding of alchemy. The term has perhaps simply come to mean “too much.” When confronted with something akin to a Gordian knot, I feel an urge not to annihilate the puzzle by putting my sword through it as Alexander the Great did but rather to retire and try to figure out how the knotty phenomenon actually came about. And that is my explanation for undertaking this investigation into the first alchemists. The job needed doing.”20

I absolutely agree with Churton’s assertion that someone had to conduct more thorough research about the origins and alchemy and piece it together for others. So much of what I’ve read about alchemy’s history focuses on Hermeticism, particularly in the 1400s and beyond when ancient texts prompted a revival of the art, which is fascinating, but many books neglect the deeper history, the roots of alchemy.

In laying his foundation, Churton begins by teaching  readers about the oldest surviving texts on alchemy (Stockholm papyrus, Leiden papyrus). While these texts were mundane rather than mystical in nature, focusing on things such as dye recipes, making and whitening pearls, cleansing stones, and creating imitation gold and silver. He also covers Pseudo-Democritus’s Four Books, the oldest texts on alchemy that have been lost to history but were summarized in surviving treatises Physika kai Mystika (Natural and Secret Questions) and Peri asēmou poiēseōs (On the Making of Silver).

These texts situate early alchemy’s origins in Roman Egypt. Churton shares sources that claim Pseudo-Democritus was influenced by Ostanes, a great Egyptian priest. In addition to Ostanes, these early practitioners include Cleopatra, Mariam (a Jewish woman known in alchemical tradition as Mary the Prophetess), and artisan Theosebeia–notably all women. Churton spends time on each woman, detailing pretty much all that is known about them, particularly from the writing of Zosimos of Panopolis.

“Early alchemy has something of a cosmopolitan, if not multinational and above all practical, rather than ideological air about it.”21

Three whole chapters are dedicated to Zosimos, and he continues to be the prominent focus of the rest of the book, because there is more written testimony from him than any other early alchemist. Titled “father of religious alchemy”23, his contributions can hardly be understated. Churton describes how, “Zosimos’s alchemy is a natural divine path to God, in which pious practitioners are called to identity with all elements and transformations, so as to experience harmonious union, or “gold”…”27

Working off of Zosimos’s writing, Churton guides readers through chapters on what the first alchemist actually did, how they did it, and where they did it. And, since I’m sure this sparked your curiosity, it mostly focused on creating dyes and working with metals. There’s pictures of early apparatuses, as well as details of the chemical components of minerals and other substances used to achieve their aims.

Additional chapters include “The Myth of Transmutation”, “Forbidden Knowledge”, and “Legacy” which clarify more about the aims of the early alchemists. Churton shows that the “first alchemists did not operate with the end in mind of fabricating a philosophical stone or philosopher’s stone to transmute base metals into gold”28. This realization throws into question the traditional definition of alchemy, as this is what most assume alchemy is all about based on later alchemical history. Churton notes, “Modern writers then have often simply backdated what they learned about post-Zosimos alchemy and projected it onto Zosimos.”29

Churton often references the work of Shannon Grimes, professor and head of the Department of Religious and Ethical Studies at Meredith College. She has recently published the book Becoming Gold: Zosimos of Panopolis and the Alchemical Arts in Roman Egypt, which would be another great resource for those interested in this subject matter. In a similar vein, readers might also feel more comfortable with the topics covered in this book after delving into some of Churton’s other books, in particular The Lost Pillars of Enoch, The Golden Builders, and The Gnostics.

For those new to reading Churton’s work, you can expect a lot of detail! I find it helps to take notes to process and organize the new information I’m reading, as he is a very erudite writer, who draws upon multiple sources to weave together his assertions but sometimes assumes his readers know more than they actually do, especially if this is your first introduction to the topic. For these reasons, I always get so much out of Churton’s writing because I am left with many avenues of interest to explore, but this can delay me finishing the books due to being sidetracked or feeling like I need additional time to digest what I’ve read before proceeding. The note taking helps me to stay focused on the topic at hand and then go back to what sparked my interest afterwards!

All in all, The First Alchemists is an illuminating read that delves into the “who, what, where, why, when” of early alchemy. Drawn from the original sources and scholarly work about these texts, he brilliantly depicts the origins of the Royal Art, which vary greatly from our modern notion of what alchemy is, its purpose, and its practitioners. I highly recommend this book for those interested in the history of alchemy, especially if they feel called to traditions that utilize alchemical in modern times, such as Freemasons and Rosecrucians. While there’s no doubt secrets to uncover, it’s interesting to see the initial practical value of alchemy, in particular recipes and methods for making dyes, and the evolution through time.

Theurgy: Theory & Practice, by P.D. Newman

Theurgy: Theory & Practice: The Mysteries of the Ascent to the Divine, by P.D. Newman
Inner Tradition, 164411836X, 224 pages, December 2023

Theurgy is a Neoplatonic form of ritual magic in which the practitioner seeks mystical union with a divine being. The term theurgy, which means “to work with deity”30 in Greek, was first coined in the Chaldæan Oracles, a fragmented collection of dactylic hexameter verses, written in Homeric Greek, that were believed to have been channeled directly from the gods by either Julian the Chaldæan, or his son, Julian the Theurgist, during the late second century CE.

In Theurgy: Theory & Practice: The Mysteries of the Ascent to the Divine, author P.D. Newman, who has practiced theurgy for over two decades and is also a member of both the Masonic Fraternity and the Society of Rosicrucians, supplies a solid scholarly background on the development of theurgical practices. Even though the Chaldæan Oracles are the fundamental text on theurgy, he argues that the practice itself can be traced all the way back to Homeric times. 

In Part I, he demonstrates how the ancient Greek version of shamans, called iatromanteia (“healer-seers”), and the Presocratic philosophers laid the foundation for theurgical practices.

“Theurgy,” Newman explains, “is a process of anabasis or magical ascent whereby practitioners, such as the Neoplatonists…achieved henosis or mystical union with a deity, the Demiurge or the One,” while katabasis is “a dreamy descent to the domain of the dead and to the dark goddess who rules over that realm.”31

Plato and his followers aspired to ascend through the planetary spheres and unite with the One, the paternal Monad, using theurgical practices, while their predecessors, the iatromanteia (“healer-seers”) and Presocratic philosophers, sought Underworld descent, or katabasis, and union with the terrifying goddess that ruled there.

“For the Platonists, katabasis was understood as the descent of the soul into a body upon incarnation,” Newman says. “Hades, additionally, was allegorized and viewed as the very world that we, as embodied beings, inhabit.”32

In Plato’s teachings, the body (soma) is a grave (sema), and a prison for the soul. Plato’s famous “Allegory of the Cave” in the Republic demonstrates how the focus of theurgical practices shifted from the Underworld to the heavens. “The goal of the theurgist is not unlike that of the prisoner in the cave—to escape the sensible world of duality and penetrate the realm of ultimate, unitive reality above,” Newman says.33

I was fascinated to learn that the Sicilian stratovolcano Mount Etna was believed to be an entrance to Hades, and sacrifices to the goddess of the Underworld were thrown into the mouth of this fiery cauldron. According to legend, the iatromantis (healer-seer) Empedocles threw himself into the volcano to prove his divinity, and it erupted, vomiting out a single bronze sandal. Through self-immolation, Empedocles achieved henosis (mystical union) with the goddess Hecate. A single bronze sandal is one of her attributes as the Lady of Tartaros in the Papyri Graecae Magicae, and the Greeks associated bronze with the Underworld. This was a profound insight for me because I didn’t know that Hecate was associated with volcanoes, and this explains her fiery epithets. 

Part II explores possible theurgic elements in Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad. In Chapter 6, titled “Porphyry’s On the Cave of the Nymphs,” Newman demonstrates how philosophers often saw Odysseus as a spiritual hero, on a path of return to his celestial abode. For example, he says the Pythagoreans interpreted the song of the sirens to be the music of the celestial spheres, which is so beautiful it has the power to “lift the soul in its theurgic ascent to the Good,”34 and the Neopythagorean philosopher Numenius of Apamea saw “Odysseus as escaping genesis, the realm of ‘becoming,’ symbolized by the waters of Poseidon.”35

I loved this chapter, and the passages about Witch Queen Circe really blew my mind. According to the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry of Tyre, Circe symbolizes the cycle of metensomatosis, or reincarnation, in which eternal souls change bodies like clothes. Aiaia, the island over which she rules, is part of the land of the dead. Bewitched by the pleasures of the flesh, Odysseus’s men drink the witch’s brew and are reborn as beasts. Only Odysseus himself, who is on a path of ascension, is immune to her powers. Now that my perspective has been shifted to view the Odyssey as the tale of a hero’s apotheosis, I will never read it the same way again. 

Part III, titled “Theurgic Telestikē,” analyzes the practice of animating cult statues. This section was the most relevant for me because I have written my own rituals to awaken my deity statues in the past and I am looking to incorporate more traditional methods of doing so in order to infuse my rituals with historical authenticity. I also recently wrote a ritual to enliven a scrying mirror for Lilith, because in Jewish folklore she was believed to inhabit mirrors. One passage in particular really resonated with my intention, in which Newman quotes Plotinus, who compared the consecrated cult statue to “a mirror able to catch some image of it.”36 

In order to animate the statue, a sympathetic link is created with “theurgic talismans called synthēmata (tokens) and symbola (symbols),”37 which are similar to the planetary correspondences assigned to plants, animals, and minerals in natural magic. However, there is more to statue vivification than simply following a list of correspondences recognized by the intellect. Rather, the tokens and symbols help the theurgist align with the deity by making their divine essence become conscious, or awakened, within themselves, especially if they have psychoactive properties that alter one’s consciousness. For example, in fragment 224 of the Chaldæan Oracles, the goddess Hecate instructs the theurgist to animate her statue with wild rue, or Syrian rue, an entheogenic plant that the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder associated with vision, which is still burned today in the Middle East to repel the evil eye.

My devotion to Hecate inspired me to learn more about theurgy because of her exalted status in the Chaldæan Oracles, in which she is referred to as the World Soul, or at least she is according to my copy, translated by Ruth Majercik. Before reading this book, I wasn’t aware that there is conflicting scholarship about whether or not this epithet applies to her, and I was surprised to find that Newman presents the argument that Hecate is not herself the anima mundi, or World Soul, because her position in the Chaldæan hierarchy is too elevated.

“Indeed…in the Oracles, Hecate is said to be the cause of soul—but not soul itself, “Newman says. “Rather, Hecate is acknowledged as a goddess of liminality who exists in the space between two realms, such as she served when acting in the role of psychopomp for Persephone in the Eleusinian mysteries.”38

In an initiatory dream I received over a decade ago, Hecate stabbed me in my right side with her dagger and pomegranate juice flowed from the wound. “You are Persephone,” she said. Several years later, the dream made more sense to me when I read Fragment 51 of The Chaldean Oracles: “Around the hollow of her right flank a great stream of the primordially-generated Soul gushes forth in abundance, totally ensouling light, fire, ether, worlds.”39 If Hecate is so elevated that she transcends the epithet of World Soul, then I wonder if perhaps her lowest aspect, the maiden Persephone, should in fact hold that title.

Theurgy: Theory & Practice is an astounding work that combines shamanism, various schools of Greek philosophy, and theurgical praxis that can be integrated by modern occultists. The many branches of Greek philosophy can be an overwhelming topic to explore, but Newman does an excellent job of diluting the common theurgical elements, and a wealth of information is condensed into under 200 pages. Both modern theurgists and devotees of Hecate will appreciate this work, especially if they are interested in learning more about her significance in the Chaldæan Oracles.

The Royal Path of Shakti, by Daniel Odier

The Royal Path of Shakti: The Erotic and Magical Techniques of Kaula Tantra, by Daniel Odier
Inner Traditions, 9781644117163, 187 pages, July 2023

Daniel Odier has detailed and explained each technique of the Kaula Tantra in his book The Royal Path of Shakti: The Erotic and Magical Techniques of Kaula Tantra.

Odier was born in Geneva and studied fine arts in both Rome and Paris. After working as a music critic for a newspaper, he traveled to India and studied with Kalu Rinpoche for seven years. Almost ten years later, he met the yogini Lalita Devi and received a transmission of Mahamudra and other mystical teachings in the Kaula Tantra Tradition. He presents the teachings in this book with the full permission of Lalita Devi. Odier has shared these teachings all over the world, as well as publishing poetry, critical works, and numerous books on tantra and Eastern mysticism. When not traveling, he resides in Switzerland.

“The problem with seeking enlightenment is that you always come to the point where you think you have it.”33

In his preface, Odier gives a thorough history of tantra and the great masters. With this background as his base teaching, he shares 43 Practices then followed by 24 Patala of the Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra. In addition to a Table of Contents that spells out each practice and patala, each page is earmarked with either the name of the practice or the number of the patala. This makes it very easy to navigate the teachings. He also adds this note about the teachings from his yogini Lalita Devi:

“Each time that I asked her where something was in the Kaula Tantra, she would smile and reply “I am placing it in your heart and that will be your library. Knowledge is not practice and the Matsyendranath took care to conceal the practice so that only he who received the direct transmission could penetrate the mysteries of the twilight language.”35

In reading about the practices, I learned that the chakra system was a little different from the chakras I had been taught in my yoga practice and Reiki training. This system utilized eight chakras, including one on the forehead AND one between the eyebrows. The other difference was the addition of a chakra of the mouth and palate. Throughout the information on the practices, Odier weaves stories of his own initiation into this magical system for life.

One of my favorite practices is “Practice 23: Dietary Practices”. In this chapter, I learned about the interconnectedness of everything and how everything is alive. He speaks of the importance of asking your body what it wants to eat. I also enjoyed “Practice 40: The Yoga of Looking with Your Skin”. I recorded the meditation in that chapter and enjoyed this exploration with the ruby goddess.

After reviewing the practices, I was interested to know what “patala” meant. It translates as “feet,” and refers to the lower regions of the universe: underworld or netherworld. These transmissions bestow sacred knowledge to the student and each one builds on the patala that comes before it. As I was reading the warehouse of knowledge in the second part of the book, I was reminded of A Course in Miracles and how the text starts with simple ideas and builds the knowledge base of the student.

My favorite patala is Patala 7, which relates to “old age and decline.”37 Through a series of meditations over a period of six months, one can transcend age and dying:

“By uniting with Kamakala, one can put an end to old age. Thus, we have explained to you the secret and the characteristics of the being who has changed inwardly.”40

At the end of the book, Odier shares a brilliant conclusion, a glossary of spiritual and mystical terms and a complete index. Each of these helps the reader process the information that he relates. This last sentence summarizes the teachings of Odier. The life of the yogi truly relates to changing oneself from the inside out. In his conclusion, he says this about the Kaula Tantra tradition:

“The yoginis saw the master-disciple relationship as an intense heart-to-heart experience-no wasting of time, no prerequisite purification, no milestones to get beyond. . . This is what this text reveals to us, imbued with the magic of a time freed of all religious conformism.”41

Odier’s writing style is very conversational and easy to read. The patala section is written as a letter or a journal entry that chronicles questions from the student and the teacher’s reply. I really enjoyed this style of writing and found it to be very personal and authentic.

The Royal Path of Shakti would be good for any yoga student, yoga teacher, or anyone who wants to strengthen his relationship with spirit or adopt a spiritual practice. I can see myself starting the new year or a new month by rereading the book, in a “practice a day” systematic approach.

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns, by Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, by Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac
Inner Traditions, 1644117207, 288 pages, August 2023

The mythical musician Orpheus charmed fish, sirens, and weary heroes with his songs while sailing with Jason and the Argonauts in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, but he is best known for his doomed love affair with Eurydice, who died after she was bitten by a snake while fleeing a rapist on their wedding day. Orpheus was so distraught that he descended into the Underworld and convinced Persephone, the Queen of the Dead, to resurrect his wife, on the condition that he not look back while leading her out of Hades.

However, in his eagerness to reunite with her, he couldn’t resist the urge to turn around, and she slipped away from him once again. Upon returning to the surface without his beloved wife, he founded the mystery religion that bears his name and the maenads tore him apart, mirroring the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans. A collection of 87 religious poems, known as the Orphic Hymns, were attributed to this cult hero, though the true origin and authorship of them is shrouded in mystery. 

In The Magic of the Orphic Hymns: A New Translation for the Modern Mystic, co-authors Tamra Lucid and Ronnie Pontiac revitalize the traditional hymns with fresh new poetic renderings in contemporary English. Like Orpheus, the husband and wife duo are mystical musicians themselves, who founded the experimental rock band Lucid Nation. Both were initiated into the underground music and occult scene of Los Angeles, and Pontiac apprenticed under the metaphysical scholar Manly Palmer Hall. Lucid wrote about their experiences in Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: My Seven Years in Occult Los Angeles with Manly Palmer Hall (2021).

The authors first began working with the hymns in the 1980s, when Pontiac assisted members of Hall’s Philosophical Research Society with a republication of Thomas Taylor’s eighteenth-century translation titled The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus. Pontiac, who was studying ancient Greek in college at the time, was inspired to write his own translation, and Lucid researched the ritual correspondences. Together, they produced the poetic renditions of the traditional hymns contained within this book. 

My go-to translation for the past decade has been The Orphic Hymns by Apostolos N. Athanassakis (2013), which is an excellent scholarly resource with extensive footnotes. I was drawn to Lucid and Pontiac’s more flexible poetic interpretations because I’m always looking for beautiful prayers to incorporate into my personal rituals and I thought this book might move me to craft my own hymns as well. However, The Magic of the Orphic Hymns is more than just a divinely inspired poetry collection, and I was impressed by the comprehensive historical background information the authors provide. 

In the first half of the book, Lucid and Pontiac explore the origins of Orphism from a well-researched, scholarly perspective, and the influence of Orpheus, “the first rock star,”1 on great minds throughout history. Through their engaging narrative voices, they have a knack for making what might otherwise be dry history entertaining, and this work is peppered with fascinating anecdotes about philosophers and Roman emperors. The far-reaching spiritual influence of Orphism interested me the most, and I was intrigued to learn that the early Christians saw Orpheus’s underworld journey to rescue his beloved wife as mirroring Christ’s harrowing of hell and the liberation of the virtuous souls trapped there.42 

Defining the religion of Orphism is tricky, and scholars have debated if it even existed at all.

“Orphic may have been a catch-all phrase in ancient Greece for anything neither Homeric nor Olympian,” writes Lucid and Pontiac. “The phrase could be a generic category for a cluster of related interests, like New Age in our own culture.”43

According to the Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus, Orphics believed that human beings were created when Zeus struck the Titans by lightning after they cannibalized Dionysus. Humanity is therefore like an electrified Frankenstein monster composed of heavenly Dionysian spirit and corrupt Titanic flesh. Through the cycle of reincarnation, the Orphics supposedly taught that humans could purge themselves of their Titanic impurities over the course of multiple lifetimes and liberate their Dionysian divinity.

Followers of the Orphic mysteries led austere lives and restricted their diets by abstaining from meat and beans. However, authors Lucid and Pontiac state that Olympiodorus is the only source for the Titanic origin myth of humanity being Orphic and the Italian scholar Domenico Comparetti concluded that the Orphics believed in reincarnation based on his writings, so this is an educated guess supported by scant evidence. 44

Lucid and Pontiac’s exploration of Orpheus’s wife in a chapter titled, “The Evolution of Eurydice” was especially compelling to me. In the earliest sources, Eurydice is nameless, faceless, and voiceless. She is a shadow projection of Orpheus’s mourning and yearning to possess the woman who was stolen from him by death. She is an ancient victim of the male gaze, doomed to serve as muse for a famous musician while having no true identity of her own. 

Her elusive character acquired more substance in retellings. I was fascinated to learn that a name for Eurydice in some early versions of the myth was Agriope, which means “Wild-Eyed.”45 This caught my attention because Agriope is also an epithet for Hekate, the goddess of ghosts and witchcraft, in her capacity as leader of the restless dead. Under the name Agriope, Orpheus’s wife appears to be a hungry ghost sent by the Queen of the Underworld to haunt him. 

The authors suggest that Eurydice, whose name means “Wide Justice,”46 sounds more like an epithet for the goddess Persephone in her role as judge of souls than the name of a mortal wife. I’m inclined to agree, because I find the parallels between Persephone and Eurydice to be striking. Eurydice died of a snake bite after a shepherd or satyr attempted to rape her on the day of her wedding to Orpheus, and according to the Orphic Hymn to Persephone, Zeus raped Persephone in the form of a serpent. The fruit of that unspeakable union was Dionysus. Through her untimely death, Eurydice was, in a sense, abducted by Hades, and through Orpheus’s descent into the Underworld, he was reborn as a Dionysian mystic.

Persephone herself is a key figure in the myth for taking pity upon Orpheus and permitting Eurydice’s return to the land of the living, on the condition that he not look back, lest he lose her forever. Yet, despite this warning, he could not resist the urge to do so. In medieval times, Orpheus’s backward glance “was a symbol of human weakness, illustrating the way even the most dedicated among us, the holiest, cannot escape those moments of desire for material pleasures.”47

Carl Jung interpreted Orpheus’s “backward glance” as “a symbol of individuation and the achievement of autonomy.”48 Orpheus was fated to lose the love of his life so he would become the renowned mystic and musician he was destined to be. Sometimes the obligations of a relationship can limit one’s ability to pursue the soul’s true calling, and so Orpheus’s romantic hindrance was removed by the force of death, while simultaneously being used as a guiding light to propel him forward.

This poignant insight resonated deeply with me because I have observed in my own life that love lost or unrequited can be a powerful catalyst for personal growth and transformation. Limerence, or romantic obsession for someone unattainable, can serve a higher purpose when it is sublimated into artistic and spiritual pursuits. When I think back on it, it seems that heartbreak was the catalyst for every major breakthrough and turning point in my life, as if the Universe was redirecting me towards something greater, even though I felt devastated at the time. 

The second half of this book contains the “Orphic Charms and the Sacred Songs of Orpheus.” The authors have taken creative liberties with their loose translations of the Orphic Hymns, creating “a poetic work, not a scholarly translation.”49

The charms consist of the cryptic messages that were inscribed on the Orphic golden leaves, which were buried with the deceased as “passwords for the dead, messages to avert forgetfulness.”50 My favorite charm tells the departed initiate what words they must speak to the guardians of the lake of memory in order to drink from it:

“I am a child of earth/and of starry heaven,/but my race is of heaven./This you know./I am parched/and perishing./Give me cold water/from the lake of memory.”51

One of my favorite hymns is addressed to Hermes, who is cleverly described with homophones as the “lover of prophets/and profits”.52 I also adore the hymn to Persephone, in which she is honored as “the star/at the core of the apple.”53 The beautiful aquatic imagery of “The Nereids” reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Mermaid”: “Daughters of Nereus,/you live in the golden castle/at the bottom of the sea./Your steeds are Tritons,/the mermen with wings./You delight in the creatures/of the billowing brine.”54

The Magic of the Orphic Hymns is a poetic odyssey through the history and mystery of Orphism that makes the traditional hymns more accessible to contemporary mystics by rendering them in vivid modern English. Anyone who is curious about the Orphic tradition or interested in revitalizing the hymns in their personal practice will benefit from reading this book. These pages want to be perfumed in incense and awakened with whispered incantations.

Essential Oils Oracle Cards, by Dennis Mock

Essential Oils Oracle Cards: Wisdom and Guidance from 40 Healing Plants, by Dennis Moeck with illustrations by Ulrike Annyma Kern
Inner Traditions, 9781644118795, 40 cards, 15 pages, September 2023

As someone who has been utilizing essential oils in my life for more than fifteen years, I am excited to see an oracle deck devoted to this subject. Essential Oils Oracle Cards: Wisdom and Guidance from 40 Healing Plants by Dennis Moeck with illustrations by Ulrike Annyma Kern is both beautiful and educational. The wisdom Moeck shares about the plants is equally matched by the guidance he imparts for each card. 

Moeck has studied aromatherapy, crystals, psychology, shamanism, ayurveda, and trauma therapy. His coaching practice focuses on consciousness and inner journeys through online courses, workshops, and retreats. Moeck has worked with essential oils for decades. He lives in Germany.

Kern is not only an artist, she is also an author and spiritual teacher. She has created an oracle deck based on archangels and written several books, one of which has been translated into English and features the chakra system.  She also lives in Germany.

These cards are very easy to use, and I decided to do a card pull right away. I asked the question: “What do I need to know in order to utilize the power of the Solar Eclipse?”

After shuffling the cards and fanning them out, I drew the card for Lemon.

“The time for cleansing and clarity has come.Refreshed and reinvigorated, you can rediscover your original inner light, a light that will guide you to the truth in this light. … the spirit of women is eager to guide you through the realm of shadows where it will kindle light in the rooms of your mind.”47

What a great message for me, for eclipse season! On the flip side of the card, I read additional guidance that says that lemon will help me to focus on what is essential, fresh, and pure. It also says that lemon aids the solar plexus chakra and that its scent can help me to celebrate life.

The affirmation reads:

“I am ready to open myself to life unconditionally and to welcome what I am.”48

The guidebook suggested that I “connect with the soul of the plant and tell it what is currently on your mind . . . .  Imagine that you are integrating with the energy of the healing plant soul and look back on yourself. . . . What advice do you give yourself?”51

Moeck advises the card reader to work with the energy of the card for 21 days, as well as suggesting they diffuse the essential oil or place the oil on pulse points or the heart space. I had some lemon essential oil on hand, so I added it to my diffuser. With the guidance, the image of the lemon plant, and the essential oil wafting through my space, I feel that I was able to integrate the wisdom more easily from the card.

Next, I wanted to reach out to clients and friends and pulled cards for 18 people. The feedback I received is overwhelmingly positive for each of the essential oils and messages shared. Here is what one friend has to say about her card, which was Patchouli:

“PJ drew the Patchouli card for me. From the very first line, I knew this was spot on and PJ had connected with my spirit. This was a week of worldwide turmoil with a personal connection, a relationship dilemma within my family, and a deeper, more personal emotional process that did indeed leave a “crack in my soul.” All areas of my life are in need of soul recognition and healing. Interestingly, Patchouli’s scent is highly obnoxious to me and this really surprised me. The plant, however, challenges me to view it, as well as the events in my life, with a new perspective and allow for the body/soul connection to do its necessary work.”  -BB in Dallas

A client who is currently struggling with where she is in life right now has this to say about her card, which was Frankincense:

“Thanks, PJ! The first paragraph of the second side mentioned something about recognizing My Divine Being. I needed the reminder.” – ST in Austin

Finally, a client with the card Cedarwood, shared that she LIVES on Cedarwood Drive! She also added this feedback regarding her guidance:

“I love the message of going forward playfully and trusting the divine timing of things. Less serious. Play, Relax and Trust the process Thank you so much. This resonates so much.” -HC in Boston

These cards are so very easy to use and share with clients.  The size of the cards and quality of the card stock work well and will last through many readings. The beautiful illustrations add to the message, without being overbearing or cryptic.  I really like this aspect.

In addition to the basic message about the history of the use of the plant and essential oil on Side A, the additional information on Side B adds even more guidance.  Moeck shares an affirmation, additional wisdom, a “Top Tip”, key words, and the chakra for which the oil might best be used.

The short guidebook is also very informative and helpful.  It shares an introduction, various ways to use the cards, how to phrase your question, and ways to read the cards. Moeck also shares ways to work with essential oils, including important safety notes. He also offers a way to close a card reading:

“Return to your own self, breathe deeply, absorb the advice, and then take a couple of minutes to reflect on it. Are there any other issues where the soul of the plant can deliver support? In this way, by changing roles and switching places with a plant, however many times it takes, you can make a connection and seek the plant’s advice.”52

Essential Oils Oracle Cards is good for  readers of all skill levels.  It is easy to use and shares information and guidance that applies on many levels. People who love working with essential oils will benefit greatly from the information in this deck. For those new to essential oils, this deck will be a great introduction to essential oils and their uses. I plan to use the deck to close out client readings when I feel led to refer to essential oils.

Undreaming Wetiko, by Paul Levy

Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, by Paul Levy
Inner Traditions, 1644115662, 416 pages, May 2023

In the modern (mis)Information Age, a collective madness has possessed the mob through mainstream media. “Fake news,” conspiracy theories, and pernicious lies spread like wildfire across the internet, confusing the masses. Identity politics and outrage culture further divides people and eats them alive. Author Paul Levy calls this psychic disease that has infected humanity wetiko (pronounced “wet-tee-ko”), named after an evil cannibalistic spirit in Native American mythology.48

Levy’s vision of wetiko is informed by the integration of Buddhism, Jungian psychology, Gnosticism, western politics, and his personal traumatic experiences with “archetypal evil,” which manifested in his abusive father. By creatively appropriating the name wetiko, Levy found a potent way to personify the cross-cultural phenomenon of psychic blindness wreaking havoc on humanity.

In 1981, Levy had a shamanic initiation and spiritual awakening that was catalyzed by the trauma of abuse, during which he was hospitalized multiple times and misdiagnosed with manic depression (now known as bipolar disorder). Being institutionalized only traumatized him further, and these experiences made him conscious of the dreamlike nature of reality, opening his eyes to the psychospiritual illness of wetiko through firsthand experience. Levy broke free of the abusive psychiatric establishment and became an art teacher and wounded healer, assisting others in spiritual awakening as the founder of the Awaken in the Dream community, based in Portland, Oregon.

Levy has been writing about wetiko for more than twenty years, and has created his own acronyms for describing this elusive phenomenon. In his first book on the subject, titled The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis (2006), he referred to what he would later call wetiko as “malignant egophrenia, or ME disease,” because it clouds one’s self-perception, or identity.55 Levy expanded upon these insights and adopted the name wetiko in Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse of Evil (2013) and Wetiko: Healing the Mind-Virus that Plagues our World (2021). He also detailed his personal traumatic experiences in Awakened by Darkness: When Evil Becomes Your Father (2015).

In his sixth and latest book, Undreaming Wetiko: Breaking the Spell of the Nightmare Mind-Virus, Levy says that “finding the name for what is afflicting us is like a deliverance from a nightmare,”56 and “the cure for wetiko is to see it.”57 Naming this phenomenon objectifies it, calling it out into the open so that it can no longer hide in the shadows.

Levy asserts that wetiko is highly adaptive and has thrived on the internet as a “techno-virus.” 58 I was instantly hooked on this book because it gives a name for a psychic contagion I have observed online. I unplugged from the matrix of social media about a year ago and one of the main reasons I deleted all of my accounts was to protect my mind from the sensory overload of advertisements and other people’s opinions. I felt like I was being psychically drained every time I logged in, so learning about the “mind-virus” spread by the wetiko spirit objectified the overall bad vibes I was sensing when I was on socials.

Levy believes the best cure for this collective mental illness is to remove the mask of forged identity and get in touch with our true selves. Creative self-expression helps us connect with our authenticity. Like a stagnant pool of water mirroring a cloud of blood-sucking mosquitoes, the rise of social media and online influencers has given wetiko an internet breeding ground to further brainwash, confuse, and distort the perceptions of the masses, encouraging escapism through social media addiction and comparison to others instead of turning us within to seek the truth of who we are as individuals. Social media encourages identification with a false, filtered public persona, which is reinforced by how many likes people receive on their vacation pictures and selfies. Social media touches people’s deepest insecurities and exploits them.

We can’t connect with our authenticity if we hide behind filters and deny the flaws, secret pain, and traumas of our shadow selves. I believe the New Age Movement has also been hijacked by wetiko, because there is a toxic denial of negativity in this popular spiritual community in favor of love, light, and positive vibes only! which encourages complete denial and repression of the shadow aspect of the psyche. This kind of delusional spiritual bypassing and willful blindness gives wetiko a safe space to flourish and spread like cancer.

Wetiko is nourished by darkness, and thrives in our unconscious blind spots. Willful ignorance and denial makes us complicit in its devious workings. When we do so, Levy claims we are conspiring in the murder of Christ, crucifying the living light within. Embodying the salvific light of truth is the only thing that can restore our sight and liberate us.59

In Undreaming Wetiko, Levy reveals that this mind-virus originates and proliferates through abuse. Unresolved ancestral trauma, family curses, and child abuse are the gnarled poisonous roots of wetiko that burrow deep within our subconscious minds. When we incarnate into our family line, we inherit and unconsciously channel the collective ancestral trauma, giving it an opportunity for liberation through physical manifestation.

“Like a toxic entity,” Levy says, “this unprocessed trauma becomes an ancestral spirit that penetrates and insinuates itself into the core of the child’s being.” 60

This passage struck me as particularly illuminating, as it implies that part of our life purpose is to heal the unresolved ancestral trauma that was imprinted upon us at birth. This means it may manifest in our lives in such a way that we are forced to recognize and consciously work through it in order to fully process and resolve it. However, if we are unconscious and sleepwalking through life, we may become possessed by this spirit of ancestral trauma and recreate the abuse, thus perpetuating the cycle.

I resonated deeply with this section because I feel like I am alchemizing at least three generations of trauma through my maternal bloodline: the ancestral trauma my mother experienced and passed down to me, my personal trauma, and what I unconsciously projected onto my own children because of my unhealed wounds and life challenges.

“When parents repress their unconscious and do not responsibly do their inner work,” Levy says, “it radiates out into the family environment and infects the children, who will be compelled to live out the repressed, unconscious, unlived lives of the parents.”61

This psychic projection of unresolved trauma and emotional issues is what causes multigenerational family curses.

It’s easy to place blame on an abusive or neglectful parent, but I feel it’s important to recognize that they may have been overwhelmed by the radioactive psychic material they were attempting to transmute, and passed some of it down because it was simply too much for one person to handle. I believe that was the case with my own mother, who confided in me about her intense trauma, and believed she had broken the family curse over me in the name of Jesus. However, when she placed her palm upon the crown of my head and spoke in tongues, I felt the weight of that curse, and I believe my mother inadvertently transferred the burden of whatever she had repressed and denied onto me.

There is, however, hope. According to Levy, as we heal ourselves, we heal our entire family line. This is very reassuring to me, because I fear it’s too late to mend any damage I may have caused my own children while my wounded self was raising them, but this indicates that any private healing work I do now will benefit everyone in my family line, both past and future. Time is nonlinear, and as multidimensional spiritual beings, our healing work radiates throughout time and space, benefiting not only our direct lineages, but also the entirety of the human race.
Wetiko works through our blind spots. To see them, we have to be honest with ourselves about whether or not we are acting out or condoning the abusive behavior we are trying to heal within ourselves. This is what makes healing work so difficult. By being touched by abuse, we have absorbed and internalized it, and it can unconsciously seek expression through us.

So we have to be truthful with ourselves about how the abuse we have experienced is manipulating our own behavior and worldview. This can be really challenging because no one wants to identify with something that harmed them, and no one likes to admit they have the potential to cause the same harm to others. In fact, according to Levy, it’s important to not identify with it, which can cause feelings of despair and thwart the healing process. A delicate balance must be struck between owning our shadow impulses and not being defined by them.

Truth-tellers are one of the greatest threats to wetiko. When we share our emotionally-charged survival stories, and other people become angry and attack us, they are speaking for wetiko by reenacting the very abuse we are shedding light upon. Wetiko wants to silence us, and becomes embodied through our unhealed attackers, who attempt to shut us down and bully us when we speak our truth.

This can be re-traumatizing for us, but it can also be an opportunity to recognize that our words have deeply touched their own unintegrated and unconscious wounds, and we should not take their projections personally. Knowing that their perceptions of us are being clouded by their own unconscious wounding, which has been triggered, or re-activated, by our stories, we can deflect their projections and be more firmly grounded in our own truth.

Undreaming Wetiko is an essential text for those who are deep-diving into shadow work and healing ancestral trauma. I feel it validated a lot of my intuitive realizations about family curses and intensified my personal healing work by compelling me to journal more about my traumatic experiences. Levy’s insights have also helped me to identify the shadow projections I have absorbed from my parents that are not a part of my authentic self. I will likely reread this book in the future because there is a lot of excellent information that may require additional readings to fully metabolize. For those who are open and receptive to its teachings, Undreaming Wetiko is a phenomenal book that will assist in transformative healing breakthroughs and awaken the divine light within.

Celtic Healing Oracle, by Rosemarie Anderson

Celtic Healing Oracle, by Rosemarie Anderson and illustrated by Susan Dorf
Inner Traditions, 9781644114964, 165 pages, 64 cards, January 2023

An interesting combination of both myth and tradition, the Celtic Healing Oracle card deck by Rosemarie Anderson is filled with healing information and guidance.

Anderson has been studying Celtic traditions since the late 1970’s.  She is an author, poet, professor emerita of psychology, Episcopal priest, and award-winning researcher. She is the author of six books, including The Divine Feminine Tao Te Ching, Transforming Self & Others Through Research, and Celtic Oracles: A New System for Spiritual Growth and Divination. She has lived in many different countries around the world, including South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. She now lives in Oregon.

The artwork for the cards was created with an art knife and black paper by the artist Susan Dorf. She created the images to represent contemporary block prints.  She is well known for her sketches, paintings and prints, as well as workshops in painting and journaling in several countries.  She currently lives in Mexico.

Anderson traces her journey to create these cards to a time almost forty years ago when she lived in Germany.  Here she visited the forests and woodland creatures and became aware of the Celts and their belief in the interconnectedness of life. Later, she would live in Ireland, Wales, and Scotland and learn more about the Celts and their rich traditions.

The Celts divined answers to life’s questions from the animals, plants, wind, and seasons. Trees and animals had particular knowledge of all things – past, present and future.

In addition to the history of the Celts and their belief systems, Anderson includes tips on how to best use and interpret the cards. For example, she speaks about what to do if the same card shows up time and again:

“If so, watch for that symbol mirroring many aspects of your life. A basic issue, represented by one or more related symbols, may have overriding significance in your life at this time period. For example, you might repeatedly cast one or several manifestations of the goddess in response to a variety of questions, signifying integration of certain of her aspects.”1

Anderson also includes several different spreads for use with the cards, including the Spiritual Development Spread. This spread features six cards and a variety of questions that Anderson bases on her own use of oracle systems.

I did a reading for myself with this spread and received a succinct answer to a question that I had been pondering for quite some time.  The message of the six cards could be distilled into a guidance that assured me that I had all of the tools within me to heal old wounds and take decisive action in future endeavors.

Next, I did a one-card reading for each of the women attending my Sunday Coffee & Cards event on Zoom. For one woman, I drew the Raven card, which speaks of truth-telling and prophecy.  She related that the message really resonated, including the portion that said:

“Your present situation may require speaking the truth to clear the way for newness and avoid misunderstandings. Telling the truth is akin to prophecy. It cleans the eye of the heart.”62

For another woman, I drew the Ram-Horned Snake/Shape-shifting card.  She related that over this past summer she took a month-long trip to her home state and enjoyed carefree travel plans. She related:

“This ties into my summer so much!  Shape-shifting or going with the flow as events present themselves.  Don’t wait!  I’ve had so many messages from animals and plants lately, too.  Thank you for this confirmation.”

Although the cards do not appear to be arranged in any particular order, Anderson numbers the cards.  This tool makes it easy to find the guidance in the book, which also features a Table of Contents. To break up the black and white art and type in the guidebook, Dorf highlights the name of each card in green and also uses red type for section titles. Anderson includes a bit of history for each card in a section of invocation.  Then, she features a section called “If you drew this card,” where she shares guidance and messages. 

The invocation section title is really helpful, as it gives a word or two that contains the overall energy of the card.  For example, with my own six-card reading, I received these words of encouragement:

Power – Change – Selfless Action – Wholeness – Honor – Decisive Action

The cards are printed on a nice card stock and will hold up nicely to repeated use.  Although the cards are printed with a glossy finish, they do not show fingerprints. The back of the cards is printed in green with a black Celtic symbol, while the front of the cards is black and white with tiny green leaves as accents.  The deck is a standard oracle card size with its 3.5 X 5 dimensions.

My favorite card in this deck is #12 Mare – Healing the Wounds of Abandonment and Loss of Trust.  Perhaps because I drew this card in the spread where I was asking for clarity, this card really spoke to me of the power of healing the heart so you can be more open and free.  

This deck would be good for any level of oracle or tarot reader.  The way the guidebook is presented, and the simple design of the cards makes it easy for any reader to utilize.  I can see myself adding a one card reading to my intuitive readings or coaching sessions for clients.  The guidance is easy to understand and the additional information on Celtic history and traditions enriches the messages. 

Anderson also includes a complete “Selected Celtic Bibliography” for those who might want to further investigate Celtic traditions.

In Anderson’s own words, the Celtic Healing Oracle cards provide guidance from a rich symbology:

“Whether you choose a card from the card deck to answer a specific question or create a card spread from the cards, the symbols provide a practical and spiritual perspective into the hidden forces within your nature and present circumstances.”63

I’ll be looking forward to working with this deck in the coming months to learn more about myself, in light of the nature symbols and Celtic traditions.