Ashton Wylie Awards for Body Mind and Spirit for 'Reweaving' 'and 'The Way Through'
An surprise and an honour.
'Reweaving the Web- A Shamanic Journey of Connection'
Based on ancient knowledge, we are all connected as part of the Web of Life. My Celtic ancestors had many ways of connecting to it, living by Natures principles of balance. Our current culture has ideologically removed itself from Nature in an attempt to conquer and rise above it. But we too are Nature. Its laws run our biological life. Other beings are our food. As we ingest them, their energy gives us life, as other beings have given it to them. Trying to remove our mind from that equation has been a very damaging process, akin to selling ourselves for profit. Strong language? This is the time not to mince words. If we do not reconnect to Nature, pulling ourselves back into the flow of energy, the experiment in 'going it alone' may not last much longer. But connect back to what exactly, and how?
Reweaving looks at our deeper needs and the ways that our ancestors achieved that using the Celtic model. Not that this book is only for Celts. We all originate from tribes all over the world. They all found ways with ritual to honour our place in the system, with all the other beings alongside of us. Sadly, and as a direct result of our disconnection, many are no longer with us. Each genetic strain of the human species holds a piece of the puzzle we need to put Humpty back together again. Most indigenous people have recent knowledge with practical experience of their own piece of the jigsaw puzzle. It is the Caucasian strain that has buried theirs under centuries of the power struggles of profit making and patriarchy, designed to serve the politics of separation. But the wisdom is still there for us if we are willing to dig deep. Once we find ourselves, we can stand side by side with our other indigenous relatives to join the pieces heal. Reweaving begins the journey. After that, its a journey of self discovery, one being at a time, one step at a time.
I hope you buy it, and enjoy it. But most of all, I hope we all grow from the experience that is offered in rejoining Natures ways of cooperation by passing it on. We can get there. Together.
Reweaving the Web-A Shamanic Journey of Connection was released worldwide on Dec 1st 2022. It is now available at 39,000 outlets, online and in bookshops and can be ordered from IngramSpark. Originally available largely in NZ, it was shortlisted in the Ashton Wylie Awards for Body Mind and Spirit in 2009, gaining a third place.
'The Way Through, A Guide to Psychosynthesis in Every Day Life'
This is a do-it-yourself workbook based on based on the Psychosynthesis model, used in the 3 year self-development course I designed and taught for 7 years up until my sabbatical in 2004. The book was set up following the structure of the 9 month course (the gestation period of a baby in the womb) to guide the traveler, bit by bit through, through the knowing that they would need to change their lives. It's a big book, with lots of graphics and exercises to accompany you through the process at your own rate. It can be a constant companion on life path. To my immense surprise and joy, it was also shortlisted in the same awards the year after "Reweaving", taking out 5th place. There is much in this book that can be of value to those seeking tried and tested techniques of self-development. The Psychosynthesis model is the only effective clinical modality of the Transpersonal Psychological movement available in a sea of theory, now informing the thoughts of the day. This book can be obtained through this website.
' The Infinite Compass-A Journey in Wisdom'.
After over a decade of creative stuckness, the has muse struck again. "Compass" is in its final stage, being formatted for printing as we speak, held up only by the Xmas break. The years have brought me many opportunities of continued learning. Climate change has accelerated the process for the human race, enabling us to see where we went wrong, as well as what we can do about it. Because internal work always forms the basis of any external growth, I went back to the Agrarian Revolution to see how we ended up where we are now. While awareness is always the first part of recovery, it cannot rest there. Fortunately our Ancestors left us a very important symbolic ritual, found in several indigenous groups, to help us find our way back to sanity, personally and as a species.
This beautiful book will be launched in early April 2023. To read some of its contents click here. Other chapters will be made available periodically. Like "Reweaving" it will be published through IngramSpark. If you would like to be advised of its actual release date as soon as it is confirmed, please email me. I can also put you on the pre-sales list so that you can get your copy the minute its off the press.
Books in the pipeline:
The first draft of 'The Enculturalised Mind" has been written. It just waiting for the "Compass" launch so I can get back to it. For years now I have understood the impact of our cultural socialization on our mental and emotional health. Since the economic, corporate model of society took over from Natures ways, as explored in "Compass", our individuation has been over-written by the imperatives of the profit motive. It has changed the importance of our existence from our own personal creative development within the community, putting the onus on making money, to survive within this manufactured environment. We have been trained to be units of production rather than people for generations . Individually, we have been inadvertently taught by our parents, induction into the same system they were, despite the damaging affect that it has produced generation after generation. To ensure our compliance, our own personal creativity has been subsumed to the economic culture.
The result is conflict within our soul. We desire to expand our individual abilities, but are punished if we deviate from the set 'norm', leaving us with anger and fear, continually churning inside of us. Hence the increase of what the medical group call mental illness. We have to keep denying what is really our expression of self, in order to get a job, have a relationship the way we are taught they should, while fitting ourselves into a untenable model by adhering to the materialistic imperative that keeps us on a roundabout of making money to spend as if our life depends on it. We believe they do. But there's more to us than that, and deep down inside, we know it.
Working with clients for the last 40 years, helping them find out who they really are, has led me to see that our culture is the main antagonist to them living their truth. The programmed choices they have made lead to internal conflict, anxiety and anger. By finding and reviewing the subconscious childhood patterns, we find the causes of their stress. This is the root cause of many maladies. Once they, as their adult self, see whats happening, that awareness leads them to make different choices based on their felt senses of whats right for them. Ultimately this lead to a different expression of their world. This collection of programmes I call the Enculturalised Mind, not to be confused with our real mind that observes and supports us to develope our own unique creative self. Once the Enculturalised version is seen and managed, this supportive mind can lead us to many breakthroughs.
One day a client asked me if there are any books written about this topic. As it is, as far as I know, my own conceptualisation of what is happening, I said no. But that night I realised that there needed to be, so I started writing. Watch this space..