Reviews...
A Review of The Voice of Knowledge
Originally published at BellaOnline Mythology
The Voice of Knowledge, Don Miguel Ruiz
"The Four Agreements" is written in such a way that we seem, almost instantly, to remember what we are being told; to immediately understand. "The Voice of Knowledge" is a bit trickier than that but also, I think better for it.
It, too, is a revelation. A book that one picks up and immediately feels the clicking of light-bulbs over the head. But they are not neccessarily shades of light we are comfortable sitting in. It is a book of questions. Some people are not comfortable with questions, particularly when they are questions they seem to somehow remember, just as the Agreements are answers we somehow remember.
Don Miguel speaks in his first book of the voice in our head, how sometimes it is telling the truth, sometimes lies and that one of the most important things we must do is learn to tell the difference. There, it is almost an aside, something touched upon but not explored in but so much depth.
"Voices in our head! Does he mean crazy people? Who hears voices?" You may ask. Well, in a sense, yes. It is not insanity per-se but illusion to listen to the voice that lies. The voice that, as he describes in this book, tells us a story that is not true. "What voice" you doubtless still insist. Well, our own, but it comes from somewhere deep within us, a part of us that transcends our daily awareness, so it is seperate too.
It is hard to explain, something that really only Don Miguel can explain I think. I am not a master of dispelling illusion so cannot dispel it here. Just trust that there is a voice, (you hear it when you are thinking), that it is more than you yet you and that you can choose to allow it to guide you, or to confuse you.
One of many striking things Don Miguel explains in this book, is that life is a story we are telling ourselves. You are the star, the voice of knowledge is the narrator. Voice of knowledge, that sounds great right? Not so much. Think about what you know, how you learned it, what you have built your story upon. The perceptions of others. Knowledge is not truth, basically. How we know we know the truth isn't important, that is not the right question. Knowing is nothing. Not knowing is everything.
Bringing it down to earth here, (which is what he does a far better job of doing in his book than I am doing in this review), Ruiz explains in his clear, direct style, how to stop telling yourself a story with an unhappy ending. How to make your life what you want it to be instead of what you have learned it should be.
Within this tiny volume you will find great wisdom. And by applying this wisdom, which is very simple actually, you can stop sabatoging yourself, stop beating yourself up, dispel whatever negativity you have accumulated. It's true. And, as he says, "We are born in truth, but we grow up believing in lies...one of the biggest lies in the story of humanity is the lie of our imperfection."
"The Four Agreements" opens a door for us. "The Voice of Knowledge" opens our ears and our eyes. Which, another very wise man once said, was a very important point we overlook we too often, "have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear". (Don Miguels' books, by the way, are inclusive of and wonderful companions to wisdom books of all faiths).
Q: Can understanding the now help us to make the correct future choices?
Ruiz: I'd say rather that fully living the now, without the burden of thinking about the past or the future, makes the whole problem of "choice" disappear.
A Review of the Four Agreements
Originaly Published at BellaOnline Mythology
This marvelous little book, long a "New York Times" bestseller, was the first by prolific author, and Totlec nagual, Don Miguel Ruiz. Mr. Ruiz, learned ancientc traditions from his mother, a healer, and his grandfather, a nagual, (similar to a shaman, he says). In this book, he begins to share this knowledge with the world in a way that we can easily understand.
Wbat are the 4 Agreements? Basically:
1. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Words are very powerful, so use them for good, not ill, towards both yourself and others.
2. Other peoples' issues are just that, other peoples' issues. Don't let people project their problems, negativity, etc. on to you.
3. Never assume. Ask questions. Express what you really want. Communicate clearly.
4. You can't always be 100%, but you can always do your best/do the best thing according to your capacity at the time.
By doing these 4 things, you can change your life. They help you to avoid being judgmental of yourself and others. They suggest ways to take control of your reactions, how to better discover and communicate who you really are. Try it, it works!
Who were the Toltec? Well, a full description of that, and how that relates to these 4 agreements is more than I can fit into one article. Here's a bit of what Mr. Ruiz describes in the introduction to his book:
"Thousands of years ago, the Totlec were known throughout southern Mexico as "women and men of knowledge." Anthropologists have spoken of the Toltec as a nation or race, but, in fact, the Toltec were scientists and artists who formed a society to explore and conserve the spiritual knowledge and practices of the ancient ones. They came together as masters (naguals) and students at Teotihuacan, the ancient city of pyramids outside Mexico City known as the place where "Man Becomes God."
"Over the millennia, the naguals were forced to conceal the ancestral wisdom and maintain its existence in obscurity...fortunately, the esoteric Toltec knowledge was embodied and passed on through generations by different lineages of naguals. Though it remained veiled in secrecy for hundreds of years, ancient prophecies foretold the coming of an age when it would be necessary to return the wisdom to the people..."
Don Miguel Ruiz is doing just that. This truly is a book of great wisdom, with ancient echoes ringing through pages that express concepts and ideas modern audiences can relate to and apply to our daily lives.
I strongly recommend this to people of all ages, all religions and cultures. It can be used as a self-help book, but it's much more than that. It can be read as a religious studies text, but it's much more than that too. A true book of wisdom. Thank you, Mr. Ruiz.
Review of Innana, Lady of the Largest Heart
Originallly Published at BellaOnline Mythology
In her new book, "Inanna: Lady of the Largest Heart", author, teacher and Jungian analyst Betty Du Shong Meador brings ancient concepts of war, religion and sexuality to life. She does this by translating the earliest written literature we know of. This was written by Enheduanna, a woman who was the most powerful religious leader in the most powerful empire in the world at the time. In Meadors' translation, her words are clear, sharp and direct, unlike what we might expect to find in something 4,000 old.
n Enheduannas' poems, she emerges and seems to speak directly to us across time. "I", she announces, "I am Enheduanna. High Priestess of Nanna...I who am I in the place which holds up lifes' key elements." Through Meadors' translation, not only the mythology of ancient Sumer and the cult of Inanna, but the emotions and experiences of Enheduanna emerge. They almost shout at us from the past in joy and sorrow. We find that she, and Inanna, are more like than unlike us; conflicted, striving to unify our contradictions, searching for answers and finding more questions.
We actually may, as women, discover more about ourselves by reading this book than we will in more contemporary books about and for women. Aspects of womens' nature that are frowned upon, repressed in our society were exalted in Enheduannas' Sumer. We find destruction, madness, war and death personified in the Inanna poems. Female sexuality at it's most unbridled, most primal is praised, glorified. Lust is celebrated, sex and female sexual gratification are presented as central to marraige. All are expressed boldly, unabashedly, unapologeticaly.
For example, we read here of Inanna/woman as a warrior, the supreme warrior: "She speaks, cities tumble...her overturned fury, Holy Woman's rage is a rampaging flood hands cannot dam."
Of herself, Inanna says: "I attack the mountain at it's heart...I ignite battle, arrows quivver ready...my hands like falcon claws slash heads...like the first snake I come out of the mountains. Fast as snakes slip through earth cracks I smash heads."
We find equally intense expressions in her poetry of our limitless sexuality, which we have most often been taught is wrong, something to surpress or feel bad about expressed freely. We also discover pure, frank expressions of the limitlessness of womens' loving and nurturing side. This is a far cry from the way women are viewed in most societies today, though I don't think far from how we feel or what we are capable of.
It's a shame we need to look to the ancient past to find affirmation of the full range of female experience, potential. It is, however, wonderful that Ms. Meador has presented it to us. Even contemporary Goddess literature, womens' literature, is colored by patriarchal conventions. This literature, preceeding their full entrenchment in humanitys' worldview, (although Enheduanna's father, Sargon, was one of the first to bring this shift in perception about), is not.
Hatian Vodou Handbook
Originally published at BellaOnline Mythology
The Hatian Vodou Handbook by Kenaz Filan
I've never read a book that starts with a warning before. Well, maybe a Victorian cautionary tale or two did but it seems to me the warnings usually come at the end of those books, like the morals in fables. Kenaz Filan, author of, "The Haitian Vodou Handbook", doesn't want to take the chance of letting you wait till the end of the book to find the reason for caution. The consequences might be rather dire if he did.Texts On-Line
What is the warning? And what would the consequences be? Am I joking? Am I just perpetuating the idea that some believe, that Vodou works mostly because people are afraid of it to begin with?
The answers, in reverse order, are: no I don't think that's why Vodou works, though I've no idea what would feed into the concept; no, I'm in no way joking; I'm not joking because weird things started happening, as Filan says they well may, when I started paying close attention to the book; I'm not sure what to say about consesquences but they seem to be relative and last, but by no means least, the authors warning is as follows:
(From Page 1 of Chapter 1 - Chapter heading, "Some Words of Caution: The Dangers of Haitian Vodou")
"Some will caution you at great length about the dangers of Vodou. They will tell you that the Lwa, (guardian spirits of Vodou), are jealous, thin-skinned, and hot-tempered. Only those with years of training can serve them properly, they claim - and if you miss one minute detail, you run the risk of being ruined body and soul. Others will tell you there is no danger at all...the truth, as is often the case, lies somewhere in the middle..."
Filan, (Houngan Coquille du Mer), was initiated into New York's Societe la Belle Venus in 2003, following ten years of serving the Lwa as a solitary practitioner. I had no idea there was such a thing as a solitary Vodou practitioner until I encountered this book, let alone one who could then go on to be a leader in a religious community. But, after reading his book, I've begun to suspect that Vodou is rather full of surprises.
Rooted in the West African religious tradition of Vodun, Vodou is quite possibly the oldest living religion in the world. (See other features here about Vodoo, Vodun and the Loa to understand more about the original belief system and those that sprung from it.) In Vodou, both an all-powerful God, for the most part distant from human beings and interactive, demi-God/Goddess-like powers called Lwa (or Loa) are revered. It is not dissimilar from Catholicism with it's tradition of revering both God and Saints. Filan's book examines these dieties closely, along with the protocols for interacting with them.
And in Vodou one is definitely interacting as much as one can be said to worship or serve the members of the pantheon. These include not only God/Saint-like personalities but the spirits of the dead, ancestors in particular, as well. And they are not only believed to be actively involved in the lives of human beings, but change/evolve as people do to some extent as well. They wear contemporary clothes, like to drink, smoke, eat and/or have sex (depending on the Lwa), and are not only offerred incense and other things traditionaly left as tokens of prayer or thanks to Gods/Saints, (like candles), but rum, cigarettes, Vogue magazine. Seriously, what appeases or displease seems to depend to some rather active extent on the Lwa and the individual invoking him/her rather than upon etched in stone tradition.
Filan's book explains how to do this, along with some of the history of Vodou, some of his own personal experience and he also provides the reader with further resources should they choose to continue to pursue the study of Vodou. He warns, however, that studying and doing tend to become the same thing, with the time this takes to occur being something that happens quickly or slowly on a case by case basis. It does not seem, as with most religions, that one can simply decide to practice it and have it work or not work at will, regardless of dedication or even disinclination. In Vodou, the Lwa choose you more than you choose the Lwa.
A number of strange things began to happen and continued to happen as I read this book. Which is just what Filan says may occur. I don't know which, if any, were real and which, if any, were coincidence and/or conjecture. My suspicion inclines far more heavily towards the reality of what I experienced. As to my pursual of the resources section at the end of the book, well, I'm not quite sure. I have a feeling that if the Gods/Lwa invoked by the focus on them the book draws you into the habit of want me to pursue them, I will one way or another even if I tried to avoid it.
All this from a book? yep. All this from a book. I think Filan has written not only a significant but truly powerful one. The type of book that, like the Lwa themselves, takes on something of a life of it's own for the reader.
I think you'll find "The Haitian Vodou Handbook" to be informative, rather compelling and comprehensive without being over-complicated. I think you'll find yourself re-reading it and gaining new insight into the tradition each time you do, whether you believe what I'm saying about his warnings being true or not, have experienced the Lwa yourself already, are simply curious or are already well informed.
It's hard to write a book that pulls all that off. To tell the truth, it's hard to write a book that I not only have a hard time putting down but read repeatedly. Filan has accomplished all of these things.
