Books

Away From Hannah’s Castle by Eileen “Ike” West

I don’t sit around reading my own book, but I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend it to others. Away from Hannah’s Castle is a fantasy-romance. If you like fantasy (and spirituality) I recommend that you read the whole thing. If you prefer romance just read the parts of the book titled “Interludes.” Hannah’s Castle is in part a fictionalized account of my life on the reservation in South Dakota. I hope the reader understands that any inaccuracies in the depiction of Native people are solely mine. Some criticize there are no chronological chapter markings throughout the book. But if a reader (or critic) looks at the top of each section, the chronology becomes apparent. I describe in the headings the number of CELs that the main character Hannah moves away from the spirit of the Earth in her mind. The first number starts with one, and the subsequent move on to numbers two through thirteen. Can’t be a coincidence that there are thirteen parts to the book, and thirteen places make a Wheel/Web. This book is most definitely a Medicine Wheel Story.

Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi

A cult following of millions developed immediately for The Life of Pi, and no wonder; it is such a compelling story. Pi is a fantasy so grounded in reality (one to which most of us have never been exposed) that at times the prose sails into consciousness and storms whatever defenses we might put up against accepting as truth the far-fetched adventures of this little boy. I and millions of others gladly tagged along with the character in this epic because it was one of great philosophic proportions.

A Crack in the Cosmic Egg by Joseph Chilton Pearce

This non-fiction work is read with one purpose: consciousness-raising. If you don’t want your mind bent, twisted and turned inside out, then leave this book on the shelf. On the other hand, should you recognize the world is going to hell-in-a-hand-basket and you think the basket might soon sink into the muck humanity has piled up around itself, well, baby, this book is a must. It’s about creative change from the most personal to world-wide levels. No call to action, this book asks you to THINK differently, and then act from that new perception. Fortunately for all of us, your mind is changed for the better merely by reading the text. Forty years ago, this book changed the course of my life. That gives you an inkling of its power.

The Reluctant Shaman by Kay Cordell Whitaker

A story about a California woman who ‘wakes up’ from an everyday life to a spiritual one, and chronicles the sequence of events with some darned astute insights into what went on in the process. If you are one who likes to compare your own unfolding awareness and gauge it to another’s, you will love this book. The subtitle is : A Woman’s First Encounters with the Unseen Spirits of the Earth, and the author’s description of these encounters sometimes gives new profundity to the trendy expression: “awesome!”

Agartha: A Journey to the Stars by Meredith Young-Sowers

Here’s another one of those books that chronicles a woman’s awakening to spirit. This time the author begins more than a little resistant, always checking under her bed to see who might be tricking her. Over time, she becomes convinced these living spirits are real, and ever so slowly gets the reader to believe as well. That’s possible because her Star-Man Agartha, shares some of the most amazing information and offers the most practical spiritual routines that I’ve seen in modern print. So well-spun is this story, the reader is lead to accept without question that we are absolutely guided from beyond. We must only open ourselves to the reality, like we do while reading Young-Sowers book.

Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees

Such a sweet, tenderly-written book. Not only do bees have a secret life, but so do the many characters that fly into your heart as quick as, well, bees fly to flowers. The reader cries, laughs, and may howl a few times with the women, young, old and even dead, that populate the pages. And ever so slowly, secrets unfold causing dynamics to change among both the women and the bees. My favorite part is at the very start of an early chapter when the main character, a young girl asks: “Why couldn’t my father have been Walter Cronkite, a man that everybody loves and trusts.” Well, my friend is the daughter of Walter Cronkite and I always meant to ask if she’s read this book, but it always slips my mind. I hope that somebody else has tipped her off to this book. In the meantime, I simply appreciate that the character and author have such fine taste in fathers, bees and women.

Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Some

Although this autobiographical account is written by (and therefore about) an African, it is really the story of every person around the world, who ends up oppressed by church and state. The reader sees into the psyche of a child whose resistance to the physical, mental and emotional abuse stems from the depths of his soul. Eloquently written and fairly presented, the issues become more than just ‘somebody else’s problem.’ It feels as if the larger soul of humanity has been oppressed and harmed, not just that of a little boy from war-torn and poverty stricken Africa. I hold deep respect for Malidoma Patrice Some and appreciate what he has done. It had to hurt him again, merely to get this story down on the pages. But he has given the world a gift by doing so.

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 by John Major Jenkins

One of the new paradigm thinkers, Jenkins offers an in depth look at the Maya and their predictions for Earth changes in the years ahead. Although more mathematical and sensational than spiritual (and therefore leaving significant gaps in understanding), this book helps give readers a basic overview of the science left behind by the Ancients. It is a work of intuitive non-fiction in which ‘channeled’ information is presented as fact. I support the intuitive in every case, always recognizing that it may prove off the mark in the end, but in the meantime wakes us to new levels of consciousness. That renders the book well worth reading.

Wokini by Billy Mills

Billy Mills was a friend of my husband in the Tribe. As a young man Billy won an Olympic gold medal for long distance running. He grew up poor and had to borrow running shoes even to compete. All of his adult life he has been successful. He now helps Tribal children and families on the reservations in South Dakota and elsewhere. Everyone, Native and White, respect him. This book is autobiographical but it’s so much more. ‘Wokini’ means happiness. I felt so elated reading it that at one point I had to put it down to luxuriate in the feelings of euphoria I had gained. My son too had the same experience. Not bad considering it’s the story of Billy Mills as a little boy, hungry and living in poverty. Wokini is about a small miracle and proves each time it’s read an exceptional wonder to behold.

Letters to a Dying Friend by Anton Grosz

A thin book, it’s one the Grosz wrote to a friend. Both men were scientists, the one who is dying refuses to believe in spirits while the Grosz embraced the idea. The book was not finished before the friend died. At first, the author threw it aside, but the spirit of his friend compels him to pick it back up and finish. Grosz does. The book contains wonderful information, presented without creating fear in the readership. He sends it out in the mail to a publishing house at his dead friend’s request. The very first editor to read Letters, snapped it up and put it out into the world. This book is a must for anybody grappling with pre-death, post-death, or the death of someone close to them. There’s just so much to know . . . and comfort to be gained.

Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich

A radical idea is presented in this philosophical book. It’s that we would be better off as a society if we no longer had schools. As strange as that seems, thirty-some years later the home schooling movement in America has an off-shoot called ‘no-schooling.’ This is apparently where children get to learn by following life wherever it leads. My bet is that such practices were inspired in part by Leonard’s incredibly thought-provoking book.

The Mayan Factor by Jose Arguelles

You can go back to Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 and read what I’ve written there. These two books handle the same topic from different perspectives. The Mayan Factor fills in more blanks about the Mayan Mysteries before us today. I particularly like that the author, Jose Arguelles, travelled with his parents as a small boy to Maya temples in Mexico and Central America. I believe as a child Maya Spirits would seek him out to ‘play’ and later to ‘inform’ him about the relevance of the ancients to our times today. So while Jenkins presents one perspective in his Cosmogenesis book, Jose Arguelles presents another. I like to believe his might be a bit more infused by ancient Mayan Spirits, although I have no proof.

Neil Postman’s Teaching as a Subversive Activity

A book that ought to be read by every teacher, parent and student old enough to understand that schooling is an antiquated institution that bears indepth examination and change. Postman, an educator himself, gives great examples of how to free the young from a system that in the final analysis does more harm than good. It’s not so much about fixing the schools as advocating for the young. Written thirty years ago, it’s as relevant today as way back then.

Move Your Stuff Change Your Life by Karen Rauch Carter

I find this book to be pure fun. It’s an introduction to Fung Shui, but don’t let that turn you off. There are so many cool things to move around inside your house to create ‘flow’ in your life. I found myself constantly putting the book down to take a few minutes and quickly re-arrange some of my things. Carter is a humorous writer. I smiled a lot and even laughed out loud a few times. A small book with BIG ideas that entertain and bring goodness to our lives.

In the Absence of the Sacred by Jerry Mander

Here Mander dissects, inspects and then rejects the demystification process that our Western culture has undergone in the last hundred years or so. The book also projects the moral decay and dramatic decline in life quality we can expect when the sacred is purged from everyday concerns. A powerful treatise, handled in a fascinating way, by looking at what we’ve discarded and Native cultures have tried to maintain.

One is the Sun by Patricia Nell Warren

This is a story of two sisters crossing untamed America in covered wagons during the late 1800s. Besides a fascinating dynamic between the young women, the novel introduces the important role that half-breeds played in keeping peace between the many Native Tribes and the ever-increasing number of white settlers. A fascinating book, respectfully written by an ex-editor of Reader’s Digest magazine.

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

I read the first half of this book and then threw it down because Allende ‘killed’ off the grandmother, my favorite character. When I finally let curiosity drive me to pick up the book again, I was totally surprised and delighted to find Grandmother walked out of the cupboard and into action more vital to the story than ever – as a ghost. What a great trick. Sorry to give it away but I recommend you read the novel anyway because as the title suggests, Allende’s house has more than one ‘spirit’ inside.

Paula by Isabel Allende

A memoir kept by Allende as her daughter Paula lay in a coma for months until her death. A beautiful tribute to a daughter, by a wise mother alert to the transition her daughter’s spirit makes as it leaves the physical plane. If I didn’t already consider Allende a ‘great,’ I would after reading the true life story of Paula.

Kenneth Meadow's The Medicine Way

Although Meadow’s is from the UK, he has done a great job exploring the Medicine Wheel in his book The Medicine Way. I find the remainder of his work redundant, but this non-fiction treatise and perhaps his Earth Medicine are worthwhile offerings.

The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

This novel is one of my favorite Erdrich books. It’s among her latest novels and although most of the action takes place off-reservation, the story is spiritually alive. I recommend it highly!

Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

Ishmael is perhaps one of the best reads about the current state of affairs on earth. It is an indictment of the human dilemma from a wise elder who is well equipped to give an outsider’s perspective. Daniel Quinn is from Austin, Texas but has a world-wide following of millions. The year Ishmael hit the market it became an immediate cult classic. It will haunt you and change the way you look at humanity. It’s a book I can read again and again.

. . . expressing the intuitive with perfect confidence