Jackie Lapin
The Art of Conscious Creation: How You Can Transform The World
(Charleston, SC: Elevate, 2007, 210pp.)

There is a Zen story in which the student asks the master “What is the secret of enlightenment?” The master writes on his board “attention”. The student asks again “Is that all? The master writes “Attention, attention.”  read more »

A Study in Synthesis (James H. Cousins, Madras: Ganesh and Co. 1934)
Book review by Rene Wadlow

A national culture is impossible without the individual creative artist; the individual artist is important and unintelligible safe in his relationship to his national culture. Where either tries to do without the other, degeneracy ensues nationally and individually…The true artist is the true patriot, speaking the language of eternity but in the vernacular of his own time and place…Where art does not rise from authentic springs, but is piped from distances by subterranean ways, it becomes troubled, muddied, and at best only reaches a dull mediocrity. But art that embodies the creative impulse of the universe, with high vision and deep emotion, in its own time and place and way, will by the force of its authenticity pass beyond these limits into universal appreciation.  read more »

David Rosen
New York: Arkana-Penguin, 1997, 197pp.
Book review by Rene Wadlow
  
Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) was one of those who dealt most directly with the passage of the Piscean Period to the Age of Aquarius, especially in his book Aion.  He analyses astrological imagery embodied in Zodiacal ages in order to deal with the psychological problems of this period of transition.   read more »

Ray Grasse  (Chartottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2002, 297pp.)

Each major writer who analyses the transition from the Piscean period to the Age of Aquarius does so by looking at what he feels are the key signs of transition but also in terms of the ideas and discipline with which he is most at home.  C.G. Jung’s important analysis Aion stresses psychological archetypes and the role of symbols. Sri Aurobindo, although he had withdrawn from active anti-colonial politics, saw in political events such as the rise of Hitler and the independence of India the signs of the passing of one age and the start of the next.  Marilyn Ferguson, active in mind/brain studies, stresses shifts in consciousness in her well-known book The Aquarian Conspiracy.  read more »

David Krieger and Daisaku Ikeda  (Santa Monica, CA: Middleway Press, 2001, 202pp.)

"Hope does not just occur.  It is a conscious choice, an act of will.  One must choose hope in the face of all we know…Hope makes change possible.  It opens the door on a future that is generous and decent instead of simply a projection of the past" says David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation based in California and a long-time worker for a world order that prohibits war and weapons of mass destruction, that upholds human rights for all peoples everywhere and that holds leaders accountable under international law for crimes against humanity.  read more »

Ruth A. Drayer (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2006, 355pp.)

"Only the bridge of Beauty will be strong enough for crossing from the bank of darkness to the side of Light"

Nicholas Roerich (1874 -1947), the Russian painter, explorer and cultural activist, stressed thoughout his life the role of beauty and culture in bringing humanity together in unity.  "True art is  the expression of the radiant spirit."

His inspiration is still at work today in many efforts to preserve the art of the past and to create an art of the future which speaks to ther highest aspiration of the person.  "The ways of beauty are countless, clear, straight ways, persuasive in the impressions they make."  read more »

Roger Schutz  (Taize, Les Presses de Taize, 1968, 239pp.)

The death in August 2005 of Roger Schutz - Brother Roger as he was known - is a time to look at his life and in particular at this book written in 1968 - a year of changes and tumult,  read more »

Adam Curle (Charlbury, UK: Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1999, 103pp.)

Adam Curle has set himself a difficult task: to take a symbol (the Hydra) from a classical Greek myth (the 12 labors of Heracles) in order to have readers understand the many-sided and inter-related nature of our global culture of violence.   read more »

Ellen Peterson  (St Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2004, 198pp.)

"Whether you wish upon a star or quietly within yourself, you have dreams waiting to come alive".  Ellen Peterson is a psychotherapist and a social worker who has written an empowering book of help in manifesting true desires.  "Dreams are actually the avenue through which we achieve success and true prosperity.  To be without a dream is to be without a plan…Dare to live your life fully and happily.  Dare to dream in color!"   read more »

Alice O. Howell (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books,2006, 281pp.)

There are a number of currents of thought which hold that humanity is coming to the end of an historical cycle and is entering into a new age with the start of the new millennium.

The most widely spread of these currents of thought is a complex of ideas and practices known as the New Age or the Age of Aquarius.   read more »