January Bookshelf 2022
After taking a hiatus in December, we’re back with our third installment of this bookshelf series. Reading is a very important component to our practice, ongoing self-development and overall wellbeing. In this post, we’re sharing some of our December-January reads, providing a quick snapshot of the book’s contents, our reflections and a link to purchase or learn more if one happens to catch your eye.
We hope you find this series interesting and maybe even useful. Please let us know if you’ve read anything we’ve listed, have taken recommendations from these posts or have any suggestions for us!
The Aaron/Q’uo Dialogues - Barbara Brodsky & Carla L. Rueckert
Julia’s Read: This is a longer read (600 pages) so I worked on it through December into January. It is a collection of dialogues between two channeled entities (Aaron & Q’uo) as communicated through Barbara and Carla. Carla Rueckert is well known for channeling the RA Material and I have enjoyed those texts in the past. What I love about these conversations though, is how uplifting, yet also practical and grounded they are. Reading each session was like coming into contact with information that was intended for me in that moment. I found these dialogues confronting, but gentle; simple yet so full of depth. This is a piece of work I’ll definitely be returning to time and time again.
Occult Fundamentals and Spiritual Unfoldment - Paul Foster Case
Julia’s Read: I read a couple other PFC books in January, but this one sticks out the most for me. It’s Volume 1 of the Early Writings, and addresses many topics including the magickal significance of colour, sound and numbers. It also goes into more detail on the 7 Stages of Spiritual Unfoldment, which we’ve been exploring since reading Tarot Fundamentals by PFC after coming to some similar conclusions with the Major Arcana ourself. For those interested in exploring tarot through a magickal/initiatory/evolutionary lens, this text (and other PFC material) is well worth exploring.
P.S. You can see by the condition of the cover that I’ve been returning to this one a lot! Let that say what it will…
Stillness Speaks - Eckhart Tolle
Tim and I both read this one in January, but he will speak to it below.
Written in the aphoristic style of older spiritual texts like the sutras, Stillness Speaks may just be my favourite of Eckhart's offerings. Why? While The Power of Now and A New Earth are both wonderful books in their own right, neither of them quite captures his essence like this one. To put it simply, his other works read as though the information flowed through Eckhart from a loftier realm, while this little book seems to have come straight from the heart of the man himself. Every line oozes with the immense love and empathy of one who has gazed past the surface of life to witness firsthand the one light that shines through all of creation. The first chapter alone is worth every penny, but I recommend that it be taken in and digested as a whole, slowly and thoughtfully.
Undoing Yourself - Christopher S. Hyatt
Tim’s Read: As its back cover so aptly warns, some people will hate this book! While many books on personal development coddle the reader with soft, forgiving language, Dr. Hyatt instead uses his words like a Zen master's stick to smack us over the head when we least expect it. Rather than punish us, however, his intention is pure - to snap us out of our linear mode of thinking and loosen our attachment to the conceptual self we've created around the narrative of our life. With his background in Reichian therapy, Tantra, and Golden Dawn magic, Dr. Hyatt has packed this short volume to the brim with exercises and techniques designed to break through our muscular tension and untangle ourselves from the webs the ever-crafty ego so loves to weave.
Paul Foster Case: His Life and Works - Paul A. Clark
Tim’s Read: It's no secret that we here at Spiral Sea Tarot are great admirers of Paul Foster Case, so I'm sure it's no surprise that we have two PFC-related books on our list this month. In this volume, Dr. Clark presents a concise, yet illuminating exploration of this humble soul who penned a number of undeniable occult classics. As a young man, Dr. Case cracked the code of the Hebrew letter attributions of the Major Arcana - at a time when this information was still protected by oath - and spent the rest of his life translating the often veiled and elusive teachings of the Western Esoteric Tradition into lucid, understandable language for the modern reader. Though this book is somewhat short compared to many occult biographies, Dr. Clark makes up for its brevity with the inclusion of a number of previously unpublished spirit communications - received via Ouija board, we might add ;) - and correspondences with another modern legend of the field, Israel Regardie.
We’ll be back with another round up in February. You can find Julia on Good Reads in the meantime.
Happy reading!
Julia & Tim