October Bookshelf 2021
We do a lot of reading around here and it is as much entertainment to us as it is skill building and personal development. Given this, we thought it may be fun to do a roundup at the end of each month to discuss the books that crossed out paths - the ones we loved, the ones we begrudgingly persevered through and anything in between.
We hope you find it useful and please let us know if you’ve read anything we’ve listed, have taken recommendations from these posts or have any suggestions for us! We’d love to hear it!
The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle
Both Tim and I read this one in October. Since he’ll be speaking on other books, and we both felt similarly, I (Julia) will include just my commentary below.
I love reading Eckhart (and watching his talks on YouTube). I find his words comforting, mesmerizing and practical. The thing I enjoyed most about The Power of Now though were the after effects. I am someone who easily gets lost in the metal space and this tendency was something The Power of Now forced me to confront which has undeniably changed the way I connect to the present and my body. The techniques are so simple and down to earth, but have very clear deep roots that I think anyone who studies religion, spirituality, alchemy or the occult will recognize. There is this one line that really stuck out kind of near the end where Eckhart describes the Now as "the narrow gate that leads to life" and I’ve been carrying this beautiful sentiment every since. I see it in The Chariot, in The Hanged Man and in the work we do daily. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a problem being anywhere but N.
Archetypes on The Tree of Life - Madonna Compton & Alethea Eason
Julia’s Read: I said to Tim that I wanted to spend more time studying the individual paths on the Tree of Life and he immediately recommended that I read Archetypes on The Tree of Life by Madonna Compton. Archetypes is primarily a pathworking book that lays the foundation for each path, along with its tarot counterpart, and then leads into a descriptive guided meditation to help you enter into or “walk” that path. I started reading another pathworking book around the same time and I couldn’t get through it because I would find myself trailing off, as I’m working solo, and the meditations were just too long and involved. So in contrast, the ones by Alethea Eason are more concise and easier to “stay within” for me. They would also lend themselves well should one want to record the meditations to listen back to. I can stomach recording 3 pages of text, but 15-20, no thanks. It also doesn’t hurt that Madonna Compton was a student of Paul Foster Case and the book utilizes the images from the BOTA Tarot (meaning they are coming from a school of thought that has inspired a lot of my current practice). Aside from that, the way the descriptions and the pathworkings are written are highly interesting and engaging. I will definitely be returning to this book many times as I do future work on the paths, so I’m very happy to have it in my collection.
Seven Steps in Practical Occultism - Paul Foster Case
Both Tim and I reread this one in October. It’s a very quick but useful read and something that lends itself well to regular revisit. Here are Tim’s notes below.
An occult classic, masterfully edited and expanded upon by Wade Coleman, Seven Steps is a no-nonsense, yet approachable guide to harnessing the forces of subconsciousness to make changes in one’s life and one’s reality - provided that said changes are in harmony with universal law. We recommend that this text be studied alongside other BOTA study materials like Tarot Fundamentals, also edited by Coleman.
Psychology & Kabbalah - Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi
Tim’s Read: In this masterwork, Halevi presents a number of ways to view the inner-workings of the human psyche in terms of the Tree of Life and Jacob’s Ladder - a complex, multi-level Tree that is formed through the intersection of the four Qabalistic Realms, from the material (Assiah) to the spiritual (Atziluth). An undeniable scholar of not only Kabbalah, but Jungian and Freudian psychology as well, the author seamlessly blends the three together to form a cohesive system that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is hands down my favourite book I’ve ever read on the subject, though I would recommend it for intermediate to advanced study.
We’ll be back with another round up in November. You can find me on Good Reads in the meantime. Happy reading!
Julia & Tim