101 Power Crystals:  The Ultimate Guide to Magical Crystals, Gems and Stones for Healing and Transformation, by Judy Hall, Quayside Publishing, 2011

(Click the title above to purchase via Amazon.com)

Brilliant, rich and vibrant photography characterizes this guide to stones and crystals.  An odd-sized book at 6” x 11”, 101 Power Crystals is a kind of field guide for healing stones.  Each stone, listed alphabetically, is pictured in an exquisite photo portrait against a black background, making each image resonate with the very energy of the crystal itself.

Each description is categorized into “Legendary Power,” “Healing Power,” and “Transformational Power,” describing the characteristics of the energy of each crystal.  Although many of the stones featured are not crystalline in structure, Hall refers to all of them as crystals, “in accordance with crystal-healing consensus.”  A brief 12-page introduction offers basic instruction on “crystals” and their power, the meaning and healing properties of color, the meaning of shapes, choosing and using a crystal, and chakra alignment.

The book could have benefited from a color chart—one that listed colors and the stones associated with those colors, so that readers could identify a stone by its color and more quickly find the description of that stone.

While this is no Love is in the Earth—the encyclopaedic reference guide by Melody that many agree is the definitive guide to the healing and magical properties of stones and crystals--101 Power Crystals is benefited by its startlingly powerful illustrations.  Used in conjunction with other references books, 101 Power Crystals should prove to be an insightful accompaniment to the existing body of literature on the subject. 

Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: Lost Civilizations & Secrets of the Past , edited by Michale Pye and Kirsten Dalley, New Page Books, 2012.

The very words “Lost Civilizations” has always made my blood run with excitement, and in this collection, there is plenty of food for thought on various ancient “lost” civilizations.  This collections of essays contains works by some of the most respected researchers in areas of history, pre-history, archaeology and mythology.  Among the authors featured here we find Frank Joseph, editor of Ancient American Magazine and Atlantis explorer extraordinaire, Freddy Silva, one of the world’s leading experts on crop circles and sacred sites, and Erich Von Daniken, the guru of ancient alien theorists.

The first thing that struck me about the writing here is the thorough and well-organized research that has gone into each essay.  These aren’t a bunch of lunatics wildly speculating about little green men and mysterious underwater continents.  These are serious-minded researchers who draw upon many areas of science in search of possible explanations including studies in geology and mythology, the examination of ancient artifacts and writings, and astronomical and mathematical observations.

The book begins with Joseph’s examination of “Archaeological Scandals,” beginning with the Kensington Rune Stone.  I had the privilege of writing a review of the book on the Kensington Rune Stone for Ancient American a few years back.  (LINK)  He also examines Chief Joseph’s Sumerian Tablet, Georgia’s Hearn Stone, and Peru’s La Paz bowl.  These artifacts resist accusations of fraud and Joseph clearly outlines why they cannot be forgeries and therefore must be considered to be genuine relics indicating ancient communication between the continents that far predates our standard assumptions.

In “Paradises Lost,” Oberon Zell examines the evidence of lost places including, naturally, Atlantis, Lemuria and the Garden of Eden.  But he also includes Dilmun, a lost land appearing in Sumerian writings, Doggerland, an area once above water between England and Denmark, as well as discussing the inundation that created the Black Sea.

Other essays include an exploration of Atlantis as being the Valhalla that the Vikings were seeking when they invaded the British Isles, a treatise on an ancient race of giants, the possibility of ancient civilizations using sound as a means of locomotion, evidence in ancient writings of possible nuclear conflict in man’s distant past, and the role of symbols carved into the stone places of ancient landscapes.

In this genre, it is all here—Noah, the Great Flood, Sumeria, Egypt, Easter Island, Peru, Atlantis, UFOs, Native Americans, and time travel.  But it is backed up with genuine artifacts, real ancient writings, accurate geological and astronomical history, and even DNA research!  Which, greatly to my relief, doesn’t end up sounding flaky—instead these thoughtful and well-researched essays will make you think and wonder and speculate on your own.  Perhaps even sparking the reader to delve in and explore man’s history from yet another new perspective. 

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Lily Dale:  The Town That Talks to the Dead, by Christine Wicker, Harper San Francisco, 2003.

A friend loaned me this book in a synchronous moment.  I say synchronous because it was exactly what I needed to read and I didn’t know it.  But the Universe apparently did and so it landed on my desk in perfect timing.

One of the attractive things about this book on the Spiritualist camp town in upstate New York is that she is a skeptic.  Not in a “you’re-full-of-it” way, but in more of an “I’m-uncertain-what-to-believe” sort of way.  Wicker brings the neutrality of a good reporter to her explorations of Lily Dale, and she avoids stereotyping the people she meets, instead painting with an accurate brush—warts and all.

It was refreshing to discover an entire town of “psychics”—or at least people who embrace spiritualistic experiences as part of their everyday lives, and to have them revealed as flawed, idiosyncratic individuals.  It is easy to assume that every one who is gifted in this area somehow becomes a better person than the rest of us.  One does not expect to find the smoking, drinking, cussing, and overeating characters that are the real people who experience psychic phenomena and spiritual insight.  It was, quite frankly, a relief!

As a practicing intuitive reader/psychic/sensitive (I haven’t yet found the label that seems right to me), I was nearly overjoyed to find that my own personal “bad” habits—instead of holding me back from my psychic experiences—may actually be a side effect of being a sensitive in an insensitive world.

As Wicker progresses through the book, we begin to see Lily Dale work its magic upon her own psyche.  She senses something is going on with her own inner path, though she isn’t always sure how to name it.  “They gave me a sense that my life made sense and counted for something,” she writes.  Her own inculcated values are brought to the surface and questioned.  “I wasn’t a Baptist anymore, but I still knew that people are bad and that you have to keep them tied down and trussed up,” she shares, revealing that her upbringing has solidly taught her that,” We aren’t here to be happy.  We’re here to be good…which means we have to be guilty.” 

Her experiences in Lily Dale soon explode these kinds of ingrained ideas as she talks to mediums and their followers who believe in Divine Love and the basic goodness of human beings.  In the end Wicker asks, “Did I believe it?  Sometimes yes.  Sometimes no.  But I’d like to.”  She may not be completely convinced, but at least she is willing to embrace the possibility.   

Lightworker:  Understand Your Sacred Role as Healer, Guide, and Being of Light
by Sahvanna Arienta, New Page Books, 2012

There are a few books that come into our lives that strike us as being truly important.  In the category of “metaphysical books to treasure” I am adding Lightworker:  Understand Your Sacred Role as Healer, Guide and Being of Light, by Sahvanna Arienta (no, that’s not a mis-spelling.)

Arienta hasn’t actually told me anything new—I’ve been a student of metaphysics for over forty years—but what she has done is compile important foundational information for all of us who consider ourselves to be “Light Workers” in the world, and provides a framework for understanding the many ways in which this role is fulfilled.

Arienta begins with an introductory course on energy and how it works within the realm of the spiritual.  Her explanations are clear and practical.  And although I have a few minor points I will expand upon in a moment, overall the information and cosmology she presents seems essentially sound.

The issues I have with the book are many of the same issues I have with lots of books in this genre—poor editing and misspellings undermine Arienta’s credibility and authority. Of course, in any book, it is possible to find a typo or two, but here the errors are fairly glaring—“crevasse” when she means “crevice” and a reminder that we “reap what we sew.” (Which makes me think that Arienta doesn’t understand the word “sow” because she grew up in an urban environment where all food comes from the industrialized food-production system.)

My other criticism is one which few readers will likely notice; Arienta occasionally draws conclusions or makes broad assumptive statements with little or no evidence.  For instance, in her preface she states, “As the Earth’s population continues to increase, violence and crime have increased along with it.”  Given the propensity for the mass media to emphasize the awful, I can understand how one might arrive at this conclusion.  However, it simply isn’t true and this is where writers have a responsibility to check their facts first.  It is critically important to ensure that we can support our position, and make rational arguments, if any part of the “New Age” movement is to be taken seriously.  Because we are often regarded as “flakes” or misguided simpletons, the onus is doubly upon us to demonstrate that we are educated, rational and erudite. 

But Arienta is young and still wise beyond her years and this basic guidebook for being a Lightworker will surely provide guidance and comfort to many who now suffer with their sensitive natures in an insensitive world.  For me, it reminded me of my energetic center, of the “mission” I have felt embarked upon my entire life.  Arienta refreshed my commitment to Lightwork, and helped me once again feel the transcendent energy that moves us closer to unity.

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Consider this:  a single mother, out-of-work, has spent weeks looking for work.  She has skills and some college education, plus lots of office and customer service experience.  She responds to an ad for an “administrative assistant” which describes the duties  as “responding to phone inquiries, filing, copying, typing, entering data, and sometimes showing available rental units.” She sends her resume and is called almost immediately for an interview.  It sounds like a dream job—she learns it is in a real estate office in a beautiful office building.  She goes to the store and purchases a professional outfit to wear to the interview.  She is excited and hopeful--at last, she thinks, maybe this is the answer I’ve been praying for.

 Until she arrives at the interview only to learn that, yes, it is a real estate office, but what they are really doing is recruiting potential new real estate agents.  Of course, to become a realtor, she is required to take classes amounting to hundreds of dollars—hundreds of dollars she does not have—and work basically for free until she can build her own customer base and make that first commission.  What they don’t tell her is that if she is lucky, she might be able to make a paycheck by this time next year. 

This is a crushing and cruel trick to play on job-seekers—this sneaky, underhanded, bait-and-switch.  They never had any real intention of hiring someone for the “position”—because there is no position to be had!  They have wasted the applicant’s time, money and worst of all, hope.   

There are two companies in the Quad Cities that did exactly this sort of thing to my adult daughter, who is looking for gainful, full-time employment.  These companies should be revealed to anyone seeking work:  stay away from any ad that reads like the one above, this one is for Keller Williams in downtown Davenport.  The other is actually Kirby Vacuums—their ads often advertise manager positions, or customer service positions.  Of course the applicant soon learns that they are to walk the streets of the Quad Cities and knock on doors offering to clean rugs and sell vacuum cleaners.  Oh, and by the way, they don’t get paid AT ALL unless there is a sale.  I have had several friends and acquaintances burned by this one.  The sales pitch they give applicants gets them all excited and hopeful, and two weeks later, after they have walked several dozen miles and sold NOTHING—they discover that they are not “eligible” to be paid!   

These scum-sucking bottom-feeders ought to be imprisoned or at least fined heavily for these destructive employment practices.

To recap:  do not apply or accept a job at Keller Williams or at Kirby Vacuum unless you want to work for free, or pay for the privilege!

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As an oracle aficionado, I was pleased to receive the Angel Gemstone Oracle cards from Margaret Ann Lembo.  In addition to being oracular, they are also an excellent source for learning the many gemstones and their basic properties.  Lovingly written and evocative, each card contains a perfectly executed photograph of the gemstone it represents.  On the “back” of each card is a short affirmations paragraph that one can recite to help tap into the message of the stone.  The fronts boast the photo image and questions to ask yourself about the situation in question. 

Lembo and Victoria Rose Martin include only basic instructions for readings—using a seven-card layout, or simply drawing a card daily.  Like any other sort of divinatory deck, Angel Gemstone cards can be enlisted into the service of any other layout that the reader prefers.  I have found them to be useful in an astrological layout of the twelve houses, for example. 

When selecting a card for the day, try holding or carrying an actual stone that is described on the card.  If you have a collection of stones, this can help enhance the message carried in the cards.

I would like to see a book to accompany the cards—perhaps one that elaborates on the uses of each gemstone, and the relationships to the chakras, as well as, perhaps, the astrological associations.  But even by themselves, they will join my regular roster of oracles as another useful tool for gaining greater personal and spiritual insight.