During an overnight airplane flight I perused the entertainment selections and discovered the audio book Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte. I liked what I heard and found Ms. LaPorte to be an articulate, poetic exponent of living a juicy, authentic life. She had my attention.

One of the ways to recognize your talent and passion, LaPorte suggests, is to consider what other people have criticized you for.  I had heard, “What you thought was wrong with you may be what’s right with you,” but the idea of using criticism as a compass to greatness takes the lesson to a whole new level.

Using myth and archetype to develop your life story

Editor's Description: Why did your life turn out this way? Who are the most important people in your world? What would you do differently, if you had the chance?

Your life is a story. It is better than any book you have ever read. Your story defines who you are and what happens to you. Ever since you were a child, you have been writing your own life script. You use stories you have heard to weave your personal narrative. The parts in your script are played by the people around you.

Some of the oldest stories still seem relevant to us today. The characters in them are familiar: the princess, the hero, the good mother, the wise old man. These characters are based on universal figures called archetypes. LifeWorks introduces the twelve major archetypes, with examples from books and films. Each figure has a story, drawn from myths and legends around the world.

(Excerpted from Let Go and Live in the Now, Red Wheel/Weiser, 2004: 2600 words) 

Just as a storm in the atmosphere of the earth is born of conflicting fronts of different temperatures colliding with one another, so too must there be conflicting forces within us in order to form a mental or emotional storm. Our task is to become conscious of these unseen forces that dwell in the unenlightened parts of us. As we grow to realize that no disturbance can remain within us without our granting it the force it needs to sustain its fury, we realize that we have at our disposal two great powers. We are empowered to dismiss storms when they appear in our psychic system and, with time and practice, we can learn to dismiss these disturbances before they begin!

What are these invisible conflicting forces at work within us that cause so much foul weather? We uncover the first of these unconscious forces by recognizing that the storms in our lives all share a common cause. Each storm, large or small, centers on something that happens to us that we don’t want to be happening for whatever reasons. A few quick examples prove this insight, but best success is assured if you will fill in the blanks from your own experience. 

I have been practicing “being still” over these last few weeks. I recently began re-studying the Seth materials as well as Charles Haanel’s The Master Key System. It is still amazing to me that someone born in 1866 could have such knowledge of the levels of Mind. The interesting aspect of the Master Key System material is that you cannot move on to the next chapter until you have mastered the exercises in the previous one. It can take as long as 30 days (or more) to move from one chapter to the next, IF you indeed set your intent for mastery. So far, I have reached 20 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night; and the insights from this have been nothing short of amazing! 

An Exploration of our Inner and Outer Identity

Publisher's Description: 

Journey Home is  one of the most emotive words in any language. But it can mean different things to different people and, based on extensive interviews, Jennifer Kavanagh explores our outer and inner identities and asks: ‘What does home mean to you?’ Home is not just four walls or the country in which we were born. 

It is not a locked door, an investment, a legal address, or a nation with rigid borders. Home is where the heart is: a yearning for a precious past, a dream of something that has never been, or a present reality. In relationship – with our families, in community, and with the whole of creation. In this compelling and immensely readable book, Kavanagh suggests that we will never be at home unless we are at home to ourselves. Home is where we all want to be.

Author: Rev. Dr. Richard E. Kuykendall--

Publisher's Description:
Even Witches Have Names is a short fictional work based on facts. It tells the story of a Christian minister who was also a witch and the work that he and his wife did in building a bridge between witchcraft and Christianity. It tells the story of Gabriel Seminger’s life and work and in the process teaches the reader many of the rituals of witchcraft, or Wicca, as it is called today. This book is a good read and a good teaching aid as well.

About the Author:
The work that Gabriel and Ava did together did much to help others see witchcraft as a valid and positive spiritual path. More than this, they succeeded in removing the stigma attached to witchcraft and threw out the time-worn stereotypes that were born out of superstition and ignorance.

Gabriel is now dead, but he has left his legacy in the books that he has written that will continue his work and in the lives he has changed. And Ava also continues to teach and carry on the work that she had done with her husband. Though they are now separated by the veil that separates life from death, they are yet united in spirit. And for Ava, because of her belief in reincarnation, she knows they will work together again-it's only a matter of time.