Books (August 2008)

Kottler, Jeffrey A. and Jon Carlson with Bradford Kenney. American Shaman: An Odyssey of Global Healing Traditions. New York and Hove: Brunner-Routledge, 2004. 260 pp.  4 pp.Ref. US$16.95

The collaboration of three learned, well-qualified men has resulted in a complete textbook on the healing traditions of the shaman. These men present an informative, biographic adventure story, showing readers the mystery and playfulness of shamanism. Kottler and Carlson teamed up with Kenney to document his work as a shaman and his visits with some of the outstanding healers in the world. Realizing that science has not adequately answered many of life?s hardest questions, these three embarked on a journey to answer the questions of how people transform themselves and stay transformed. They do an amazing job exploring this topic. The book is well organized, one part describing concepts, and one part applying concepts to helping and healing.

Explaining his fundamental belief in the power of love for transforming pain, Keeney acknowledges his roots, which enabled him to embrace shamanism with the following testament,

There is an ancient custom, practiced by most indigenous cultures, that begins or ends a story by recognizing those who are an inseparable part of it. As a former family systems therapist, I, too, enthusiastically underscore the importance of my family context. Raised by a country preacher father and grandfather; a school teacher mother; a farmer, inventor, and construction worker grandfather; and hard-laboring grandmothers, I was taught to see how the suffering of everyday life could be embraced with an open, caring heart and become transformed into soulful grace. They, like the global shamans and healers I met throughout the world, emphasized that love is the greatest teacher. (p. 257).

Kenney attended MIT to pursue a career in biomedical research, but became interested in psychology. Subsequently, he dropped out of MIT, played jazz piano, and read voraciously on the subjects of philosophy and cybernetics. Kenney became a therapist, was the innovator of resource-focused therapy, and taught and wrote on this subject, while producing videotapes demonstrating psychological theories in action. Keeney remained an academic while studying indigenous healing, and became a shaman. He traveled around the world to document the practices of prominent healers, and founded the Ringing Rocks Foundation to further the knowledge of alternative healing in diverse cultural settings. (xiii.).

(See more in IJHC, May 2008)

Joanna Martine Woolfolk. The Only Astrology Book You?ll Ever Need, Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 2001. 461 pp $18.95.

Woolfolk delivers what she promises. This publication lives up to its description on the back cover that states ?this new edition is an indispensable sourcebook for unlocking the mysteries of the cosmos through the twenty-first century and beyond.?. Readers who are new to the topic of astrology or who are seasoned veterans will find information easy to understand and quickly accessible due to several charts and a detailed, cross-referenced index. Using former president Bill Clinton as her main example, the author shows how the sun, moon, and eight major planets reflect the lives of human beings.

Woolfolk is the monthly horoscope writer for magazines such as Marie Claire, Redbook and Nick Jr. and for special issues of Family Circle. She is a former astrology columnist for several other magazines and the author of Sexual Astrology and Astrology Source, an interactive CD-Rom. She writes and records weekly astrological forecasts for Marie Claire?s astrology hotline and provides extended horoscope forecasts for StarScroll International. Woolfolk?s experience with writing for popular magazines serves her well in her current work. For instance, the author engages the reader by asking direct questions in each chapter and gives examples of famous people with specific Sun Signs. She provides a glossary, an extensive bibliography, a list of recommended books for further chart casting and interpretation, and a list of computer services for computerized charts.
(See more in IJHC, May 2008)

Barbara Ann Hubbard, Humanity Ascending?a new way through together, Foundation for Conscious Evolution  CD   $24.95

Barbara Ann Hubbard has produced an interesting brief visual review of human evolution. While I did not find much that was new in this presentation, one gem was worth the whole viewing. In the anxieties and despair over global heating and all that surrounds this impending tragedy, it is difficult to hold onto a positive mindset.
(See more in IJHC, May 2008)