ARCHIVE PUBLISHING – förlag

This book is a celebration of Divine Wisdom and the Holy Spirit, the forgotten feminine face of God. In this interlude between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius, the long-lost image of the Divine Feminine is returning. She, the Corner Stone that the builders rejected during the Age of Pisces, is initiating a crucial new phase in our evolution, urging us to discover a new ethic of responsibility towards the planet, bringing us a new vision of the sacredness and unity of life. Wisdom, justice, beauty, harmony, love and compassion and the impulse to help and to heal are the qualities that have traditionally been identified with the Divine Feminine, yet she is also the irresistible power that destroys old forms and brings new ones into being, the inspiration of the love-in-action that is needed to transform a culture that is radically out of touch with its soul.What happened to the Mother? Why is there no feminine aspect of the god-head - no God-the-Mother? Why, in the three patriarchal religions, do we have a Father God but no Mother God? I have chosen to write about the neglected feminine aspect of God because it is an essential aspect of our understanding of life and of ourselves, essential to the completion of our nature and our decadent, unbalanced and addicted civilization. It is also essential for both women and men to know there is a Divine Feminine Presence in the god-head or Ground of Being - a Mother.The Grail of the Feminine is urging us to open our heart to a new vision of reality, the revelation of all cosmic life as a divine unity. For those awakened to this vision, to be born a human being is not to be born into a fallen, flawed world of sin and illusion, cut off from the divine; it is to be born into a world lit by an invisible radiance, ensouled by Divine Presence, graced and sustained by incandescent Light and Love.

In the past few years there have been some gradual but perceptible changes in our collective attitude to menstruation, perhaps shown most obviously in television commercials and magazine advertising, which are less coy and more realistic and explicit in their portrayal of the menstruating woman.People seem less affronted by the subject matter than they were when the research for this book began. They are more willing to examine the possibility that in Western materialist culture our commonly held notions about the menstrual cycle have been infected by centuries of misogyny. The taboo about discussing menstruation still exists, but it appears to be gradually dissolving, along with other prejudices about the body and sexuality and gender.I hope that these subtle changes in attitudes to menstruation presage a greater shift in how we collectively value, affirm, and accept female experience. The relationship between menstruation and power is still held very much under the surface of mainstream awareness, and most cultural references to menstruation continue to be couched in the terminology of pathology.Reintegrating a truly feminist, woman-honoring perspective on menstruation means turning a whole system of thought upside down. It means saying that a cyclical change in feelings and body sensations is valuable and interesting; it means saying that the emotions women experience premenstrually carry useful information and should be paid attention to; it means acknowledging that a menstruating woman has access to sacred energy, and that if she wishes, she should have space and time to explore this dimension of experience.The ramifications of such a shift would be truly radical. For many reasons, including ecological and cultural survival, I believe the system of thought which has caused women to adapt to a non-cyclical reality needs to be turned upside down, for the good of us all.We menstruate more now than at any time in human history. Girls are starting to menstruate earlier due to protein-rich diets andhormones in food; women are less likely to die young; we have fewer children and therefore spend less time not menstruating. Increased work and family stresses, in addition to more periods, mean that women are more physically and psychologically vulnerable to negative attitudes to menstruation. So it is more important than ever that we investigate ways to make our periods physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy.

I have brought together these Messages in memory and in love for my mother and love for the Higher Assembly of Beings who watch over the life of this planet. They have been the foundation and the inspiration of all my own work. May they reach those who can assimilate their teaching and take it further. Their words are witness to the fact that we do not live in a dead, insentient universe that is without consciousness, purpose or meaning. On the contrary, we live in a universe that is alive, sentient, full of wonders, peopled with countless beings in higher dimensions, as well as in other galaxies and on other planets - all directed by an evolutionary intention.

Barbara Somers leads us into this world with a sure touch. Those among us who were fortunate enough to hear her in person remember the ease, elegance and wisdom with which she handled the weightiest subjects. Here, too, she guides us into the very centre of the symbolic Alchemist's den and through the phases, trials and tribulations of the inner process that helps us to become what we truly are. It's not an easy journey, it has its risks and dangers, but also its moments of joy and glory. And the gold that eventually manifests in the flask of the psyche is an indestructible treasure. Let Transpersonal Alchemy do its work through this book and spread its message far and wide. The world is in dire need of the gold that is, paradoxically, not of this world.

This book presents rich source material; it makes no claim to being academic, though referring whenever possible to works available to the authors (the bibliography more or less stops with Ian Gordon-Brown's death in 1996). However, those interested in Transpersonal Psychology as an academic discipline will be able to avail themselves of the wealth of original material here and take it into the world of comparative study. Its origins could be traced back way beyond Jung, Frankl, Maslow and Assagioli to Far Eastern and Aboriginal sources, to Greek and later Western teaching, to other great transpersonal pioneers of the twentieth century and forward into the twenty-first.

A retelling of the Sufi parable, "The Conference of the Birds", a poem written in the thirteenth century, in which the birds of the Earth face seven invisible monsters in order to save the world.

Alchemy is best known as the age-old science of turning base metal into gold. But it is much more: essentially, it is a path of self-knowledge, unique in the Western tradition, with vital relevance for the modern world. The symbols of Alchemy lie deep in the collective unconscious, in the world of dreams and imagery: the practices of alchemy are rooted in an understanding of the oneness of spirit and matter through which we celebrate our sexuality and spirituality. Jay Ramsay takes us step by step through the stages of the alche-mical process using a wide range of original exercises to create a memorable journey that challenges, inspitres and transforms us at every stage. We too can be kings and queens: we too, once we leave our dross behind, are gold. It's full of fi ne things... --Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate 1984-1998, playwright and author. So much good work... --Robert Bly, award winning poet, essayist, activist and author. Jay Ramsay has written a luminous and wise guide to the mysteries of soul, and to the images and texts of alchemy, which explores these mysteries... --Anne Baring, philosopher, visionary and author of several books including: The Dream of the Cosmos: a Quest for the Soul and The Myth of the Goddess. Ramsay is among those who have been working most assiduously to share this archetypal language of the soul... --Lindsay Clarke, review in Caduceus. The clearest account of the alchemical process I've read... --Peter Redgrove, poet, novelist and playwright. Extremely wonderful and important... --Robert Sardello, author and co-founder of The School of Spiritual Psychology.

Many of us have been desperately hurt and wounded in our lives. Torn between extreme opposites, we may feel ourselves to be flung and pulled in all directions, unaware that there can be a solution. The Transpersonal seeks to clarify the healing process. It’s a natural process, like the healing of a wound.

This book is a `MUST READ' for all play therapists and professionals trained to worktherapeutically with children, adolescents, families and groups.

Before the rise of the patriarchy, when most cultures lived within the all enveloping 'body' of the Great Mother, death was accepted as a part of life and the soul's journey on its path to perfection. With the patriarchy came separation from nature, soul, and the loss of connection with the Ancestors. Fear, guilt and anxiety replaced the love, trust and security of living an ensouled life within the divine cosmic ground that gave life to all. Death, in particular, became something to fear, to be resisted rather than prepared for and anticipated as a natural transition towards the light.Over time, as a result, many people are now unaware they have died, especially those who have experienced a sudden or unexpected curtailment of life. They become trapped, believing themselves to be alive and capable of everyday life; attaching themselves to the living as a source of energy to feed their illusion. The 'living' who may be caught up in grief, guilt or any of the other emotions that accompany the death of a loved one, do not realise that their physical or mental health -- or both -- are suffering as a result.The author wrote this book with the evidence and experience gained from working with clients; partly to educate, but also to encourage family or friends to seek professional help if they noticed any marked changes in health in anyone close to a person who had recently died.

In lucid dreams, spiritual traditions across the world teach that within the dreaming state there resides a more serene experience of pure consciousness - one of profound joy. Unlike the turbulent emotions of the ego, this is our original soul nature.

Il Sogno del Cosmo e la storia di una ricerca a piu livelli per comprendere le cause della sofferenza umana e riconnettersi con una realta piu profonda di quella in cui abitiamo in questa dimensione fisica dell'esperienza. Cerca di rispondere alle domande: "Chi siamo?" e "Perche siamo qui, su questo pianeta?" Viene offerto a coloro che cercano qualcosa al di la dei valori superficiali della nostra cultura, che forse sono disillusi dai sistemi di credenze religiose e secolari come attualmente presentati e che mettono in discussione i valori politici, profondamente impantanati nella ricerca del potere. E scritto con due voci: una, la voce di una ricerca personale e l'altra che esplora le cause storiche e psicologiche che hanno dato vita alla nostra attuale visione della realta.

Le Reve du Cosmos est l'histoire d'une quete a plusieurs niveaux pour comprendre les causes de la souffrance humaine et renouer avec une realite plus profonde que celle que nous habitons dans cette dimension physique de l'experience. Il cherche a repondre aux questions: "Qui sommes-nous?" et "Pourquoi sommes-nous ici, sur cette planete?" Il est offert a ceux qui recherchent quelque chose au-dela des valeurs superficielles de notre culture, qui peuvent etre decus par les systemes de croyances religieuses et laiques tels qu'ils sont actuellement presentes et qui remettent en question des valeurs politiques profondement embourbees dans la poursuite du pouvoir. Il est ecrit a deux voix: l'une la voix d'une quete personnelle et l'autre qui explore les causes historiques et psychologiques qui ont fait naitre notre vision actuelle de la realite.

Many English-speaking people who want to be educated try to read Dante, the 'best known, least read' of all the classical poets, and find him impossible. In my thirties I did just that: 'Where do I begin?' The library yielded a translation of 'The Divine Comedy' - a great fat epic in three volumes. Wading into the Inferno, I struggled through a couple of sections and decided this wasn't for me. Too gloomy, too stilted, too difficult to grasp - and above all - too many words. I gave up almost at once. I cannot be the only one who as a result of that kind of experience thinks the work of this great Master is exclusively about Hell. 'Dante? - oh, you mean Dante's Inferno!' they say. NO! That's not it. There's far, far more. Dante wrote in Italian in order to reach ordinary people who, like me, needed the story itself. He wrote in the vernacular about the famous of the time - well-known entertainers and politicians, poets and artists, churchmen and musicians, the great and the awful. He wanted to be understood by everyone, including those not too well-versed in Latin. 'What a story this is,' I thought, when finally I was properly introduced to it. 'Why don't we all know this story? Dante is so warm-hearted, so exciting, so full of hope and humour, justice and joy - but, like me, my friends hardly ever get into Hell, let alone out of it and on.' My aim is to tell Dante's story in the way I remember it - notprimarily for its history, or its theology, or even its most gracious poetry, but for the unfolding journey he made through those amazing landscapes. It was all in his imagination, yet so vividly brought to life in his poem that irresistibly it invites us to accompany him on a life-changing, life-saving adventure of our own. The tale begins when, depressed and lost in a Dark Wood, Dante meets Virgil, his hero among much earlier poets. At the request of Beatrice - his great love, now in Heaven - Virgil has come from Limbo to guide him on a huge journey. Sure enough, they start by going down through Hell; but they emerge, ascend the Mountain of Purgatory through many adventures, and rise to the threshold of Paradise. There, human knowledge fails and Virgil leaves him. Meeting people all the way, he flies on into Heaven with Beatrice, and up through the stars to God. I hope that by travelling with him, we too may come to find in the poetry something of the depth of the vision. I hope we may come to love Dante as a person, with all his directness, his immense compassion for those he meets on the way, and his chuckling ability to laugh athimself. I hope we shall rejoice that his passion for Beatrice, who leads him through Heaven, is at last so blissfully fulfilled in the divine. May our own landscape of the mind be enhanced - even transformed - by the journey.

Ideas can change the world and Hazel Marshall’s new book is about just such an idea. Our hero is bound by honour and family tradition to avenge a past wrong, for this is a tale of vendetta. Long-lasting family feuds are not rare; in his play Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare wrote of such a case and, as so often, things did not work out well. Vendettas can also sour relations between tribes and between nations; we need only recall the long-standing confl icts all over the world: ‘past wrongs cannot be forgiven andmust never be forgotten’.Vendettas are about revenge and retribution — the situation young Orestes found himself in. Family honour obliged him to avenge his father’s death but in doing so, he laid himself open to retribution for his action. He was in a desperate situation, one without any prospect of a happy ending — that is, until the gods themselves stepped in. The goddess Pallas Athene had a brilliant idea.She solved Orestes’ diffi culties by fi nding another way for honour to be satisfied; she set up a Court of Justice. Invoking the sense of justice we all carry deep within our hearts, she chose twelve good men and true to hear the evidence presented byboth sides, and to weigh that evidence in their hearts. Which case best appealed to their sense of justice?Until I read the drafts of Hazel’s book, I hadn’t realised just how much we owe to those wise, ancient Greeks. You may find similar gems in this fascinating retelling of a little-known Greek Drama.

It is delightful to see another book by Lynne Souter-Anderson, contributing to the field of Clay Therapy. Her first book, TouchingClay, Touching What?: The Use of Clay in Therapy (2010), gave credence and credibility to using clay in therapy. It was apioneering book in the field of the creative arts therapies and gave a broad perspective on working in this modality with all age groups ; This new book is written for already qualified professionals who want to add the use of Clay Therapy in their work with children and adolescents. It is a hands-on book for practitioners and easy to read. However, the application of clay therapy in this specialist field requires appropriate additional training ; Lynne’s book is a significant addition to the small but growing library of books on the market about specialist therapeutic approaches with young children and adolescents. Play Therapy UK (PTUK)’s research analysis of over 300,000 therapeutic sessions using the ‘toolkit ‘(sand, music, clay, art/drawing, puppets, movement,drama, therapeutic story, creative visualisation etc.) has shown that clay is the fifth most used medium in play therapy sessions. It is therefore an important medium to offer to children and adolescents to support their healing process ; Lynne achieves a good balance between the application of theory and the actual process, which is always valuable for the reader. This is especially well demonstrated in Chapter 1, ‘Clay Therapy: Theoretical Underpinning of Clay Therapy’, in which the author explains her own theoretical basis, ‘The Theory of Contact: Physical, Emotional, Spiritual and Metaphorical’. She uses the analogy of the ’five lenses’ to demonstrate the stages of immersion and discovery in the clay therapy process, and includes an invaluable diagram to clarify her theory about the evolving nature of the process ; For me the book comes really alive through the ten case studies, which demonstrate how clay therapy has been used with the younger clients and adolescents, a client group that can prove to be difficult to reach and work with in therapy. The illustrations used deepen the experience and understanding of the process for the reader. Throughout the case studies glimpses of the quality of the therapist’s presence are seen, because she has the courage to show her own process thereby offering authenticity to the work ; To be able to do this effectively specialised training is required There is still very little published in the field, but it is heartening and exciting to see recent research initiatives described in the master’s dissertations produced by students at the Academy of Play and Child Psychotherapy and Cambridge University, which are included towards the end of the book ; Lynne’s book is a ‘must-read’ for all creative play and arts therapists.

On my thirty-eighth birthday, my mother, Margaret, died, crossing over with her now adult children at her bedside. Even now, years on, whenever I see mothers and daughters conversing intimately, my heart quietly grieves. Whoeverfirst said, "We're born alone, and we die alone" misses the point- the woman who bore you knows that she was with you on the day you were born!After my mother's death, I felt both bereft and fortunate to have been with her in the months before she died ofcancer. Her death felt doubly hard because I had lived abroad formany years. When I left the United States for Europe at twenty-five, she cried, "You will never come back!" Her words proved prophetic, for although I returned home often for visits, I settled in England.If you have loved and lost your mother, you will have a sense of grief personal to you, one that resurfaces when you suddenly have the urge to talk with her or give her a hug.Like me, you may wish you had got on better with your mother and had known her more as a person in her own right. It can be all the harder to accept the loss if shehas left without saying "I love you", or without your having the chance to say the same. There may not have been time to ask for mutual forgiveness and understanding, leaving you both with many unanswered "Whys?".Whether or not your mother has passed to the "other side", I present you, the reader, with a hope - that love continues beyond the grave. Even when the human relationship has been fraught, the departed soul, free from the adversitiesof life, will so often seek to love and make amends.I share here the story of how my relationship with my mother deepened after her death as she initiated me into lucid dreaming.Some readers might say my visions of my mother are nothing more than a projection of my dreaming mind. Others might argue that from beyond the veil she truly appeared.But I sense both are true.Either way, I hope that my own experience will speak to you in a personal way and that my sharing these dreams my mother taught me may reassure you that lovenever dies.