Lapis Magazine

Archive for 'Reviews'

Book Review: The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple

The Last Mughal by William Dalrymple
Knopf, 536 pages
Review by Ralph White

For anyone interested in the world of mid-Nineteenth-Century India, this is a wonderful book. William Dalrymple has established himself as one of the most original and compelling authors writing today about the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East. His capacity to paint graphic word pictures [...]

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Bringing the ‘Secret Teachings’ Into the 21st Cent.: The New Life of a Great Book by Mitch Horowitz

Students of the Western Esoteric Tradition have long known and loved Manly P. Hall's classic encyclopedic outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy. An amazing and unique book that has served to introduce many to half-forgotten spiritual paths, its appearance this Fall in a totally new and affordable format is a cause for [...]

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An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West by Christopher Bamford

For many years, Christopher Bamford's deeply insightful writing has been known mostly through his many introductions and commentaries on the work of others in the Western spiritual tradition. Now, at last, he has produced a book composed purely of his own remarkable work. Ptolemy Tompkins reviews it.
Ptolemy Tompkins is the author of This Tree Grows [...]

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Arousing the Goddess: Sex and Love in the Buddhist Ruins of India by Tim Ward

Offering readers welcome relief from the agony of the world situation, the author of this new book describes his experience of the ecstasy of tantric sex. After years on the dharma trail in India, Tim Ward encounters an alluring Austrian Indologist who opens for him the world of sacred sexuality. Torn between monastic denial and [...]

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Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche by Bill Plotkin

How do we overcome the disconnection from both the earth and our own souls that industrial society has brought? Bill Plotkin, ecotherapist and wilderness guide, shows us how to reconnect with the sacred powers of life, nature and psyche. By uniting depth psychology, wilderness rites and mystical poetry, he creates a contemporary path of initiation [...]

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Wisdom’s Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition by Arthur Versluis

Book Review by Christopher Bamford, co-director of Anthroposophic/Lindisfarne Press and the author of many articles on the Western Mystery Tradition.
Wisdom’s Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition by Arthur Versluis. Published by State University of New York Press, 1999.
One of the great revolutions occurring unnoticed today is the field of spiritual history. The past half century has witnessed [...]

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Consuming Desires: Culture, Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness edited by Roger Rosenblatt

Review by Ralph White, editor of Lapis magazine.
Consuming Desires: Culture, Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness. Edited by Roger Rosenblatt. Published by Island Books.
At a time when the power of consumerism drives not only the American but also the global economy, this is a timely and valuable book. Roger Rosenblatt, best known for his commentary for [...]