2020 Celestial Path Book Study
True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh
In this little treasure, Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Zen monk, offers timeless insight into the nature of real love. With simplicity, warmth, and directness, he explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and freedom—explaining how to experience them in our day-to-day lives. He also emphasizes that in order to love in a real way, we must first learn how to be fully present in our lives, and he offers simple techniques from the Buddhist tradition that anyone can use to establish the conditions of love.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, is an internationally known author, poet, scholar, and peace activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.
2019 Celestial Path Book Study
Four Elements: Reflections on Nature by John O'Donohue
From the beloved author of the bestselling To Bless the Space Between Us and Anam Cara comes a new work that shares his insights on nature and the ancient wisdom of this earth.
John O'Donohue won hundreds of thousands of admirers with his now classic work on Celtic spirituality Anam Cara. Unfortunately he died suddenly at age fifty-two just as his book of blessings, To Bless the Space Between Us, was being published. The loss of his powerfully wise and lyrical voice has been profoundly missed, but his many readers are given a special opportunity to revisit John in a new book based on a series of papers he wrote on the elements of water, stone, air, and fire, now published here for the first time. O'Donohue's readers know him as both a spiritual guide and a poet, and in this work he exhibits both qualities, sharing his Celtic heritage and his love for his native landscape in the west of Ireland. As O'Donohue explores a range of themes relating to the way we live our lives today, he reveals how the energy and rhythm of the natural world—its innocence and creativity, its power and splendor—hold profound lessons for us all. With a foreword written by his beloved brother, Pat, this illuminating book is an inspired reflection on the ancient wisdom of the earth.
2018 Celestial Path Book Study
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer by Diane Wolkstein , Samuel Noah Kramer
"This is an admirable translation, a great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade
"A splendid mutual accomplishment and a great gift ot mythology...."Inanna "is a book to be cherished."--P.L. Travers
"In the myth of Inanna, Wolkstein and Kramer give us back the totality of woman, the ruler-wife-lover-redeemer, whom all worshiped and from whom all life flowed. It is a thrilling rediscovery."--Olivier Bernier
"Wolkstein has been able to convey in English the rich metaphor, the erotic fullness, and the ritual pacing of these ancient stories....Taken together with the illustrations, historical discussions, and textual commentaries, this book is worth a tower of scholarly tomes....Such a feat is remarkable and rare."--Barre Toelken, Director of Folklore and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon
"I felt shivers of recognition reading these ancient lines that proclaim Inanna's discovery of her prowess....Kramer and Wolkstein make us love their awesome goddess whose stormy complexities have been concealed in cuneiform tablets for thousands of years."--Nor Hall
2017 Celestial Path Book Study
Elemental Psychology: Using Jungian Psychology and the Sacred Elements for Spiritual Development by Katrina Messenger
"...applying the principles of an elementary psychology is not straightforward or simple. Just like its sources within Jungian psychology and the wisdom traditions, we need to remain open to new information, new ideas, and resurfacing truths from living indigenous traditions worldwide. We must take into account not only a person's elemental type but also their real world experiences and their developmental stage. And as always we need to separate what a culture has projected onto a person from what actually calls to their heart.”
- Excerpt from Chapter 11: An Elemental Psychology
