by Sera Beck
Review by Katie Elliott
The Red Book by Sera Beak is a must have for all you Goddesses out there – a book every woman should have a dog-eared, coffee-stained copy of on their bookshelves.
Being what some people call a spiritual seeker, I am always on the lookout for a good “spiritual” book. It’s a rarity for me that I find one that I can actually read cover to cover, without getting too bored and having to read something else in between. It’s also a rarity, being a young woman, to find a spiritual book that I can really relate to on all levels. The Red Book is the book I’ve been searching for.
Being consciously spiritual is a practice. Sometimes it comes easy, and sometimes (like when stuck in traffic) it feels like real work. Sometimes it feels a bit like being a scientist, learning new ideas, new ways of thinking about living life, and trying them out; seeing if they work and how they feel when sat with quietly. I am not sure if it’s being a Gemini, or a female, or just a young person in these times but my spiritual practice seems to be forever changing and always exciting.
The Red Book is the first spiritual book that I have come across a young woman on her spiritual journey can relate to. It’s hip and cool and relative to our fast paced, modern lives. Sera Beak has a great perspective and a very talented way of telling you the same sort of things as other spiritual books might but in such a different way. It’s like finding a really good teacher for a subject you previously thought was hard or boring and all of a sudden you see the subject in a new light and you have this beautiful ah-ha moment and now this dreaded subject is really fun and exciting. With chapters like “Divine Winks. The Universe Wants Your Attention. Will You Wink Back?” and “Sacred Lipstick and Cosmic Lattes 1001 Ways to Give Prayer a Makeover” you definitely can’t get bored.
It’s also jam packed with interesting facts and information. For example: “Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the twenty-fifth of December was known as Yule Day, or ‘the birth of the promised child’ day. Yule, according to some interpretations, is the Chaldean (a language of Babylon) word for infant. This was the day that the sun god Tammuz, one of the biggest deities of ‘em all, incarnated as a little baby in order to save the world from darkness. Sound familiar?” If facts like that don’t interest you, you can at least use them at dinner parties to impress others!
Sera is sassy, she’s adventurous, and she’s really smart. This spiritual cowgirl, as she refers to herself, is a Harvard- trained scholar of comparative religions. More importantly, she’s left the books and the libraries and has really walked the walk. She was obsessed with God as a child. She started out a catholic until as a 6th grader she was sent out of confession for bringing up questions to the priest about reincarnation, spirit guides and other dimensions. From that point on she has moved forward without looking back.
In Sera’s own words: “I’ve trekked in Tibet and whirled with dervishes in Turkey. I’ve volunteered at Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta, and run from rabid dogs outside Buddhist temples in Kathmandu. I’ve attended intensive spiritual healing workshops in Sedona and psychic fairs in Chicago, fire rituals in the Black Rock Desert and yoga retreats in Mexico. I’ve had my past lives read, my aura tuned, my charkas aligned, my spirit guides channeled, my palms interpreted, and my kundalini awakened. I’ve prayed in churches, temples, mosques, studio apartments, Wiccan festivals, and always, always on rickety buses in India.”
The girl’s got some good stories, and The Red Book is definitely unorthodox – something everyone could use a little of now and then. Its expressive, take the bull by the horns kind of attitude gets you excited about being a spiritual person - especially a spiritual female.
Choices and Illusions
by Eldon Taylor, Ph.D.
Review by Cate Montana
Ever wonder why you repeatedly do what you said you would not do? Ever wonder why the very things you disliked most, that your parents did, you do? Ever wonder how and why you got to where you are and how you can get to where you want to be? Choices and Illusions outlines Taylor’s answers to these questions, as well as life-changing transformative methods to find and live a life of peace, balance, and happiness now - regardless of where you are or what you might have done.
Choices and Illusions tells the story of Taylor’s journey from working as a criminologist studying the effectiveness of subliminal communication with prisoners, and how he progressed to the study of personal change, the workings of the human mind and our reason for being.
A certified psychotherapist, Taylor has worked in the field of self help, developing effective subliminal and hypnosis self improvement products for the last 20 years. In Choices and Illusions he shares his personal spiritual awakening, while putting a scientific light on the nature of consciousness and the development of subconscious beliefs that often conflict with the growth of our ‘desired self’ and our personal ambitions.
Taylor examines the vital process of how we learn to make choices. His approach is scientific and pragmatic, and his conclusions are inspirational and soul enhancing. He demonstrates that the choices we make are really the result of our subconscious social programming, and that, for the most part, they do not reflect true inner health. Then he outlines things we can do to change those subconscious choice patterns and get our inner and outer goals in line. He makes it clear, however, that this is just the start of the journey.
"Many believe that self-help and self improvement is about rags to riches, failure to success, and so forth, when indeed it is the beginning of a journey into self- discovery,” says Taylor. “Inside every human being is an eternal truth and a life purpose. Using our mind power is simply starting the engine on that journey of self-discovery and highest self actualization."
