October / November 2004

REVIEWS

HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF
NEW AGE MOVEMENTS
BY MICHAEL YORK
Scarecrow Press, 2004, 233 pp.,
$60, ISBN: 0-8108-4873-2.
Reviewed by Stanley Krippner
and Cayce Jones

Michael York lectures on cultural astrology at the British Bath Spa University and is the author of several other books on so-called New Age topics. For his 240 entries in this volume, he acknowledges dozens of sources and individuals, among them Eric Berne, Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Jidda Krishnamurti, Fritz Perls, Serena Roney-Dougal, Alan Watts, and others well known to members of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. However, the “Association of (sic) Humanistic Psychology” and the “Association of (sic) Transpersonal Psychology” are each only mentioned once, i.e. among the organizational memberships of Marilyn Ferguson, author of the now-defunct Brain/ Mind Bulletin. The AHP members who dislike being linked with New Age movements no doubt will welcome this omission!

York provides a useful historical context for the term New Age, comparing it with other Great Awakenings and countertraditional spiritual movements in Western culture (e.g., New Thought, Theosophy, Spiritualism). Although admitting overlaps, York differentiates between New Age and Neo-pagan movements, linking the former to the other-worldly aspects of transcendentalism and Gnosticism, and the latter to nature and the body. He does not ignore the excesses and pathologies of New Age movements, discussing such tragedies as the People’s Temple in Guyana, the Order of the Solar Temple in Western Europe, Heaven’s Gate in Los Angeles, and the Tokyo subway attack by members of Aum Shinrikyo. Furthermore, it is acknowledged that some Christian movements consider astrology to be the work of the devil; furthermore, the New Age Controversies entry lists several potentially sinister aspects of the New Age movement.

Among the most interesting entries are those on A Course of Miracles (hailed as “the most complete presentation of New Thought metaphysics”), Alice Bailey (and her influential Arcane School), Carlos Castaneda (whose link with “core shamanism”is overemphasized and undeserved), Edgar Cayce (whose positive contributions to holistic health and his many failed predictions are both omitted), and Elizabeth Claire Prophet’s Church Universal and Triumphant (and its link to the “Great White Brotherhood,” a name that has struck many people as being both racist and sexist). The Esalen Institute entry focuses on its human potential work but ignores its international peace and reconciliation activities; feminist spirituality is discussed (ranging from Barbara Marx Hubbard to Wicca to JZ Knight and the landmark legal cases regarding her purported channeling of Ramtha). Stanislav Grof, Abraham Maslow, Virginia Satir, Huston Smith, and a few other humanistic and transpersonal writers receive brief biographies. Nostradamus receives more space than any of them, with the exception of Ken Wilber whose “Gnostic position” is described as “fully commensurate with the fundamental New Age theological perspective.”

No differentiation is made between alternative medicine (e. g., acupuncture) and complementary medicine (e.g., biofeedback). Kirlian photography is incorrectly described as “a means to record the body’s aura” (for which specific colors are assigned, e.g., “pink conveys affection”). Out-of-body experience is described as “a waking form of ecstasy related to sleep,” a grossly inaccurate portrayal of what appears to be a syndrome of several phenomena. The terms reincarnation and past lives are used synonymously, but the plethora of such concepts from cultures around the world is not fully acknowledged. The same criticism could be made of the healing entry where no differentiation is made between healing and curing, and between disease and illness (as differentiated by crosscultural anthropologists). The virtual lack of cross-cultural discourse is one of the flaws of this essentially well-meaning book. For example, under spiritualism, there is no mention of the Latin American, Australian, Asian, or African varieties, the living mythologies that are utilized daily by their practitioners.

In summary, York has taken on an impossible task of describing the patchwork of beliefs, people, and practices that fall into the New Age rubric. The entries are arranged alphabetically, which makes sense, but a more complete index would help readers locate topics of special interest (e.g., such topics as parapsychology and theology are not indexed although both are often cited). Perhaps a future edition can address these issues as well as the New Age track record and future implications. Finally, the book’s cover is so unattractive and unsightly that it hardly does justice to the dictionary’s contents.

STANLEY KRIPPNER, Ph.D., teaches at Saybrook Graduate School and is a past AHP president. CAYCE JONES is a freelance writer and artist who lives in Boise, Idaho.

WHY MEN DON’T HAVE A CLUE
AND WOMEN ALWAYS NEED
MORE SHOES: The Ultimate
Guide to the Opposite Sex
BY BARBARA AND ALLAN PEASE
Broadway, 2004, 315 pp., $14,
ISBN: 0767916107.
Reviewed by David Ryback

He says; she says. Nothing new there. But what is new about this book is that it looks at both sides now, because the authors are a married couple.

We know how important listening is. Why do we fall short in our closest relationships? And how can we overcome the gap between the sexes? With the help of research, surveys, their own experience, and common sense, the Peases offer us their solutions. Their use of humor: The definition of a man? A life support system for a penis; statistics: By the year 2020, it is estimated that 25% of all women in the Western world will be permanently single; evolutionary underpinning, and personal opinion: . . . women care more about relationships than men—all come together in a wellcrafted book that entertains as much as it informs.

The only criticism I have is about the morethan- slight tilt toward the woman’s point of view. The Peases say that men enjoy the TV news as an escape from their own problems. Women don’t do that as much. Could it not be that men, for whatever reason, find meaning in the sociopolitical world more than women do, for whatever reason? Is it bad to care about the problems of the world? Comments such as those leave the impression that the book is largely written by Mrs. Pease, while Mr. Pease lurks quietly in the background. Since, as the book tells us, 80% of the buyers of books like these are women, it makes sense for the book to have that bias. Maybe there’s a place for a similar book biased toward men— Why Women Talk So Much and Men Pretend to Listen—an issue with which the Peases do deal.

The Peases make a good case for the evolution of gender differences and explain men’s needs for sexual variety as biological destiny (my term). They’re just “not hardwired for monogamy,” they say. On the other hand, concern about the survival of relationships “is hardwired into her psyche.” Maybe the issue boils down to one of the book’s bullet points: “Men’s brains are solution-oriented. Women’s brains are process-oriented.”

Two of the best chapters are on what men and women find attractive about one another and why women are so good at detecting lies. The combination of research-based facts, well-chosen photos and cartoons, along with a highly personal style makes this book an interesting and enjoyable read. It’s great for men who don’t have a clue and for women who always need more books on the subject. Add this one to your collection.

DAVID RYBACK is the author of Love, Sex and Passion for the Rest of Your Life (Humanics, 2003). He can be reached at EQassoc@aol.com.

9 SECRETS TO BEDROOM BLISS: Exploring Sexual Archetypes to Reveal Your Lover’s Passions and Discover What Turns You On
JAMES HERRIOT, PH.D., AND OONA MOURIER, PH.D.
Fair Winds Press, Gloucester, MA,
2003, 249 pp., $22.95, hardcover, ISBN 1-59233-009-6.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: Thirteen Archetypes for Every Woman
ELIZABETH DAVIS AND CAROL LEONARD
Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA, 2002,
264 pp., $14.95, paper, ISBN 1- 5861-160-0.
Reviewed by Alexandra Hart

Archetypal psychology seems to come to us frequently in the form of typology books such as Ann Shinoda Bolen’s Goddesses in Everywoman and its male counterpart and even in the popular Caroline Myss’ works of the last few years. We readers seem to love to find ourselves in their pages and thereby attempt to unlock secret powers we may have overlooked in ourselves, presented through some new set of eyes.

These two books are ones I am close to, I feel it is only fair to tell the reader, because I know the authors. Indeed, I was interviewed by Elizabeth Davis and subsequently found my story quoted in the Crone archetype, and I helped Herriot and Mourier work on an earlier version of their book when it was called Sexual Archetypes: The Theater of the Bedroom.

Another thing these two books have in common is their debt to the Native American Medicine Wheel. In both books the authors have chosen an archetype that roams freely among all the rest and who resides at the center of the wheel—the Transformer in Circle of Life and the Artist in 9 Secrets to Bedroom Bliss. For content The Circle of Life depends more on a much enlarged and in-depth expansion of the familiar maiden-mother-crone triumvirate and Bedroom Bliss relies on work that originally was laid out by part-Cherokee teacher Harley Swiftdeer and taught by him as Quodoshka.

9 SECRETS TO BEDROOM BLISS

Herriot and Mourier are both doctoral graduates of the San Francisco Human Sexuality Awareness Institute and were participants for many years in a group of peers exploring sexuality through the avenue of the archetypes presented. They bring much direct experience of their material to their work and have greatly expanded it beyond Swiftdeer’s purview— particularly some of the more esoteric archetypes.

The format is a couple presenting to “Dr. Oona” for sex therapy. She proceeds to take them around the wheel, through nine attitudes toward sex they might choose, in anticipation of expanding their sexual boundaries and vocabulary. While it purports to be “a year of sex therapy in a book,” this claim is a bit overstated in my opinion. The usual couple distresses presented in therapy, beyond sexual incompatibility or boredom, are not covered. A therapist could, however, make good use of the book as fun bedtime reading assignments for hitherto unimaginative clients to expand their sexual perceptions and pleasures.

For the ordinary sex-interested reader, however, the book presents a fresh point of view and is bound to spark new energy in almost anyone’s bedroom (or wherever your choice of sex location may be). It suggests approaches to take, ceremonies, props, gives some jumping-off suggestions, and provides a peep into the shadow aspect of each of the archetypes. It helps you identify the archetype or sexual attitude with which you are most comfortable and suggests ways you can have fun branching out.

Briefly, the range is: The Innocent—playful, light and fun; The Adventurer—exploratory and daring; The Sensualist—passionate and hot; The Seeker—going beyond the comfort zone; The Revealer—heady, sharing intimate secrets, deals; The Magician—the sexual teacher/healer; The Mystic—spiritual and cosmic connection; The Nurturer— comfortable family life; The Artist—who dances in and out of all these styles.

This book demonstrates the effect of a publisher on a finished work. The authors were encouraged to take on a light style that ended up cutesy and watered down for their quite valuable material. The title was also a publisher choice which did it no favor in my opinion. However, for the reader who can overlook poor editing and some dumbing down, there is gold to be mined. It’s a quick romp with some benefits in bed.

Should you be lucky enough to catch Dr. Oona in person, however, she can make the archetypes come alive with her charming French accent and fearless presentation. Her long-term workshops for women are a delight, and her sex therapy for individuals or couples could be most valuable.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

This expansion of women’s life cycles comes hand in hand with the freeing of women’s views of themselves and their potential. While being a girl, a mother, and an old, hopefully wise, crone are important and obvious parts of a woman’s lifelong development, there are so many other aspects that we also long to have acknowledged, both by ourselves and by others. The archetypes are divided in the wheel on the cover into four phases: Innocence (daughter, maiden, blood sister); Nurture (lover, mother, midwife); Power (amazon, matriarch, priestess); and Wisdom (sorceress, crone, dark mother). Within the book they are further paired directly across the wheel with certain reflections of their opposites showing up in each.

The thirteenth archetype, the Transformer, stands in the center. She is available to aid in transformations from one stage to another, and more important, to help one across the wheel, through uncertain or difficult times, to access any of the archetypes that might be important to call to the fore in a given instance. While there is a developmental element to the order of the archetypes as presented, in practice we often don’t move through life quite on any schedule. We can experience these aspects of self a little at a time or in bigger, lifechanging ways. Circle gives permission to be what and all we can be.

One of the most valuable things this book provides is the benefit of women speaking in their own voices of their experiences of each of these phases. This helps immeasurably in identifying how that aspect might be at work in ourselves. There is also an appendix with copious material references and an index for quickly locating topics. A quiz at the back can help you determine where your current focus lies. I love that its “scoring” is loose and organic. I’d encourage you to choose as many answers as you like in any category rather than only one.

To give you more of the flavor of this intelligent book, I’ll quote from the Sorceress entries: “

When the Sorceress steps outside of time, she transcends gender attributes as well. Her body changes dramatically, certain armoring is surrendered, her physical rhythms are less personal and more universal. As she becomes adept, she is apt to feel more energy running through her system than she has ever known before.

“. . . This may lead to emotional and mental instability, or feelings of insanity as related by this woman, age forty-eight, in her story of Crazy Woman: ‘ . . . Two mistakes I have made with her. One was when I asked her to come in—I didn’t protect myself enough . . . And later . . . I decided to burn her mask. The mask was black with snakes coming out, kind of like Medusa. We placed it on the fire, and it came alive with flames coming from the eyes, the mouth, and then she became immensely more powerful. I went through months of spiritual pummeling—my house burned to the ground, I was sued, and there was death. She would come and haunt me in my dreams—I tell you, she will whip you up!' . . .

Once she is with you, I realize now, you have to own her, she will never go away. Now she is my ally, and I will forever honor her. She gives me incredible strength—divine madness. . . . I’m humble when she comes, and I work when she needs work to be done, and I’m not afraid. I work with pride; I stand with my gifts.’”

Davis is author of many women’s books, including the seminal book on midwifery, Heart & Hands: A Midwife’s Guide to Pregnancy and Birth and is cofounder and director of the National Midwifery Institute, an accredited, apprenticeship-based midwifery program. I am lucky enough to include her in my women’s circle where we are taking one of the archetypes each monthly meeting and exploring it together. Circle of Life makes a great focus for a period in a women’s group.

If this book sounds familiar to you, it is a revision of a 1996 version with much new material, including a chapter on creating a women’s circle.

ALEXANDRA HART is a former editor of the AHP Perspective and is currently working with her husband to create cohousing communities in Northern California. She has also returned to her first love of textile arts and spends whatever time she can garnering manipulating fibers. Words do continue to haunt her, so writing projects spring up from time to time.