Thoughts on Papyrus

I recall I had so much fun compiling lists Japanese Literature Recommendations for Each Zodiac Sign 🇯🇵 and Italian Literature Recommendations for Each Zodiac Sign 🇮🇹, that I have decided to do another version, recommending French books 🇫🇷 this time (not least because this FIFA World Cup, I am, as usual, supporting the French team). ARIES (March …

I have recently finished the classic South African novel Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, and am sharing a few quotes: “The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that they are not mended again“. “…there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a …

British psychologist Stuart Sutherland wrote in 1989: “Consciousness is a a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading had been written about it“. Despite this sentiment, which has quite a bit of truth to it, below are seven great books …

Shamanism refers to spiritual practices that centre on a shaman (from a Manchu-Tungus word “šaman” meaning “the one who knows”) who is capable of entering altered states of consciousness for the purposes of healing, communication with the unseen world, etc. Below are seven great books on shamanism, a practice that remains misunderstood. Some of the books …

Dreamtime & Inner Space [1988] – ★★★★ “Our scientific methods remain disassociated from actual life, whereas the shaman seizes life by its roots and experiences blazing reality” [Kalweit, Shambhala Publications: 243]. This book may be called a companion piece to Kalweit’s Shamans, Healers and Medicine Men (see my review), and explores how different tribes across …