Visionary Sound Arts Interface
DARVTEXTS

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I performed live readings of various spiritual, 
mystical and metaphysical texts from throughout 
time and all traditions on my radio show, 
"Adventures In Consciousness."

Over the years, various callers contacted
me requesting information about these texts,
and especially my advice regarding good things
to read.

Living up to promises and assurances, I am
including a short section here on the texts
which have the most personal meaning for me.

My primary spiritual text is Tarot. I carry
a copy with me nearly always. I prefer the
Crowley/Harris deck, but also often carry
the standard Rider/Waite. This is my
sacred picture book.

Pictures of the Crowley/Harris Thoth Tarot deck

  The Qabalistic Tarot by Robert Wang
(publisher: Samuel Weiser, 1987) is in my opinion
the single best text for anyone with no
previous exposure. Apparently out-of-print. 

That said, I will tell you the spiritual
texts that have opened me up:

The Heart of Awareness -
A Translation of the Ashtavakra Gita
Thomas Byrom (Shambhala: Boston, 1990.)
  This is a Nondualist classic from
Advaita Vedanta, i believe. Read this
aloud all the way through! This is
my sacred reading book.

See On-Line Copy of "The Heart of Awareness"

The Jewel In The Lotus
edited by Raghavan Iyer
(Concord Grove Press: New York, 1983)
A wondrous compilation of potent
spiritual thinking from all traditions.
This book now has a website where you can
read selections chosen for day of year!
Jewel In The Lotus website


Unbounded Light - The Inward Journey
compiled & edited by William E. Williams
(Nicolas-Hays: York Beach, ME., 1992.)
The best collection of personal accounts
of interaction with the Inner Light
that i have in my possession.

Starseed - The Third Millenium:
Living in the Posthistoric World
by Ken Carey
(HarperCollins: New York, 1992.)
Highly inspiring piece of channelled
writing which was very significant
for me during one phase of my life.
Helped me reorient to Life.

Savitri
by Sri Aurobindo
(Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust:
Pondicherry, India, 1950, 1972.)
An epic poem beautifully describing
cosmic reality, according to Aurobindo's
Integral Vision. See it on-line:
Savitri

The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order
by Paul Foster Case (pub:Samuel Weiser)
unpacks the Tree of Life and the
Rosicrucian mythos in a fascinating
and wise way.

Love's Body
by Norman O. Brown
(Vintage Books: New York, 1966.)
Perhaps one of the most revolutionary
books of the 20th Century! The
Transmutation of Freudianism into
a Christic-Dionysiac vision. Written
aphoristically, this text is teeming
with brain bombs that could rend
your veil of illusion.

The Cosmic Game
by Stanislav Grof
(NY: State University of New York Press, 1998.)
a truly amazing book which discusses
cosmic reality and our experience of
it in detail

Prometheus Rising
by Robert Anton Wilson
(New Falcon Publications, 1993)
perhaps the best single book for
getting a basic understanding of
the levels of consciousness.

Ayahuasca
by Ralph Metzner, ed.
(New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1999)
numerous personal accounts of
experiences in astral realities
and encounters with light.

The Atman Project
by Ken Wilber
(Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Pub. House, 1980)
Extremely dense read that probably
requires some background in
psychology, but helped me understand
the deep structure.


The Ever-Present Origin
by Jean Gebser
(Athens: Ohio University Press, 1986.)
a lengthy book on the evolution
of the consciousness of the species.

Structures of Consciousness
by Georg Feuerstein
(Lower Lake, Calif.: Integral Publishing,
1987.)
A synopis of Gebser's theories as
presented in Ever-Present Origin.

Memories and Visions of Paradise
by Richard Heinberg
(Wheaton, Ill.: Quest Books, 1989, 1995)
This is the best book i've ever found on
the subject of the myths of Paradise from
around the world. Explores, at length,
paradisal/oneness consciousness.)

Awakening - A Sufi Experience
by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan
(New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999)
Has wonderful Lightwork meditations. 

Kundalini Tantra 
by Swami Satyananda Saraswati
(Bihar School of Yoga, India, 1996)
   A truly inspiring manual on the chakras
and kundalini, which offers a number of
simple kriyas to awaken the chakras.
Blurb on Kundalini Tantra book

The Beginner's Guide To 
Constructing The Universe
by Michael S. Schneider
    A very creative overview of the
recurrence of number in natural and
human-made structures. Great text for
studying the symbolism of numbers and
sacred geometry
Fusion Anomaly citation

The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby
    A profound look into the relationship
between DNA and the planetary lore on
snake/serpent symbolism
Synopsis at Fusion Anomaly

The Mystical Mind
by Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew B. Newberg
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1999.)
     An imminently readable text on the
neurophysiology of mystical experience.
This text really demonstrates that science
is on the verge of having to admit that our
brains are constructed to have mystical
perceptions. The authors, of course, leave
reductionists with an "out" by saying that
the neurology may be "generating" these
experiences, rather than having valid
perceptions. It's clear that this hedging
is purely to gain acceptance from a
scientistic materialist audience.
See the Mystical Mind excerpt

New Chakra Healing 
by Cyndi Dale
(LLewellyn, June 1996.)
      After mulling it over for some time,
I've decided that this is the book I would
first recommend to any educated person who
is interested in learning about chakras and
is looking for one text that can convey the
generalized energy-body system. Not only does
it present the typical seven chakra system,
it includes the esoteric chakras AND a 
vertebrae-by-vertebrae spinal chakra system.
    The book also presents a level of wisdom
that is high-grade among books in this field.
For an example of this, view the excerpt that
is available at Amazon:
The Revolving Door: The Human Energy System

Sounding The Inner Landscape 
by Kay Gardener
(Rockport, Mass. :Element,1997, orig. 1990)

Why it took me so long to remember to put this
book on my list is a mystery. Suffice it to
say that i find this a must read for anyone
interested in sound healing. Her studies of
the intervals and scales in affecting
consciousness is quite interesting. The whole
book covers a wide range of knowledge on
the use of sound to induce alternate states
of awareness and healing.

Radical Nature
by Christian de Quincey
(Montpelier, Vt.: Invisible Cities Press, 2002)

Hands down best read i've ever found on the
mind/matter debate. De Quincey is a "panpsychist"
philosopher who takes the reader on a tour-
de-force of the main schools of thought regarding
the relationship of mass and consciousness.
With incisive and devastating lucidity, he
demonstrates, to my satisfaction at least
(and, of course, we know i have a natural bias,)
that it is "inconceivable" that consciousness
simply "emerged" from nonconscious matter, that
subjectivity miraculously was produced by a
completely objective universe. Taking on the
materialists as well as the idealists, he 
makes an excellent case for panpsychism.

The Antipodes Of The Mind
by Benny Shanon
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002)

A dense, upper-division university level
cognitive psychology text subtitled,
"Charting The Phenomenology of the
Ayahuasca Experience."
   This is the best delineation of the
actual experience of psychedelia yet
written. And wonderfully enough, it
focusses on the the effects of the
entheogen that naturally occurs in the
human body! Shanon personally has had
over 300 experiences and has collected
an enormous database of testimonial
reports of other drinkers of the
sacred brew. This is the kind of research
that any scientist who respects psychology
as a "science" has to appreciate.
   Shanon not only has the skill, both as
a writer and researcher, to engage the reader 
in the quest for understanding about a unique
experience available on the planet, but
also is able to convey the wisdom aspect
which is so hard to put into words.
   I will certainly be reading this book
repeatedly.

Hope these little blurbs might help one
 of you find some new lights to
steer by.

See You In The Dreamtime!

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