George R.R. Martin - “A Storm of Swords”
I finally finished book 3 in George R.R. Martin’s high fantasy series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The series thus far exists as A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and the yet to be released A Dance of Dragons. A Game of Thrones in currently being made into an HBO series due to air Fall 2011 and Martin is working hand in hand with the directors.
The books are fantasy but based on a completely believable reality. Martin uses fast paced dialogue and action to bring his world to life but he doesn’t skimp on lavish details of food and festivities. Not a word in each of his 1000+ page books feels superfluous and the obvious labor behind each word selection invokes a poetic quality.
Martin’s fantasy world is able to feel realistic because he uses the innate dramatic potential in real life to complicate his plots and characters, not mythology based story conventions. The true genius behind the series for me is how Martin captures the unpredictable essence of life while still managing to keep all the twists and clues in line. I have found myself hundreds of times with my mouth wide open, my entire idea of where I thought the book was going falling out, and my mind exploding with pleasure when the pieces are put back together in an even more complex and ambitious configuration. And he never forgets a clue, every clue has its place sooner or later.
In each book the chapters are separated into different characters and are lead from their perspectives. I have noticed that each book has underlying themes that Martin enhances by choosing characters who juxtapose each other in relation to a theme but are developed well enough that you empathize with all sides. The characters that you follow in Storm of Swords augment the ideas of humor and melancholy and their interplay in the psyche.
Some of the more apparent themes the book addresses are sorcery, war, matriarchy, patriarchy, deception, authority and entitlement, sexual will and deviance, revenge, family issues of all kids, agism, ablism, sexism, discipline and anarchy, religious faith, meditation, dreams, fear, death and more death.
I couldn’t hype these books enough. Martin is a genius and has poured so much meticulous energy into cultivating that through these novels. I wish they went on forever.
Kala Trobe - “Magic of Qabalah - Visions of the Tree of Life”
As the title suggests this is a book of visualizations designed to tap into the creative Qabalah. “Qabalah” is a more modern spelling used to differentiate this cuckoo child from the traditional Jewish Kabalah, its host. It typically refers to a more magickal interpretation.
The Qabalah/Kabalah is meant to be an incredibly esoteric study. The word in Hebrew means “that which is received” and traditionally the teachings were passed orally from master to student in a chain that leads back to the Archangel Metatron, who descended from the highest Sephirah on the tree of life to enlighten Moses on Mount Sinai.
It’s esoteric nature makes studying the Qabalah incredibly challenging, as it was formatted to delude those without formal training. This book however is designed to lead you through the Tree of Life via meditations, to give you a more sensual and personal experience and potentially one that while highly subjective is appropriate for traversing the wisdom the Qabalah has to offer.
The book begins with guided meditations to prepare you for reading through the Tree of Life. The philosophy is that anytime you meditate into the astral plane you become open to good and bad forces and the meditations are designed to equip you with tools to navigate safely. There is also a meditation that takes you briefly on a trip through the whole tree and this was the most enjoyable meditation in the book for me. It takes about an hour and is really grounding.
There are 10 Sephirah or Spheres in the Tree of Life and I think 32 paths between them. The paths go up, down, across, diagonal and each path represents a unique relationship between the two spheres it connects. The chapters that follow the introduction are dedicated to the 10 Sephirah and make up the bulk of the book. Each chapter includes a meditation through path one takes to get to the sphere, which is the path from the sphere of the previous chapter since the chapters are ordered through the most common route up the tree. You then meditate on approaching the sphere, entering, exploring and leaving. Each meditation includes encounters with figures from mythology, a focus on the corresponding tarot cards (it is beneficial to have a deck with you through the reading), highly symbolic visualizations of the surroundings and inhabitants, and trials to strengthen your sense of belonging in the sphere.
The chapters that follow the ones corresponding to the 10 Sephirah include one about the abyss (dank), chapters of the remaining paths that could be taken between the spheres, a Qabalistic tale I didn’t read, and a fun appendix that lists books, art, music, zodiac signs, and more that relate to and enhance your understanding of each of the Sephirah.
Overall the meditations are powerful and useful and the incorporation of mythology and tarot build a mutual comprehension with the Qabalah. The writing has some spelling and grammar errors that can be distracting. She includes multiple perspectives of each Sephirah and the Qabalah as a whole which adds to the level of subjectivity for better or for worse. Overall a fun read and a unique way of experiencing an obscure study but definitely a surface read for those interested in uncovering the deeper traditions of the Qabalah.
Aleister Crowley - “The Book of Lies”
A densely referential and symbolic text. As with much of Crowley’s work there are many areas of study that illuminate links in the chain but I chose to read this alongside an introduction to the Kabbalah and found it immensely rewarding.
Its a beautiful book of poetry, easy to pick up on any page, worth reading dozens of times. He adeptly uses subtle connections in various religious, mythic and esoteric ideas and symbols to create a larger feeling of disconnection. Using truths about the world’s synchronicities to demonstrate a larger lie. After his resonation with the OTO he is quoted saying of the book ”I understood that I held in my hands the key to the future progress of humanity,” though he previously was said to be dissatisfied with the book. The edition I read included his notes on each of the segments and this was crucial for aiding my understanding of the text especially my understanding of it as a book of lies.
A treasure chest I highly recommend.
Alejandro Jodorowsky - “The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsy”
A well written and deeply personal way of exploring many esoteric and spiritual movements and ideas. It begins with his intellectual acuity of Zen Buddhism and moves through his more empirical endeavors to attain enlightenment. Every other chapter he returns to Zen and his Zen master with a new idea or lack thereof for truly submitting to the ascetics of the practice. Interspersed are chapters concerning his encounters with different women that he meets and their impacts on his spiritual existence and philosophies. These chapters are really fun to read. The Zen chapters deal heavily with Koans and reading these riddles along with their traditional solutions felt like cheating but was highly rewarding. There is a fun section of anecdotes at the end which is also the only place he really speaks about any of his work. As with many works of this genre it is at times painfully self-indulgent and redundant but this creates an emotional vulnerability that felt quite precious. It is an easy read.
I am on Goodreads but haven’t really felt motivated by the interface so I wanted to use this blog to document my travel reading. These are the books I brought with me: Ursula K. Le Guin - “The Left Hand of Darkness” Gary Paul Nabhan - “Gathering the Desert” Alejandro Jodorowsky - “The Spiritual Journey of Alejandro Jodorowsky” Roland Barthes - “A Lover’s Discourse, Fragments” Alan Moore - “Watchmen” Patricia Hill Collins - “Black Feminist Thought” George R. R. Martin - “A Storm of Swords” Edited by Ron Sakolsky - “Gone to Croatan, Origins of North American Dropout Culture” Italo Calvino - “Invisible Cities” Italo Calvino - “Cosmicomics” Gavin Frost - “The Magic Power of White Witchcraft” (yeah I know… I got it in highschool) Robert Hand - “Planets in Composite” Edited by Sarah Simons - “No One May Ever Have the Same Knowledge Again, Letters to Mount Wilson Observatory” Hermen Hesse - “Poems” Edited by E.A. Burtt - “The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha” John Paul Sartre - “Intimacy” The Invisible Committee - “The Coming Insurrection” Magazine - “For Nothing Against Everything”
