Since life is really about learning lessons, you cannot move on until you have learned them, according to Leslie Temple-Thurston.

In Returning to Oneness: The Seven Keys of Ascension, Temple-Thurston shows us how to awaken to our full potential by learning the lessons in seven keys, which are: accept your divinity; do not believe in loss or gain; not my will but Thine; forgive all betrayals; view the ego impersonally; have faith in the support of the invisible realms; and, accept your death. These keys unlock the doorways between the chakras, the seven centers of spiritual energy in the human body, according to yoga philosophy.

When the barriers between the chakras are dissolved, energy is able to travel unimpeded throughout the body, “a river of light flows fully from head to toes, we feel happy, fulfilled and awake to our true nature as eternal, timeless beings.” Each chapter in which one of the seven keys is presented concludes with a process exercise, a prayer, and a specific meditation. These practical exercises systematically guide us through the transformation process.

Returning to Oneness takes the reader through a journey of ascension, defined as “the experience of awakening to the state of enlightenment—or unity consciousness—our highest potential.”

—Mary Templeton

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www.pathwork.org

Even modern science is beginning to recognize that an exceedingly fine line separates the natural and spiritual worlds. This unusual website would seem to lend strong support to such a kinship.

Founded on the readings of Eva Pierrakos, a renowned spiritual psychic, The Pathwork describes itself as a “spiritual path of self-purification and transformation,” based on the channeling of information given to Eva from an entity known only as “the Guide.” These self-described lectures, some 258 in number, were transmitted to the subject from 1957 until her death in 1979. Themes of the lectures are wide ranging: “God the Creator,” “The Fear of Loving,” and “Unity and Diversity” are some examples. The primary purpose of the lectures is self-transformation: “If you really want to know the truth about yourself, you can always find it out. This is merely a matter of whether you really desire the truth about yourself or not.”

Shortly before her death, Eva channeled one final lecture. These are its closing words: “All our love accompanies you on every step of your beautiful path. Work for the greater cause. Your own cause that may seem selfish will be furthered through it. Be who you truly are!” These words seem a fitting testimony to the spiritual contributions of this remarkable woman.

—Cliff Johnson

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The Spirit of Getting Organized:
12 Skills to Find Meaning and Power in Your Stuff
By Pamela Kristan
Paperback, $19.95
Red Wheel/Weiser

The papers on our desk are connected to the universe, and in fact are the universe in part. When we work with them we are working with the cosmos.”

Author Pamela Kristan finds that organizing is a doorway, an opportunity to find personal power and meaning. Her spiritual approach recognizes that emotions come up during the de-cluttering process, and her thinking is that, “on the continuum between Chaos and Structure, the balanced center point is the most effective place to be.”

To reach that balanced center point, this book offers specific defined skills, such as “Shaping Skills,” including sorting, storing, or shedding, which intervene in our physical environment to put our “stamp” on our space; and “Option Skills,” like imagining and choosing, that open up or close down possibilities. The context, or approach, is almost meditative, and leads the reader to contemplate what is truly important in his/her life. Sorting through and letting go of stuff turns out to be a deeper exercise than one might think; and this book offers both safety and enlightenment for the journey.

—Jan Suzukawa