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Ecopsychology connects psychology and ecology. The political and practical implications are to show humans ways of healing alienation and to build a sane society and a sustainable culture. Theodore Roszak is credited with coining the term in his 1992 book, The Voice of the Earth. This was a call for the development of a field in which psychology would go out of the built environment to examine why people continue to behave in "crazy" ways that damage the environment, and the environmental movement would find new ways to motivate people to action, ways more positive than protest. Roszak expanded the idea in the 1995 anthology Ecopsychology, which he co-edited with Mary Gomes and Allen Kanner. This book, with articles by each of the editors and many others who would become prominent voices in the field, is still considered by many to be an excellent primer on ecopsychology. ... Read more

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In "And So It Began", Rob, a body cut off from the living of life, dies of his old self and is reborn as 'Bran', the Raven. From the dis-spirited inner darkness of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome "And So It Began" flies in the face of the ensconced western medical model of disease, relating an otherworld journey of self discovery and a new understanding of 'dis-ease' and wellness. Rob, a successful organic farmer and Executive Director of a conservation organization, Trees For The Future, collapses in questioning despair from the rigours of CFS. This 'fall' brings him to the brink and finally over the threshold of his scientific and cultural rationalism, the defining principals of what he constitutes ordinary reality. Confronted with a waking vision, the barrier to a new manner of perception dissolves. With great difficulty he sets aside his beliefs in the way he thinks things are, the way of the world, the illusion that is consensus reality, and is transported into the otherworld of visions, dreaming and the Spirits of Nature. For Rob, his illness becomes a journey of transition, self knowledge and empowerment. He goes beyond his dis-ease to the very constructions of his ego self and of his images of self worth based upon the doing and creations of career. Propelled by visionary and shamanic experiences he undertakes a number of vision quests. These fasting, pan-cultural experiences in the solitude of the desert wilderness change his life. Rob was not called to exotic lands in search of gurus, shamans or quiet ashrams, his journey is into the wilderness, the darkness within himself, hidden away for fear of what might be revealed, and into the wilderness outside of him, the desert. His tools are the ancient tools of vision seeking; wilderness exposure and depravation, and through journeying and ceremony. The doors open revealing the ensouled framework of non-ordinary reality, a realm of enchantment and magic, of place and purpose. There was no need for Rob to search for teachers, they were all around him, Raven, Stag, Lizard, Eagle, and "the Child of the Mound Born Dead".

The story, taken from Jy Chiperzak's life experiences and woven into fiction, begins briefly with the main character's, Rob's 'naming' in 1969, flying then into the future, his name forgotten, into a time of inner struggle and self dissolution, it is 1994. Collapse, the demon Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is in control... pain, depression, cognitive disruption, confusion and anger has called him in unquestionable terms to halt, to transform or ever remain in a closed and empty box. What some would call delusion, imagination, fantasy, arising in the hidden recesses of Rob's mind was in fact the awakening of his consciousness to the existence of the otherworld of Spirit, a realm as real as the physical, a realm which becomes the truth behind the drama that unfolds.

The world of Nature, Spirit, and the shamanic realms, open gateways for Rob, portals to his final reawakening as Bran, who he embraces through the 'the little death' and through rebirth. On the one hand "And So It Began" is the journey of Rob battling his demon CFS, all but succumbing to it before wakening to the lessons it has to teach him as a soul ally, and as Bran embodying a new, more comprehensive vision of reality, of dis-ease and wellness, of love, compassion and belonging and service to the kosmos. On the other hand it is a chronicling of a transitional framework to be embraced by any persons seeking the true understanding of dis-ease, vision, purpose and the lessons to be learned in the practice of life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

so it began
In reading this book I found myself walking with Bran through a spiritual awakening landscape. Bran leads the reader through everyday hurdles of the person finding their truth. The character's dialog with nature throughoutthe story reveals the tools for the reader to do the same. This readerfound simple connections, like the firing of a synapse in Jy's book. Thisis a book about holding one's own honesty, seeing life as sacred and livinglife in one's own integrity, compassion and heart. ... Read more

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This book presents a series of lectures about the higher stages of man’s spiritual development. The lectures describe the methodologies of the main philosophico-religious traditions that existed in the past or exist now on the Earth. This material illustrates the fact that the methodology of spiritual development is one for all people and that in this way God leads all people to Perfection. The book is addressed to everyone aspiring to find and to realize the meaning of our lives on the Earth, to cognize our common Creator, to achieve spiritual Perfection. ... Read more