Johnson shows how to become initiated into an authentic life.
by Julie Tallard Johnson
Intentions and spiritual principles, meditation and contemplation, ritual and risk-taking are the conditions that comprise an initiated life.
Regrettably, in modern society we do not have rites of initiation that break through the personal and societal illusions that instill and perpetuate negative habits to keep us in states of resistance.
Johnson shows how to become initiated into an authentic life through thought transformation, cultivating attention, journaling, storytelling and rituals found in the four directions of the universal mandala.
Based on the Native American medicine wheel, the Vedic wheel and the universal initiatory mandala, Johnson begins the Wheel of Initiation in the South, where initiates set their intentions; then moves into the West, where they free themselves from habitual patterns and core beliefs; then into the North, the direction of cultivating attention and unity; and finishes in the East, the direction of regeneration and initiation.
Drawing upon the life experiences of those who have successfully navigated the wheel, Johnson demonstrates that once fears, assumptions and ingrained beliefs are confronted and transformed, initiates emerge ready to reenter society with renewed energy and vision that will enrich their own lives and their communities.
$18 — Bear & Company, One Park Street, Rochester, VT 05767.
Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 29, Number 6, December 2010/January 2011.
April 13, 2012
Book review