Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Tantra & Erotic Trance


June 26, 2012 - News Release

Fisher King Press to publish John Ryan Haule's Tantra & Erotic Trance in two volumes.

Tantra & Erotic Trance
Volume One - Outer Work

A recurring metaphor Tantra & Erotic Trance is that of the ladder of mystical ascent, sometimes called the “diamond” ladder, evoking the Tibetan concept of dorje and the Hindu lingam but especially the diamond body of Buddhism.  An ascent is described, beginning in the very first chapters where controversies about sex lead to the conclusion that human sexuality has both a horizontal meaning as the foundation of the nuclear family in a stable society and a vertical meaning as the engine of consciousness change in Tantra.

We embark on the vertical path only by developing a new relationship with our body, in fact reversing some of the assumptions most of us take for granted.  This first volume, “Outer Work,” describes the influence our body can have on our consciousness, beginning with a new valuation of orgasm and its role in human sexuality.  We also learn that being separated from our partner can be no less important than being together.  Finally, Tantra takes us into conflict with the values of society at large and recommends an heroic stance in which we court the most disturbing and overwhelming emotions in a spirit of equanimity.  The first volume ends with the reforms of the great tenth century devotee of Shiva, Abhinavagupta, who urged his disciples to turn their attention away from the outer forms of their practices and to attend instead to the changes occurring in their consciousness.

Abhinavagupta made the essential mystical move recognized in every religious tradition:  that we must learn to reverse our attention, away from the deity or sacred object before us to the effects such beings cause in our awareness.  His contribution, then, becomes the foundation for Volume Two, “Inner Work.”

Volume One - Outer Work
ISBN 978-0-9776076-8-6
9.25 x 7.5 x .75
Est. 215 pages
Index, Bibliography
Publication Date November 15, 2012

* * * * *

Tantra & Erotic Trance
Volume Two - Inner Work

In Volume One of this study, “Outer Work,” we described managing our orgasmic response so as to cultivate “erotic trance,” the altered state of consciousness that is the foundation of all Tantric activity;  and we used it to climb the “diamond ladder” of mystical ascent to a rung characterized by the management of overwhelming emotions.

Now in Volume Two, “Inner Work,” we turn our attention away from “outer” goals having to do with our physiology and our relation to society at large and its prescriptions, to the much more subtle “interior” changes occurring in our consciousness.  Continuing our climb up the rungs of the diamond ladder, we are introduced to the landscape of mysticism, a topography whose several regions are each characterized by the mastery of a different psychological capacity.

Yoga gives us an interior ladder in the form of the subtle body that is comprised of the chakras, each of which opens onto a distinctly different emotional realm.  In this work our “feeling function” becomes highly differentiated.  Tibetan mandala meditation disciplines our imaginative capacity, as we bring the heavenly palace of copulating gods and goddesses into being.  By cultivating emptiness, we pare away our attachments to the memories that have been holding us back and the aspirations that narrow our future so that we can dwell in the present moment, without the props of doctrine and method.

Passing beyond our personal self, we are introduced to the divine oneness of the cosmos, pulsing between accomplished union and the vision of that with which we are united.  We return from such ecstasy to live our temporal lives on two planes simultaneously as spiritual wayfarers.

John Ryan Haule holds a doctorate in religious studies from Temple University. He is a Jungian analyst trained in Zurich and is a faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston.

Volume Two - Inner Work
ISBN 978-0-9776076-9-3
9.25 x 7.5 x .75
Est. 220 pages
Index, Bibliography
Publication Date November 15, 2012

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 
and a growing list of alternative titles. 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Menopause Man-Unplugged


June 25, 2012

News/Press Release — Just Published

Menopause Man-Unplugged
Book Two of The Chronicles of a Wandering Soul Series
a novel by Mel Mathews

“Through the 21st Century Looking Glass”  —USA Today

Mel Mathews is a sensitive observer of the human condition, with an emphasis on the Male Human Condition of our time. He has created a character in Malcolm Clay that is a baby boomer Holden Caulfield, a variation on John Updike’s Rabbit Angstrom, and he manages to take us by the hand and lead us through the bumpy terrain of current interpersonal relationships as well as anyone writing today. Menopause Man–Unplugged is a journey so well written that the novel calls for pause to enjoy the sheer ebullience of the verbiage. Mel Mathews is a fine writer, finding his way through life in these times. He is a reliable companion on the trek we all are taking. And now on to the next volume in the series, SamSara, addictively! —Grady Harp, USA Today

“Mel Mathews’ place in the ranks of fine contemporary writers is assured.”

In The Chronicles of a Wandering Soul series, the wandering, questing central figure of Malcolm Clay has become a new literary icon. With thoughtful ruminations, keen humor, informative explorations of themes from religion to traits of visited countries, and so many clever double entendres, Mel Mathews’ place in the ranks of fine contemporary writers is assured.
—Grady Harp, goodreads,  Amazon.com Top10 Reviewer

Raw at times, Mel Mathews, in his unique and uncanny way, takes his readers inside, deep into the soul of a man as he struggles to become free of the illusions that continue to haunt humanity to this very day. Menopause Man–Unplugged brings us closer to the reality that men have equally suffered from what the Women’s Movement began to defy decades ago. A theme runs through Mathews’ novels, suggesting that the so-called problems between the sexes, as with most battles, is not so much about man and woman being at odds with one another, but instead, people being at odds within themselves.

Menopause Man-Unplugged
a novel by Mel Mathews
Publisher: il piccolo editions
ISBN 9781926715360

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 
and a growing list of alternative titles. 

Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Cry of Merlin


June 27, 2012

Advance Press/News Release:
Just Published by Fisher King Press

The Cry of Merlin: 
Jung, the Prototypical Ecopsychologist
The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volume II
by Dennis L. Merritt

Carl Jung can be seen as the prototypical ecopsychologist. Volume II of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe explores how Jung’s life and times created the context for the ecological nature of Jungian ideas.  It is an ecopsychological exercise to delineate the many dimensions of Jung’s life that contributed to creation of his system—his basic character, nationality, family of origin, difficulties in childhood, youthful environment, period in Western culture, and his pioneering position in the development of modern psychology. Jung said every psychology is a subjective confession, making it important to discover the lacuna in Jung’s character and in his psychological system, particularly in relation to Christianity. Archetypically redressing the lacuna leads to the creation of a truly holistic, integrated ecological psychology that can help us live sustainably on this beautiful planet.

Front Cover: Jung’s relief carving on the side of his Bollingen Tower, a place he associated with Merlin. The inscription reads, “May the light arise, which I have borne in my body.” The woman reaching out to milk the mare is Jung’s anima as “a millennia-old ancestress.” The image is an anticipation of the Age of Aquarius, which is under the constellation of Pegasus. The feminine element is said to receive a special role in this new eon. Jung imagined the inspiring springs that gush forth from the hoof prints of Pegasus, the “fount horse,” to be associated with the Water Bearer, the symbol of Aquarius.

Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Merritt is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over twenty-five years of participation in Lakota Sioux ceremonies has strongly influenced his worldview.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 
and a growing list of alternative titles. 

Friday, June 22, 2012

A Russian Lullaby


June 22, 2012

Press/News Release - Just published:

A Russian Lullaby

by Deldon Anne McNeely

“Autobiographical narratives constitute an important part of mankind’s memory,” wrote Andrei Sakharov, the Russian physicist, philosopher, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, in his Memoirs. “We should not minimize our sacred endeavors in this world, where, like faint glimmers in the dark, we have emerged for a moment from the nothingness of unconsciousness into material existence. We must make good the demands of reason and create a life worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only dimly perceive.”

2012 – I fell in love with Russia from afar when I was a child. Fate brought me to live there from 1977 to 1980, and I continued a dysfunctional love affair with her culture. When I first wrote this memoir twenty years later, in 2000, it was an expression of hope. Hope had seen me through those three years in the Soviet Union, and I wanted to record that for whoever needed to hear it. In 2000, the USSR as we knew it had collapsed, and the Russian and Ukrainian citizens that I had known were facing the task of founding a democratic society for the first time in their histories. Now, a dozen years later, the task is still ongoing, and the news out of Russia is that voices from the people are being heard as never before. The older generation that I had met in the ’70s had seen their hopes for a benevolent communism dashed. The bright young adults of that time, conditioned to serve the state, are having to ask questions and make decisions about their leadership that were never possible before. So much has changed. So little has changed. My little memoir seems timely again, another small voice from the street.

2000 – Hope drove this memoir, as hope drove the journey described here. It was an outer journey to Russia and back, and it was an inner journey through despair. The purpose in telling this story is to contribute something, however small, to the understanding of a woman’s feelings and thoughts about pregnancy, and to contribute something, however small, to the understanding of Russia’s journey toward stability and security, her rich culture and the courage of her people fully recognized and appreciated in the family of man.

Deldon Anne McNeely is a mother and psychoanalyst who writes about her family’s experience of life in the Soviet Union during the Cold War years. She is also the author of several books on the subject of archetypal psychology.

Product Details
Paperback & eBook editions: 156 pages
Dimensions: 6" x 6" x 0.5"
Weight: 14 oz.
Publisher: il piccolo editions; First edition (June 22, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 192671587X
ISBN-13: 978-1926715872

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 
and a growing list of alternative titles. 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

The Clinician's Guide to Treating Guilt


The Guilt Cure proposes a new theory of guilt that can be very helpful to therapists. It puts guilt in a totally different perspective that can help alleviate the pain and suffering it inflicts. Existing theories of guilt are based on the conventional idea that guilt’s primary function is in the protection and maintenance of morals. While guilt certainly contributes to the protection and maintenance of morals, most guilt, in fact, stems from thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that violate no religious, divine, or legal ordinances. Thus, guilt is far more morally neutral than we would ever suspect. Guilt’s moral neutrality stems from its more important psychological role in the creation and maintenance of consciousness and in the workings of the self-regulatory system of the psyche. It is consciousness of guilt’s significant moral neutrality that helps alleviate its pain.

This seminal body of work about the psychological implications of guilt reaches deep into humanity's collective experience of guilt and finds persuasive psychological reasons for guilt's role and purpose that go far beyond conventionally held religious explanations. The Guilt Cure examines the many faces of guilt, including its  function in the creation and maintenance of consciousness, its place in the self-regulatory system of the psyche, its effects on our psychological development, and its impact on our mental health and wellbeing.

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