Saturday, October 20, 2012

Hermes, Ecopsychology, Complexity Theory

Nov. 1, 2012 - Just Published:
Hermes, Ecopsychology, Complexity Theory: 
The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volume III
by Dennis L. Merritt

“Who ever does not shy away from dangers of the most profound depths and the newest pathways, which Hermes is always prepared to open, may follow and reach, whether as scholar, commentator, or philosopher, a greater find and a more certain possession.”  —Karl Kerenyi

An exegesis of the myth of Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle and the story of Hephaestus trapping Aphrodite and Ares in the act are used in The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe Volume III to set a mythic foundation for Jungian ecopsychology. Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory illustrates Hermes as the archetypal link to our bodies, sexuality, the phallus, the feminine, and the earth. Hermes’ wand is presented as a symbol for ecopsychology. The appendices of this volume develop the argument for the application of complexity theory to key Jungian concepts, displacing classical Jungian constructs problematic to the scientific and academic community. Hermes is described as the god of ecopsychology and complexity theory.

The front cover image is from a photo taken by the author of detail on an Attic Greek calyx krater by Euxitheos (potter) and Euphronios (painter) ca. 515 BCE. The gap between the horn-like extensions atop Hermes’ staff highlight his domain—the exchange and interactive field between things, as between people, consciousness and the unconscious, body and mind, and humans and nature.

Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory
The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volume III
ISBN 978-1-926715-44-5
6 x 9
228 pages
Index, Bibliography
Publication Date November 1, 2012

DENNIS L. MERRITT, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology, Zurich, Switzerland, he 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. in Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has participated in Lakota Sioux ceremonies for over twenty-five years which have 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. 

Monday, October 15, 2012

Just Published: Tantra and Erotic Trance

Oct 15, 2012 - News Release
Just Published - John Ryan Haule's 
Tantra and Erotic Trance in two volumes.

Tantra and Erotic Trance
Volume One - Outer Work
Human sexuality is a problematic thing.  It gets us into trouble, breaks our hearts, involves us in painful compulsive relationships, even transmits deadly diseases.  It would surely scare us off, if it were not for its siren call to higher forms of union and moments of bodily bliss.  When examined more closely, however, and especially when we turn our gaze inward to see what sexual arousal is doing to our consciousness, we find we are in an altered state—a form of “erotic trance” that reveals dimensions of ourselves, our partner, and possibilities for human life that otherwise would not have been discovered.

Procreative sex forms the foundation of the nuclear family and the glue that holds society together—what we might call the “horizontal” potential of sex.  Tantra, however, is about its “vertical” dimension—about “tuning” our awareness to bring higher, spiritual realities into focus. It all begins by mastering our bodily reflexes.  This first volume of Tantra and Erotic Trance deals with the preliminary stages of mastery and the transformations of consciousness that they make possible.  The whole project is imagined as a ladder with its feet on the earth and its top leaning into Indra’s heaven.  Each rung represents a new level of awareness, a mastery of what just the rung below had appeared to us as a poorly understood gift.

Volume One - Outer Work
ISBN 978-0-9776076-8-6
9.25 x 7.5 x .75
226 pages
Index, Bibliography
Publication Date November 1, 2012


Tantra and Erotic Trance
Volume Two - Inner Work
In the first volume of Tantra and Erotic Trance we learned to overcome the ejaculatory reflex and go “beyond orgasm,” and in turn were introduced to aspects of our awareness that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. Holding ourselves in a state of longing where nothing needs be done, we learn the transpersonal potential of “erotic trance,” inhabiting the body and mind of our partner as well as our own. We become acquainted with an inner force that has a will of its own, the serpent of light that India calls “kundalini.” By now, every step we have taken has separated us from the cultural assumptions of our society and aroused disturbing emotions and images. Facing them down in calm openness calls kundalini forth as our ally, clarifies our emotional responses and gives us a new stance toward life.

Now in this second volume of Tantra and Erotic Trance, we find that the “diamond ladder of mystical ascent” is no longer “out there” in bodily congress or social expectations. Its “rungs,” instead, are the series of chakras through which the kundalini serpent rises. Each chakra that opens brings us into a different visionary world and a different emotional state. We begin in the heaviness of earth and rise through tumultuous waters and the fires of rage before entering the lightness of air and the endless expanse of ether. Indra’s heaven is finally visited in the brow chakra, and we become one with the cosmos at the crown chakra. The ultimate goal, however, is to climb back down and live on the earth with our experience intact so that every empirical event is charged with transcendent meaning.

Volume Two - Inner Work
ISBN 978-0-9776076-9-3
9.25 x 7.5 x .75
226 pages
Index, Bibliography
Publication Date November 1, 2012

John Ryan Haule
holds a doctorate in religious studies from Temple University. He is a Jungian analyst trained in Zurich and a faculty member of the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston. In addition to Tantra and Erotic Trance I and II, his publications include: Divine Madness: Archetypes of Romantic Love; The Love Cure: Therapy Erotic and Sexual; Perils of the Soul: Ancient Wisdom and the New Age; The Ecstasies of St. Francis: The Way of Lady Poverty; and Jung in the 21st Century, in two volumes: Evolution and Archetype and Synchronicity and Science.

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, October 9, 2012

Just Published - Goatsong!


What happens when you lose everything: a mother, your home, your right to live alone? What happens when society calls you undesirable? When best efforts make it worse? Three women and a child, each alone. Nature heals . . . opens hearts . . . Nelda’s small herd of goats and her wisdom, Ester’s willingness to pay attention, Dee’s caring action. These are the gifts from three unlikely women to the child Sophia. To know the saddest song there is, to know the Goatsong of tragedy, is to be reborn. Goatsong, a story of return, love, and redemption.

There are some wonderful classics that transcend age and gender: The Last Unicorn, The Red Balloon, The Little Prince. Goatsong joins that legendary trio. Unlike many books with mythic content, the emotions of the characters are authentic, their dialogue real and profound, the psychological insight as powerful as the tale.
--Leah Shelleda, author of After the Jug Was Broken and The Book of Now.

In addition to Goatsong, Patricia Damery is the author of Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation and Snakes. Her articles and poetry have been published in the San Francisco Library Journal, Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, Psychological Perspectives, and Biodynamics: Working for Social Change Through Agriculture. With her husband Donald, she has farmed biodynamically for twelve years in the Napa Valley of California.

Goatsong
Paperback & eBook
168 pages
First edition (Oct 15, 2012)
Publisher: il piccolo editions
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1926715764
ISBN-13: 978-1926715766

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.