by
June Rouse

(Click on the image
above to order book)

If you're among the worn, the frazzled, those yearning for leeway to breathe free, GETTING OUT FROM UNDER by Stephanie Winston offers you a most friendly way to Redefine Your Priorities in an Overwhelming World. Those last few words are the subtitle, thoroughly justified.

A little self discipline needed? Here are time management tools, workable keys to save the minutes or hours a week that you covet for self, family, friends and -- who knows, maybe even better meals!

When you were in school, did you have the good fortune to learn tricks that make studying easier? Most of them are transferable to everyday life. Going from the general to the specific, for instance, is always a great exercise. Make a Master List and amaze yourself with the number of items on it. Maybe someone from another planet could get all that done; but if you look at it as a list from which you can pull a list of five to ten prioritized items for each day, you begin to part the underbrush that trips you up.

Has that unbelievable mound of mail that arrives five or six days a week got you by the scruff? Winston suggests the TRAF method of handling each piece only one time: Toss, Refer, Act or File, she says, adding just enough detail so that we get it . . . and by golly, it works.

I suspect you already do things besides talk when you're on the phone at home. You can add to washing the dishes such mundane tasks as clipping marked items from the newspaper or magazines, paying bills, putting stamps on envelopes . . . you're limited only by your imagination.

"What would it take to restore the community concept among friends and neighbors -- to become less isolated and consider ways we can share the load?" Winston asks, and points out that the friendly skill of bartering has come back into style big time: errands for items, services for childcare; you name it.. Make a co-op work for more than grocery shopping. Round-robin meal making, skill-sharing; fix-it groups for such things as painting, installing storm windows, hauling trash. A neighborhood help service adds to quality of life.

When you're ready to relax (oh radical thought!), take a look at Winston's cool-down chapter on taking time out, then get into Part Two. Here's where Getting Out From Under takes the inner self into consideration . . . as must you. Care enough about yourself to follow her techniques and you may find you've changed your life and, probably, the rate at which those pesky age markers are appearing. (178 pages, $22, Perseus Books.

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by
Margaret Brown

Poor Rachel! In the beginning she just wants what every young girl wants: a higher marriage, one of spirit as well as flesh. What ensues is a story of love and betrayal. A Harlequin Romance, you ask? Just as saucy -- but this is the personal story of Rachel, an Old Testament heroine, a Naditu priestess, the spiritual mother of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, wife to Jacob and mother of Joseph (of colorful coat fame).

More than a love story, RACHEL'S DESTINY - AS WRITTEN IN THE STARS by Julie Bresciani, Ph.D. (she's a Jungian psychologist and astrologer) is a saga of transition from the matriarchal Age of Taurus to the patriatrichal Age of Aries. For Rachel, this means she will need to practice her devotion to the Goddess in secret and experience the decline of Sisterhood. Mix in the Nefilim -- the Starry Ones "from Heaven" spoken of in Genesis 6 -- and the Brotherhood of the Black Hand and you have a page turner. This is one of those books you find yourself reading with one eye open at three in the morning, if only to find out how Rachel will deal with the latest injustice.

But for all the heartbreak, Julie Bresciani's Rachel leaves us with hope for our coming Age of Aquarius. The author draws parallels between the tumult of Rachel's time and ours. A synopsis from the back cover sums it up: "Rachel's Destiny as Written in the Stars is Volume I of the Nefilim Series, a series of psycho-historical novels designed to usher in a New Millennium."

I anxiously await Volume II.

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by
John "Bear" Wright

Normally I do not care for these specific tarot deck reference books. I am of the belief that each tarot user should find their own interpretation to each card, developing a deeper understanding for themselves of their deck(s) -- and that these books can be quite the crutch leading away from that. This said . . . I found Ferguson's work to be more of a guide on how to use the Arthurian legends as a tool for your own spiritual path.

I was truly impressed by the sheer volume of background given about not only the literary setting of the legends but, when available, the historical backing to them as well. I could easily recommend this book as a great Arthurian legend primer and an Arthurian reading guide as well. Ferguson seamlessly uses the tarot and the legends to structure an excellent metaphor-based spiritual tool. Her insights to the inner workings of each legend and how they correlate to certain traditional tarot cards, and to each other, are phenomenal. If you are a fan of this genre of writing, I highly recommend picking this book up. ($14.95, Llewellyn Publications.)

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