Don’t stories carry more bandwidth than sermons? When I was a child, we were told beautiful allegorical stories during temple services. I learned a lot through them, gaining introspective insights and felt they in some way nourished a spark of spiritual self-awareness – and that I was not just an individual but part of something collectively much greater. By the time we reached teenage, the stories fell by the wayside. Services were lectured in monotone and lacked the rich perspectives and metaphors which drew me to the truths behind the tales of my early years. The fascinating layers of complexity were replaced by ‘grown-up’ dry, dogmatic sermons.
The magic was lost. But the lesson was not: we can learn faster and more completely through stories than through instruction manuals and the strait-jacket of conventional ways of thinking. For stories are multilayered and can contain many different meanings – a lot of which even the author may not have been consciously aware of – and some of which may only be visible at the right moment... That’s why I find that, when embedded in an enjoyable story, arguments/points/suggestions are often far more memorable and above all, digestible. And the richer, deeper perspective a well-crafted story can give is rarely matched in the non-fiction format.
Well, no doubt you’re already aware of the magical storytelling abilities of Paulo Coelho*, or the spiritual and alchemical wisdom embedded in the Harry Potter** stories. And we’ve shared our excitement a few times about Manda Scott’s The Crystal Skull [180102], which is our bestselling novel this year. But did you know that, at Cygnus, we have selected a whole range of spiritual novels and true stories that are not only thoroughly enjoyable to read, but also admit you to treasure-houses of meaning and guidance for living?
Which is why we’ve chosen some of our favourites from our Fiction and True Stories collection to be in the October issue (listed below). Now these are books that many of you, perhaps, would not normally consider reading, but we’ve received such lasting pleasure, wisdom and wonder from them that we’d really like you to give them a try! All these books are on our personal bookshelves, and are among the few we would enjoy reading more than once.
Please click on the book title to read a review about the book.
THE LADY IN BLUE Javier Sierra
THE WAY OF WYRD Brian Bates
BUDDHA: A STORY OF ENLIGHTENMENT Deepak Chopra
EAT, PRAY, LOVE Elizabeth Gilbert
THE ENCHANTED APRIL Elizabeth von Arnim
SUMMER WITH THE LEPRECHAUNS Tanis Helliwell
*Most Paulo Coelho titles and the whole Harry Potter series are available from Cygnus.
**If you'd like to explore further the symbolism behind the Harry Potter stories, this website is a mine of fascinating ideas and has a great discussion forum: www.harrypotterforseekers.com
|
Inspirational features 
