PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
PRESS RELEASE: Read this book, and then join the REDVOLUTION. (Minneapolis, MN/San Francisco, CA)‐‐The overwhelming response to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love and Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth proves that modern mainstream women are desperately seeking a deeper connection with themselves and with their life, but many are not sure how to make this happen. It is for these women (and men, but we’ll stick to women for a minute) that Sera Beak wrote The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark (Jossey‐Bass, a division of Wiley Books, 2006) It’s the perfect “How to” companion book for Eat Pray Love—it’s the only spiritual guidebook written by a young woman who is also a world‐traveled Harvard trained scholar of comparative religion‐‐and an intrepid “Spiritual Cowgirl”. Since its release in 2006, it has changed the lives of thousands of women who are now listening to their inner voice, and have found the divine within. The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to “…when I read the first few pages of TRB, I felt Igniting Your Divine Spark is a hilarious, authentic, smart something inside me break open. I started to cry. I and sassy spiritual firestarter for the modern young cried and laughed and cried some more. It struck woman. Written in the voice of your best friend—someone me as such utter truth that I knew I had been hiding from the divine within me.” who might grab a Martini after her meditation class, go ‐‐Paige, a reader from Washington state dancing after yoga, or believe sex to be a viable way to pray (!)—this dogma‐free book pushes the divine straight into women's very own stiletto Manolo Blahniks or purple Birkenstocks, teaching all types of women how to meditate, how to connect with and listen to their inner voice, how to pray, how to create rituals, how to trust their intuition, how to explore divinity. In short, how to be their whole, delicious self. Sera Beak leads Redvolution workshops for women around the country, is writing a Red series of books, and is creating a feature documentary, Redvolution: Dare to Disturb the Universe with an academy award winning documentarian, capturing the modern young women’s spiritual search, which features: Alice Walker, Tori Amos, Christy Turlington, The Dixie Chicks, hula hoop instructors, sacred prostitutes, scholars, mystics, and amazing young women from around the world (to be released in theaters 2010).
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT THE RED BOOK by Sera Beak “Every so often there comes our way a glorious chunk of life so utterly unique that even the jaded blink twice. The Red Book is just such a chunk, gloriously dropped out of the mind of Sera Beak as a special message for today's contemporary woman in the language of just such a woman, placing before us the wisdom of the ages. From gentle meditation to bouncing sexuality and much in between, the path to personal rejuvenation through the enlivening of the heart, mind and spirit is laid out in such refreshing, sparkling, effervescent words that what results is a psychic shower for the soul. Get naked, get in, get wet. You'll never feel as cleaned.” —Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations With God series “GORGEOUS! The Red Book is a deep, smart, and authentic guide to being more indelibly and powerfully yourself" —SARK author/artist, Succulent Wild Woman “The Red Book wrests spirituality from the death grip of the humorless believers and restores it to its wild natural state. If you're hungry for real magic but allergic to self‐righteous jive, sit yourself down at this feast.” —Rob Brezsny, author of "Free Will Astrology" “... particularly timely ... Sera Beak has a beautiful gift of writing that turns sometimes difficult material into simple ‐‐ but not simplistic ‐‐ anecdotes for living a more profound life. This is a wise and wonderful book that reminds young women that life is not a rehearsal, but rather a magnificent spiritual journey to be lived and experienced to the fullest. Read this book, but more importantly, apply it!” —Baron Baptiste, yoga teacher and author of Journey into Power “Don’t be fooled, this book may taste like a juicy pomegranate, but what’s really going on here is nothing short of a revolution. Sera’s radical call is for young women to start believing in themselves, to trust and use their innate spiritual authority, and to understand that authentic power can never come from anything or anyone else. Beak writes out of her years of academic study, her participation in diverse spiritual practices from the east and west, and importantly, her personal and intuitive experience. Her lightness of being is worth taking seriously. —China Galland, author of The Bond Between Women, professor at Graduate Theological Union.
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
“Sera Beak’s intention is to grab a younger audience and rock their “spiritually jaded” world. She does just that, but Beak also rocked my old, “boomer generation” world.” —Judith’s Table: A Spiritual Feast for the Feminine Soul “Beak's writing is like spiritual kindling; I dare you to read her words and not come away re‐energized about whatever religion you practice, and dying to try out at least one idea or practice you never have. It's smart, electric, and sumptuous. It's spiritual dark chocolate in a scarlet wrapper, and as I have finally discovered now that I'm almost 30, dark chocolate is the only kind worth having.” —Dianne Sylvan, in Drawing Down the Moon
…and what readers have said: “Know this: igniting my divine spark has also kicked my ass five ways from Sunday. My ordinary perceptions are constantly challenged. My limits are made clear, then broken open. I cannot play safe or dumb or keep myself cocooned or judgmental…it’s not always pretty. It’s definitely not always fun. Truth sets me free, but it can sometimes hurt like a thousand bee stings and a bad colonic.” ‐‐Sera Beak, from The Red Book
“For me, Sera Beak is the only other author besides Marianne Williamson who has spoken to me so personally and let me know that whatever I am doing in and however I am doing it on my spiritual journey, it is not only ok, but it is great. Please read this book and share it with your family and friends. Let's keep Sera Beak writing!” —Blake Marler (Charlotte, NC)
“But bottom line, here's what I know: as a mid‐30s American woman, still seeking, still searching, still SURE that there's a spiritual concoction out there that will not only fit but will grow with me and push me farther than I thought possible, I can't thank Sera enough for laying this book out into the world, raw, funny, irreverant, and deeply, deeply poignant. Now stop reading about it, and get it! Now!” —Laura Neff (Charlotte, NC)
“The Red Book by Sera Beak was a delight to read. Her combination of religious information, spiritual insight and humor kept me enthralled to the end. Even though this book is directed toward the young/middle aged woman; I as a man enjoyed it immensely. Her themes are simple and ring with authenticity. Her wit made me laugh out loud as she lead me through an inspiring journey full of amazing stories and real world advice. Being a graduate of Religious Studies myself, I appreciate Sera's knowledge of the world’s traditions while boldly encouraging our interconnectedness and our individual uniqueness.” —Eric Holland (Where land and sea meet.)
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PUBLICITY CONTACT:
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Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
“Not since Our Bodies, Ourselves, have I read a book that I want to put into the hands of every woman‐ fellow traveler in this life. Sera Beak draws from history, literature, cross‐cultural study and travel, writes in hip, fun‐to‐read zine‐speak while packing a wallop... every bit of wisdom my women friends and I have managed to accumulate in our multiple decades on this earth AND then some. She has given us a spiritual guide for the 21st century woman, no matter what one's beliefs. The Red Book is at the top of my gift list. I have given it to my daughter, my step‐daughter, my step‐daughter's roommate, friends, colleagues and family. The Red Book will have a huge ripple effect for it is an absolute pass‐ along book, pillow book, beach book, travel companion. A thousand thanks, Ms. Beak for this work. The world will be a better place with each woman who reads it. May it be a way to enlivenment and wellness for many.” —Claire Paris
“The Red Book is one of those rare books that has truly changed my life. It has changed how I feel, how I see both little and big events in my life, how I pray, and how I love. Prior to reading this book, I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert...which got me thinking more about prayer, setting my intention, choosing my attitude, etc. Beak's book is the perfect next step, teaching me how to bring the divine back into my life, and notice where it is already present. The tone of the book and Beak's relaxed tone makes the book easy to read, almost like having a conversation with your best friend. This book is amazing.” —M. Cervi (Hudson, MA United States)
“I do have one criticism‐‐‐Ms. Beak has spun her wonderful concoction of gold and other precious metals to a specific audience (namely young women). WRONG. I will have to admit that I am 68, a male, and a piano player. That combination is a little far afield from the targeted audience. That's the point, of course, because this book is for anyone of any age who wants to put some "kick" into worship/prayer/meditation/spirituality/whatever.” —Jack Widner (Columbus, OH)
“I thumbed through this book in a local bookstore and every page was an "Aha!" for me. It was so good to feel that someone else was on the same journey that I am, and made the path wider to follow. I don't know how old Sera Beak is but I know I have a number of years on her and yet I stand in awe of the experience and study that she put into leading the life that lead to the publishing of this book. She is my new heroine. I most certainly would suck as a book reviewer because all I want to do is quote every word of The Red Book that I've read so far and turn all blushing and giggly and use words like "awesome" to describe how wonderful I think it is.” —Angela‐Eloise, blogger at blogickal.com
PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
AUTHOR BIO: SERA BEAK, author of THE RED BOOK
LONG BIO: Sera Beak is a Harvard‐trained scholar of mysticism and comparative religion who's spent the last dozen years traveling the world exploring spirituality ‐‐from whirling with Sufi dervishes to meeting the Dalai Lama on her 21st birthday; from taking the host from a Croatian Catholic mystic who had the stigmata (truly) to having life‐altering visions with a shaman, and just about everything in between (she now happily deems herself a Spiritual Cowgirl). Her first book is The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark. She is currently writing more books in the Red series and co‐directing a feature documentary film called Redvolution: Dare to Disturb the Universe. Check out www.serabeak.com and www.spiritualcowgirl.com SHORT BIO: Sera Beak is a Harvard‐trained scholar of mysticism and comparative religion and an intrepid Spiritual Cowgirl who’s spent the last dozen years traveling the world exploring spirituality. She’s the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark. She is currently writing more books in the Red series and co‐directing a feature documentary film called Redvolution: Dare to Disturb the Universe. Check out: www.serabeak.com and www.spiritualcowgirl.com
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
The Spiritual Cowgirl Speaks Sera Beak on Igniting the Divine Spark in Everyone adapted from The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark (Jossey‐Bass, a Wiley Imprint, July 2006)
Heaven on Earth Of course, the biggest oversight in religious history may be patriarchy’s failure to acknowledge that despite all our so‐called sins, heaven can be found right here on earth; that God moves in love (and meaningful sex), not fear; and that body glitter makes the angels whistle. Try transgressing against what “they” told you about God, about heaven, about karma and sin or what you need to do in order to be a good spiritual girl. Test the waters. Create your own crazy swan dive to take you deep. Dare to have a divine inner child who speaks with a pierced tongue.
Jesus Christ: Religious Anarchist After studying the New Testament from a historical perspective, it’s nearly impossible not to come away with the feeling that Jesus transgressed quite on purpose, as if he were consciously trying to offend the religious authorities, scandalize the good and holy, and stick it to the law.
Remember, every concept, every belief has a ceiling, a limit. And we all know that divinity likes to go topless. The trick is to hold certain beliefs that serve you at a particular time but not to cling to them when your spirit wants to become more daring and take it all off.
Beware of any belief, teacher, practice, or tradition that makes you feel like you have to do so much, or become something or someone so different, in order to be self‐ realized or enlightened. Likewise, beware of those who tell you that there is some perfect ultimate enlightened state you’re supposed to reach, eventually, if you meditate enough or listen to your intuition absolutely, or drink enough grape Kool‐Aid.
The divine is slapping your ass right now. It happened yesterday. It will continue tomorrow, even if you try to avoid it. Yes, this is a positive thing, a magical and fine‐ tuned phenomenon, one that is so much more beneficial with your conscious participation.
Get Naked What if you tried a stripped‐down, Brazilian bikini‐waxed, reclaimed, retuned, redecorated, re‐energized experience of prayer?
God. The word is just so damn loaded.
Always dig deeper. Religious history is far more subjective than we realize and, like political history, is mostly written by the “winners” (that is, those who conquered the previous culture) Remember, religion is a manmade invention. Spirit is not. So relax your linear focus a bit. Spirit is winking like mad between the lines. All the lines.
The Value of Blasphemy You'd be amazed at how many traditions absolutely insist that certain aspects of the divine are absolutely rigid and inflexible, and if you try to change or adapt them in the slightest, you're not merely dishonoring a major sacred aspect of spiritual life but actually blaspheming, an act punishable by a very unpleasant, fiery afterlife. To which The Red Book says, oh please.
To put it bluntly, the universe is not your bitch. The divine does not hand out complete answers all tied up in pretty ribbons; it is your partner, not your personal Santa Claus. The secret of Gnosticism is this: To know your deep self is to simultaneously know God.
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
AVAILABLE WORKSHOPS
Redvolution: Calling All Spiritual Superheroines! This firestarter gathering reintroduces spirituality to women in a style and lingo that fits their unique, modern, and often complicated lives. Based on a combustible cocktail from Sera’s The Red Book, we’ll explore what it means to (respectfully) mix and match ancient religious traditions and new spiritual beliefs in order to create a truly Redvolutionary life. The Red heart of this non‐dogmatic workshop is to inspire all women to discover and activate their spiritual super powers by creating a more intimate and expressive relationship with their divine spark ‐ through creative exercises, intention‐setting, meditation, ritual, intuitive journaling, and provocative dialogue. Emphasis will be placed on trusting one’s unique path and becoming one's own spiritual authority…not too mention creating some delicious, divine mischief along the way. After all, you’re not here to play “I follow my own red heart. I listen to those who speak from their own. And small; you’re here to save the world. I am wide open, but extremely Please bring a journal, objects to be placed on an altar, and discerning. I question, doubt, and dare a delicious sense of humor. to know there’s always more. I sift and dig and only digest the spiritual ideas, tools, and practices that intuitively resonate with me, that What is so spiritual about the color red, and how do you challenge me to grow, that allow me become a Redvolutionary? Sera Beak presents a Tantric to unfold organically.” hiccup, a Gnostic nudge, a sly wink from Mary Magdalene, —From the Introduction and a delightfully maverick approach to spirituality. Sera is a Harvard‐trained scholar of mysticism and comparative religion, the author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark and an intrepid spiritual cowgirl who's spent the last dozen years traveling the world exploring spirituality. www.serabeak.com
Redvolution: Dare to Disturb the Universe Intro Talk
To book Sera for a workshop, contact her at: Sera Beak 877 Ashbury St. apt# 2 San Francisco, CA 94117 sera@serabeak.com home: 415‐242‐6103 cell: 415‐734‐7873
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
An Interview with Sera Beak, author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark (courtesy of The Lipstick Mystic, www.lipstickmystic.com)
Q: Sera Beak is author of the new book, The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark, published by Jossey‐Bass, an imprint of Wiley Books. She's a Harvard‐trained religious scholar, adventurer, and overall sassy chick. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to ask her some questions about her new book. Thanks for sitting down with us, Sera! A: Thank you so much for having me, this is very exciting for me as well because I’m such a fan of your work. Q: Sera, you've had the chance to study many world religions over the years. In The Red Book you offer tidbits and food for thought taken from many faiths, providing inspiring, user‐ friendly bits of wisdom that sit outside any conventional religion. I'm going to ask you something that may be impossible to answer. After all of your studies and adventures, is there any one religion that you follow? Or are you more like me, synthesizing the best of many of the world's faiths into a special gumbo of your own?
A: I’m more like you, a sort of spiritual freestyler. While I deeply respect the wisdom within the world’s religions and alternative practices, I’m far too much of a freedom‐loving Aquarius to force‐fit myself into just one ‐ when I try, it feels like I’m squeezing myself into someone else’s clothes. So, I do what I think many of us are doing these days ‐ I graze freely at the spiritual buffet, choosing what suits me for that period in my life and evolution, and leaving the rest. But at the same time, I try to be very conscious of the pitfalls of this kind of approach, of how easy it can be to only chow down on the sweet, feel‐good stuff while avoiding the more difficult spiritual broccoli. I’ve become pretty discerning over the years. For me, it’s all about intuitive resonation, finding those beliefs that spark my intelligence as well as my heart, that challenge me to grow and that allow me to unfold organically. The spiritual practices, tools, and beliefs that I do work with, I don’t treat with kid gloves. I like to rough ‘em up a little, open them up for some fresh air, and get creative. I’ve become a shameless (but still respectful) spiritual
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
appropriator ‐‐ something that would make a few of my grad school religion professors scowl ‐‐ and this is why I have happily deemed myself a “spiritual cowgirl”. Q: I love that term, "spiritual cowgirl." I want to join the spiritual cowgirl club right now! I like how you are informed by the past but focused very much on the future. You write in your book about how world religions have gotten off track when they moved into the patriarchal mode and stomped out the wisdom of wise women throughout the world. Which aspects of women's voices and women's wisdom do you feel we need to recapture the most as we move ahead with new forms of spirituality? What are the most urgent things that you believe we need to revive to balance out the legacy of the overly patriarchal systems we've been living under? A: Here are a basic few: a more holistic and healing approach towards political, medical, environmental and religious issues, the creation of some smart and bold (non‐sappy) tools to treat the collective sexual wounds of this planet, taking more responsibility for our beliefs and our vibrations, daring to know truth for ourselves instead of relying so much on media or blind faith or “received wisdom”, learning how to love our flesh as is, unity versus separation, the celebration of horizontal transcendence, sports teams named after goddesses. The list goes on. But for me, there’s a big catch in all the talk about resurrecting the divine feminine. See, I studied religion and mysticism in grad school
with the intent of uncovering the lost, missing pieces of the feminine that I felt sure were buried deep inside our patriarchal religious traditions. And guess what? I was sorely disappointed. Sure, there are wonderful feminine threads interwoven into our big traditions (especially the mystical sects of these traditions, such as Kabbalah and Sakta Tantrism, which use such great feminine metaphors, images, and even goddesses), but if you get up real close, what you still see ‐‐ through the academic lens, anyway ‐‐ is a big ol’ penis. I found that there was, and still is, a dominant masculine energy overlaying everything within religion, and the more I studied the traditions, the more I realized that there might not have ever been a “true” feminine heart beating within them. But it is beating within each of us. And as such, I’ve come to realize that for me, it’s just too much work trying to revive something from the religious or spiritual past that doesn’t actually exist in the way my heart and mind really need it to exist. In other words, maybe we need to quit looking so hard for powerful divine feminine representations outside ourselves, and start creating anew, from within ourselves. Q: I agree. If we listen to the heart beating within us, we KNOW how to connect with Spirit. We each have our own way. And I think you're right, it would be great if we were encouraged to tap into that essential truth within us instead of looking to outside agents, gurus, or methods. You offer some ideas about how to do this in your book.
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
One of the really great things about your book is how it is designed to inspire women to open up their psychic toolbox and start writing down dreams, creating a scrapbook of ideas, inspirations, and experiences. Tell us a little about how you started doing this. Wasn't it a family member who gave you your own first "Red Book?" A: Four of us ‐‐ my older sister, my grandmother, my aunt and myself ‐‐ were at my grandfather’s bedside when he passed away. Witnessing physical death up close and personal for the first time broke something wide open in me. I was pretty raw for a while. We happened to bury my grandfather on the same day as my 26th birthday, and my sister gave me a big red journal as a gift. I stared at it for a few weeks and then one night, I got quiet, sat down, and started to write. Like most young women, I’d kept journals before, but due to the experience with my grandfather and my newfound awareness of death and love and spirit, the words that began to fall out of me, into this red book, were quite different from what I had written before. I wrote phrases. I wrote weird little poems, raw thoughts to god and goddess and the divine. I began to call my brief phrases “prayers,” because they became a deeply personal dialogue between me and my divine self, a conversation that fed off my daily life and my nightly dreams. Sure, some of my prayers were dramatic, obtuse fluff, some were based on too many years of devouring Rumi, but many were just me and the divine sitting down for a little
authentic chat. And the power of this interaction began affecting all areas of my life. Later, after I finished grad school and was stuck in a bland cube job where I found myself with lots of free time in front of a computer, I started to write about my red book and its role in my life, about what this type of creative and deeply personal approach to spirituality (with and without a journal) might mean for other young women. One thing led to another, and after about the 25th page of my musings I realized I had something that looked like the beginnings of a very unique kind of book. Q: I usually keep two journals ‐ one about "real life" stuff and the other about my dreams. The funny thing is how much crossover there is. The spiritual aspects of life spill over into "daily life." So at some point, I've sort of merged my journals into one big messy one. But messy is good, right? Isn't the whole purpose of keeping a journal or a Red Book to have a place where we can allow all the wild stuff in our heads and hearts to spill forth somewhere, without editing? A: Absolutely! As far as I’m concerned, journals should be – must be ‐‐ uncensored cross dressers. If you go at it with abandon, journals can provide the ideal space to express all of our self – not just the angelic, picture‐perfect, carefully figured‐out hunks. No way should the so‐called spiritual aspects of our lives be separated from the “normal” aspects. My original red book was packed with images and words cut straight from street flyers, makeup ads, funky calendars, old photos and weird
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
fortune cookies, all mixed with glitter and paint and sundry dreams, random musings, lousy spelling, sexual desires, odd phone conversations, my most embarrassing moments and my deepest fears and of course, my most intimate personal revelations. It got pretty messy at times, but in a way it was also exceptionally beautiful. A human truly being, accepted and unedited, with mustard staining her chin and lots of unexpected ideas in her head, can be a profound spiritual practice. Q: Your book has lots of humor and spark to it. And you also cover the spirituality of certain subjects like sex, which is rarely mentioned in the context of spirituality writing. I think this is fabulous! I was just thinking about this the other day when I heard George Michael's 80's hit "I Want Your Sex" playing on the radio. That took me down Memory Lane! I remember coming of age sexually in the late 80's and really loving that song. At the time it was considered really shocking (conservative Ronald Reagan was still in office promoting the idea that young people weren't supposed to have any fun.) But I was listening to the lyrics the other day, and they were so innocent, really. (excerpt) I want your sex I want your love I want your.....sex It's natural It's chemical (let's do it) It's logical Habitual (can we do it?) It's sensual
But most of all..... Sex is something that we should do Sex is something for me and you Sex is natural ‐ sex is good Not everybody does it But everybody should Sex is natural ‐ sex is fun Sex is best when it's....one on one One on one (end excerpt) Now what's wrong with that? He's not promoting abusing his "bitches" as is portrayed in so much rap music and hip‐hop today. I guess I'm getting to be a bit of an old fogie, because I love art that celebrates sex in a positive and playful way, not a gruesome or exploitative way. And unfortunately it seems that we're regressing in pop culture right now, moving away from this and expressing more of a dark view of sex in our music and movies. Do you feel the spiritual aspects of sex are getting lost, if we ever celebrated them at all? A: I so agree that the spiritual aspects of sex are buried deep within the frigid genitals of both our religious beliefs and our raunchy pop culture. There’s so much darkness around sex, so much misinformation and fear and denial. It’s an incredibly loaded and complex subject and brings up many sticky issues for most of us. Thankfully, my editor for The Red Book was wonderfully open‐minded, and she fought hard to keep the playfully sexual tone in the book, especially when the (male) higher‐ups in the company nearly balked at the entire sexuality
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
chapter (orgasm and vibrator references in a spirituality book? What gives?) In The Red Book, I remind women that being sexual is a natural and healthy part of being a divine human. But I take it further than that. As far as I’m concerned, you really can’t be all that spiritually attuned if you’re ignoring your sexuality, hiding it away, repressed and unconscious and unhealthy. It’s like calling yourself a chef when you refuse to learn about butter. I also wanted to paint a more realistic picture of the sex/spirituality union in the book, because if you ever do hear spirituality and sexuality mentioned in the same sentence these days, it’s often by way of some sort of neo‐Tantric, G‐spot, lingham‐yoni, clothing‐ optional orgasm workshop somewhere in Maui. And that sort of approach, while helpful to some, is often seen as a little woo woo to many women I speak to in The Red Book. In other words, you don’t have to call your genitalia flowery names or light incense and chant when you have sex to connect with a divine energy. You simply need to be as conscious about sex as you would any other part of your spiritual life. Look, touch, taste your sexuality. Bring it into the open. Question it. See what you might be avoiding, or abusing, or just totally unconscious of when it comes to the act. Take the time to create authentic ways to become more intimate with your unique sexual/spiritual self. Have fun. Let a little divine light in under your covers. To me, being sexually attuned isn’t so much about headboard‐banging sex (though that can be divine in itself), it’s more of an attitude, a way
of engaging this deeply sensual universe on a fully reciprocal level. As I say in the book, a conscious sex life is just another way – one of the best ones we have, actually ‐‐ of opening more fully to divinity and saying ahhhh. Q: Gee, does that mean I have to stop calling my genitalia flowery names? Just kidding! I hear what you're saying. A lot of workshops that are designed to help women get in touch with their sexuality are kind of, well, weird, and can end up making you more SELF‐conscious (i.e, am I having enough orgasms? Was that even the right kind of orgasm?) instead of just being more CONSCIOUS. One thing I really resonated with in your writing is how you very clearly put love, spirituality, and humor together in one place, urging women to synthesize these things as they pursue their own spiritual quest. I myself can not STAND religious teachers or spirituality or self‐help type authors who haven't cracked a smile in ten years. I just feel that they're almost contradicting the very teaching that they're trying to share. If the whole purpose of a spiritual quest is to access the miraculous feelings of love and, as you write, "To ignite the divine spark," then shouldn't that also involve the fun things like humor and joy? Have you encountered any resistance from more "traditional" spirituality authors, editors, or teachers who feel threatened by the sassy yet sincere tone you use in your book? I guess I'm asking you if anybody has bummed you out yet because you're offering a light‐hearted look at Spirit instead of a heavy one, and they can't deal!
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
A: No one has bummed me out ‐ yet. But the book is still new. Like you, I’m very wary of “spiritual” people who refuse to show some honest bouts of gigglyness or unfettered joy or healthy irreverence. In my experience, the divine has a wicked sense of humor, one that, if you allow it in, can actually be incredibly healing, can transform the darkest stuff into light much faster than acting all “holy” and serious. Here’s my favorite example: I had the privilege of meeting the Dalai Lama on my 21 st birthday, and I left that meeting believing he was the most truly spiritual person I have ever met, simply because he was the most “human” human I had ever encountered. He was himself. Completely, effortlessly, lightly. He told a hilarious human‐blooper story to my class, and as he delivered the punch line he laughed so deeply and so purely that we all fell to pieces and the whole experience just rocked, and it reinforced what it is we all feel when we’re peeing in our pants over something we find hilarious: that humor is sacred, that genuine laughter breaks up energetic clogs, that the divine can be a loving, powerful ball of cosmic goof that’s not afraid to get down and dirty with us. Q: I LOVE that story! How cool is it that the most holy guy in the world loves to laugh at simple things and "keep it real!" That's the way it should be. Well, Sera, I firmly believe that you and I are part of a sisterhood that is growing on this
planet, and we are the comedienne/spiritual warrior/sassy chicks. And I'm so happy that your book is out there now reaching women of all ages ‐ and boys, too! After all, the men need to understand that the new form of "feminism" isn't anti‐male, it's actually very pro‐male. I think you convey this very well in your book. When women get together and celebrate their power, it's not about overpowering or threatening men. It's about being the very best we can be, and encouraging our men to do the same, don't you think? A: Thank you! I’m excited to be part of the sisterhood. You’re absolutely right; sassy/funny/spiritual warrior chicks are swarming the planet like mad right now, and we’re only just beginning to show our stuff. Priests may faint, spiritual teachers may roll their eyes, but I believe the divine feminine is definitely getting a much‐needed makeover. She’s not bitter or anti‐male or some sort of screeching harridan, she’s just ready to roar, while wearing some seriously cute shoes. To me, "turning red" is simply about being ourselves to the best of our ability. The power in this practice transcends male or female, but also celebrates their differences. We’re not necessarily here to match each other, we’re here to enhance each other. When I empower myself, it encourages you to empower yourself and vice versa – no matter if you have a penis or a vagina or a Texas license plate. I gotta add this one side note: when I first read the Publisher’s Weekly review of The Red Book (you can read the PW review on amazon.com), I
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
was a little shocked by the “feminist” label they placed on the book. Not just because “feminist” has become somewhat of a dirty word for my generation, but also because I don’t feel the intent of The Red Book can be so heavily gendered. I feel it’s simply humanistic. TRB encourages us to release any false confines, any beliefs, practices, tools we hold that keep us feeling different, or isolated, or less than divine. It encourages us to question beliefs that don’t support our empowerment. It asks us to get a bit more creative and intuitive with our spiritual approach. And yes, throughout, it pays deep homage to the divine feminine. But to me, that’s a universal idea. It’s sort of “duh” these days. We all know the planet’s pendulum has been stuck in the masculine realm for way too long, and now, it’s swinging to the feminine side for a bit in order to balance things out. And we’re all (men and women) responsible for creating unique pathways for the feminine to boogie down ‐‐ one of mine is The Red Book.
Q: Sera, it's been so fun chatting with you. I wish we could do it a lot longer, but I know you have a thousand things to do promoting your new book. It's been a pleasure. Feel free to stop by LipstickMystic.com any time, and even share articles or essays in the future. It would be a joy to present them to my readers, because all of my readers should be reading YOU! A: Thank you so much for this interview – you and your site are an inspiration to me and so many others, and your questions and insight have been amazing. And I hope to interview you when I get my spiritualcowgirl.com blog up and running! Q: Thanks again, and best wishes to you as you continue on your journey. A: Red blessings and divine winks to you, my lovely lipstick mystic sista!
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ARTICLE: My First (but not my last) Zen Spanking By Sera Beak (©Sera Beak. This and other pieces are available on a non‐exclusive basis. For additional content, see www.serabeak.com.)
When I was in college studying world religions, I went on my first Zen meditation retreat. Meditation, silent meals, and teachings filled my days, which began at 4:30 am ‐ not an easy schedule for a college kid. The final day of the retreat we were each granted a private meeting with the Zen Master, during which we were allowed to ask him one question. When my moment came, I had so many thoughts racing around in my head from all my studies and all that silent pondering, I couldn't contain myself: “So I’ve been studying all these world religions and I’m just so confused. I mean is the divine Jesus or Buddha or Kali or Allah or a great Void of Nothingness? How do I know what belief system is the right belief system? What should I have faith in? And why should I meditate or pray if I can feel God when I’m eating a slice of pizza if I try? And by the way why are you guys celibate and why do bees buzz and what time's dinner?” The master sat still for a long moment, as I prepared myself for what had to be one epic, mind‐blowing answer. Finally, he raised his head, looked me straight in the eye and said, “You need to sit and shut up.” Then he rang his little bell, signifying our time together had ended. I was shocked, embarrassed and felt hugely gypped. Wait, what? You call that an answer? Who needs Zen? I can get that sort of reply from my mom! It took me a few years, but I finally get it. To these monastics, “sit” means “meditate,” and I was being told that I desperately needed to calm down my frothing mind so I could practice having faith in myself to find my own answers, hear my own truth and learn to not rely solely on academic research or external religious authority. By practicing this, I’ve found that the divine is still talking and it’s my responsibility to pipe down and tune in. On the other hand, I’ve also learned that it’s OK not to have all the answers. This realization has helped me become less judgmental, more open hearted and curious about diverse faiths and beliefs, and eager to continue learning from this grand mystery we call life. Now that Zen Master, he was a good teacher. Sera Beak, author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach To Igniting Your Divine Spark Phone: 415‐242‐6103
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PUBLICITY CONTACT: Lisa Braun Dubbels I Catalyst Publicity & Promo Group I 651.343.7315 I lisa@catalystpublicity.com
Email: SeraBeak@hotmail.com
EXCERPT: The Red Book Introduction: Wake Up When sleeping women wake, mountains move. –Chinese proverb Are you aware of the rather radical fact that, in truth, not only are you naturally spiritual but you are actually divine? Yes, you young lady. And you need to start acting like it. Most of us have probably heard some variant of the old “you are divine” cliché. It’s a nice, catchy spiritual phrase that gets some people off a bit, a cute little bumper sticker on your soul's VW. Let’s keep the mystical meaning but lose the sappy cuteness. Let’s undress this most flirtatious of phrases. Like it or not, if you are alive, then you are spiritual. Let me repeat: If you exist, you can’t not be spiritual. But you can be unaware of this fact, deny it, forget it, take it for granted, hide from it, limit it. It’s all too easy, given the general chaos of the world, from religious dogma to political turmoil to relentless fashion trends to ruthless media messages, to feel detached from such an empowering suggestion, to ignore your true makeup, to inhibit your remarkable potential, and to keep your sight dim, your life experience at a low heat, devoid of any yummy sacred sizzle. Well, enough of that. This book will not let you live that way anymore. The Red Book is a candid companion on your spiritual path, an inspirational tool, a winking friend whispering warnings. But more than anything else, it's a fire starter. It will heat up your existence by demonstrating, through ancient wisdom and modern discovery, creative self‐expression and hilarious examples, that you are innately spiritual. It also offers clear, powerful exercises so you can begin to experience the fact that you are divine, not just take this book’s word for it. After all, you're not merely a human who’s struggling to have a spiritual experience. You are, in truth, a spirit, having a human experience. You are not trying to experience divinity so much as divinity is trying to experience you. Think about it. Let it soak in for a minute. It is, quite possibly, the most important distinction you can ever make. At this point, you may be wondering who the hell I am to be saying such grand and slightly fluffy things. What right do I have to make such claims? Perhaps I should start at the beginning.
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Losing My Religion I was a weird kid. Besides believing I could talk with inanimate objects (rocks, cars, light switches, apples—you name it, I talked to it) and besides making all my friends and family members refer to me as a different fairy‐tale heroine each day of the week (my kindergarten diploma states, “Sarah [Snow White] Beak”), I was slightly obsessed with, well, God. In fact, I desperately wanted to be a nun, drive a pink Trans Am, and own a parrot—all at the same time. I looked at priests and nuns like other kids looked at sports heroes or movie stars, and even though I was bored out of my mind at mass and Sunday school, I loved the dramatic stories and colorful characters in my children’s Bible. Religion was magical and utterly mysterious to me. It hosted miracles and bizarre rituals, angels and demons, saints who levitated and mystics who healed the sick, and fantastical otherworldly places like heaven and hell. For me, at that time, religion offered limitless possibility. It was better than any fairy tale, because it was real (well, sort of). But then a shift occurred. When I was in sixth grade, I read a book about a psychiatrist who regressed his patients back to their childhood using hypnosis, to help them heal their childhood wounds (yep, I skipped right over Judy Blume in favor of stuff like this).One day, much to his (and his patient’s) surprise, the psychiatrist ended up regressing his patient back a bit further than childhood, into what he finally recognized was a past life. And in the process, the patient was healed of the ailment she had come to see him about. How odd. He soon began to regress most of his willing patients into their past lives and to places in between their lives where they could converse with spirit guides and dead relatives and receive what was often quite profound and healing spiritual information. Whether this doctor was for real concerned me not at all. What intrigued me was the possibility that organic spiritual information and wisdom could be available to anyone, not just priests or holy people or sketchy corner‐ store psychics. I liked this. It made me wonder, what if God was still speaking? What if an ordinary (OK, slightly eccentric) Jane like me could receive her own spiritual insights, her own wisdom, her own adventure? Reading about the psychiatrist and his regression technique reminded me that the universe is huge, bigger than I thought, and that I have the freedom to explore it. Not only the freedom, but the responsibility. Wildly excited about all this new spiritual possibility, I marched straight into confession the following Saturday and immediately started babbling to the priest about reincarnation and spirit guides and other dimensions, thinking he'd be equally excited. He wasn't. He tried very quickly to shut me down. The poor, overwhelmed priest explained that when we die, we simply go to heaven or hell (and he really emphasized the hell part), not into other lives. But then I asked him why reincarnation was a big part of Christian belief until the third century (I had found that out
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after doing a little research), at which the priest got flustered and sent me out of the confessional. I know many priests today who would be more open to this subject, but for some reason, this guy was in the booth that day, and frankly, I’m glad he was. I left the confessional for the last time. I realized, quite suddenly, that Catholicism was not big enough for me anymore. Walking out of the church that day, I heard an inner applause (in fact, I think I actually bowed), not due to some cocky bravado or because I knew I was leaving Catholicism per se, but because I sensed I was opening myself up to even more wonder, even more divine possibility. I believe you can experience this sort of openness while remaining within a traditional religion, but a huge part of my particular path was about leaving “my father’s house” so I could start building my own. When I went home that day, I informed my wonderfully open‐minded Catholic parents that I would not be attending mass anymore. Much to their credit, they (reluctantly) said that was fine but that I must still explore and find out what I did believe in. Fair enough. I sometimes wonder whether they ever wish they could retract that directive, because explore I did, and still do, and will, I imagine, for a long time to come. You could say I’ve taken my explorations pretty seriously. I've studied world religions in intellectually rigorous universities, performed extensive anthropological field research all over this spinning globe, and conducted interviews with several mystics and ordinary religious people. I've trekked in Tibet and whirled with dervishes in Turkey. I’ve volunteered at Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta and run from rabid dogs outside Buddhist temples in Kathmandu. I've attended intensive spiritual healing workshops in Sedona and psychic fairs in Chicago, fire rituals in the Black Rock Desert and yoga retreats in Mexico. I've had my past lives read, my aura tuned, my chakras aligned, my spirit guides channeled, my palms interpreted, and my kundalini awakened. I've prayed in churches, temples, mosques, studio apartments, Wiccan festivals, and always, always on rickety buses in India. I've washed Hindu gurus' feet, eaten dinner with living saints, argued with Zen masters, and had life‐altering visions with shamans. I've taught a Tantric Tibetan Buddhist monk how to use his new digital camera, taken the host from a Croatian Catholic mystic who had the stigmata, and had an engaging private audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on my twenty‐first birthday. I've studied the Bible, the Koran, the Upanishads, and Buddhist sutras, as well as all the popular spiritual self‐help teachers, from Deepak Chopra to Caroline Myss, Marianne Williamson to Andrew Weil, Wayne Dyer to Oriah Mountain Dreamer, and many of the more esoteric alternative authors like Alice Bailey and Edgar Cayce, David Icke and Jane Roberts. I've watched the fads and trends of America’s spiritual
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culture with rapt attention and have talked with countless people my age about their own spiritual experiences, issues, and ideas. Through my years of exploring, I’ve come to realize that like most people in my generation, I am anti‐authoritarian and a little individualistic. I want to find God in my own way, in my own time, and, essentially, by my own self. And I have. She beats deep inside my chest. I see her reflected everywhere. She grows with me. Yep, I’m a true modern devotee. I love the mystics and The Matrix, yoga and the White Stripes, meditation and designer jeans. In terms of cultural dialects, I am multilingual. I speak New Age and Aveda skin care, Eastern philosophy and Elle magazine, metaphysics and Hitachi vibrators. I love modern art and dinner parties, lavender chocolate and dirty martinis, dancing and random road trips and hanging out with my girlfriends. My spirituality is real, alive and active, funky and fresh. It’s not separate from my daily life; rather, it's so integrated and infused I can no longer separate the two So what, you may be wondering after all this, actually is my spirituality? What, exactly, do I believe in? Excellent question; no easy answer. A Path with Heart My spirituality is not traditional, although I have learned and continue to learn from the mystical hearts of the world’s religious traditions. It is not New Age, although I have learned and continue to learn from many aspects of this dizzying movement. I do not have a guru or one teacher I follow, although I am deeply grateful for the wise teachings of many. I follow my own red heart. I listen to those who speak from their own. And I am wide open, but extremely discerning. I question, doubt, and dare to know there’s always more. I sift and dig and only digest the spiritual ideas, tools, and practices that intuitively resonate with me, that challenge me to grow, that allow me to unfold organically. I do not worship these spiritual tools or believe them to be infallible or only touch them with kid gloves. I am deeply respectful, but I also like to rough ‘em up a little, tattoo them with my initials, open them up for some fresh air, and fold them into my personal experiences. I get creative with my spirituality. I get physical. I laugh my ass off. I am, as many are, a sort of spiritual cowgirl. And I believe this honest, heart‐driven approach has allowed me to have a juicier and more tangible, messy, and free relationship to the divine and to my self (which, as we now know, are ultimately one in the same). As the writer D. H. Lawrence put it, “It is a fine thing to establish one’s own religion in one’s heart, not to be dependent on tradition and second‐hand ideals. Life will seem to you, later, not a lesser, but a greater thing.” My approach is not new. It echoes the experiences and insights of seekers on many different spiritual paths. But my particular expression of this approach is a bit more modern, a bit more female, and, I'm guessing, a bit more like you. I wrote this book because I didn’t find all of myself reflected within the spirituality books I studied over the years. Although packed with wisdom, they were, more often than not, too bland, too serious, too academic, or too woo woo, and mostly aimed at an older audience. I wrote this book because I know that our culture's lack of youthful, modern feminine perspective is part of the reason why many young women are not strongly drawn to spirituality in the first place. I wrote this book because whenever I
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ask my friends and colleagues about spirituality, it invariably reminds them of their traditionally religious grandmother or their hemp‐covered ex‐roommate or a sweaty go‐get‐’em Jesus‐is‐your‐only‐ savior TV evangelist, and that’s just not gonna cut it. We need some new touchstones, new reference points; The Red Book aims to be one Truth is, most of us have become pretty jaded when it comes to spirituality and religion, due to some combination of personal history, family, schooling, friends and, of course, all the chaos we see erupting all over this confused spinning planet. On one hand, we see cultures engaging in bloody wars and violence over religious beliefs. We see repression and orthodoxy and conservative Bible‐thumping, power‐craving agendas. We see the negation of females and their sexuality; we see burqas and genital mutilation; we see fear of the new, fear of the other, fear of God and hell and dildos. On the other hand, we see spiritual traditions like Kabbalah (thanks, Madonna), yoga (again, thanks, Madonna), Buddhism (thanks, Richard Gere and Beastie Boys), meditation, and astrology become ever more mainstream (Gucci incense holders, anyone?) along with the slightly narcissistic New Age and hugely popular self‐help movements that want to help us “find ourselves” or “our soulmate” in one weekend for only $599. (Oh yeah, don’t get me started on the severe lack of a cool spiritual parlance. Words like spirit, divine, prayer, soul, universe, God and phrases like higher self, inner power, love yourself, find yourself make some of us cringe, but you'll have to bear with me because it’s all we’ve got for the moment, and as overused and cheesed out as these words may be, they still can, with the right intention and tone, inspire us to reach further and grow stronger). All of these associations can make the term spirituality seem more than a little confusing, a little trendy, a little bloody, a little too touchy‐ feely. So what’s a smart, gutsy, spiritually curious young woman to do nowadays? Well, how ‘bout taking spirituality back into your own hands? How about finding out what it means for you, through your own explorations and experiences and expressions? You know, all this spiritual stuff doesn’t have to be so esoteric or traditional or weird or dorky or intimidating or holier‐than‐thou. Spirituality is not separate and distinct from you and your everyday life. Igniting your divine spark is a simple perspective shift. An internal nod. An expanded relaxation into All That Is. It’s about tuning up your senses, cranking up your antennae, generating conscious living. It’s about becoming your own spiritual authority. I have no interest in trying to convince you to start creating a more conscious and intimate one‐on‐one relationship with the universe swirling around you and, (more important), the universe flaming bright inside you. But I can speak from my own experience and admit that when I dare to wink back at the divine, when I open my life to what deliciously includes but also is somewhat beyond my five senses, life becomes much more flavorful. Profound meaning illuminates even the most mundane of events. My relationships deepen. My voice becomes clearer. My work excels. My personal issues become less draining and dramatic. I am less affected. I require less outside approval. My self‐confidence beams. I laugh more. I judge less. My sexuality roars. Random acts of kindness become a necessity, not just a whim. (When you start to recognize your own divine spark, you start to recognize it in everyone and everything.) My perspectives are amplified. I see the world around me at much more than face value, and as a result, I make clearer choices across the board, from my career to my relationships to my material desires, from politics to the environment to pop culture. I realize I’m not just some well‐ dressed biped trudging through life but actually an incredibly powerful and integral piece of the divine
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pie. I am In Love. Until, that is, someone cuts me off in traffic. Then I swear like a sailor and my body tenses and I rain down Tibetan curses upon their heads. I’m no saint or guru, no absolute authority. I’m far from perfect at touching tongues with the divine. But I have tasted enough to know that it’s the only way I want to move through this world. Yep, it’s that good. But. Know this: Igniting my divine spark has also kicked my ass five ways from Sunday. My ordinary perceptions are constantly challenged. My limits are made clear, and then broken open. I cannot play safe or dumb or keep myself cocooned or judgmental. My unhealthy patterns, issues, and parts of me that are not in alignment with my divine spark come up for confrontations all the time. In order to learn who I really am, I have to learn who I really am not. It’s not always pretty. It’s definitely not always fun. Truth sets me free, but it can sometimes hurt like a thousand bee stings and a bad colonic. I have ended what felt like good relationships, moved across the country, made risky career moves, gotten pretty ill, changed my lifestyle, and experienced extended periods in which I’ve been lonely as hell and sexually disinterested, all in response to my spiritual path. My sense of self has expanded and contracted like a schizophrenic accordion. I have questioned everything, and I have felt nothing. I have told the universe to fuck off, and I have fallen down weeping at its compassionate response. But despite the occasional existential tantrums and internal scrubbings, I can still wholeheartedly say that igniting my divine spark is worth it. Learning how to live my truth, out loud and on purpose and with inner authority, is worth it. Merging my humanity with my divinity is worth it. Becoming responsible for my self, for the vibe I give off, feels, well, downright heroic. Just being here, open and ready, is worth all the dirty laundry you can throw at me. And I would rather be alive, be real, be increasingly conscious of all that I am, than move around this planet all mechanical and unconscious. You know those people you meet whose eyes are sort of vacant and dull, lifeless? Those who are just slumping along life’s crowded highways, not ever really reaching deeper into their soul’s pockets? What about the opposite type, those whose eyes dance and beam and cry and flash? The ones who seem to glow, despite their imperfections, who tend to attract good friends and good happenings like a magnet, who seem to beam out a calm and fearless sense of self? Well, which would you rather be? How clearly do you want to see? I thought so. Here’s looking at you, kid. (Note: Collage artwork used throughout this excerpt is the author’s own, and served as the inspiration for The Red Book.)
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ASK THE SPIRITUAL COWGIRL: Suggested Media Questions for Sera Beak author of The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark • Why is “religion” a four letter word to many in your generation? • What do you mean when you say that “the divine likes to go topless”? What exactly is a “Brazilian bikini‐waxed prayer”? Why do you feel it’s so vital to create this kind of new spiritual lingo? • You call your book a “fire starter.” Why do you think “igniting your divine spark” is the most socially responsible thing a young woman can do nowadays? • You tell people to let go of beliefs about God that conflict with their personal experience, and that they should discover what God is from the “inside out,” constantly questioning their own spiritual beliefs. Are you telling them to ignore tradition for the sake of fashionable rebellion? And isn’t this idea just a little narcissistic (all about me me me)? • How did you get to meet the Dalai Lama on your 21st birthday and why did this meeting inspire you to include playful (OK, sometimes downright dirty) humor into a spirituality book? • Some reviewers hone in on the sexuality portion of your book, given how you devote an entire chapter to encouraging open sexual exploration as a means to divine connection. Why do you think religion‐and‐spirituality types are so easily flustered by talk of orgasms and vibrators in relation to spirituality? Where does this fear of sex in relation to God come from? • You encourage people to feel free to adopt any piece of a traditional religious or spiritual practice that resonates with them, no matter what culture it might originate from, and to recreate, reinterpret, and rearrange these pieces on their own terms. Isn’t this “picking and choosing” just a little blasphemous? Isn’t a piecemeal approach to spirituality a little insulting to the original culture and tradition where those practices originated? What do you mean by “broccoli vs. chocolate chip cookie spirituality”? • You want this book to be taken seriously as spirituality advice, yet you talk about lipstick and shoes and creating funky altars in your apartment. Now, besides the millions of women for whom shoes are a religion, how do you reconcile the serious and the sassy? • You frequently write about “divine winks.” How does the universe “wink” at us and how does “winking back” allow us to dig out some profound meaning from subway rides, business meetings and even cereal boxes?
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