The Power of Distraction

because it then becomes a wrestling match with my own thoughts for the entire twenty minutes, and ultimately I can wrestle with my thoughts anywhere.

Distraction is the thing. I don’t think enough is made of distraction as a practice. I was at work a week ago and I was feeling beleaguered and sorry for myself. I was pressing on and trying to keep going and not fall behind, but feeling spacious and contented was not on the agenda. And then I remembered my neighbours at home raving about a Radio Four programme called Witch. I put in my headphones and started listening.

Even though the publishers use “mindful” in the title, I think they are going with the trend by using this word, and this book is mostly feng shui. The author is a registered architect and feng shui educator in New York City. It’s a book that you can treat yourself to, to inspire you to make changes to your home and make it a happier place. There are 144 pages of beautifully laid out colour images and text and its retail price of £14.99 is a total bargain. There are many everyday common-sense tips in the book, plus more esoteric feng shui guidance and simple rituals that can enhance the positivity of a place. Chapters include Feng Shui and the Mindfulness Connection, Create a Mindful Space and Interconnecting Home and Community. Anyone who lives indoors can benefit from a book like this.

144pp, 234 x 192 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £14.99

❖ Code: 330240 ❖ Non-Member Price: £10.55

❖ Member Price: £9.50

Straight away the turbulence disappeared. It was uncanny because it was almost instantaneous. I felt comforted and calm, and the pain and agitation departed. I listed to about three of the episodes straight through and marvelled that a change in the direction of my attention had such a profound effect.

Of course, the next day when I started listening to Witch again I didn’t experience that same level of alleviation. Of course not. Miracles are rarely replicated and that’s ok: I was grateful for just the one. It was still enjoyable to be listening and it still felt like home.

It’s a programme about witchcraft both as a contemporary and a historical phenomenon. It is about what witchcraft means and why people turn to it, and it is about the persecution that women faced in the past having been accused of witchcraft. Witchcraft nowadays is a bit undefined, plus nobody really knows what the practice of witchcraft looked like four centuries ago. The main thing is that I like it and I am glad it is happening and it is a good thing for the world, in all its looseness and patchwork quality. Turning to the subject and distracting myself with it – having it occupy my attention –made me feel much better.

So sometimes trying to calm my mind on the train with my eyes shut might not be the best thing for me. Instead I should listen to something nurturing or uplifting on my mobile because it is a faster way to calmness, at least for me. Or read a rich and positive book. And it’s even better if it’s spiritual and it is inspiring me or teaching me something that will make me more resilient. If things are tough, read something and feed your mind on better material. Or go in the garden to look after your plants. Sometimes the loftier spiritual paths are not right and we need to accept that we can’t always thrive there. Distraction doesn’t sound like much but, when we are burdened with a voracious mind, it’s a good idea to feed it on healthier stuff.

21 Days To Master Numerology

by David A. Phillips

This 21 Days book is a practical and straightforward guide to numerology, so is a perfect introduction for anyone starting on the subject and wanting to understand both what it can do for them and how to use it to best effect. Over the 21 days (one lesson/chapter a day) you’ll learn the theory behind numerology and the way its benefits can manifest in your life. The book goes on to show what the numbers on your birth chart mean and how they can help influence your life for the good, how to find ultimate purpose with your Ruling Number, how to set up and interpret a Number Pyramid in order to create a well-balanced life, the numerological power and meaning of names, and how to compile a Name Chart. The author was one of the world’s leading authorities on numerology.

176pp, 197 x 130 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £11.99

❖ Code: 330202 ❖ Non-Member Price: £8.87 ❖ Member Price: £7.99

CRYSTAL BASICS POCKET ENCYCLOPEDIA by Nicholas

Pearson

This book may be pocket-sized but it is a treasure trove of knowledge. The encyclopedia element is hugely comprehensive and features 450 crystals, including familiar ones as well as rarer and more unusual crystals, such as phenakite, cavansite, and yooperlite which you may not have used before. Each entry features an attractive colour photo of the stone and defines its physical, emotional, and metaphysical healing properties as well as its corresponding chakra, element, planet, and zodiac sign. The author also covers the basics of crystal healing, why crystals work, how to select stones and safe and effective cleansing methods, alongside hands-on techniques and practices for you to try. It’s a great beginners’ guide, but will also be appealing to anyone already healing with crystals, because it’s portable and so comprehensive.

288pp, 344 x 128 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £16.99

❖ Code: 330213 ❖ Non-Member Price: £12.21 ❖ Member Price: £10.99

Essential Astrology

by Joanna Watters

The subtitle of this new beginners’ guide is Learn to be Your Own Astrologer and Unlock the Secrets of the Signs and Planets, which makes it clear that this a good place to start for the novice. When you look inside you see a lovely, highly illustrated and well laid out book which makes the whole process feel very approachable. The author presents a series of tools to gain a deeper understanding of your sign and insights into hidden aspects of your personality. And more than this, she goes beyond the sun signs to look at the influence of every planet’s position in the birth chart. By using this guide you will learn how to understand and interpret your birth chart, reveal the secrets of the signs, houses, planets and aspects, and gain a deeper awareness of your relationships and life’s purpose.

160pp, 235 x 190 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £14.99

❖ Code: 330219 ❖ Non-Member Price: £10.55 ❖ Member Price: £9.50

The Little Guide To Palmistry

by Johnny Fincham

This is an attractive, small, hardback guide written by expert palmist Johnny Fincham who might be familiar because of his frequent television appearances. He is a third-generation celebrity palm-reader who has brought together psychology, modern techniques and his own vast experience to give us this ultimate guide into reading the secrets of a person’s palm. The book packs a lot in, and includes how to make and interpret a hand print, what the areas of the palm reveal about your strengths and struggles, how your fingers indicate values and drives, the four major lines, the minor lines and much more! With clearly laid out chapters and simple, effective illustrations, real palm prints to practise on and a handy reference list, this book is all you really need. It was first published as Palmistry at Your Fingertips in 2013.

176pp, 185 x 130 mm, Hardback, 2023, RRP £14.99

❖ Code: 330233 ❖ Non-Member Price: £10.55 ❖ Member Price: £9.50

CRYSTAL CONNECTIONS by Philip Permutt

This is the latest book from bestselling author Philip Permutt, who has already published several excellent works on crystals including The Crystal Healer and Crystal Tips and Cures. This is his guide on how to take advantage of the amazing properties of crystals, exploring them as living beings and connecting with them by communication and understanding the messages within them. The book includes detailed information and illustrations on 101 indispensable crystals, plus how to work with crystals in dowsing, divination and healing practices, how they relate to chakras and also how to cleanse and look after your crystals. It is nicely laid out with lots of photographs and pretty illustrations and includes exercises with safety guides, plus meditations and lots of hints and tips.

144pp, 233 x 192 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £14.99

❖ Code: 330214 ❖ Non-Member Price: £10.55 ❖ Member Price: £9.50

THE MOON DUST DREAM DICTIONARY by Florance Saul

Dreams are always a puzzle, sometimes easy to unpick, but often not, so this entirely new set of definitions informed by lunar activity and mystical insight is fascinating. Examining how and why the eight moon phases impact our dreams, the author reveals what message a dream has at any one phase of the moon. There’s a helpful chart that gives an overview so you can see at a glance the overall meaning of the appearance of aliens in each of the phases of the moon, for example. Then you can drill down using the A-Z interpretation of each of the dream symbols and their specific messages within the lunar cycle. This is a well-laid out, attractive book that is also a fascinating exploration into the impact that astrology and the Moon plus astronomy and psychology have had on spiritual wisdom and the art of dream interpretation from ancient Mesopotamia to the modern day.

288pp, 215 x 135 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £17.99

❖ Code: 330262 ❖ Non-Member Price: £12.77 ❖ Member Price: £11.50

The Empowerment Solution

by Friedemann Schaub

Books like this get me excited. I haven’t got to the end of it yet. It’s about personal transformation and unlocking your full potential, and it’s written by someone who is both an M.D. and a Ph.D. Friedemann also wrote the bestselling book The Fear and Anxiety Solution, which I loved too. And it’s properly big and heavy so it doesn’t deal in platitudes and easy fixes. It’s written for all of us who don’t feel laid low but do feel that life is passing us by a little bit, who feel that we are ready to make big changes that will realign things and make us feel less complicated and conflicted. It’s full of sound advice and exercises too. The six most common survival patterns that we can use are: the victim, invisibility, the procrastinator, the chameleon, the helper and the lover.

352pp, 228 x 152 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £18.99

❖ Code: 330258 ❖ Non-Member Price: £13.32❖ Member Price: £11.99

A New Science Of The Afterlife

by Daniel Drasin

Aspects of life after life and life beyond life are a main rallying point for those of us who see ourselves as alternative or spiritual. While we don’t agree on how this might work or even whether it is a “real thing” we do all agree that it’s a serious debate and that the materialist worldview is absurd. The author is an award-winning documentary film-maker and has been exploring this field for a long time. He starts by demonstrating the restrictive tendency of the materialist belief system and then goes on to explore various phenomena that indicate that there is much more to the universe than that. The author clearly is an advocate for life after death and this short and easy-to-follow book (which is full of resources and references) acts as a starting point for our own further exploration.

128pp, 229 x 152mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £12.99

❖ Code: 330204 ❖ Non-Member Price: £9.44 ❖ Member Price: £8.50

OVERCOMING FEAR by Thomas Mayer

There are a few books being published that were written in the teeth of the Coronavirus Pandemic, casting a light on how people were responding to the lockdowns, the media, government policies and the sense of global fear. This short book contains 28 meditations and soul exercises designed to help develop courage and internal strength that were so needed during what was a horrible time. It’s a book to help us recover from the trauma and to be strong in case it happens again. It also includes thoughts from the author on how the crisis was an attack on our connection to spirituality, and how we needed to counter this attack using spiritual means. It’s a personal view, and whether you agree with it or not, the meditations he has created are also relevant now and can help with all sorts of challenges we face every day.

96pp, 180 x 115 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £12.99

❖ Code: 330245 ❖ Non-Member Price: £9.98 ❖ Member Price: £8.99

The Language Of Flowers In The Time Of Covid

by Joan D. Stamm

The author, a Zen Buddhist and ikebana practitioner, was about to visit Japan to research a flower temple pilgrimage when the pandemic struck. It forced her to retreat to her own mountain home with its beautiful flower garden and search, like the rest of us, for solace and meaning where she could find it in that difficult time. What she has produced is a fascinating book which is both intimate and thoughtful, and which introduces us to the poetic and beautiful language of flowers. It reads like a diary, but with every entry Stamm refers to a flower and its meaning with particular reference to the issues of that time in her and our lives. This book lends some meaning to those challenging Covid times and perhaps helps ease the trauma.

152pp, 215 x 140 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £11.99

❖ Code: 330260 ❖ Non-Member Price: £9.44 ❖ Member Price: £8.50

The Soul And The Sea

by Benig Mauger

It’s always appealing to find a new take on emotional healing, and this book brings us an approachable model based on the interweaving of Jungian depth psychology with spirituality. It is a very personal book: the author is not only honest and open about her own inner healing, but she’s also a poet and has a profound love of nature, so that reading her work is like being on a boat, being rocked from side to side as we are moved from wisdom and understanding to emotional connection and back. The narrative takes us through a series of “healing rooms” which address different issues, all the time also illustrated with stories from the author’s affinity with nature and love of the sea. Complete with practical advice and exercises, this is both an interesting and a powerful read.

240pp, 217 x 140 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £15.99

❖ Code: 330264 ❖ Non-Member Price: £12.21 ❖ Member Price: £10.99

Undreaming Wetiko

by Paul Levy

This is Paul Levy’s third book on the subject, following Wetiko and Dispelling Wetiko. Wetiko – which is a term from the Native American tradition – describes a virus of the mind, which underlies the collective insanity and evil wreaking havoc across the world. It has its roots in unhealed ancestral trauma, which expresses within the family. Influenced by the work of Jung, he shows how the answers to the problem are actually hidden within the dark side of our human experience. This is deep and compelling work but it’s greeted enthusiastically by a number of authors quoted on the cover, including Jean Houston, Andrew Harvey and Larry Dossey. Through stories, historical anecdotes and deep insight, he offers a practical map to those shadow parts of us, which is where true healing lies.

416pp, 229 x 152 mm, Paperback, 2023, RRP £18.99

❖ Code: 330268 ❖ Non-Member Price: £13.32 ❖ Member Price: £11.99

Deep in our DNA, there is a part of us that cherishes the sense of the garden as sanctuary. Wild places can put our little lives into perspective and bathe us in a sense of the vastness of Life and the Power of Nature. The garden is altogether a gentler experience. It is boundaried, more personal, and can provide a more cultivated beauty and a safe place in which to be ourselves. It can be a place of healing and connection where we can observe and attune to the cycles of the year. There we can become intimate with each season, and learn the signs of “biotime”, like the subtle shift from summer to autumn as the days and nights cool, the late frosts of Spring, the last bites of winter cold, and the vibrant joy of midsummer.

I admire the visual flair of garden designers and, though I am not an expert plantswoman, I am beginning to learn how to imaginatively combine plants to greatest effect. I admire people who can create edible, abundant and gorgeous paradise gardens, a holy grail of sustainability, wildlife habitat and the drama of a fine garden with different areas that provide a variety of functions and sensual experiences.

I am on a path of lifelong learning. The challenge is to combine the edible and the ornamentals that thrive and feed the household and our wild visitors without succumbing to any chemicals and requiring as few brought in materials as possible. My aim is to mimic Nature by creating cycles of fertility, harvests and building soil just as a deciduous woodland does through the four seasons to bring health and balance for all species of plants living together. My aim is also to find peace and healing in the garden and for it to be a sanctuary for both its human and wild visitors.

There is much to be learned from pioneering and innovative gardeners. Liz Zorab has taught me through her work how to mix ornamental plants with vegetables to create a pest/ predator balance and for the pure joy