Quest Magazine

The Forbidden Book: A Novel

Joscelyn Godwin and Guido Mina di Sospiro
San Francisco: Disinformation Books, 2012. 282 pp.,
hardcover, $24.95.

The genre of occult and esoteric fiction has had a somewhat spotty history. Dion Fortune, Dennis Wheatley, Sax Rohmer, and Bram Stoker immediately come to mind as perennial favorites despite their limitations as writers. Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum marked a high point of style and erudition, though the author's cynicism indicated he had little sympathy for his chosen subject, secret societies. More recently, Dan Brown has hit the jackpot with page-turners such as The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, which in turn inspired a raft of imitators. With The Forbidden Book, one can imagine the authors Joscelyn Godwin and Guido Mina di Sospiro—both academics conversant with esoteric teachings—saying to themselves, "Surely we can do better than this tripe." And so they have.

The Forbidden Book is an engaging occult thriller, well-written and packed with esoteric lore, nearly all of it based on real-world sources. In both literary quality and depth of knowledge it beats Dan Brown at his own game. Thus it is singularly unfortunate that the book was released with so little fanfare and, presumably, a nonexistent promotional budget. If the novel had come out under Dan Brown's byline, it would likely have sold copies in the millions.

In a nod to Brown's formula, the novel's protagonist is a college professor, in this case Leo Kavenaugh of the Italian department at Georgetown University. Leo is invited to Italy by a former female intern with whom he'd fallen in love several years before, but to no avail, as Kavenaugh was a celibate member of the Franciscan Third Order. His former intern, Orsina, hails from a wealthy aristocratic family in the north of Italy and, despite her own love for Leo, has married a wealthy Scottish businessman. With ambiguous motives, she invites Leo to visit her family estate in Verona to help decipher a book of late Renaissance Hermeticism that has been presented to her by her uncle, the Baron Emanuele Riviera della Motta.

Rapidly Leo is drawn into intrigues and mysteries associated with the book and with the baron. A murder ensues, the rather hapless Italian police arrive, and matters get complicated. In the interest of not spoiling the plot, I will leave it at that. Suffice it to say that after a bit of a slow start, the book builds up a good head of steam and delivers a fascinating thriller replete with alchemical, magical, and contemporary political references.

What may not be obvious to most readers, however, is the novel's subtext, a meditation on the work and life of Baron Julius Evola (1898-1974), the controversial Italian exponent of an esoteric and magical "Tradition" whose political implications captured the imagination of young Italian (and other European) post-World War II neofascists
from the 1950s up to the present.

The Forbidden Book's Baron Emanuele Riviera della Motta is an Evola stand-in, complete with young black-shirted followers and a magical regimen modeled on one that Evola and his esoteric associates, a collection of occultists known as the UR group, began to expound in the 1920s. (For more on this, see Introduction to Magic by Julius Evola and the UR Group.)

What Godwin and Mina di Sispiro provide here is an imaginative rendering of the likely real-world impact of Evola's doctrines brought into the present. It isn't a pretty picture.

Another subtext is the personal and moral impact of subscribing to a path of transcendence that raises the seeker to a level above compassionate regard for others. Evola's magical philosophy (like that of this novel's baron) aims for a heroic victory over all downward-pulling forces, leading to the immortalization of one's individual Self. The end result is to render oneself a god. Common sense might suggest that hoping to become a god is inviting the fate of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun.

The Forbidden Book plays out all these possibilities, imbedded in the story of Leo and Orsina's conflicted love for each other and their quest for the spiritual meaning behind their mutual attraction.

The achievement of The Forbidden Book is its melding of occult thriller, esoteric explication, and social critique, all at a level of intelligence higher than the genre's norm. My main criticism would be that the characterization is rather sketchy, a weakness that also plagues Dan Brown's books.

That aside, if you are interested in an occult thriller which provides genuine esoteric insights instead of muddled hokum, The Forbidden Book beckons.

Jay Kinney

The reviewer, founder and former publisher of Gnosis magazine, is the author of The Masonic Myth (Harper Collins), which has been published in five languages. His article "Shhh! It's a Secret: Grappling with the Puzzle of Free­masonry" appeared in Quest, Summer 2013.

Henry Steel Olcott
New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2014. 480 pp., paper, $15.95.

Isis in America is a new edition of one of the most fascinating books in Theosophical literature: the first volume of Henry Steel Olcott's Old Diary Leaves, first published in 1895. Olcott began his work on Old Diary Leaves a few years previously as a series of articles in The Theosophist magazine. He wrote the articles, and later the six-volume edition of Old Diary Leaves, to present an eyewitness account of his work with H.P. Blavatsky and the formation of the Theosophical Society. He felt it was important to counteract false information already being circulated about the founders and the Society. He did a masterful job: the book is not only informative, but at times entertaining and in a few instances hilariously funny.

As early as 1895 Olcott noticed that there was a tendency among some to deify Mme. Blavatsky. He knew her better than anyone other than her teachers, and he knew full well that she was a human being with amazing abilities coupled with a difficult temperament and many faults. In his foreword, Olcott writes, "It was but too evident that unless I spoke out . . . the true history of our movement could never be written, nor the actual merit of my wonderful colleague become known."

Olcott begins his narrative by telling us how he met Mme. Blavatsky. He goes on to report on her unfortunate marriage to a younger man in Philadelphia, a marriage that only lasted a few months. HPB claimed the union was the result of karma and was her punishment for "her awful pride and combativeness," which impeded her spiritual development. We learn how the Theosophical Society came to be, and we are told about Olcott presiding over the first cremation in the U.S. Blavatsky did not take part in the funeral "service," but she was heard from nonetheless, and in a most amusing way. The book goes on with the history through to the time when Blavatsky and Olcott left for India in 1878.

This new edition ends with a valuable timeline of Olcott's life, compiled by Mitch Horowitz, editor-in-chief of Tarcher/Penguin.

Ed Abdill

The reviewer is former vice-president of the TS and author of The Secret Gateway: Modern Theosophy and the Ancient Wisdom Tradition (Quest Books). 

Doyle after Death

John Shirley
New York: Witness Impulse, 2014. 340 pp., paper, $6.99.

Everyone who tries to imagine the afterlife faces the same problem. On the one hand, it is not life on earth. On the other hand, our minds can only conceive of things on the basis of earthly perception: even the innumerable heavens and hells of all cosmologies are framed in earthly images.

John Shirley, author of many science-fiction novels (and of the article"The Apocalypse of Consciousness" on page 140 of this issue), grapples with this dilemma in Doyle after Death, a murder mystery set, peculiarly, in the afterlife.

Nicholas Fogg, an unsuccessful private investigator, dies in a seedy Las Vegas hotel room. Upon waking, he finds himself in a netherworld settlement called Garden Rest, in an environment that is both like and unlike the earthly plane. There are apparently many such communities in the other world. People still have bodies, and they still have appetites (especially for tobacco, which for some reason this particular bardo cannot produce), but other things differ significantly. There is no need for food, for example, because nourishment comes from opening oneself up to this world's sun, which not only gives sustenance but provides taste sensations that are at least as good as any on earth.

Fogg finds that one of his neighbors in this unassuming corner of the afterlife is Arthur Conan Doyle, best-known in real life for his Sherlock Holmes stories but also an avid investigator of spirits and mediums. Having been a detective on earth, Fogg joins Doyle in a hunt for a murderer who has inserted himself into Garden Rest. (Shirley does in fact explain how murder is possible in the afterlife.)

I don't want to spoil the details of the plot, but apart from it there are several things worth noting in this book."The afterlife described in the present novel," Shirley says in an author's note at the beginning,"has its own rules and peculiarities. I wish to assert that any conceivable afterlife would have consistent physics and biological principles." He illustrates these both in the course of the novel and in an appendix, where he spells out some of the ideas behind his vision in the form of a dialogue between Doyle and Fogg. (I found this section especially interesting and wished it might have been longer.)

In this nether realm, as in ours, the mind has creative power, but the power of the mind is greater in Garden Rest than on earth. Houses, for example, are not built but "formulated." They sprout up spontaneously through the directed use of the mind, the ground spewing out a kind of lava that soon solidifies into the desired shape."Formulating here is rather like what we used to call apportment," Doyle remarks."The most curious items would materialize in sances  would apport right there and then" (emphasis in the original).

Of course we too can formulate houses, but here they require hard work. What emerges from this picture is a realm that is slightly, but only slightly, more yielding to the power of the mind than ours is. Shirley is suggesting that there many realms in the other world, some subtler, some denser; some pleasant, some less so."There is no torturous hell, you know," Doyle explains,"just an exclusion from light, a dark place where misery-inducing souls are left alone with one another. Here in Garden Rest we are in one ' merely one! ' of the outer rings of light."

Souls do not stay in Garden Rest forever. At some point each resident will be given the"Summons" and will disappear. Where they go next is not spelled out, but Shirley implies that the soul moves on to higher and more rarefied realms, in a process that may be endless.

Doyle after Death is both highly original and evocative of many esoteric teachings, including Theosophy. Although it would be pointless to try to fit Shirley's afterlife tidily into the Theosophical schema of kamaloka and devachan, in this vivid and well-told story, he presents a fresh and charming view of what may befall us after death.

Richard Smoley

Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents)

Elone Snel
Boston: Shambhal a, 2013. 106 pages + CD, paper, $17.95.

Thousands of years ago, the Buddha taught mindfulness to his monks through such texts as the Satipatthana Sutta ("The Foundations of Mindfulness"). Now comes Eline Snel with a "sutta" for kids titled Sitting Still Like a Frog.

For more than twenty years, Snel has been developing mindfulness training programs. A founder of the Academy of Mindful Teaching in the Netherlands, she began to teach mindfulness courses for adults, parents, and children in 2004. Sitting Still Like a Frog provides basic meditation techniques for kids from ages seven through twelve. In it, the author provides exercises for kids that are simple and direct and that parents can do along with their children. The exercises in this wonderful book are suitable for kids with ADHD, dyslexia, and autism spectrum disorders. They are not a cure-all, but they do offer ways to cope and grow in the process.

Kids are curious and inquisitive. They are keen to learn and can be extremely attentive. At the same time, they can be easily distracted. There is too much going on. Practicing mindful presence and awareness, kids learn to catch their breath and be in the present moment. The way out of "automatic pilot" is through friendly attention to everything they do.

As Snell reminds us, there are things in life that we just have to deal with. The sea can be turbulent as well as peaceful. You cannot stop the waves. What you can do is to learn to surf, to ride the waves, seeing them as they are.

Snel also reminds parents about three fundamental qualities:

Presence: Presence enables you to simply be there.
Understanding: Understanding enables you to put yourself in your children's shoes.
Acceptance: Acceptance is the inner willingness to understand your children as they are.

In this book, Snel has discovered a language that is as effective today as the one Buddha used in talking with his disciples. She talks about using the "Pause" button. She tells the kids about training their "Attention Muscle." Her description of sitting still like a frog is stunning in its simplicity: "A frog is a remarkable creature. It is capable of enormous leaps, but it can also sit very, very still. Although it is aware of everything that happens in and around it, the frog tends not to react right away. The frog sits still and breathes, preserving its energy instead of getting carried away by all the ideas that keep popping into its head. The frog sits still, very still, while it breathes. Its frog tummy rises a bit and falls again." It is a wonderful way to draw kids' attention to the rising and falling of the abdomen as an object of focusing.

One key aspect of mindful awareness is how to be in touch with one's feelings moment to moment. Snel has found a lovely way to relate to kids here. She asks them, "What is the weather like inside you? Do you feel relaxed and sunny inside? Or does it feel rainy or overcast?" This creates an instant relationship to what one is feeling without judging it as good or bad. We don't resist the storm, we just acknowledge it. This allows kids to look at their emotions and say it is OK to have them. Accept the weather, and understand at the same time that it will change too.

The child in me related to Snel's description of the conveyor belt of worries as a way of watching one's thoughts. It also related to the technique of bringing worries and thoughts down from the head to the abdomen. The rising and falling of the abdomen has no place for thoughts! We need not get carried away by feelings, but is OK to have them. Also, she speaks of a "first aid box for worries" as a way of distancing oneself from one's thoughts. Why not transfer the worries to the first aid box so we can watch them from a distance?

This book is a treasury of lessons and exercises that kids can relate to. It is accompanied by a CD with the exercises read by Myla Kabat-Zinn. This is homework for parents as well as kids, but this is homework that is far from agonizing. It has a liberating quality to it.

Dhananjay Joshi
The reviewer, a professor of statistics, has studied Hindu, Zen, and vipassana meditation for the past forty-five years. He is a regular contributor to the Indian periodical Lokmat.