King, Warrior, Magician, Lover

So, Jeremy lent me these two books over the Easter break, that I'm just finishing now. The KWML book presents four character-types of the male psychy. These 'archetypes' are put through the Jungian wringer, and examples to everyday life are shown. To further the argument, Moore and Gillette suggest that a balance of all 4 character types is necessary to achieve fulfillment within and reach the full potential of the mature masculine personality.

I really liked the book, and the self-analysis is fantastic. I've definitely been in a state of change recently, and this really helped me identify, reinforce and solidify the concepts I've been thinking of. Pretty good, quick read, if not a bit too general, on the male psychological state.

"The New Earth" is a lot more "new earthy", general and wish-washy. Ignoring a lot of Tolle's "we're on the verge of creating a new world by personal transformation and global collective consciousness" shlop will make this book bearable. Eckhart's strength is when he uses real examples to make a point. For example, presenting that the "I" and "me" in our culture actually includes all our possessions and past (all enveloped and constantly enforced by our ego), Tolle argues that this association with the ego is the driving force behind all that is evil in the world. He is very insistent and complete in his views, and tries desperately to convince you that this is the only way to a better life. I like the idea, but practically it seems difficult to pull off... or even to aspire to realiztically. Anyway, not as good as KWML, but once you get passed the first 30 pages it's totally readable (there's an endoresment!) and did bring to attention and define things a bit...