By Robert Ellwood.

159 Pages | Copyright 2002 by The Theosophical Publishing House in America | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. – ISBN 0835608239

‘Frodo is Everyman’, Lord of the Rings film director Peter Jackson observed at the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony. That is the seminal idea of this unique book exploring the esoteric spiritual meaning of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy, which has impacted the inner lives of millions of readers, since it was first published in 1954.

Robert Ellwood, a scholar of world religions, finds ancient wisdom in this twentieth-century bestseller concerning the quests we are all called to go on. ‘Like Frodo‘, he says, ‘we each experience challenges that propel us on our own adventure – finally that of exploring the inner worlds and the meaning of our lives.’

Revisiting Middle-earth as a realm for personal discovery, Ellwood presents Tolkien’s story as a tale of every reader’s higher consciousness, death and rebirth, and triumph over evil. He teaches us also to recognize the characters as archetypes we can meet in ourselves: a spiritual guide like Gandalf, a friend like Sam, or, heaven forbid, shadows like Orcs or Ringwraiths. He also provides meditational exercises to help us overcome the trials we face as we make our lives into great journeys instead of dull routine. So be it! Let the Quest begin!

From Chapter 4 – ‘The Weight of the Past’ (p. 59):

” Whether we are aware of it or not, we are voyagers on a pilgrimage across the seas of space and time, gradually riding with the tides back through storm and sun and to the Halls of Light, our true home, whence we came. But like mariners tacking about on that long crossing, in the anxiety of our separateness we think more of personal action and response than we contemplate oneness. When the self-centered impulse reaches the level of the evil Wizard’s fear, hatred, and power, it amounts to rebellion against the One, and in the dark waters we see the wake of Satan or Sauron. More often, our hopes, we manage to keep the distant polar constellations to starboard as we bear toward the Uttermost West. “

Translated by Frank Lee Woodward (1871 – 1952).

140 Pages | First edition 1925, reprint 1994 | Softcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 8170592380.

The stories appearing in this book are translated from The Commentary on the Dhammapada. They were originally published in the Magazines The Young Citizen and The Adyar Bulletin. They illustrate the moral teachings of Buddhism in a simple and easy form.

F. L. Woodward was an authority on Buddhist teachings; many of his publications were published by the Pali Text Society, among them Pictures of Buddhist Ceylon, The Buddha’s Path of Virtue and Francis Bacon and the Cipher Story. He could be considered part of the noble band of Theosophists, who had worked for the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka under the leadership of Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832 – 1907).

From Chapter XXI – ‘This Little Body Holdeth All’ (p. 120):

” Not to be reached by going is world’s end.

Yet is there no release for man from woe,

Unless ye reach world’s end. Yea verily

He that is wise and lives the holy life,

He knows the world. He goeth to world’s end.

Calmed is he, for he knows. He hankereth

Neither for this world nor for any world. “

• From: Anguttara Nikāya (ii., p. 46).

By Robert Carter.

186 Pages | A Quest Original, first edition 1988 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835606317.

Art instructor Robert Carter’s illustrated book is both enjoyable and informative, written in an engaging style. Rhymes of Mother Goose, he suggests, frequently are spiritual parables. He compares many of the famous aphorisms from Lao Tsu’s Tao Teh Ching. noting similarities of viewpoints. Carter feels that teachings of the Chinese philosopher and even Mother Goose nursery rhymes are addressed to some deeper level within each one of us. Consequently, a simple word, phrase, or idea in this meditative picture book might spark something deep within the reader.

From ‘Chapter III – Mother Goose’ (p. 51):

” In Greece, of course, it was Aphrodite herself, who rode on the goose. Aphrodite was Goddess of love and beauty, among many other things, and filled the creative function of The Great Goddess, in that she symbolized the fertile and regenerative powers of nature, like the goose, in three realms: on land, in the sea and in the air. She was a female ruling principle of Nature. And from the illustration we can imagine that she might almost be the one being described in the rhyme:

Old Mother Goose, when

She wanted to wander,

Would ride through the air

On a very fine Gander. “