Customer Reviews

Ancient Echoes: The Anasazi Book of Chants

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mary Summer Rain answers to the highest calling: that of her heart and soul. This collection of prayers, chants, and poems that she received from the Anasazi through a spiritual connection is something we can read and reread and use in our daily lives. I highly recommend this to anyone, who can appreciate heartfelt messages from the soul paying respect to the forces that drive us: the Great Spirit, Mother Nature, and our brothers and sisters across the world.

Claiming to contain the wisdom of the Anasazi, Ancient Echoes, is a disappointment. There is nothing ancient in the ideas expressed. Indeed, most of the ideas expressed are New Age ideas with no connection to the Anasazis, who were the ancestors of today's Pueblos. I found this book insulting to anyone who cares about the heritage of the Pueblos or bout prejudices European-Americans maintain against Native Americans. The Pueblos hold that they are the descendents of the Anasazi and that the "Ancient Ones" never vanished. Scholars have long recognized the same. The National Park Service that maintains Anasazi archaeological sites at places like Mesa Verde, has also long recognized the link between Anasazis and contemporary Pueblos. Yet, this book ignores this knowledge in favor of the author's whim. Mary Summer Rain claims to have received the chants and prayers of the Anasazi through "spirit memory recall." However, the information this technique brought her does not square with the information Pueblos themselves give or with the information archaeologists can verify. Her chants bear no relation to Pueblo religious practice and her description of Anasazi society contradicts what is known for certain about the Anasazi. The "Anasazi" ceremonies suggested, like the Phoenix Dance, have never been known among the Pueblos. Indeed the very suggestion that this dance was held "twice a year" (p. 125) goes against Puebloan practice (see Alfonso Ortiz, The Tewa World, 1969). Similarly, there is absolutely no evidence that the Anasazi were enamoured with crystals, (pp. 98, 134, 144) that women were "welcomed into the Hunter Society" (p. 22) or that they traveled about in Star Vehicles (pp.118, 188). This book should be classified as fiction, or as a treatise on New Age thought. In no way should this book be taking as a serious portrayal of Anasazi life. Indeed, it perpetuates many stereotypes Europeans have long held regarding Native Americans disregarding the appeals of Native American scholars that non-Indians stop using Indians to legitimize their own beliefs.

I love this beautiful book and refer to it often for inspiration. As an author of several books on shamanism and energy healing, Seeing in the Dark: Claim Your Own Shamanic Power Now and in the Coming Age, Energy for Life: Connect with the Source (Next Step), and Inner Power: Six Techniques for Increased Energy & Self-Healing I have a deep appreciation for vivid, well organized writing and have loved Mary Summer Rain's outstanding storytelling and vision weaving. I love reading every one of her books over and over again!

I have to echo Joseph's review and warn people to stay away from this book as well as any other books by Mary Summer Rain. The author has taken claims to a heritage that she knows nothing about. This book sells romanticized "spirituality" and is a fictional collection of Anasazi beliefs and chants, and should not be considered a true account.

We each follow a path.. and sometime we do share what we feel by the written word.

That doesn't however mean that HER words will fit into your words. Time and cultures have a definite imprint on our minds and souls. For some I do believe that Summer Rain's simplistic chants will have an effect and for many they won't. Its just that kind of a book.. personal. HER recalls of the ancient words.. not ours.. nor the archaeologists trying to understand the wherefores and the why.. is what she is sharing. We weren't there.. or were we?

If it hits home.. you get the message.. if not... you've read another person's thoughts.

This book,the many chants ect. are beutiful!If nothing else,they are very calming,soothing and interesting.I felt as if I was taken back in time,to a place very far away.To a wonderful place with extradinary people.Mary summer rain has the remarkable ability to captivate her readers with profound wisdom bought forth in a simple,easy to understand manner.Like so many of her other books ,this is a book you will read over and over.I highly recommend it.

I have to admit, I was a fan of Mary Summer Rain's earlier books, and I have this book in my collection (purchased many years ago). As I read each "ceremony," I wasn't into all these "star vehicles," "crystal use," etc. It is easy for MSR to say these chants were from one branch of the Anasazi -- that way she cannot receive as much criticism from the Pueblo Indians.

As far as who knows what kind of ceremonies were done back then, there is such as thing as oral history. We did not write down our history, but told them verbally, which is why stories, legends and HISTORY, continue to live until this day. The Yonega has rewritten much of Native American history, but it is now our turn to tell the truth.

I agree with previous reviews -- MSR is a new-ager who has snowballed many people throughout the years. This is why she has shifted to writing fiction (wait -- she's been doing that for years)!

I never had regarded her as Native American, she doesn't really know -- she claims to a nation (Shoshone) but I wonder if they readily accept her.

Stay away from her writings, unless you don't mind reading fiction. AS for me, if I like the book, I go back and read it from time to time. I still have the book, but I haven't read it in over 10 years.

I am writing for two reasons: One, simply to say that this is a beautiful book about what I feel deep in my heart is quite historically accurate.

Two, in reference to one long review that attacks this book as being pretty much a lie. The reviewer should have paid more attention to the book's repeated mention of these chants and customs being associated with a particular Anasazi CLAN, not the entirety of the Anasazi people over centuries. Does the reviewer believe that he/she, or any pueblo for that matter, knows what went on with every CLAN of people back then?

It doesn't really matter. You are either positively affected by this book or you are not. If you have the slightest ability to read with an open heart and mind -- which should, by the way, help you see more clearly -- you will probably get what Mary Summer Rain is trying to say with the book: plain and simple truth. She does this abundantly in all of her other books, and I count her work, including Ancient Echoes, as among the most enlightening literature I have ever found. The chants speak of what it is to be human, what we have been, what we can be, and it is full of astounding insights into potential relationships with the earth and its forces. It is, like all her work, also replete with heart.