Customer Reviews

Shower of Stars: The Initiatic Dream in Sufism and Taoism (Autonomedia Book Series)

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In his usual style of scholarship mixed with social commentary, Mr. Wilson has written a book which is a jewel of great price. The sub-title [not shown on this site]"DREAM & BOOK" is characteristic of his approach as he analyzes mystical literature and the dreams of the practitioners of Taoism & Sufism. Ecstatic dreaming and automatic writing are both ways in which the 'unmanifest' may be experienced - one allows the practitioner to 'enter into' the 'other realm', while the other brings this world into our own. These initiatic dreams and oracular drawings when performed with purpose form the basis of a mystical language where with we may embellish our own Great Works. In this regard see Mr. Wilson's 'collegue' Hakim Bey, especially Bey's "Aimless Wandering: Chuang Tzu's Chaos Linguistics". [For some reason this is not available on this site, try abe.com]. Finally the comparison of Taoism and Sufism is wonderfully and plainly disclosed with the depth of a discerning writer and poet.

especially if you're interested in comparative religion. and i dont just mean sufism and taoism, there was some real cool comparisons to very ancient religions. its one of those books that (perhaps unintentionally) reinforced by beliefs that all religions are in essence the same, or came from the same source. it also introduced me to the Uwaysi tariqa and istikharas which i found fascinating.

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Confessions of a former PLW/Hakim Bey fanantic:
Interesting to see that this item was composed for presentation to the Ibn Arabi Society; it has nothing to do with Hazrat Ibn Arabi, nothing to do with Sufism in any substantial manner, nothing to do with Owaysiyyah, ect. Herein is contained pages of only PLW/Hakim Bey's philosophical whims and fancies, with no relation to the pursuit of real understanding the profound matter at hand. We appreciate PLW's razor-sharp intellect and wonderful ranting style, but he is describing the items of Sufism from the outside only; he does not enter within. PLW/Hakim Bey's works should not be recommended to anyone seriously interested in the Sufi Path and/or Islam, as PLW is not even interested in sincerely elucidating their traditional approach to the subject.