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First, I should disclose that I am currently living in the house that deRopp built on Sonoma Mountain as the Church of the Earth. I learned this a couple of years after I moved in, when my landlord showed me a copy of the "Church of the Earth"), a book by deRopp with great stories and photos of the process of building this place. That book, which seems to be unavailable currently, also details deRopp's "Three Pillars" philosophy of community: the Garden, the Temple, and the University). It was an experiment to try to create a community united by spiritual principles living in sustainable harmony with the earth. It failed after deRopp drowned on one of his sea kayaking trips, during which he would gather food from the ocean for the community. (disclaimer: the story of deRopp's drowning is based on oral tradition told among long-term residents of the North slope of Sonoma Mountain. I have not fact-checked it.)
There was a powerful synchronicity in learning this. After living here for a year--before I learned about the origins of this place--one day a flood of ideas came to me about a new religion; I wrote the ideas as they came in a composition book. The religion was called "The Church of the Earth is God" and it's main premise was that the religion our species needs now should be based on the premise that the Earth is God... and that this should not be held in the way that we think of "ultimate creator God" but instead as a way to cultivate reverence and respect for the earth. Was I channeling deRopp? Who knows. But I digress.
I first read The Master Game in the late 1970's. It made a lot of sense to me then. It's been good to revisit it in this new edition. I can see how deRopp's ideas have influenced me over the years. The writing style is very much of the period in which it was written, which to me feels like a sweet contrast in tone with more current pop psychology/spiritual guidance/self-help books (it's all three of those categories, in my opinion). It is hard for me to sort out how much of my enjoyment of it is sentimental, and how much is based on its objective qualities; therefore I have not been recommending it to my friends and students---just quietly enjoying it on my own while I sit under the Oak Tree where the residents of the Church of the Earth eventually learned to make peace with the bees.
That said, I acknowledge that Robert deRopp has a place among the ancestors of the various lineages that have guided my development, and for this I am grateful to him.
- Series: Consciousness Classics
- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Gateways Books & Tapes; 3rd edition (April 1, 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0895561506
- ISBN-13: 978-0895561503
- Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 27 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#273,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #701 in New Age Mysticism (Books)
- #593 in Consciousness & Thought Philosophy
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