August 2005 Books
Naked Chocolate; The Mystic Christ ; Card Deck Review-
Brotherhood Tarot
Naked Chocolate
Yes, chocolate is good for you! In fact, it's the best food ever! Natural foods guru David Wolfe and UK health educator Shazzie team up to bring out a superbly researched and documented book to delight the chocoholic in you!
Wolfe and Shazzie report solid research demonstrating that cacao beans (the source of all chocolate) functions as a natural laxative. It soothes menstrual pain. It relaxes muscles and builds bone. It's so high in antioxidants that it leaves green tea and red wine in the dust in the race to neutralize free radicals and “bad” cholesterol. It's good for your heart and your teeth. As we all know, it lifts your spirits and opens your heart. And–it helps you lose weight!
OK, all that said, mark my words: this is just the tippy-tippy-tip of the cacao berg. Before you go out and gorge yourself on chocolate, you need to know that not all chocolate does these things.
Things change if the cacao has been heated, if milk has been added (or if you drink milk while consuming dark chocolate), if it's been GMO'd, or if it was grown using pesticides.
If you love chocolate and are the teensiest bit open to raw, you need to buy this book. You'll read about how you can easily obtain raw cacao and benefit from combining cacao with other mega-nutritions foods, some of which may be new to you. And the recipes! To live for.
Naked Chocolate is David's sixth book promoting revolutionary healthy eating, and Shazzie's third. If you live in San Diego, I recommend a trip to Nature's First Law healthy foods store in El Cajon, or at least a visit to the web site cited at the top of this review.
—Chiwah
The Mystic Christ
The light of non-duality and the path of love
according to the life and teachings of Jesus
With the skill of a surgeon and the wisdom of a Socrates, Walker dismantles the 2000-year-old web of disinformation regarding the real significance of the teachings of Jesus. The Mystic Christ goes to the core of the mystical experience and debunk long-standing interpretations that have created confusion and divisiveness.
But he doesn't do it alone. A quote from William Blake sets the tone for the first chapter: “Both read the Bible day and night, But thou read'st black where I read white.” And the Introduction and all the other chapters begin with a quote from Ammachi, who lives in this life the message of love taught so long ago by Jesus.
If you've puzzled over the often contradictory messages of different sections of the Bible… if you've wondered about the nature of evil… if you're fascinated by religious history… if you're interested in Ascension and Resurrection—whatever the nature of your questions, The Mystic Christ will shed light, delving into and explaining over 230 scriptural references from both the Old and New Testaments in terms of early Christian history and drawing comparisons to the teachings of other Masters.
Having already come to many of the same conclusions as the author, I appreciated the careful scholarship and common sense arguments. This book cuts a wide swath through the sea of propaganda promulgated by the Church to shed light on the harmony between the teachings of Jesus and those of the other major religions.
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Card Deck Review
Brotherhood Tarot
A gay-inspired Tarot deck
Well, I think this is a first—I don't recall ever reviewing anything created specifically for the gay community. But the time has come—Pipa's Brotherhood Tarot was just too good to pass up.
The digital art on these 78 colorful cards is truly singular. Drawing inspiration from gay history and mythology, Pipa (who makes his home in San Diego) has created the ultimate masculine fantasy Tarot deck with bold, colorful Radical Faerie imagery.
To make the deck useful as well as artistically rich, Pipa has held to the traditional meanings for each card as represented in the popular Rider-Waite deck.
“It was important to me to reflect the fact that gay people have been around for centuries in all cultures,” he said. “I think that we sometimes forget that life did not start for us in the 60's. Discovering our ancient history meant a lot to me… These stories offered me a way to approach the Tarot with another perspective that I hope others find appealing as well.”
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