Golden Age Inspirational/Philospophical Authors

[Carlisle Blues]

I have read material from the following for many years. Each time it carries a new understanding, I feel further enlightened and blessed.

Kahlil Gibran on Love (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931)

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Do you have an author or passage that effects you this way?

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" was one of the first inspiration "self help' books. It was published in 1937 and based on his work with Andrew Carnegie. Hill's common sense advice is still good for today.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" was one of the first inspiration "self help' books. It was published in 1937 and based on his work with Andrew Carnegie. Hill's common sense advice is still good for today.

Yes I read that as well. Reading this material provided me with hope when situations seemed insurmountable and helped me build on that mustard seed of faith.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Books by Charles Williams (1930s - 40s) certainly make me think, in a subtle roundabout way. Well I reckon hanging around with Tolkien and Lewis would do that to a person, although I had he was a pretty insightful person anyway.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Books by Charles Williams (1930s - 40s) certainly make me think, in a subtle roundabout way. Well I reckon hanging around with Tolkien and Lewis would do that to a person, although I had he was a pretty insightful person anyway.

Descent Into Hell (1937) looks to be an excellent read. One that speaks to the type of material I would like to engage at this point in my life.

His friends the Inklings certainly would prompt thought, but, if I am correct "Descent into Hell" would be the ticket.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Descent Into Hell (1937) looks to be an excellent read. One that speaks to the type of material I would like to engage at this point in my life.

His friends the Inklings certainly would prompt thought, but, if I am correct "Descent into Hell" would be the ticket.

I'd agree I really enjoyed Descent into Hell, the most thoughtful so far.

I also quite liked "War in Heaven" any fans of the Holy Graal and such like, this would be a treat.

I am of the impression that JK Rowling was quite influenced by Willaims, there are some ideas that are repeated, little things but could definite.

Addition:
It also does cover some material that may not be covered by Tolkein or Lewis and this is why I turned to Williams. Succubi or Dopplegangers - Descent into Hell is your book + theres lots of other interesting aspects too.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

I'd agree I really enjoyed Descent into Hell, the most thoughtful so far.

I also quite liked "War in Heaven" any fans of the Holy Graal and such like, this would be a treat.

I am of the impression that JK Rowling was quite influenced by Willaims, there are some ideas that are repeated, little things but could definite.

Addition:
It also does cover some material that may not be covered by Tolkein or Lewis and this is why I turned to Williams. Succubi or Dopplegangers - Descent into Hell is your book + theres lots of other interesting aspects too.

Yes and one of my favorite "new age" authors is Stephen R. Donalson (b. 1947)who wrote the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever . It has been assumed that he was influenced by Platonian forms as illustrated in Charles Williams' novel The Place of the Lion, however, Donaldson denies this.

I read Thomas Covenant voraciously.

I want Descent into Hell to be like my readings from sources like Hemingway, Norman Vincent Peele or even at times when I pick up a Book like "Alcoholics Anonymous"( 1939) where I can sit with it and think or meditate upon a tract or paragraph.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Sorry to disagree Carlisle, but I really don't like those Donaldson Thomas Covenant books. I read all of the first two trilogies - my sister worked at Random House at the time, and I was able to get bags of free books whenever I visited here. Maybe his later books are better, but I was sufficiently unimpressed with those first six to give up on him.

Anyway, he struck me as an example of the kind of fantasy author who would never have been able to write a word if he hadn't read Tolkien very closely in his youth. Everything in those books seemed to be based on something in LOTR (e.g., ancient rock people rather than ancient tree people). His big "invention" - that his hero was a seriously damaged individual of no faith - was simply an inversion of the usual virtuous hero with enormnous faith and confidence. Anyway, while they were well-written enough to hold my interest back in my subway commute days, I was ultimately disappointed.

Hey, there's no denying that Tolkien has cast a huge shadow over all fantasy writers since, but it is possible to create a fantasy series that owes little to the Tolkien template. For example, Ursula Le Guin's excellent Earthsea books. (Which I also think are more interesting philosophically than Donaldson's books.)

And listen, I'm not criticizing you - we all have our tastes and favorites, which is as it should be - but I wanted to state an opposing view. I think Donaldson is an absurdly overrated fantasy writer. (So is J.K. Rowling, but that's another post. Still... check out the school for wizards in Le Guin's first Earthsea book, written thirty years before the first Potter book.)

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Yes and one of my favorite "new age" authors is Stephen R. Donalson (b. 1947)who wrote the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever . It has been assumed that he was influenced by Platonian forms as illustrated in Charles Williams' novel The Place of the Lion, however, Donaldson denies this.

I read Thomas Covenant voraciously.

I want Descent into Hell to be like my readings from sources like Hemingway, Norman Vincent Peele or even at times when I pick up a Book like "Alcoholics Anonymous"( 1939) where I can sit with it and think or meditate upon a tract or paragraph.

Of William's seven novels, I've read three. Based on what's available on my bookshelf it looks like Place of the Lions will be next.

All Hallows Eve was OK (set during the Blitz i London) but is my least favourite so far. I received a neat present of a first edition of some of his poetry for Christmas, good condition too.

I'm pretty sure that although he was a fellow Inkling Tolkein didn't like Williams' work. Lewis wasn't keen on it either to start with but I think he began to understand the bigger picture; he looked up to Williams as a theologian.

 

[Foofoogal]

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

I had heard of this person and may of read this poem somewhere along the way but this is stunning.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

I shall continue to love deeply and have decided only the brave are able to do this. Wimps do not love again after being crucified by love.
In every area of our lives. Marriage, friends, family. etc.

What a week....wow.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Anyway, while they were well-written enough to hold my interest back in my subway commute days, I was ultimately disappointed.

Doctor Strange we agree. In fact, I read Donaldson during the period when I was living in the Bronx housing project I grew up in, working full time on Wall Street, running my accounting/taxation business part time and attending college full time at night. Covenant served as a character to identify with as I had NO idea how the heck I was ever going to succeed and live in a place like Westchester.

I later found him tedious, at best. I could go no further with his writings as I simply out grew his works.

I was still taking the Lexington Avenue line, but, I was traveling to law school, a dream realized, in part due to Donalson's Covenant as the character symbolized a relentless passion for attaining his goals in spite of the obstacles placed before him and the odds against him. Believe me at times it would have been easier to work in a liquor warehouse, however, sometimes we do not chose the path we find ourselves on. We are chosen for it and have no choice but to follow it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I know what you mean about paths: I find myself at a very difficult juncture at this point in my life (reduced hours/income at work for the last year; one kid in college and another a year away from starting; and in the midst of a very long, very depressing, very expensive decline of both my elderly parents [who are on different trajectories at different speeds])... My mantra has become: Play the cards you're dealt. There's really nothing to do but hang on and ride it out.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that we have similar feelings about Donaldson!

 

[Carlisle Blues]

I know what you mean about paths: I find myself at a very difficult juncture at this point in my life in the midst of a very long, very depressing, very expensive decline of both my elderly parents [who are on different trajectories at different speeds])... My mantra has become: Play the cards you're dealt. There's really nothing to do but hang on and ride it out.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that we have similar feelings about Donaldson!

I am sorry for your pain, in my early 20's I used to take my father to AA meetings; to no avail...when he died I was left with many of his familial responsibilities.

Having no real direction I relied on those inspirational writers to keep me spiritually afloat, believe in myself and perform the duties that I had been entrusted with.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

DS I was thinking about what you were speaking about and I have always found this to give me a grounded feeling....Gibran always takes me to a place where I can take an emotional deep breath. Right now I am experiencing the loss of someone very close and this gives solace. To me family is just another word for friend. I am grateful for the sharing and the caring we exchanged.

Kahlil Gibran On Friendship

Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.


When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.


And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952), highly regarded Bible commentator, author, expositor, and long-time sole contributer to Studies in the Scriptures magazine. His work had tremendous influence in my early spiritual life.

 

[Foofoogal]

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

I spoke of my best friend just losing her 23 year old son. She has been my best friend since I was 16 and she 15. I have never, ever had a loss for words but completely understand this sentence now. When I think of her pain it is almost like my breath is taken away. I have no words to say.
I think I am mourning the loss of my friend as she was as she will never be the same nor our friendship.

The Bible is my comfort as it has always been but these poems are beautiful Carlisle.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

^^^
I am sorry for your loss. I am happy that you found it comforting.

While these writings have always had a special meaning for me, sometimes an event or even meeting someone who, with one smile, could give a truly different view of Gibran.

Kahlil Gibran On Beauty

Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."
And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say,
"We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."
And in the summer heat the reapers say,
"We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves,
and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."
All these things have you said of beauty,
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

Currently reading Williams' The Place of The Lion, slightly reminiscent of Narnia and of Harry Potter.

(I'm pretty sure that Rowling has taken some inspiration from Williams, nice compliment)

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes

The works of Ernest Shurtleff Holmes. His first book published in 1919 called "Creative Mind and Success" with many more to come throughout the 20th Century.
http://books.google.com/books?id=UGf4Of1-rScC&printsec=frontcover&dq=creative+mind+and+success&source=bl&ots=DGmoYB_HbE&sig=Zreeln6YPtMLBBH5K5t7DlKpLPc&hl=en&ei=NW-qS5aVLIPgtgP7krmwAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCgQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

This little book pre-dates 'The Power Of Positive Thinking' by more than thirty years. In fact, Norman Vincent Peale was a student of Dr. Holmes.

-dixon cannon

 

[Fletch]

An intriguing figure to me is Nicholas Roerich (1875-1947), Russian philosopher, painter, poet, mystic, internationalist. He emigrated to America, and in 1920, began the Master Institute of the Arts in New York, founded on the Theosophist principle that all the arts, sciences, and humanities are spiritually intertwined.

Henry A. Wallace, SecAg and later VP to FDR, was a particularly close admirer of Roerich's. In 1935, perhaps with Wallace's help, he convinced FDR and the heads of several other nations to sign the "Roerich Pact" to pledge world peace - a trendy cause that year, the year of the Oxford Pledge and the Stresa conference, but sadly no more than that.

Roerich wrote some colorful if highly spaced-out poetry, and the Master Institute had its own Moderne apartment house for awhile. The Institute folded in 1937; the building still stands. Nearby is the smaller Roerich Museum.

Battles in the Heavens, 1912.