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The Letters of H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1: 1861-1879
Edited by John Algeo
 Helena Blavatsky, in an 1877 letter to her aunt, called herself “a psychological enigma, a puzzle for future generations, a Sphinx!” Fourteen years later a New Your Tribune obituary compared her with “the greatest thinkers, not alone of the present day, but of all time.”
That obituary went on to predict, “Madame Blavatsky has made her mark upon the time, and thus, too, her works will follow her.” Her works have indeed done so, including the groundbreaking Isis Unvieiled (1877); her fictionalized travel account, From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan (1883-1886); her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine (1888); an introduction to her teachings, The Key to Theosophy (1889); her mystical handbook for spiritual development, The Voice of the Silence (1889); and her newspaper and magazine articles (1874-1891), now collected in 14 volumes. In addition to those published works, H.P.B. was a prolific correspondent with her family and colleagues, friends and foes, the learned and the simple. Her published works present the public Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Her correspondence represents the private HPB, the enigmatic, puzzling Sphinx.
That correspondence, of which this is the first volume, is now being presented in the HPB Collected Writings series. The letters within these covers span a period of nearly two decades, from the early 1860s to early 1879. In the first of those letters, HPB describes a mystical experience during a fever:
Whenever I was called by name, I opened the eyes upon hearing it and was myself, in every particular. As soon as I was left alone, I relapsed into my usual, half dreamy condition and became somebody else…. in another far off country, quite another indiduality, and had no connection at all with my actual life.
In the last of the letters in this volume, HPB, about to start on her new life in India, poignantly reflects on the uncertainty of life:
I start for India. Providence alone knows what the future has in store for us…. May the invisible powers protect you all! I shall write from Bombay if I ever reach it.
Between those two letters, she has traveled over the world, undergone personal crises, discovered her identity, formed lasting friendships, become a public figure, founded the Theosophical Society, published her first major work, and seen a vision of her future. Her correspondence tells the whole story, with an insider’s knowledge and in her own voice.
The Call: Discovering Why You Are Here
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
 In The Invitation, visionary writer and teacher Oriah Mountain Dreamer wrote about what we long for. In The Dance, she explored how to live this longing to the fullest. No, in The Call, she completes the trilogy, showing us why we are here and why we must each undertake that journey from longing to living fully and deeply in the world. Each of us, Oriah believes, has our own call, our own way to discover and live fully our true selves and our heart’s desires. But the call cannot be found in the expectations of others or in the outside world; it can only be found within ourselves. And heeding it is not a matter of doing, but of accepting, “not doing.” In her trademark style, Oriah takes us through her journey to find and heed her own call. What she discovered is that to be fully human is to be consciously who we truly are. By joining Oriah on the path, we may find the way to live, awake to our distinct essence. The key is to give up striving to become who we think we should be and to embrace our true self, imperfections and all.
The Sound of Paper: Starting From Scratch
Julia Cameron
 In the Sound of Paper, Julia Cameron delves deep into the heart of the personal struggles that all artists experience. What can we do when we face our keyboard or canvas with nothing but a cold emptiness? How can we begin to carve out our creation when our vision and drive are clouded by life’s uncertainties? In other words, how can we begin the difficult work of being an artist? Drawing on her many years of personal experience as both an artist and a teacher, Julia Cameron uncovers the difficult soul work that artists must do to find inspiration. Demonstrating how this involves a process of constant renewal, of starting from the beginning, she writes, “When we are building a life from scratch, we must dig a little. We must be like that hen scratching the soil: ‘What goodness is hidden here, just below the surface?’” With personal essays accompanied by exercises designed to develop the power to infuse one’s art with a deeply informed knowledge of the soul, this book is an essential artist’s companion from one of the foremost authorities on the creative process. Cameron’s most illuminating book to date, The Sound of Paper provides readers with a spiritual path for creating the best work of their lives.
I Can Do It: How to Use Affirmations to Change Your Life
Louise L. Hay
 In this concise yet information packed book—which you can listen to on the enclosed CD or read at your leisure—bestselling author Louise L. Hay shows you that you “can do it”—that is, change and improve virtually every aspect of your life—by understanding and using affirmations correctly. Louise explains that every thought you think and every word you speak is an affirmation. Even your self-talk, your internal dialogue, is a stream of affirmations. You’re affirming and creating your life experiences with every word and thought. Your beliefs are merely habitual thinking patterns that you learned as a child, and many of them work very well for you. But other beliefs may be limiting your ability to create the very things you say you want. You need to pay attention to your thoughts so that you can begin to eliminate the ones creating experiences that you don’t want. As Louise discusses topics such as health, forgiveness, prosperity, creativity, relationships, job success, and self-esteem, you’ll see that affirmations are solutions that will replace whatever problem you might have in a particular area. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to say “I can do it” with confidence, knowing that you’re on your way to the wonderful, joy-filled life you deserve.
Stillness Speaks
Eckhart Tolle
 The essence of Eckhart Tolle’s message is easy to grasp: If we connect to the stillness within, we move beyond our active minds and emotions and discover great depths of lasting peace, contentment, and serenity. With his bestselling first book, The Power of Now, his message has reached millions of people worldwide. Now, in his much anticipated new book, Tolle gives us the essence of his teaching in short, simple pieces that anyone can easily understand. Stillness Speaks is organized into ten chapters whose subjects range from “Beyond the Thinking Mind” to “Suffering and the End of Suffering.” Each chapter is a mosaic of individual entries, concise and complete in themselves, but profoundly transformative when read as a whole.
Inner Peace for Busy Women: Balancing Work, Family and Your Inner Life.
Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph. D
 This is a book about getting real. It tells the truth about busyness and peace in a way that can help us women change our lives. Until quite recently, it was politically incorrect to mention that balancing work and family, while having any time left to nurture our spirit, was a tall order. This book gets to the heart of how busy women can find a center of inner peace even when life is swirling around us like a cyclone. The actual problem isn’t that we are overwhelmingly busy, or that working women with children are the busiest people on the face of earth—the problem is that we’ve been taught to think that our external lives should be balanced in a prescribed way. Since they generally aren’t, and the likelihood is that they never will be since life is always changing, we create suffering by resisting what is. Inner Peace for Busy Women will show you how to stop resisting your life and start living in the center of cyclone, where it’s always peaceful.
Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World
Thich Nhat Hanh
 Creating True Peace is both a profound work of spiritual guidance and a practical blueprint for peaceful inner change and global change. It is the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh’s answer to our deep-rooted crisis of violence and our feelings of helplessness, victimization, and fear. A beautiful blend of visionary insight, inspiring stories of peacemaking, and combination of meditation practices and instruction to show us how to take Right Action, this book is for people of all faiths, a compendium of peace practices that can help anyone practice nonviolent thought and behavior, even in the midst of world upheaval. More than any of his previous books, Creating True Peace tells stories of Thich Nhat Hanh and his students practicing peace during wartime. These demonstrate the violence is an outmoded response we can no longer affort. The simple but powerful recommended daily actions and everyday interactions root out violence where it lives in our hearts and minds and help us discover the power to create peace at every level of life—personal, family, neighborhood, community, state, nation, and world.
The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice
Gary Zukav and Linda Francis
 People make hundreds of choices every day—both large and small—yet most individuals feel they have little control over their own lives. Now Gary Zukav, author of the monumental bestseller The Seat of the Soul, joins his spiritual partner, Linda Francis, in a revolutionary look at the power of choice and how to use it wisely. They explain how changing our decision-making can help us avoid self-defeating patterns of thought and action—and help us take control of our lives by creating authentic, positive power. The Mind of the Soul describes how each moment in a life is a moment of decision: whether to persist in the old, limited patterns of life or to choose instead toe experiment with the unbounded, liberating potential ahead of us. Using the same pragmatic terms that made The Heart of the Soul so meaningful, Zukav and Francis allow readers to develop, step by step, the ability to break free of unconscious choices that hold them back and limit their fulfillment in life.
The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence
Deepak Chopra
 This groundbreaking new book from Deepak Chopra contains a dramatic premise: Not only our everyday coincidences meaningful, they actually provide us with glimpses of the field of infinite possibilities that lies at the heart of all things. By gaining access to this wellspring of creation, we can literally rewrite our destinies in any way we wish. From this realm of pure potential we are connected to everything that exsts and everything that is yet to come. “Coincidences” can then be recognized as containing precious clues about particular facets of our lives that require our attention. As you become more aware of coincidences and their meanings, you begin to connect more and more with the underlying field of infinity possibilities. This is when the magic begins. This is when you achieve the spontaneous fulfillment of desire. At a time when world events may leave us feeling especially insignificant and vulnerable, Deepak Chopra restores our awareness of the awesome powers within us. And through specific principles and exercises he provides the tools with which to create the magnificent, miraculous life that is our birthright.
The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers
Carol Spinney
 If you’re looking for wisdom and joy in your life, go straight to Sesame Street and heed the words of its most beloved and profound resident, Caroll Spinney, who has spent the past thirty-four years in a bird costume (and a trash can) as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Three decades inside a giant puppet have taught Spinney a valuable and surprising lesson: Being a bird can make you a better person. In The Wisdom of Big Bird, the living legend of Sesame Street describes how we can all find our inner bird (or grouch.) Each chapter illustrates a piece of useful wisdom Spinney has gleaned from a career in feathers. The lesson Big Bird teaches children every day are the same ones that have brought Spinney success and satisfaction in his own life. Warm, witty, and affirming, Caroll Spinney’s memoir proves that being a bird can make you a better and happier person.
The Genesis Meditations: A Shared Practice of Peace for Christians, Jews, and Muslims
Neil Douglas Klotz
 From the fertile common ground in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Neil Douglas-Klotz has revived what he calls “original meditation.” This ancient form of prayer focuses, not on a vision of the apocalypse, but on the tremendous power of creation as it is still unfolding in the universe and in our own personal experience. As Dr. Douglas-Klotz says in his introduction:
Original meditation lies behind the Christian’s awe at the rebirth of the Christ Child each midwinter. It fuels the heartfelt hope of Jews in the New Year celebrations of Rosh Hashana. And it roots the devotion of Muslims each year during the fast of Ramadan. These are all celebrations of hope, not fear, and of love, not hatred. By experiencing the creation story as our own personally story, we have the same opportunity to recreate and renew ourselves, as our ancestors did, and to find a deeper connection with the divine in our everyday lives.
We also participate in the one meditative practice that might unite our Christian, Judaic, and Islamic communities, bringing peace to our troubled world.
The God Code: The Secret of Our Past, the Promise of Our Future
Greg Braden
 A coded message has been found within the molecules of life, deep within the DNA in each cell of our bodies. Through a remarkable discovery linking biblical alphabets to our genetic code, the “language of life” may now be read as the ancient letters of a timeless message. Regardless of race, religion, heritage, or lifestyle, the message is the same in each cell of every man, woman, and child, past and present. With nearly one-third of the world’s nations currently embroiled in armed conflict, such proof of a universal bond offers compelling evidence that we are greater than any beliefs that have separated us in the past. Through tis newfound expression of unity, we find a place to embark on the road to peace when our differences seem insurmountable. In this uniquely fascinating work, Gregg Braden shares the life-changing discovery that led him from a successful career in aerospace and defense to an extensive 12-year study of the most sacred and honored traditions of humankind.
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