$18.95, Trade Paper, ISBN. 0-940262-58-4, Lindisfarne Press

The Two Million-Year-Old Self, by Anthony Stevens, Foreword by David H. Rosen

$24.50, Hardcover, ISBN: 0-89096-536-6, Texas A&M Press

These two collections of lectures exemplify, in an almost archetypal way, the virtues of independent press and university press publishing. Neither book would see the light of day if mass market publishing (and shopping mall chain outlets...) were the only option. The commercial requirements of trade publishing would prevent their publishing by most trade houses-including many consciousness and psychology publishers whose books are reviewed here and in other review journals.

The Transcendental Universe is a breakthrough work of Christian esotericism, of the year 1894! In answer to the tremendous popularity and influence in fin de siecle occult circles of H.P. Blavatsky and her Secret Doctrine, an independent initiate of the mysteries (about whom little is known outside his publications) delivered and published in these lectures a critique of theosophy joined to a reconstruction of the entire body of western esoteric knowledge, including, as summarized on the cover, secret brotherhoods; occult science; the nature of God, matter, evil, and the evolution of consciousness; the angelic hierarchies; the War in Heaven, and related topics.

Aside from Harrison's limitations as a 19th-Century British subject and a British Catholic, discussed in the notes, the lectures give a brilliant and subtle version of the esoteric world-view. The voluminous notes and historical introduction by the scholarly editor, Bamford, make the book both accessible and multidimensional. Thomas Meyer, a European Anthroposophist, in the most esoteric appendix of all, suggests that Harrison was part of a brotherhood of imperial power-possessors responsible for large portions of 20th Century international political history, good grist for conspiracy theorists everywhere. Not easy reading, the book is mandatory matter for students of esotericism, 19th Century cultural history, or Western culture in general. We have to thank Lindisfarne Press for reprinting such an unusual classic.

The Two Million-Year-Old Self is a recent set of lectures by a noted Jungian author trained at Oxford University. Almost at an opposite pole from Harrison's thought, Stevens propounds the universality of the core, or primitive, process of human consciousness, and the Jungian perspective that freeing consciousness from imposed conditioning permits a natural flow of healing awareness and illumination for the individual. Something of a deus ex machina by comparison with the initiatic "occult" science of Harrison, Stevens no less elegantly synthesizes a body of knowledge-in his case embracing modern anthropology, biology, and analytical psychology.

Stevens mobilizes anecdotes and examples to illustrate his points. Highlights of the lectures are a complete interpretation, from the archetypal perspective, of dream from a young man Stevens treated and a case history of the treatment of an obsessive schizoid woman. The dream is recounted, followed by personal associations, cultural associations, archetypal associations (from Osiris and Prometheus through an abundance of hero myths). As a final touch, Stevens deftly evokes "Dream Ecology," comparing the dream's country landscape to themes in Romantic poetry, music, and painting, all embodying the "nature mysticism" we share, as children, with "primal peoples" (perhaps not a scientific term...). A little too specialized and intellectual for a trade publisher, and pricy as a small hardcover, nevertheless a fine contribution to psychological thought, these lectures are available thanks to Texas A&M University and its endowed lecture/book publication series, the Carolyn and Ernest Fay Series in Analytical Psychology.

-Iven Lourie

Both of these Englishmen exhibit an intrepid optimism in regard to the race as a whole. Harrison rails against materialism and the occultist's nemesis, 'logical positivism," and states his evolutionary view in relation to scientific method as follows:

The ordinary recognized methods, though very excellent in their way, are not the only methods by which we can arrive at truth. There are others, recognized at present by comparatively few persons, which will become ordinary in due time, when the rank and file of men have evolved certain faculties of which they now possess only the rudiments. (p 70)

In a similar vein, Stevens speculate as a scientist in these words:

I believe that a massive paradigm shift la under y, carrying us beyond the medical model with ita inherent Cartesian split to an entirely new conceptual framework capable of defining the basic components of human nature, their evolutionary origins, and their essential developmental needs. Since the archetypal hypothesis gives equal weight to psychic and physical events, the new paradigm would serve to correct the materialistic and soulless bias of contemporary psychiatry....(p. 61)

As a novice reader, I find their enthusiasm in midst of two apocalyptic end-of-millenium periods charming and heart-warming. On the other hand, the urgent need for a shift from materialism a century after the occult flowering that Harrison marked- is not encouraging.

©1996 Gateways Books and Tapes