Anastasia and the Ringing Cedars

Are there enough readers of these books here, to form a little book club?

I've love to talk to other's who have read them :)

Hi Dragon Charms,
I read all the hype but was disappointed in the books themselves; they seemed to me to be very superficial and a bit "New Agey". Luckily I got the whole set for $8.00, as discards from the local library. I'd definately have been miffed if I'd had to pay full price.

There are a few good ideas in there, but very little that is actually new, and a good deal of information that is just plain wrong. For example, in Vol 1 I think it is, the assertion is made that trees struck by lightning frequently explode, and this is because tree sap is a good conductor of electricity. In actual fact the opposite is true; trees sometimes explode because the sap is a poor conductor. A good conductor, like a lightning rod, would take the flash directly to ground with no damage to the tree at all

After an elementary error like that, I'm suspicious of every statement made in the series, but I'm slowly plodding through it, just in case. Who knows, there may be some useful stuff in there. The Dacha movement, which sounds rather similar to the "Back-to-the-Land" movemwnt of the 1960's, in North America and elsewhere, is interesting; perhaps, with Government sanction and support, the Dacha system might do better than the anarchistic North American movement. Certainly, I wish them luck.

Alchymist.

Alchymist, Anastasia's message is not meant for your rational mind, she is speaking with your heart, developing the wisdom and love that is always with you, called "soul" .. Always with peace my friend, ernestas..

I agree with some of your statements here. :) I got through book 8, and don't feel the need just yet for book 9. But what I was most disheartened by, was stuff about "the ray". Just when Anastasia was getting into explaining it, maybe even making it so clear, everyone could be working with it,...the author was bored and didn't continue writing on that topic. Now that bummed me out.

After reading all 8, I felt like it was back in the 60's for me as well. The main ideas I mean. Being more in harmony with nature, is something that did stick to me, like making candles and macrame-ing. lol

Next gardening season, I am trying out her method of seed beginnings attuned to self. We'll see how that goes.

Originally Posted by Alchymist

Hi Dragon Charms,
I read all the hype but was disappointed in the books themselves; they seemed to me to be very superficial and a bit "New Agey". Luckily I got the whole set for $8.00, as discards from the local library. I'd definately have been miffed if I'd had to pay full price.

There are a few good ideas in there, but very little that is actually new, and a good deal of information that is just plain wrong. For example, in Vol 1 I think it is, the assertion is made that trees struck by lightning frequently explode, and this is because tree sap is a good conductor of electricity. In actual fact the opposite is true; trees sometimes explode because the sap is a poor conductor. A good conductor, like a lightning rod, would take the flash directly to ground with no damage to the tree at all

After an elementary error like that, I'm suspicious of every statement made in the series, but I'm slowly plodding through it, just in case. Who knows, there may be some useful stuff in there. The Dacha movement, which sounds rather similar to the "Back-to-the-Land" movemwnt of the 1960's, in North America and elsewhere, is interesting; perhaps, with Government sanction and support, the Dacha system might do better than the anarchistic North American movement. Certainly, I wish them luck.

Alchymist.

dragster, yes she does speak to the heart. There is much there, to believe, that we are "more" than we think we are. :)

Originally Posted by dragster33

Alchymist, Anastasia's message is not meant for your rational mind, she is speaking with your heart, developing the wisdom and love that is always with you, called "soul" .. Always with peace my friend, ernestas..

Not quite sure what you mean by "speaking with your heart" in connection with these books.

Great poetry speaks with the heart; try Shelley, Byron, Yeats. Great music speaks with the heart; try listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Holst's Planets, Orff's Carmina Burana, the Eagles' Journey of the Sorcerer. Great literature speaks with the heart; Goethe, ****ens, Victor Hugo, Ursula LeGuin. THAT will develop the wisdom and love that is always with us. A rather plodding, repetitive account of an unimaginative and, to be frank, not very bright businessman's meetings with a woman living in the Russian Taiga who expounds a great deal of hackneyed New-Agey sweetness-and-light "philosophy" - sorry, just doesn't do it for me.

Maybe my "rational mind" gets in the way, maybe the books lose something in translation, I don't know. I learned much more about wisdom and love from reading Tom Robbins, Neal Stephenson, Robert Anton Wilson and J.R.R.Tolkien. But, really you know, we humans come equipped by nature with rational minds for a very good reason. Another name for "rational mind" is "****.Detector". And there's a great deal in these books that hovers very close to classic ****. - Anastasia's "Ray" is a prime example.

There are a few good ideas in the Ringing Cedars series, especially about living close to nature, growing food and reducing sources of pollution, but we don't need NINE volumes to tell us that. As Dragon Charms says, it's all very 1960's. Nothing wrong with the 1960's - I know, I was there - but geopolitical tsunamis overwhelmed us and we live in a very different world today.

Blessed Be Everyone,

Alchymist