Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

 (Burdett, NY: Larson Publications). ISBN 978-1-936012-90-9 Over the years I have reviewed many books from Larson Publications, including those they publish on behalf of the Paul Brunton Foundation. I have never been disappointed. This publisher has an eye for quality narratives grounded in scholarship and a crucial spiritual insight, and their books are a balm for a sorely troubled world. Having long been a student of the Gnostic Gospels (e.g., Thomas, Phillip, and Mary), the gospels of the Essenes, and other esoteric documents from the early centuries of Christianity, as well as the true nature of Jesus and those who knew him best, The Magdalene Gates was a book I was keen to read. It takes as its central plot device the uncovering of scrolls from a dig site in Turkey—scrolls that put Mary Magdalene center stage in Jesus’s life and offer spiritual guidance to both the book’s characters and well as the reader. Mary Magdalene is one of the most contested, misrepresent...

  (Iridescent Publishing, 2013), ISBN: 978-3-9524015-2-1 By Joey Madia What is the nature of reality? What is the value in Metaphor? Is there a single Truth to human existence or are our truths as unique as the number of people who populate the planet, or stars in the sky? William Azuski’s engaging array of characters tackle all of these questions and more in the metaphysical thriller Travels in Elysium . Akin to Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose and John Fowles’ The Magus , Travels is rich in geography and symbolism and invites frequent pauses (facilitated by its short chapters) for contemplation. At 539 pages of small, densely packed type, the book is as physically daunting as those of Eco and Fowles and just as metaphorically rich in material. The descriptions of the Greek island and its people and culture are needfully concrete—they anchor the reader in a solid landscape from which the story and characters launch into spiritual, metaphysical, and ate...