Babaylan book: Reader comment

Dear Leny,
I thank you for the book.  I read the introduction with great interest.  It helped me to understand more of your personal journey and that of others who have had to deal with the tragedies of colonialism.  And, rather to my surprise, it helped me to understand my own journey:  first trying hard with and then abandoning Christianity, both Protestantism and Catholicism; then struggling with a vision of myself as a little burr clinging to a dying planet spinning in a mindless universe; and finally beginning to come back to life through Qigong.  I have no indigenous past that is available for me to explore.  But. odd though it may be,  it is an ancient Chinese tradition (which goes back to shamanism) that  allows me to begin with the body, and move from there to an awareness that I live in a chi filled universe.  You quote from Hobgood "the gifts that the body can give to the spirit," a phrase that resonates so deeply.  And I will go back to Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous again.

Finally, I love the cover.  Some years ago as I was struggling through a dark period, I did mandala work.  Then I put it away, and just last week decided it was time to return to that practice.  A couple of days ago as I was lying in bed preparing to start the day, I began to think about doing a mandala that had the tree of life in the center.  And then, yesterday, the beautiful cover of your book came into my hands.  I intend to use it as a model for my next mandala, and will hope that some of that ancient energy will come through to me.

You inspire me with your work and your willingness to explore the way that is not the usual academic way.  The academy needs more people like you!

Love, Ardath