Old Age: Journey Into Simplicity

Helen Luke

SteinerBooks, 2010 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 132 pages

In Speech of the Grail, storyteller and ceremonialist Linda Sussman explores a new way to speak, one that heals and transforms. She takes for her guide Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic tale of the Grail, showing how it depicts a path of initiation toward healing speech--to "doing the truth" in word and action.

"The Grail! The word stirs a deep response in the Western imagination. Joseph Campbell called the medieval stories where it is first mentioned 'the founding myth of Western civilization,' because 'according to this mythology, there is no fixed law, no established knowledge of god, set up by prophets or priests, that can stand against the revelation of a life lived with integrity in the spirit of its own brave truth.' Campbell and many other scholars, artists, and seekers have seen the Western wisdom path disclosed in the image of each knight entering the forest where no one else has made a path. The quest is to recover the elusive Grail, thereby returning its sustenance to the world. The presence of the Grail nurtures an invisible web of relationships that connect individual destiny to service of others and to the earth, thereby granting meaning" (Linda Sussman, from her introduction).

Sussman begins with a beautiful retelling of the story, allowing readers to inwardly reproduce the potent inner images of the text. Then she shows that it is not so much a path toward perfection as a recovery of the proper relationship with our own imperfections. She shows, too, that it is a path in which male and female aspects work together to overcome evil.

About the author

Helen M. Luke (1904-1995) was born in England. In midlife, she studied at the Jung Institute in Zurich, then moved to the U.S. and established an analytical practice with Robert Johnson in Los Angeles. In 1962, she founded the Apple Farm Community in Three Rivers, Michigan, "a center for people seeking to discover and appropriate the transforming power of symbols in their lives." In her later years, Helen Luke was the model wise woman for many people. Her final book, Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made on, a memoir and excerpts from her fifty-four volumes of journals, was published posthumously. Her books include The Laughter at the Heart of Things, a collection of essays, and The Way of Woman: Awakening the Perennial Feminine.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Old Age: Journey Into Simplicity
• Author: Helen Luke
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: SteinerBooks, 2010
• ISBN: 1584204796, 9781584204794
• Length: 132 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / Inspiration & Personal Growth