[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1634&tag=jonathaspence-21&creative=6738&path=external-search%3Fsearch-type=ss%26keyword=a%20wizard%20of%20earthsea%26index=books-uk]A Wizard of Earthsea[/url] has haunted me for many years, it is on the one level a simplistic childrens novel about the different stages of growing up, but set in a mythical archipelago of islands, where wizardry (not the JK ROWLING stuff, more a kind that you might associate with Celtic and Norse myth) and wizards are a ruling and guiding force. We follow young sparrowhawk in his personal and wizardic(spiritual?) development. This development of course takes a frightening and intriguing twist as sparrowhawk must as part of his development face all the things he fears.

The depth of this book, and Le Guins other Earthsea books, with which it makes a set, comes from the use of mythical ideas that lie deep in our unconscious minds…the ancient myths, the mentor, the low born made good, the island of the wise, the lost king, the power of names, equilibrium, our darker side. Sparrowhawk also has characteristcs that we find in many of the stories of Prophets and Messiahs…he comes back from the dead, he must face the temptation of evil and the devil within, he walks on water, he has magical powers and so on, but interestingly there is no mention of religion within the book, it is strangely absent from the ‘archipelago” yet the Wizards, have a priest like quality.
I read that Le Guin is a Sufi, and this story well matches the idea behind sufi teaching stories that often come down to us in the form of fairy tales, but hold a greater and deeper power for those that can gain understanding from them.
[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=ur2&camp=1634&tag=jonathaspence-21&creative=6738&path=external-search%3Fsearch-type=ss%26keyword=a%20wizard%20of%20earthsea%26index=books-uk]Buy it, Learn from it, Love it[/url]

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3. Mary Oliver – Dogfish
4. The Eve of Destruction
5. Desiderata – Max Ehrmann

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  Jonathan Spencer : Posted a new post on their blog
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