Book Review: The Invitation by Oriah
This book is built around a poem. Oriah calls it a declaration, a manifesto, and it was written at a time of personal tragedy when everything she believed was tested. When your life goes up in flames, do you arise like a Phoenix from the ashes? Oriah’s survival and her growth and transformation are supported by the spiritual teachings of the Twisted Hair Nation: an inclusive group that shares ancient shamanistic teachings.
Each chapter almost stands alone: The Longing, The Fear, The Sorrow… they are very poetic and succinct musing and insights. The tragedy weaves throughout, and this is no sugar-coated examination of our worldview and darkest places. Bad things can happen, even to good and positive thinking people, and Oriah delves deep and acknowledges the darkness to set herself free.
In a time when new age spirituality can be as automatically trite as any religion we have cast aside, it is moving and honest and, in offering us an examined life, invites us to examine our own….”It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow if you have been opened up by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain”
The Invitation, by Oriah. Harper Collins 2006
Frances Adamson teaches yoga in Durham Region:
20 Kingswood Dr. Courtice, Ontario
Phone: 289-928-7292