Animal Voices, Animal Guides: Discover Your Deeper Self through Communication with Animals
Dawn Baumann Brunke
(Bear & Company/Inner Traditions, 2009; soft-cover, $16; see www.animalvoices.net for more.)

Sometimes a book comes along that changes your perception of the world. I have found this to be true of Dawn Baumann Brunke’s Animal Voices, Animal Guides: Discover Yourself through Communication with Animals. As the title indicates, this book is not exclusively about interspecies communication, but rather about how communicating with animals alters our self-perceptions in deeper and more meaningful ways.

I’m an animal owner who once believed that only gifted people could do “the Dr. Dolittle thing.” I did not believe that I had the capacity to “hear” what my horses or goats or chickens or dog had to say. But I was wrong. This book has become a guide, one that I now refer to repeatedly.

So what happened? Some weeks ago, while reading Part 1: “Beginning the Journey,” I received a call from a neighbor who said that she could no longer keep Jenna, her Australian Shepherd, and had left the dog alone at her parents’ house. When my husband Pete and I arrived at the home, we found Jenna quivering on the doorstep. Seeing us, she ran to the rear of the house. As I followed, I began to really listen to what Jenna had to say. What was most remarkable was that I knew we connected. Undoubtedly, I would not have thought this had I not been reading this book. The event enabled me to read Part II “Seeking Animal Wisdom,” and Part III “Deepening in Relationship,” with a more open mind.

Dawn’s writing is clear, simple, concise, and convincing. In addition to sharing her own experiences, she includes stories of other animal communicators as well as stories from animals themselves — dogs, cats, rabbits, llamas, birds, and even some animals from Africa’s Ngorongoro Crater. Many of these animals (like Dawn’s dog Riza) are young, but have old souls. The message they collectively pass on is that if we let them, they can be our lifelong friends, teachers, and spiritual guides.

Another useful facet of this book is the how-to aspect. Dawn intersperses a variety of exercises throughout the text for those who want to further explore their relationship with animals, nature, self and spirit. These include dreaming and healing with animals, working with group animal medicine teachings, learning how to actually converse with individual animals, and deepening in appreciation and connection with all life. I am not sure this brief review does this wonderful book justice, but suffice it to say that this is a must read for those who love or interact with animals of any kind.
~Review by Alys Culhane
 

Aurora Borealis: Conversations with Alaska’s Northern Lights
Esther Golton
(Tiny Cabin Music, 2009; CD, $15; see www.esthergolton.com for more.)

Those keen to the music scene may already know Esther Golton as a talented singer-songwriter from Talkeetna. Her previous CD, Unfinished Houses, was a combination of flute, voice and dulcimer. In her new CD, Aurora Borealis, Esther focuses on flute and dulcimer alone. Why? “It was fun to do!” she explained in a short interview. “I loved being freed from words. Sometimes we humans get so caught up in words and language that our senses get cut off. Music in its purest form has no words. It can simply enhance an environment, set a mood, bring us peace, or joy, or excitement. It can help us heal, or relax, or move our bodies rhythmically. I love words, too, when they blend with music and take us on journeys of insight and humor. I think both genres have great value to me as a listener and I want to express myself as a musician in both ways.”

As Esther further explains on her website, she plays the mountain dulcimer “in her own individualistic, non-traditional way, perching it on a home-made stand, crossing genres from gentle folk to pop to blues and jazz.” Indeed, the songs on this CD explore many different sounds and moods: from the reflective (“Shibori No Sora) to mysterious (“The Unseen Visitor”), from the magical (“Giggling Star Fairies”) to heart-felt and resonating (“Amazing Grace”).

I loved the freeing and healing quality that comes from each track of Esther’s CD. For me, listening was both relaxing and inspirational; more than that, it was a joy.
~Review by Robyn Shanner

A Revolution of One
Mary Ann Winiger

(Mary Ann Winiger, 2007, soft-cover, $27.00; see www.humandesignamerica.com for more.)
This book is about the journey Mary Ann Winiger took to find her authentic self — the real truth of who she was — and to understand how the Universe really works. Mary Ann had been heavily involved with the New Age movement since the 1970s and, eventually, her search for truth took her to India where she began her work with the famous guru, Osho. She became a close disciple and helped organize his communes and meditation centers, traveling extensively in the process. When both Osho and her mother died in 1990, she was devastated and felt completely lost. It wasn’t until Marianne found Human Design in 1994 that her search for truth ended.

Human Design is a new, unique and powerful system of knowledge. Based on birth date, time and place, it provides a framework for understanding human life itself. In addition, it offers very specific knowledge about each person’s chakra system through a body graph. The body graph reveals the position and state of one’s inner authority, vulnerabilities, purpose in life as well as one’s talents, strengths, and gifts. In a nutshell, it shows you who you really are behind all the conditioning and illusions of the mind.

Marianne’s Human Design ‘experiment’ began when she started making every decision in life from her own inner authority. When she initially discovered her truth, she was delighted. The problems started, however, when she committed herself to living from that place of inner authority. Everything in her life began to change radically, yet still she persisted. This book shares the amazing spiritual journey of one individual. Anyone who has ever spent time seeking enlightenment or truth in a world full of illusion will appreciate reading it.
~Review by Jackie Kosednar