Book Review - 10 Messages Your Angels Want You to Know by Doreen Virtue
Book Review - 10 Messages Your Angels Want You to Know
My first Doreen Virtue book is Crystal Therapy: How to Heal and Empower Your Life with Crystal Energy. I very much I enjoy that book and wanted to read more of her material, opting for 10 Angels because it was available in the library.
Hmmm ... it is confusing. This book is ostensibly a "transcript" of messages the angels have provided for Ms. Virtue to pass along to us. In some ways the book is helpful; in other ways, it gets blurry. The theories of who / what God is, our connection with God, the angels, archangels and ascended masters, are synopsized in a useful fashion.
I benefited from the recitation that we have two paths - we can choose the "Path of God," doing things with love and with pureness of heart; or the "Path of Fear," acting out of ego. I am taking away a better understanding of how reacting straight from the hip in ego-driven ways can be harmful, so in that respect the book was helpful. Here are my problems with the book. It's all very ethereal and sounds nice on the pages, but in reality here on Earth we often have to walk the "path of fear," operating under our ego engine, in order to survive. Struggling in a job to pay our bills, dealing with bad relationships, stress, commuting, coping with a disease or some tragedy, and on and on. Walking on the path of God might include praying, living in a moment of pure joy while baking cookies with the grand kids, helping an elderly neighbor. The Path of Fear, living through your ego, just sounds like a regular old day on Planet Earth. Oh - and if you're praying in such a fashion as to be begging God for something to ease your struggle - that's an ego thing, not real prayer.
A lot of the book left me perplexed. Doreen Virtue - well, the angels - describe the time that our souls are here in a corporal body away from God as the Dream of Separation. We're not really here - we're dreaming it. My brain just isn't comprehending that. I had a dream last night, and now I'm awake and walking in the Path of Fear on planet Earth, looking forward to next week's paycheck so I can pay the bills. My ego is trying to impress my boss and also got aggravated with my co-worker and the jerk who cut me off on the road. It makes no sense to me that I'm in a "dream of separation" while I'm here - I am here! I pinch myself and it hurts.
At times in the book Doreen Virtue - I mean the angels - tell me that I have all I need, there is no reason to struggle. But, Dear Angels - I do need clothes, I do need food, I do need water and shelter. I need to please my employer to get a paycheck. Obviously I'm not getting something here. I'll take what made sense and was informative/interesting, and leave the rest. On a final note, the book was repetitive, and despite reading the same things over, oftentimes I could not get the gist of what Doreen Virtue - I mean the angels - were trying to tell me.
PS - I visited Doreen Virtue's website hoping to achieve a better understanding of her teachings, and learned that she has renounced anything to do with new age practices, crystals, angel therapy, etc. She has become a hard-core Christian - nothing wrong with that - but now she preaches against all that she taught in her prior life. I would find her more credible if she blogged about her prior belief system as a stepping stone in her spiritual journey, but now her website preaches in total opposition against her former teachings, spurning her past audience. She even has a podcast entitled "Why Christians Should Avoid Yoga."
Hmmm ... it is confusing. This book is ostensibly a "transcript" of messages the angels have provided for Ms. Virtue to pass along to us. In some ways the book is helpful; in other ways, it gets blurry. The theories of who / what God is, our connection with God, the angels, archangels and ascended masters, are synopsized in a useful fashion.
I benefited from the recitation that we have two paths - we can choose the "Path of God," doing things with love and with pureness of heart; or the "Path of Fear," acting out of ego. I am taking away a better understanding of how reacting straight from the hip in ego-driven ways can be harmful, so in that respect the book was helpful. Here are my problems with the book. It's all very ethereal and sounds nice on the pages, but in reality here on Earth we often have to walk the "path of fear," operating under our ego engine, in order to survive. Struggling in a job to pay our bills, dealing with bad relationships, stress, commuting, coping with a disease or some tragedy, and on and on. Walking on the path of God might include praying, living in a moment of pure joy while baking cookies with the grand kids, helping an elderly neighbor. The Path of Fear, living through your ego, just sounds like a regular old day on Planet Earth. Oh - and if you're praying in such a fashion as to be begging God for something to ease your struggle - that's an ego thing, not real prayer.
A lot of the book left me perplexed. Doreen Virtue - well, the angels - describe the time that our souls are here in a corporal body away from God as the Dream of Separation. We're not really here - we're dreaming it. My brain just isn't comprehending that. I had a dream last night, and now I'm awake and walking in the Path of Fear on planet Earth, looking forward to next week's paycheck so I can pay the bills. My ego is trying to impress my boss and also got aggravated with my co-worker and the jerk who cut me off on the road. It makes no sense to me that I'm in a "dream of separation" while I'm here - I am here! I pinch myself and it hurts.
At times in the book Doreen Virtue - I mean the angels - tell me that I have all I need, there is no reason to struggle. But, Dear Angels - I do need clothes, I do need food, I do need water and shelter. I need to please my employer to get a paycheck. Obviously I'm not getting something here. I'll take what made sense and was informative/interesting, and leave the rest. On a final note, the book was repetitive, and despite reading the same things over, oftentimes I could not get the gist of what Doreen Virtue - I mean the angels - were trying to tell me.
PS - I visited Doreen Virtue's website hoping to achieve a better understanding of her teachings, and learned that she has renounced anything to do with new age practices, crystals, angel therapy, etc. She has become a hard-core Christian - nothing wrong with that - but now she preaches against all that she taught in her prior life. I would find her more credible if she blogged about her prior belief system as a stepping stone in her spiritual journey, but now her website preaches in total opposition against her former teachings, spurning her past audience. She even has a podcast entitled "Why Christians Should Avoid Yoga."
Yikes! Christians should avoid yoga?? Um, OK. Thanks for the great review, Pat. I think I will give that one a miss.
ReplyDeleteMuch better stuff out there I'm sure!
Delete"My brain just isn't comprehending that. I had a dream last night, and now I'm awake and walking in the Path of Fear on planet Earth, looking forward to next week's paycheck so I can pay the bills." LOL omg Pat I'm dying, good one!
ReplyDeleteLOL. I'm on a quest for spiritual knowledge but you need to take that whole genre of reading with many grains of salt.
Delete