First, I invite you to check out our section on spirituality, if you have not already done so.
     Second, The Golden Rule, which advocates love and kindness, is something that almost all religions and spiritual traditions can agree upon.  I'm including a page of quotes on the Golden Rule as expressed by 11 different religions.  You can print it out as a free mini-poster.
     Third, United Communities of Spirit provides info on most of the world's major religions using excerpts from an online version of A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions.  (For detailed info on the world's major religions, I recommend World Religions by John Bowker).
     Fourth, let me offer a caution: if you are firmly attached to one religious worldview or faith, such as the Judeo-Christian worldview or faith, you may dislike some of the information and books listed here.  If this is the case, feel free to skip this section and check out our section on mainstream spirituality instead.

          
Sourcebook of the World's Religions: An Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality. by Joel Beversluis.  Revised 3rd edition, published in July 2000.  Most of this book is available online.  This book provides very concise descriptions of 19 religions and then focuses on the collective work of people of faith working together in the World Parliament of Religions.   Reviewed by Amazon.com.  (This is the source for my quotes on the Golden Rule and Who Lives in the "Global Village?".  Also check out the related website United Communities of Spirit.)

     Most people that I know in America who are into spiritual traditions outside of our Judeo-Christian religious tradition tend to be pretty eclectic about it, and use ideas and knowledge from a variety of spiritual traditions.  They tend to be very independent, nonauthoritarian, and interested in spiritual wisdom and personal growth.  What I might broadly label "New Age Spirituality" tends to be very tolerant, nonjudgmental, eclectic, and growth-oriented.  Part of my section on Emotional Healing and Personal Growth involves applied spiritual wisdom, such as Ken Keyes' Living Love Method (applied Buddhism), the chakra system, and attaining balance and inner peace.

     Most independent or "New Age" spiritual groups in America tend to be small, easygoing, nonauthoritarian, and often improvisational, changing, and impermanent.  (I would also venture a guess that they serve as support groups and focus more on self-nurturing and less on community service than organized religion.)  While some organizations maintain rules and guidelines that provide a certain level of quality control, let me offer the caution that in general it is up to you to assess whether or not you like a book, philosophy, group, or event.  If you want to go to an event or join a group, here are some questions you may want to ask yourself:
     1) Do I believe in the philosophy of the group or the sponsors of and/or people at an event?
     2) Is the group or event nonauthoritarian?  Do I like and trust the people in charge of it?
     3) Is this group or event inside of my "comfort zone"?
     4) If there is a fee, is it reasonable and affordable?  Can I afford it?  In our free-market economy, spiritual experience or wisdom is often marketed and sold.  (And "spiritual wisdom" is as over-marketed as anything else is these days.)  Spend wisely.

     To find out more about alternative spirituality in your area, you could check out your local countercultural/holistic health journal or resource guide, your local food co-op, or a local countercultural and/or new age bookstore.

     Some interesting nontraditional spiritual paths include new age spirituality, women's spirituality, nature-based spirituality, Native American spirituality, Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, the chakra system, shamanism (and shamanic journeying), and the Dances of Universal Peace or Sufi Dancing. Yoga and meditation are both eastern traditions that are somewhat of a mix of spirituality and personal growth, while hypnosis and self-hypnosis are western personal growth traditions.

     Here are some interesting books:

Inner Development: the Yes! bookshop guide, by Chris Popenoe, published in 1979.  654 pages.  Out of print.  A thorough although dated review of dozens of spiritual philosophies and hundreds of books.  Does anyone know of a good up-to-date, in print review of alternative spirituality?  (If so, please e-mail me at empower@EmpowermentResources.com and let me know about it.)  World Religions provides a good overview of most conventional religions, but an in-print, up-to-date book like Inner Development: the Yes! bookshop guide would be a useful resource today.


New Age Spirituality

    
The Earthsteward's Handbook: A Guide to Healing Ourselves and Healing the Earth, by Danaan Parry and Lila Forest.  In the book's own words, "...this handbook presents the concept of the "Sevenfold Path of Peace"- a series of practical steps designed to help bring spiritual awareness into your life.  The path consists of:

          
The Awakened Heart: Finding Harmony in a Changing World, by John Robbins and Ann Mortifee.  This is their 1997 revised version of their 1991 book In Search of Balance: Discovering Harmony in a Changing World.  It is full of wisdom and sage advice (but is without the graceful line drawings that adorn their earlier book).  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
Handbook to Higher Consciousness (cassette tape & mini-guide), by Ken Keyes, Jr.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.  I recommend this as your first introduction to the Ken Keyes living love method.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

    
Handbook to Higher Consciousness, by Ken Keyes, Jr.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.


Women's Spirituality

          
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future, by Riane Eisler.  This book gets some rave reviews and is the first book I would recommend to anyone interested in feminist spirituality.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

    
The Partnership Way: New Tools for Living and Learning: A Practical Companion for The Chalice and the Blade: Healing Our Families, Our Communities, and Our World, by Riane Eisler and David Loye.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
Sacred Pleasure: Sex, Myth, and the Politics of the Body- New Paths to Power and Love, by Riane Eisler.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
The Language of the Goddess, by Marija Gimbutas, with a forward by Joseph Campbell.  This book supersedes her earlier book, Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe, 6500-3500 B.C., and documents, through the study of archaeological artifacts, the presence of an egalitarian, Goddess-worshipping society before the Indo-Europeans invaded Old Europe.  This book provides the source material for some of the claims made in The Chalice and the Blade, which I recommend you read first.
 
          
The Living Goddesses, by Marija Alseikaite Gimbutas, edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter.  Gimbutas's final book on her understanding of Old Europe and ancient Goddess religion.

          
Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism, by Alice Walker.  Paperback edition published in 1998.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

    
Women & Spirituality: Goddess Remembered, directed by Donna Read.  This video shows an arguably romanticized version of ancient Goddess religion.  (You can also order it from Direct Cinema Limited, at 1-800-525-0000 or 310-636-8200.) 

      Out of print.
Mother Wove the Morning (videotape), by Carol Lynn Pearson.  This is a one-woman play which portrays feminist spirituality from prehistory through today and is an excellent and powerful introduction to feminist spirituality.  You can also order a booklet with the script of the play.

     For more info, check out the June 1997 New Age Journal, with its articles on "Women's Spirituality Rising."

     - See also ecofeminist history.-


Nature-Based Spirituality

    
The Earthsteward's Handbook: A Guide to Healing Ourselves and Healing the Earth, by Danaan Parry and Lila Forest.  In the book's own words, "...this handbook presents the concept of the "Sevenfold Path of Peace"- a series of practical steps designed to help bring spiritual awareness into your life.  The path consists of:

           
Circle of Song: Songs, Chants, and Dances for Ritual and Celebration, compiled by Kate Marks.  A NeoPagan songbook that also includes selected songs from different religious traditions.  Song topics include creating sacred space, the elements, honoring all our relations, woman power, male power, healing and love, and peace and unity.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

            Book and tarot deck.  (Probably the small tarot deck.)
Motherpeace Tarot: Deck and Book Set, by Vicki Noble.  Includes the book Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art, and Tarot and probably the Mini-Motherpeace Round Tarot Deck.  (The Motherpeace Round Tarot Deck included here is probably the smaller 3 1/2" deck, but might be the larger 4 1/2" deck.)  The book is a gentle, nurturing guide to the feminist new-ageish tarot deck.  In the book's own words, "To recover the positive, peace-oriented values of prepatriarchal times, Motherpeace brilliantly combines art, history, mythology, folklore, philosophy, science, astrology, and comparative religion with an informal spiritual/feminist perspective."  Reviewed by Amazon.com.
 
            Book.
Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art, and Tarot, by Vicki Noble.  This guide is a gentle, nurturing guide to the feminist new-ageish tarot deck.  In the book's own words, "To recover the positive, peace-oriented values of prepatriarchal times, Motherpeace brilliantly combines art, history, mythology, folklore, philosophy, science, astrology, and comparative religion with an informal spiritual/feminist perspective."  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

       Large tarot deck.
            Small tarot deck
The Motherpeace Round Tarot Deck, by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.  If you prefer smaller cards, you can order the Mini-Motherpeace Round Tarot Deck (with 3 1/3" diameter instead of 4 1/2" diameter tarot cards).  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

You can try a free tarot card reading on the Internet.


Native American Spirituality

     Native American Spirituality is being adopted (some would say expropriated) by non-Native Americans.  I personally think this is a healthy process (although the spirituality gets watered down in the process).  Some Native Americans are open to sharing their wisdom while at least a few others (after enduring 500 years of forced relocation, genocide, and poverty) are upset about their spiritual wisdom being expropriated.  To learn more about Native Americans and Indigenous people today, see the Native Web website.

          Publisher out of stock in Dec. 2000.
Gaia Atlas of First Peoples: A Future for the Indigenous Worlds, by Julian Burger.  Click here for some excerpts from this book included in  A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

    
Black Elk Speaks, by John G. Neihardt.  The life story and spirituality of Black Elk, a Lakota Native American medicine person.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

     
Black Elk Speaks (audio cassette), by John G. Neihardt and Fred Contreras.  The life story and spirituality of Black Elk, a Lakota Native American medicine person.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux, as told by Native American medicine person Black Elk to Joseph Epes Brown in 1947, is a good book on traditional Native American sacred ceremonies.  It includes info on the sacred pipe and descriptions of the sweat lodge, the vision quest, and the sun dance ceremonies.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
Walk in Balance: The Path to Healthy, Happy, Harmonious Living, by Sun Bear, et. al., is a book that describes a modern-day spiritual path inspired by traditional Native American Spirituality and is intended to be a self-help and spiritual growth book.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.


Taoism

            Paperback edition.
            Larger paperback edition.
            Very inexpensive Dover thrift edition.  Less than $1.
Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu, translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English.  You can also purchase a larger, more-expensive new edition or a very inexpensive 1998 Dover Thrift edition.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
Tao Te Ching (audio cassette), by Jacob Needleman.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.

          
The I Ching Workbook, by R.L. Wing.

You can try a free I Ching reading on the Internet.


Sufi Stories

          
The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin, by Idries Shah.  A collection of sufi stories or teaching stories about the Mulla Nasrudin collected by Idries Shah.  Sufism is a mystical sect within Islam.  Reviewed by Amazon.com.


Caution: Religious intolerance and religious persecution have a long and ignoble history.  In my opinion, the best way to minimize religious conflict is to respect the sincerity, legitimacy, and values of different spiritual traditions, and to practice the Golden Rule.

     Note: I've been thinking this over, and, in my opinion, a lot of our cultural conflict has to do with how to strike a balance between responsibility, duty, and self-discipline (1950's values) vs. freedom, happiness/fun, and creativity (1960's values) in a number of different aspects in life.  I may write an article on this later.  (My first thoughts on this are that we'd all like more fun, but most of us are stuck with more responsibility and work than we want, and voluntary simplicity or frugal living is one good solution.  Right livelihood, or doing work that you find meaningful, useful, and satisfying, is another good solution.  Right livelihood is also known as following one's calling.)

- See also inspirational books. -
- See also utopian/ecotopian visions. -

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