I am not one who believes that angels and archangels are warm-and-fuzzy friends or anything like most of the saccharine images that filled the religious literature of my youth in Catholic school. If I looked forward to Rose Vanden Eynden's book "Metatron: Invoking the Angel of God's Presence" (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-7387-1343-4), it was for the possibility that this--the most exalted and remote and perhaps the least familiar of angels--might somehow be presented in all his (its?) strangeness and cosmic magnitude.

Instead,Vanden Eynden--a Spiritualist minister, medium and founder of Cincinnati's United Spiritualists of the Christ Light Church--has given us a Metatron who sounds no more profound or specific than most of the spiritual pets of the New Age movement. There's simply little here that you have not read, countless times, in the numerous books about angels or channeling flooding the Spirit Lit market over the past few decades.

To Vanden Eynden, Metatron is about balance, the unity of opposites, especially the masculine and feminine energies, and has some relationship to sacred geometry. The fascinating Metatron's Cube--containing all Platonic solids within is truly a wondrous object for meditation on the interlocking layers and realms of all reality. However, beyond that, Vanden Eynden's Metatron seems to be, like many of the angels as conceived by New Age authors, to be a highly accessible, generic buddy to talk to, to tap for advice and support and timely assistance. Getting cozy with Metatron, in particular, is, I think, like getting cozy with an animal in the wild. This book fails to take into consideration the unknown, the vast, the wild dimension of such a being.

But here's the Metatron-related crystal infusions, the aromatherapy, the corresponding candles and the herbs, the dream work and ceremony. If you need to read any of this familiar and tame stuff one more time, it's all here.

Find out more about this book at www.llewellyn.com.

Author and clairvoyant Debra Lynne Katz has exceeded expectations for the follow-up of her popular guidebook, "You Are Psychic: The Art of Clairvoyant Reading and Healing." Her latest publication--"Extraordinary Psychic: Proven Techniques to Master Your Natural Psychic Abilities" (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-7387-1333-5) delves deeper into her philosophy and methodologies and helps readers overcome fear and resistance. This is a looser, more generous and far more persuasive book.

I strongly identify with Katz's emphasis on the transformative aspect of psychic work, particularly the use of visual archetypes as a mode of helping to heal clients. In fact, Katz argues that this is the primary difference between a clairvoyant reading and a healing session utilizing clairvoyance, which is powered by the intention to transform. Readers will be advised to pay close attention to the images that pop into consciousness without succumbing to the temptation to interpret them (which can quickly lead to misinterpretation).

"You Are Psychic" presents a systematic approach to clairvoyance that not every reader will find sympatico (for instance, Katz's standard visualization of a rose whose changes will offer answers to a client's questions). "Extraordinary Psychic" draws upon the same methodology but affords ample opportunity for readers to find their own best ways to approach clairvoyance and other psychic tools. Working my way through Katz's numerous examples and exercises, I readily created new tools that paralleled hers but fit me best and worked fine for me. Moreover, I felt nothing but permission from this book to be my happy, creative self and just go for it.

Her material on remote viewing practices is excellent, and she takes exceptional care to help developing psychics set a good psychological foundation for their work as professionals. If you're like me, you might take her discussion of "demons" and "dwarf tree spirits" and the like with a grain of salt. Personally, my sense is that such disturbing phenomenon can be explained as the mind's interpretation (and fleshing out) of negative energy sourced in human behavior and thought patterns. That source can be the reader, the client, or someone affecting either of the reader or the client. Katz's belief system is her own, and one does not have to swallow it whole in order to benefit greatly from her book. What's more, the methods she suggests to rid oneself or one's clients from so-called negative entities are quite clever and, once again, might prove to be effective transformative psychological practices.

"Extraordinary Psychic" is a well-written, resourceful book to read with pleasure and to keep handy for frequent reference. Learn more about it and its author at www.llewellyn.com.


(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa