A Guide to Attending to the Spiritual Boundaries that Keep Lifesystems Healthy from the Personal to the Cosmic
The membrane is a permeable boundary with intelligence and discernment that allows in or keeps out that which it senses is appropriate for the lifesystems within it. Spiritual, etheric, or bioenergetic membranes encase and enclose lifesystems, from the cells in our bodies to the cosmos around us. They contain, protect, and inform our personal souls, families, villages, the Earth, and extend out into the universe. The role of the spirit worker has always been to tend to, support, and keep these membranes strong and supple so that what is held within them not only survives but thrives.
In this book, Theresa C. Dintino defines this revolutionary concept and offers the reader tools to learn how to engage in this work at any level they wish to participate.
There is no better time for this book and the work that flows out of it. Join the movement to care for and repair the membranes at their many levels to restore and maintain health in the lifesystems of the planet.
Dintino accessibly explains membranes, both at a cellular and spiritual level, as filters protecting access to some type of core. Membranes of Hope examines biological membranes on Earth as well as “energetic” or “spiritual” membranes; Dintino’s strategy for healing includes building shrines to externalize “certain ineffable concepts” and performing rituals to transform intentional “time out of ordinary time.” Rituals are fundamental for Dintino, and she advocates initiating them with an invocation stating intent, such as the healing of individuals, families, the global village, or the soul of the Earth itself, as well as incorporating into them special oils and symbolic representation of natural elements.
This healing guide draws inspiration from Dintino’s great-grandmother, who practiced magic in the Italian Strega tradition, and repeatedly returns to the image of Dintino encountering her great-grandmother’s essence in a cave. It’s not always inviting -- readers are immediately dunked into baffling spiritual jargon in the extended prologue -- and Dintino takes few pains to win over skeptics. But she starts with basic principles in her first chapter, carefully explaining her terminology and clearly relating it to her visions, recommended practices, and grand purpose. She stresses that global change will be based on collective action and names this as her primary purpose for this work. Though the end result will mostly appeal to readers already open to these spiritual beliefs, the straightforward clarity of the manual is unmistakable.
Takeaway: Readers interested in spirituality, healing, and ritual will be drawn to Dintino's detailed guide to nurturing the interconnections of all things.
Great for fans of: Caroline Myss's Anatomy Of The Spirit, Mary-Grace Fahrun's Italian Folk Magic.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: B
