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Product Description "Anam Cara is a rare synthesis of philosophy, poetry, and spirituality. This work will have a powerful and life-transforming experience for those who read it." —Deepak Chopra John O'Donohue, poet, philosopher, and scholar, guides you through the spiritual landscape of the Irish imagination. In Anam Cara, Gaelic for "soul friend," the ancient teachings, stories, and blessings of Celtic wisdom provide such profound insights on the universal themes of friendship, solitude, love, and death as: Light is generous The human heart is never completely born Love as ancient recognition The body is the angel of the soul Solitude is luminous Beauty likes neglected places The passionate heart never ages To be natural is to be holy Silence is the sister of the divine Death as an invitation to freedom Amazon.com Review Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom offers an exploration of the secret universe we all carry inside us, the connections we forge with the worlds of our friends and loved ones, and the products of our worlds reflected in the things we create outside of ourselves. Anam Cara, Gaelic for "soul friend," is an ancient journey down a nearly forgotten path of wisdom into what it means to be human. Drawing on this age-old perspective, John O'Donohue helps us to see ourselves as the Celts did: we're more than just flesh, blood, and bone; we comprise individual worlds. The comprehension of the sublime architecture of the worlds we are born with will engender a new appreciation for the outside world and the way we contribute to its evolution. From Booklist The Gaelic title refers to the "soul-friend," a lovingly stern companion to whom you can, in stringent honesty, unburden your heart as you move toward enlightenment. O'Donohue positions himself to be that soul's companion for readers who yearn for a spirituality that is accepting of bodily wisdom but does not deny the power of the Christian vision. The Celts--well, the Irish, anyway--grappled with that yearning more than a millennium ago. Irish traditional ways were never subjected to the kinds of discouragement--racks, skewers, lions, and the like--practiced on the continent and so were able to wed pagan sensuality to the ethical challenges of the new creed. Reperforming that marriage, O'Donohue is as much at ease with Heidegger as with Yeats, with Rilke as with Jung, as he discourses on solitude, work, love, and death and works snippets of ancient Irish poetry seamlessly into the fabric of his text. Eloquent and learned, O'Donohue is more than just another Paddy-come-lately cashing in on River Danceera Celtophilia. He is the real thing: a poetic priest with the soul of a pagan. Expect demand! (HarperCollins does, to the tune of a 150,000-copy first printing.) Patricia Monaghan Review " Anam Cara is a radiant source of wisdom, a link between the human and the divine. This work is a blessed, rare gem." -- Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Be Careful What You Pray For, Prayer Is Good Medicine, and Healing Words; executive editor, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine "This beautifully written book proves that tireless wisdom can bring an amazing understanding about ourselves and the world around us even today." -- Dannion Brinkley author of, Saved by the Light and Peace in the Light "A lively spiritual companion to all Celts—or to those who are Celtic in their hearts." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "John O'Donohue is an unassuming man with a grand sense of humor. . . charming." -- Joy Redfield Kwapien, author of The Celestine Journal From the Back Cover When St. Patrick first came to Ireland in the 5th century A.D, he encountered the Celts, a unique race of people who found divinity all around them: in the rivers and hills, the sea and sky and in every kind of animal. Surviving to this day, the Celts' reverence for the spirit in all things, and their celebration of the continuous mysteries of everyday existence is a vibrant spiritual