Jay Ramsay

The best and most comprehensive book on the most important and best-loved Chinese goddess. Walk down the streets of Chinatown in any American or western European city and look around. She is there. Walk through the downtown streets, look in a shop window. She is there. Go to any city in China and open your eyes. She is there, too. Kuan Yin is the most ubiquitous Chinese deity--and the most loved. She is the living expression of compassion whose gentle face and elegant figure form the center of devotion in most Chinese homes and workplaces. Until relatively recently, she was barely known in the West, and few studies had been made of her. Originally published as Kuan Yin by Harper Collins in 1995 (and republished as The Kuan Yin Chronicles by Hampton Roads in 2009), this seminal work explores the origins and evolution of the goddess in ancient China, early Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism. Religious scholar Martin Palmer and Chinese divination expert Man-Ho Kwok discuss the Kuan Yin myths and stories, and Jay Ramsay provides fresh translations of 100 Kuan Yin poems that function both as literature and divination tools. "A compelling story that reads like a detective mystery . . . and shows the contemporary reassertion of the Goddess in the hearts and minds of men and women." --Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade.

In the summer of 1990 Jay Ramsay set out on pilgrimage with an interfaith group from London to Iona. The result is his most ambitious book-length poem, an astonishing tour de force in the tradition of Wordsworth and Chaucer. Epiphanic, conversational, meditational, psychological, political, it divines 'the cross' of spiritual and ecological being in Britain's radical tradition, as symbolised by Iona as the crown of the Celtic church and the direction that Christianity lost. Constructed as a series of 25 'days', the narrative builds symphonically like waves of the sea up to its visionary climax. Full of stories, reflections, memories, and images, Pilgrimage is above all a love poem, an invitation into the greater love that is our true becoming where we can find the God most personal to all of us - alive in the heart of Life.

Alchemy is best known as the age-old science of turning base metal into gold. But it is much more: essentially, it is a path of self-knowledge, unique in the Western tradition, with vital relevance for the modern world. The symbols of Alchemy lie deep in the collective unconscious, in the world of dreams and imagery: the practices of alchemy are rooted in an understanding of the oneness of spirit and matter through which we celebrate our sexuality and spirituality. Jay Ramsay takes us step by step through the stages of the alche-mical process using a wide range of original exercises to create a memorable journey that challenges, inspitres and transforms us at every stage. We too can be kings and queens: we too, once we leave our dross behind, are gold. It's full of fi ne things... --Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate 1984-1998, playwright and author. So much good work... --Robert Bly, award winning poet, essayist, activist and author. Jay Ramsay has written a luminous and wise guide to the mysteries of soul, and to the images and texts of alchemy, which explores these mysteries... --Anne Baring, philosopher, visionary and author of several books including: The Dream of the Cosmos: a Quest for the Soul and The Myth of the Goddess. Ramsay is among those who have been working most assiduously to share this archetypal language of the soul... --Lindsay Clarke, review in Caduceus. The clearest account of the alchemical process I've read... --Peter Redgrove, poet, novelist and playwright. Extremely wonderful and important... --Robert Sardello, author and co-founder of The School of Spiritual Psychology.

"Crucible of Love" is a roadmap for a new understanding of love, radically challenging our conventional ideas about relationships. Written from the heart, with passion and clarity, it offers us a vision of what it means to live with love at the centre of our lives, and 'where the wedding means all of us', in true freedom and openness.

This is a workbook which guides you into writing poetry - a unique exploration and synthesis between poetry and personal development. Specially designed for people who may be longing to write, as well as those who already are, Ramsay's particular gift is to teach poetry primarily from inspiration and imagination rather than intellectual technique. Valuing our experience, and our heart's experience, as central, he asserts that in the magical realm of our gifts and qualities there is indeed 'a poet inside all of us'. The result, which has attracted students from around the English-speaking world, is a carefully structured, memorable, and psychologically informed 9 month journey that you can now make yourself with this book-with the additional possibility of also working with its author.

Where do poets stand when faced with terrible events like September 11? Can they speak up for humanity? United by a belief that poetry cannot be neutral, American poet Karen Eberhardt Shelton and British poet Jay Ramsay send out a message about how we can connect with each other across great divides. They aim to provide poetry that touches our hearts, awakens our perceptions and moves us to action.