The Way of the Dreamcatcher: Spirit Lessons with Robert Lax: Poet, Peacemaker, Sage

by Steve T. Georgiou

Book Overview

A disillusioned young man journeys to a remote Greek island in search of renewal. By chance, he is introduced to an elderly hermit who over time helps him in his quest. This sage turns out to be none... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 2895072442
• ISBN13: 9782895072447
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Twenty-Third Publications
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

An Insightful Interview

Robert Lax, poet, hermit, friend of Thomas Merton, and sage, is interviewed by a young author, Steve Georgiou. He asks the same questions that I myself would have asked Lax. The answers that Lax gives are good thoughts and guiding principles for meditation and for life. I am grateful for this succinct little book that one can keep by the bed stand and refer to it often for daily nourishment. Sister Donna Padalino OSC

Spirit lessons from Patmos

The author has written a fine book about Robert Lax and about most of the issues that come up in discussions of the spiritual life. Lax, who passed away in 2000, was an elderly hermit-poet who lived on the island of Patmos in Greece. The author is an artist-theologian, a California type who finds in Lax a kindred spirit with whom he spends many hours. In the first chapter we find out much about Lax's early life, his education, and how he came to Patmos, where he spent the last 35 years of his life. This is followed by two chapters that give the essence of Lax's philosophy of art. Here we learn how he developed his own minimalist style. The next chapter is more directly devoted to the spiritual life, and here the central element is, as it should be, love, which includes our relation to transcendence (God) and also the way we treat each other. In their conversations Lax and Georgiou return frequently to the idea of love. They both believe strongly in it. The book is well written and it is an enjoyable read. Definitely recommended.

The Way of the Dreamcatcher

The Way of the Dreamcatcher is deceptively easy to read - it flows and it is very easy to go with the flow. And going with the flow is a major theme running through the book as Steve Georgiou records his conversations with Thomas Merton's friend and contemporary from Columbia days, Robert Lax. The book is organised into what appear to be four conversations loosely titled `Origins,' `Craft,' `Art' and `Spirit' and sandwiched between a prologue and an epilogue and with a brief forward by Patrick Hart - Merton's secretarial assistant at Gethsemani at the time he left for Asia in 1968. The conversations range far and wide discussing Lax's life and how he came to be a hermit on the Greek island of Patmos. Along they way they talk about writing, miracles, heaven & hell, life after death, angels, dreams and the purifying properties of yoghurt! And much more besides. Jack Kerouac and the Beats, and Bob Dylan too. And, of course, Thomas Merton. Lax does most of the talking, prompted and guided by Georgiou's questions, comments and contributions - so in a way it's his book as much as it is Georgiou's.For me reading the book was like a breath of fresh air (a cliché, I know, but true) - it completely transported me out of my own world with its immediate concerns and tribulations, and I found myself with the young disciple and the sage, listening to their evening conversation as the fire flickered in the hermitage overlooking the port town of Skala on the sacred isle of Patmos. "Go with the flow" is the major message that comes through - become who you are, find out a little more everyday about who you are and become that person. Like the ageing hermit of the Aegean, living his simple life, writing his poems, becoming a little more holy everyday. As I said, deceptively easy. But I also found the book tremendously challenging - in a gentle but insistent way. It made me ask questions about my own life and why I do what I do. Questions about who I am. And more than that it raises disturbing questions about the world and culture in which we live, the culture of activity and busy-ness, the strenuous struggle to survive. Going with the flow is all very well on the tranquillity of Patmos but how do you go with the flow when everyday existence is a raging torrent? The answers are not contained in this book though there are plenty of hints and pointers - perhaps not least the need to be asking the questions in the first place.