COLLATERAL KARMANOW AVAILABLE! JUST CLICK THE BOOK COVER OR TITLE TO TAKE YOU TO AMAZON.COM
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing Date of Publication: 2009 ISBN: 978-159858-697-8 Now Orcutt spins us into the dark side. Collateral Karma opens after Rickshaw Lubowski (formerly Bob Kramer), has realized another eight years of meditation, but has ditched the Path of Return in search of more tangible things - like sex, drugs, occultism, and sorcery. As a result, he falls victim to a curse cast by an evil leader of a ceremonial cult who practices ritual sex and black magick. Rickshaw’s descent into the world of sensation and desire incurs mysterious nightmares all too real, starting with the obsessively expected death of his new fiancé. Seeking help wherever he can find it, Rickshaw meets a blind fortuneteller who seems to know more about his destiny than anyone should. While fighting for his life and the life of his friends, our hero realizes all too late the bad karma of his ways. Only when Rickshaw loses touch with reality, when his loved ones and Jamayah face almost certain death, does his mentor appear. Together, they join forcers with shamanic sorcerers in an attempt to reverse the deadly curse. REVIEW
Theodore J. Albasini
-author of The Progeny and The Jesus Chronicles Orcutt's hard-driving prose seductively plays to all readers' senses. The sequel, as was the first, has all the elements of a great read, this one baring the dark side of sex, occultism, mystery, and sorcery, as he spins a yarn of good versus evil. An absolute must read for Orcutt fans. EXCERPTS
In knowing that we are not our body, we know this body flaunts an avalanche of begrudging limitations and a feast of material and conditioned pleasures. Maybe as a gift for awareness, we know this embodied journey is temporary and that we will return home. This was the primary reason Jamayah referred to life’s embodied journey as the Path of Return. “Good. Now one more thing. To confirm the reading, a fat lizard will scramble up the south side of the trunk at the same time the hawk flies over the oak. Lizard will stop darting forward, do five pushups, and crawl back down the trunk. It’s important to confirm the read, because we could all be making this shit up.” Rattlesnake Dan laid flat on the ground with his right ear in the dirt. As it looked like he was listening for thundering buffalo, no one spoke a word. Maybe ten minutes passed as the three of us stood in the shade of the oak. Suddenly, he took his right hand and slammed it flat onto the ground beside his head. Dust puffed up in a miniature cloud, with a breeze blowing it away. No one moved. The only sound that could be heard was the gentle rustling of new leaves on the oak. I thought I could hear the buds on the tree opening. “The Order believed that upon passing, many souls become stuck in transitional states between lives on earth. Tibetan Buddhists refer to these states as bardos. To the Tibetans, all states of consciousness are one bardo or another. Rather than evolve toward reincarnation, lost souls linger and wander around in an ethereal realm. This was not any different than the information that I had gleaned from Jamayah. “Some ghosts do not know they have passed. Most remain attached to residences or persons on Earth. For the spiritually advanced, the after-death bardo provides another opportunity for liberation. For most, however, these states of impasse degenerate until, if allowed to continue, one experiences terrifying hallucinations arising from previous bad karma. “I succumbed to being blindfolded again. This secretive precaution continued until I was initiated as a member at a later time.” “You became a member?” asked Brodie. |
|
