Let your Castle become the sacred ground beneath your feet. Live the power of your soul. Listen to and follow the voice of your soul. You are not alone. No higher purpose in this life exists than to be called into a mystical relationship with the divine. - Caroline Myss in Entering the Castle

FROM INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED motivational teacher, spiritual instructor, and popular theologian Caroline Myss comes a transcendent new work of unique insight and revelation:

Entering the Castle: An Inner Path to God and Your Soul
Free Press; March 6, 2007; $26.00,
An in-depth guide and commentary on the spiritual stages of growth.

Inspired by The Interior Castle, the masterwork of beloved 16th century Carmelite nun, Teresa of Ávila, Entering the Castle is a revolutionary text of spiritual direction on going within and exploring your soul. It is a clear and direct path to developing a contemporary spiritual practice. From the bestselling author of Sacred Contracts and Anatomy of the Spirit, Entering the Castle is a means to connect to the divine in a radically new and satisfying way.

Using the mystical practices of prayer, contemplation, and self-inquiry, Entering the Castle provides a highly original path to self-knowledge. Inspired by Teresa's imagery of the "interior castle," Myss shows readers how to find life's answers deep within their own souls by clearing away emotional debris to make way for God's light. In the warm, inviting language of a trusted friend, Myss guides readers into seven different "mansions" - or levels of the soul - with individual rooms in which they uncover the different qualities of soul power: humility, dignity, integrity, honor, wisdom, justice, harmony, and endurance.

The Lower Level
In the lower three rooms, Myss guides readers through the serious work of clearing the soul. Here you discover the "reptiles" - those interior sufferings of the mind, heart, and spirit that need to be faced and expelled. Through the door of humility, Myss guides you into the First Mansion - the mansion most connected to your external world. Here, you focus on how you create chaos and call it into your life to distract yourself and others from God's guidance and true plan for you. You will awaken your soul and open yourself to uncovering and facing your struggles with power, control, and humility.

The Second Mansion illuminates the conflicts, darkness, and fears within your soul. Here, readers face their demons, trap the reptiles that haunt them, and become free from the constraining pulls of their ego. In this mansion, Myss encourages readers to seek out new soul companions - people who share a belief in a higher purpose, and with whom they can share their new experiences of God.

In the Third and last Mansion of the lower level of the Castle, readers learn the limits of their intellectual conceptions of God and get beyond them to an expanded consciousness - embracing a universal or Christ Consciousness, an opening of the third eye - which receives information from a source that surpasses rational mind.

The Upper Level
Once in the upper level of the Castle, experiences of transcendence and divine contact with God begin as readers create an intimate connection with the universe.

In the Fourth Mansion, prayer becomes the means through which love flows into your heart, through your soul, and out into the world to be of service to others. In the Fifth Mansion you dissolve into holiness and join with the divine in a radically intimate way.

In the Sixth Mansion, Myss addresses the challenges that arise in the pursuit of God, including the criticism that may come from outside, from others, and our need for praise along the way. Here, you open yourself to mystical encounters or visitations but, cautions Myss, "you do not expect them." She encourages readers to stay mindful of their limitations and to stay humble. "You are a vessel," she writes, "a conduit of grace, not a generator."

And yet, it is in the Sixth Mansion where readers may experience holy rapture - the experience of spontaneously being lifted into an altered state of consciousness, taken away from your body and senses, and becoming absorbed into the presence of God. Finally, in the Seventh Mansion, the soul ascends to a fearless bliss in which it is consciously united with the divine - a "mystical marriage" with God. It is here, writes Myss, "that you can no longer deny that you hear the voice of God."

Go Within
With this profound new road map to quiet our minds, know our souls, and discover God's intentions for our lives, Myss invites readers on a powerful journey of prayer. Entering the Castle will:

• Show how you may be inviting chaos into your life to distract yourself from God's guidance
• Explain why we fear a relationship with God even when we want one
• Teach you how to evict "reptiles" from your Castle - those people who distract, destroy, or compromise our personal well-being
• Explain how we've polluted the act of prayer by expecting certain rewards and what this expectation does to our relationship with God
• Show why it's important to work with a soul companion after you enter the Castle
• Discuss how life may become more difficult after achieving a soul consciousness, and what "spiritual paradox" means
• Demonstrate why our minds can get in the way of a mystical experience

To go within, to enter the Castle, is to uncover the different qualities of power that your individual soul contains, to discover the soul's own divine connection to God and to embody the qualities of light essential to an experience of God. A portal into a deeper experience of the divine, Entering the Castle is a comprehensive guidebook for your life's journey - a journey into the center of your soul. There, peace, God, and a fearless bliss wait for you to discover them... and claim them as your own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caroline Myss has taught in thirty-five countries. In addition to writing six books, Caroline is the leading recording artist for Sounds True, Inc., the major audio recording company in the holistic field. She has recorded with them since 1990, producing 30 different titles. Her entire library of recordings now numbers over 180. In 2003, Oprah Winfrey gave Caroline her own television program with the OXYGEN network in New York City, which ran successfully for one year. Caroline does an average of six radio shows per month and five newspaper or magazine interviews in both national and international publications. For more information, visit www.myss.com.