Artist: Joseph Barker | Throughout the centuries, Shakespeare has always had two types of readers – those who love his work and those who don’t! However, here we are in the 21st century, birthing a new group of readers: those who previously did not like to read Shakespeare because they couldn’t relate to it, but now love it because Lyndy Summerhaze’s book, Shakespeare and The Ageless Wisdom, makes it not only relatable, but understandable and deeply engaging. |
As Dr Rachel Mascord says in the Foreword to this book: “The works of William Shakespeare are familiar to almost all people living today – it is close to impossible for a person to escape some level of encounter with his writings by the time they reach adulthood, whether it be through education, the media of entertainment or use of words he invented (thousands of them) and the phrases and expressions he made that perfectly capture the commonality of human experience.”
So, ‘assuming’ that everyone knows who Shakespeare is, let’s take a minute to consider what the Ageless Wisdom is, noting the name of this new release is Shakespeare and The Ageless Wisdom.
The Ageless Wisdom is about a lived way. It is not a philosophy, it is beyond thinking or debating it, it is about living it. It is sometimes referred to as The Way of The Livingness. There have been many teachers of The Way down through the Ages: Pythagoras, Patanjali, Jesus, Helena Blavatsky, Alice A Bailey (just to name a few) and current day world teacher, Serge Benhayon. The word ‘Ageless’ puts emphasis on its permanency. Culture changes, fashion changes, inventions change the world, but the Ageless Wisdom is unchanging and yet constantly expanding to accommodate every era. The teachers of the Ageless Wisdom do not hide the fact that we are here to not be here. Living life on planet earth is a downgrade, a substantial downgrade from what is on offer when we live from our Divine Essence, which is available to all of us, all the time. When living our divinity, there is no separation, no individualism, no identity as we are all One Soul, singing One Song.
Shakespeare’s writing, it seems, isn’t just about the ‘pretty words and flowery phrases – and very complicated plots!’, it is actually about delivering a beautifully descriptive look at the truth of what is happening in life, whether it is the 1500’s or 2021. The five-hundred-year span doesn’t change the situation. It was hard then and is still hard now for humanity to see the truth because of all the disguises and camouflaging that is built into what is considered ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable by society.’
Add to this already complex set-up, Shakespeare was not able to just ‘call it out’ because he would have been, at best, banned from writing his books and producing his plays and at the worst, if Jesus’ fate is anything to go by, Shakespeare would have put his life and that of his family at risk for daring to ‘uncover’ the truth of humanity’s existence.
Lyndy Summerhaze undresses nine of Shakespeare’s best loved stories, giving us insight and background into the main characters and sets the stage for us to be able to truly understand what Shakespeare is telling us. Woven into her generous explanations, we are given passages of the glorious words and phrases of the great writer, the meaning of which are made graspable by Summerhaze’s simple but thorough interpretations. How much easier would ‘Hamlet’ have been if we had an introduction like this:
“Hamlet (circa 1599-1601) is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s most ‘seductive’ plays and it is this very seduction that we, the audience, must stay most acutely aware of – if we wish to fully understand, through the truth of the Ageless Wisdom, the profoundly ground-breaking revelation of the lie being exposed here. It is very easy to fall for the allure of Hamlet’s dilemma and identify with it – as most have done – a very ‘attractive’ dilemma to entertain oneself with, albeit most precarious, paralysing and ultimately devastating. Yes, it is so easy to identify with the position of the brilliant, articulate, witty, aware and sensitive young Prince Hamlet who, when his illusions around family and crown are shattered, sees right through the charade of the reductive, created reality we call ‘the world’. He can clearly see that he is surrounded at court by a retinue of ‘yes’ men and puppets and that the very crown of the kingdom is a lecher and murderer. What he does not realise, however, is that he too is a puppet of the same created reality that has produced the corruption he so abhors – he himself is not free of creation’s tentacles and snares – and thus in the way he is living life he is enabling and feeding the reservoir of lies that this very world he despises breeds and feeds upon.
Hamlet has seen that this world is not one which makes Love the ‘one and only true nature and intelligence of our societies’ but a world bereft of love and true intelligence, a world known to the Ageless Wisdom as ‘The House of Lies’.
Summerhaze has given the reader a clear platform to read or watch Hamlet unfold. Having this overview of the set-up does not, in anyway, detract from the storyline but makes it all that much richer – and understandable.
In the chapter bringing new understanding to Hamlet, we are given the famous soliloquy, or as Summerhaze calls it, Hamlet’s ‘piece de resistance’ that begins with ‘To be or not to be – that is the question’. I’m not going to capture her in-depth (and totally amazing) analysis of what this famous soliloquy is really saying, but I can assure you, whatever your previous understanding of it was will be forever changed through the words of this insightful author.
I always enjoy books that reveal the truth however the content isn’t the only reason I loved this book. Ergonomically it is one of my favourites because of the deep midnight blue ink – and, also, surprisingly, she has not used right margin justification, which somehow makes it even easier to read. This book, Shakespeare and The Ageless Wisdom, belongs on everyone’s bookshelf (after you have read it, of course.)
You can buy Lyndy’s book here.
Gayle C., Australia
So, ‘assuming’ that everyone knows who Shakespeare is, let’s take a minute to consider what the Ageless Wisdom is, noting the name of this new release is Shakespeare and The Ageless Wisdom.
The Ageless Wisdom is about a lived way. It is not a philosophy, it is beyond thinking or debating it, it is about living it. It is sometimes referred to as The Way of The Livingness. There have been many teachers of The Way down through the Ages: Pythagoras, Patanjali, Jesus, Helena Blavatsky, Alice A Bailey (just to name a few) and current day world teacher, Serge Benhayon. The word ‘Ageless’ puts emphasis on its permanency. Culture changes, fashion changes, inventions change the world, but the Ageless Wisdom is unchanging and yet constantly expanding to accommodate every era. The teachers of the Ageless Wisdom do not hide the fact that we are here to not be here. Living life on planet earth is a downgrade, a substantial downgrade from what is on offer when we live from our Divine Essence, which is available to all of us, all the time. When living our divinity, there is no separation, no individualism, no identity as we are all One Soul, singing One Song.
Shakespeare’s writing, it seems, isn’t just about the ‘pretty words and flowery phrases – and very complicated plots!’, it is actually about delivering a beautifully descriptive look at the truth of what is happening in life, whether it is the 1500’s or 2021. The five-hundred-year span doesn’t change the situation. It was hard then and is still hard now for humanity to see the truth because of all the disguises and camouflaging that is built into what is considered ‘normal’ and ‘acceptable by society.’
Add to this already complex set-up, Shakespeare was not able to just ‘call it out’ because he would have been, at best, banned from writing his books and producing his plays and at the worst, if Jesus’ fate is anything to go by, Shakespeare would have put his life and that of his family at risk for daring to ‘uncover’ the truth of humanity’s existence.
Lyndy Summerhaze undresses nine of Shakespeare’s best loved stories, giving us insight and background into the main characters and sets the stage for us to be able to truly understand what Shakespeare is telling us. Woven into her generous explanations, we are given passages of the glorious words and phrases of the great writer, the meaning of which are made graspable by Summerhaze’s simple but thorough interpretations. How much easier would ‘Hamlet’ have been if we had an introduction like this:
“Hamlet (circa 1599-1601) is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s most ‘seductive’ plays and it is this very seduction that we, the audience, must stay most acutely aware of – if we wish to fully understand, through the truth of the Ageless Wisdom, the profoundly ground-breaking revelation of the lie being exposed here. It is very easy to fall for the allure of Hamlet’s dilemma and identify with it – as most have done – a very ‘attractive’ dilemma to entertain oneself with, albeit most precarious, paralysing and ultimately devastating. Yes, it is so easy to identify with the position of the brilliant, articulate, witty, aware and sensitive young Prince Hamlet who, when his illusions around family and crown are shattered, sees right through the charade of the reductive, created reality we call ‘the world’. He can clearly see that he is surrounded at court by a retinue of ‘yes’ men and puppets and that the very crown of the kingdom is a lecher and murderer. What he does not realise, however, is that he too is a puppet of the same created reality that has produced the corruption he so abhors – he himself is not free of creation’s tentacles and snares – and thus in the way he is living life he is enabling and feeding the reservoir of lies that this very world he despises breeds and feeds upon.
Hamlet has seen that this world is not one which makes Love the ‘one and only true nature and intelligence of our societies’ but a world bereft of love and true intelligence, a world known to the Ageless Wisdom as ‘The House of Lies’.
Summerhaze has given the reader a clear platform to read or watch Hamlet unfold. Having this overview of the set-up does not, in anyway, detract from the storyline but makes it all that much richer – and understandable.
In the chapter bringing new understanding to Hamlet, we are given the famous soliloquy, or as Summerhaze calls it, Hamlet’s ‘piece de resistance’ that begins with ‘To be or not to be – that is the question’. I’m not going to capture her in-depth (and totally amazing) analysis of what this famous soliloquy is really saying, but I can assure you, whatever your previous understanding of it was will be forever changed through the words of this insightful author.
I always enjoy books that reveal the truth however the content isn’t the only reason I loved this book. Ergonomically it is one of my favourites because of the deep midnight blue ink – and, also, surprisingly, she has not used right margin justification, which somehow makes it even easier to read. This book, Shakespeare and The Ageless Wisdom, belongs on everyone’s bookshelf (after you have read it, of course.)
You can buy Lyndy’s book here.
Gayle C., Australia