Books

Loquilian, The Alacritous Fox

Dr Todd William Dearing

Fantasy novel. Paperback and Kindle, 344 pages.

Experience the journey of wizards on their quest for greater wisdom and self-mastery. Set in a parallel world in an earlier age, it tells of the adventures of the fox alchemist Loquilian and the two wizards who join him along the way. It’s lyrical and visionary, mixed with humour and adventure.

Sometimes our destiny is more than we are able to withstand. Yet afterwards, we are more than we thought ourselves to be.

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Climb to the Peak: How to write your vision and develop a plan to achieve your greatest dreams

Dr Todd William Dearing

Writing and self-development. Paperback, 118 pages.

This book is for the spirited adventurer, the intrepid and practical dreamer. It will guide you in leveraging your own wisdom to achieve your big dreams in life.

The author, Dr Todd Dearing, begins by outlining why having a greater purpose is important for happiness, then shares the story of his own journey. The book then provides a guided writing process so that you can clarify, align, and prepare yourself to achieve your own unique aspirations. It explores how to be conscious and purposeful in activity, how to transform obstacles as they arise, and many other strategies for effective action towards one’s goals.

Beautifully designed, with full colour imagery, Climb to the Peak includes a free downloadable PDF for completing the activities.

From the Introduction:

In pursuing your greatest dreams you are climbing to the peak within yourself. You are writing your own destiny. This is not easy. If it were, you would already be there. It is challenging and it is transformative, and it requires qualities such as courage, discipline, responsibility, initiative, and perseverance.

Yet this journey’s rewards are deeply enriching and enduring. In the process you will gain knowledge, develop your skills, and greatly expand your understanding of life and yourself. You will experience deeper meaning and purpose. You will bring value to others. And most importantly, you will become more of who you truly are.

Every thing is human, mighty! sublime!

New literary humanism and the trope of the daimon in William Blake’s Jerusalem

Dr Todd William Dearing

Doctorate thesis. Portable Document Format (PDF), 346 pages.

This is the product of three years of doctorate research.

Reading is an act of understanding humanity. This is because literature—novels, poetry, drama, and creative non-fiction—is a vast repository of human experience and imagination. When we approach literature as a mirror unto ourselves, we can better know and evolve our own humanness.

With deep insight and precision, Dr Dearing articulates this approach to literary humanism through a study of the poet-painter William Blake’s conception of the daimon.

This is a scholarly work—the casual reader may find it a difficult climb, although the attentive mind will be adequately rewarded by the work’s rigour, precision, and depth.

This work enters into that wisdom which is the seabed of Western knowledge; a body of lore historically overlooked by the middling consensus yet deeply considered by some of the world’s greatest minds (Heraclitus, Socrates, Aristotle, Plotinus, Milton, Goethe, Coleridge, and others).

It includes a historical survey of the daimonic tradition, culminating in today’s concept of human genius. This work is spanned by interlocking pylons of knowledge that resonate with the ages and is speckled with points of focus for present day creative work.

Dr Dearing here renders this golden thread of the daimonic more accessible, while highlighting how to understand and develop one’s humanity through reading literature. This work is not to be missed by anyone on the quest for knowledge.

Musing the In-between

Dr Todd William Dearing

Poetry, prose, and imagery. Paperback, full colour, 91 pages.

This book is about the creative mode of existence between reality’s fundamental opposites. It is a collection of prose, poetry, digital art, and photography exploring the nature of the liminal through a series of reflections—musings—that are designed to encourage the reader to think between the basic binaries to which humanity has become accustomed (dark/light, hot/cold, life/death etc.).

It is a collection of Dr Dearing’s writing and art created up to 2015. This series of vivid, exploratory works arose from his own creative practice and deeper research into the natural world, the liminal nature of reality, and the potential for the evolution of human consciousness through understanding this liminality.

Each page turns into fresh fields of language and imagery, revealing liminal ideas, understanding, and a vitalised grammar of thought. The book is designed to invite the reader to think anew about their world and themselves and thereby recognise greater opportunities for awakening to their full human potential.

From the Introduction

Many of the ideas and images herein work through our ambiguity as human beings, as souls, and as part of this enchanting and enchanted universe. For there is a power in ambiguity which is often buried by our attempts to cover up any uncertainty about our existence. As humans, we seem to have a deep longing for stability in this world of constant change. Still, uncertainty seems innate to life, and always finds its way in. What would life be if entirely predictable, entirely known—if there were no more problems to be solved?

Uncertainty is a wonderfully creative place to be. It is playful if we allow it. To be able to flow with dynamic focus in the perfect union between yielding and controlling, like a dancer in motion with life: such is the way to ride the powerful epicentre which is the liminal—the in-between—that sacred bordering-place between the potential and the actual. Here is where the mysteries breathe.