Sacred Mountains: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Meanings

Rating:
Summary: A triumph! Highly recommended to all who love mountains
Review: Adrian Cooper has produced a modern classic. It is a work which combines scholarship of the highest calibre with sublime sensitivity to the personal experiences of mountains.

For readers who are new to mountains, as well as those, like me who d them for many years, Sacred Mountains will be a joy as well as a challenge. Talking the book through with friends, we often need to return to certain parts, and re-read, and then re-discuss. Its status as a classic is assured quite simply because it has so many layers of fascination.

Regards,

Barbara Jacobson New York City

Rating:
Summary: The most original sacred mountains book I've seen in years!
Review: Adrian Cooper took ten years of patient research to complete this glorious book. It was worth every minute! During that time he interviewed 144 pilgrims from Europe and North America, and listened to the ways in which mountains have changed their lives.

So many themes are woven together in this superb book. But at its heart, there is a passion for language. There is the language of the mountains themselves to change our lives. There are also the words of ancient writers of scripture, poetry and prose who marvelled at the summits. At the start of each chapter, Cooper presents us with a scholarly account of this ancient wisdom. But there are also the words of modern pilgrims in this book, from all social backgrounds, who worked with Adrian Cooper to share their experiences. For me, these were the most valuable words of all. They prove that mountains live now and for ever in the souls, imaginations and intellects of people today. Not just the mountaineers, but walkers, mystics, lovers of solitude and pilgrims in search of enlightenment.

Sometimes, I was moved to tears when I read these personal mountain stories. One women travelled with a friend to the Virunga peaks in central Africa as a final attempt to come to terms with her miscarriage. In the Himalayas, three American climbers watched in helpless despair as their five compapnions were swept down a valley in a sudden wind storm. Here therefore are lessons for us all. Lessons on recovering from loss as well as lessons on finding the treasure of our soul's desire.

There is nothing pretty or sentimental about this book, because the mountains are always more than pretty, and we insult their majesty if we confine them with mere sentimentality. Adrian Cooper's book therefore tells the truth about mountains - both are rich and magnificent, powerful and life-changing.

I therefore recommend this book to everyone who seeks an original, challenging, scholarly and sensitive exploration of sacred mountains.

Louise T Carter

Rating:
Summary: Very highly recommended
Review: Adrian Cooper's 'Sacred Mountains' is a work of original scholarship and profound love of the mountains. For the last 15 years he's interviewed 144 people from all over the world, so the book combines an analysis of ancient wisdom along with modern experiences of mountains which include the science and spirituality of mountains.

What I particularly liked was that Cooper offers no easy answers in reading the mountains. He is wise enough to know that there are only more and deeper journeys of the intellect and instinct. But he also realises there is paradox too. The mountains are accessible and inaccesible, fascinating and beguiling.

For anyone who wants to understand how mountains have entered and keep their place in the human consciousness, this is the book they need.

There are other sacred mountain books (Bernbaum etc) but Cooper's is the best. It's scholarly, clear, challenging and insightful.

Douglas Henderson

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant demonstration of many-sided mountain realities
Review: Cooper's work directly confronts all this nonsense produced by so-called main stream scientists that there is just one reality 'out-there'. Wrong! There is no such thing. Mountains mean so many things to so many people. They can be huge hulking masses of brutal rock, or they can be the most delightful, gentle companions. They can be cruel or they can be our greatest teachers. How can we make sense of this diversity of possibilities? By listening to the pilgrims who make these decisions to live by those truths. What is the data for our understanding of these poetic geographies? It is the words of these thoughtful travellers. And this is what Cooper does. He's listened to pilgrims from Europe and North America. And then he brings us their words and the words of the writers and teachers who've most influenced these people. So the result is one of the richest books I've ever read. Bristling with ideas. Never short of compelling, courageous experiences. Daring to go places where other mountain books fear to tread. But in doing so, doing a great service to mountain literature, pilgrimage and all allied scholarship. Read it!

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant book which I'm recommending to all my friends
Review: I can't add too much to the other reviews here. I agree with them all. But all I would say is, for me, mountains have been such a help in getting over a lot of personal problems in my past. They've given me solitude. And this book comes closest to being the truth about mountains from the way they've changed my life.

Rating:
Summary: An original, stimulating, challenging and beautiful book
Review: I finished reading Sacred Mountains a couple of months ago, but it won't let me go! It keeps challenging me. It keeps pushing me to think more deeply about my feelings and instincts toward mountains. And I like that. Any book that refuses to let go of its reader has got to be worth talking about, which is why I wanted to offer this testimony. This is a truly great book.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent read - thoroughly original in each chapter
Review: I was given Sacred Mountains as a birthday present, but began reading it with dread. It looked too New Age to me. But that was just my first reaction, which I soon banished as soon as I got into this excellent and original book. I like the use of interviews with so many fascinating people. And Cooper's remarkable breadth of knowledge in developing an intelligent discussion from what everyone says is truly impressive. And in so many directions too, but with singular clarity. Each of the pilgrims Cooper writes about have embarked on some remarable mountain journeys. But as readers, we're never left behind. Cooper writes so we can all 'see' what others have experienced - both within their psychology and their physical surroundings out on the peaks. The use of poetry and prose from other writers is also a wonderful added dimension to this multi-dimensional book. To the best of my knowledge, there hasn't been any other mountain book which is like this one, so for originality alone, it deserves the support of all folk who need the mountains and love them (ie find them sacred/precious places). In an age when religious ideas are so much under threat, Cooper reminds us of how important Rudolf Otto's famous observation is: sacredness is both terrible and fascinating.

Rating:
Summary: A first-class piece of mountain writing
Review: I've read the other reviews about Adrian Cooper's work, and I agree with everything they say. But for me,he's written a book that combines so much.

He's a brilliant scholar with a rare gift to explain ancient history and wisdom clearly for non-scholars. Throughout the book, there are sublime moments of mountains experience as well as their relation to times spent back home, or at work, when the memories of mountains help us cope.

But I've never come across any other books where people have their own words used as part of the text. It's a brilliant idea, and I can see why those 144 pilgrims wanted to be a part of this project. I can imagine sitting as part of Adrian Cooper's interview meetings, and sharing my mountain stories, and listening to other recollections, and then seeing my own experiences in print. It's a wonderful way of working.

For me, the mountains I love most are the Sierra Nevada peaks around Yosemite. Toward sunset, when the colours and shadows are changing, and I'm still a few miles out hiking, it's beautiful. And it's helped me deal with a lot of personal problems, being able to get away from them all, and being in that unique place. I think partly it's being surrounded by natural objects that you need to look up to, partly it's the physical effort you need to make to get out there (it's not always easy but always worth the effort), and partly it's something about rock - it's solid and dependable. In a world of not-very-dependable people and things, mountains are able to re-assure me. They're solid. and I can take my time out there to think where to go next, and what decisions I need to take next. Or, on other times, just taking time to be away from the need to face those decisions.

So Adrian Cooper has produced a book that I recommend to everyone who loves mountains. Every chapter is a gem.

Sincerely yours,

Jean King

Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly original. Insightful. Very, very special
Review: There is no shortage of mountain literature, but a great shortage of real quality in this field. Adrian Cooper's brilliant first book is of the highest quality, and I have no hesitation in recommending it to all who love mountains - climbers, walkers, skiiers or other pilgrims. At the heart of Cooper's success here is a willingness to listen to the stories mountain people have to tell. He doesn't judge, condemn or categorise. Instead, he takes these stories, uses the travellers' own words where appropriate and then locates them with the ancient history of the mountain in question - the poetry and prose which others have been inspired to write. So we, the readers, are treated to so much wisdom and clear insight. A remarkable achievement.