Lyndy Summerhaze
BOOK REVIEWS
A re-launch of William Shakespeare in his true light, and an expose of us in our ‘reality of life’ and the situation of world ‘as it is’ – this book surpasses the best thriller you ever read. Fraught with wild tales of debauchery, romance, kingdoms in turmoil, alchemy, life and death in all its guises, or ‘life as we still know it’, the brilliance of Shakespeare is uncovered in a way you would never have imagined. Dr Lyndy Summerhaze pulls back any veil of mystery surrounding his work to reveal the pearls of truth actually presented.
Ever wondered why over centuries Shakespeare’s plays has been so loved, read, studied, watched, still used in every school curriculum . . . they map in detail The Ageless Wisdom and our ongoing dilemmas as a society and a humanity and provide a key to unlocking the wisdom that we can apply to every situation imaginable.
‘All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ . . . never has a truer word been spoken.
~ Jenny James
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING . . .
REVIEW
Since its publication over four centuries ago, Hamlet has been lauded for its dramatic insights into the 'human condition'. These are principally expressed through the eponymous Prince's introspective soliloquies.
What is laid bare in Lyndy Summerhaze's dissection of the play is that the play's (novel at publication) 'psychological revelations' are made unreliable by the very fact that Hamlet - written as an 'highly individual character' - is caught in the existential creations he so despises. While the drama entertains, the espoused 'insights' further the delusion. How so?
Ultimately Hamlet's awareness is filtered by his ensnarement through identification, which Lyndy outs as 'thinking he thinks' but that could also be described as insufficient presence to truly sense the malign energies or forces at play and thus be immediately responsive - rather than time-bound and led by his thoughts, beliefs and particularly his ideals.
Lyndy devastatingly draws (to lovers of such theatre) all the current parallels out of this 'cult of personality' and its disastrous effect on the whole of society.
Attachment to self and its 'glories' - its 'fifteen minutes of fame', devotion to the intellect again with its self-referential obsession, the primacy of success, the ignorance of the energetic basis of Creation's smorgasbord, the scornful dismissal of those sensitive to the essential truth that Lyndy so clearly states: '(we) are vehicles of expression for either Heaven or....' has brought us all to our current state - by which, late-middle-ages Denmark looks positively halcyon.
As Lyndy again and again reminds us (unlike any other critical analysis of Hamlet/Shakespeare known to me) - one's alignment to Creation and its blandishments is a one-way ticket to a bespoke and customised version of Elsinore at duel's end.
Or as Lyndy writes: 'we can align to the Soul, to Heaven, then comes birth of the glorious Son of God'.
If the play Hamlet is scripture to the literati, Lyndy's brilliant exegesis on this icon and her acknowledgement of the inspiration she gained from Serge Benhayon offers perhaps the shortest way out of such a desert.
~ Alan Johnston
REVIEW
Reading the works of William Shakespeare is a lot like looking in the mirror.
You read into the plays what you want to read, just as when you look into the mirror, you see what you want to see.
And that’s ok for the general public who pay their money to see the plays, just as it’s ok for the mirror obsessive to misinterpret exactly what it is that they are seeing.
But what of the critics? Those who spend their hours seeking out the hidden meanings and veiled references in the texts. Why are these erudite scholars – many of them authors themselves – so often at one in their interpretations of the goings-on in the plays: or when there is occasionally dispute as to the meaning, the alternative viewpoints are equally wide of the mark?
The answer to that may be entwined in the question as to why these 500-year-old plays continue to fascinate us in the 21st century . . . and why an endless stream of people queue for hours to spend a few short moments with the Mona Lisa.
Why are the plays not dated? Why have the public not moved on from a Renaissance portrait?
The learned critics and modern interpreters may simply not know the answer to that question, and like the curators at the Louvre in Paris, who jealously guard a cash cow when they have one, they might just not care. As long as the public continue to flock in.
There is however, one person who does make a lot of sense when she talks about ‘The Bard’ in her brilliant reviews of his works that are collected together in this book – and that answer the aforementioned burning questions as to their continuing popularity.
These are, in short, timeless classics. Ageless if you will. Viewed from the perspective of everyday reality – as we know it – they make only superficial sense, with a few jokes and horror scenes thrown in to spice them up for the masses.
But Lyndy Summerhaze, the author of this tome, is not at all deceived by the mayhem and skulduggery that is no more nor less than a transparent recounting of the insane manner in which we live and conduct ourselves, and the bloodbaths that result.
With the acuity of the finest razor, each play is thoroughly dissected to reveal that William Shakespeare was himself a masterful observer of the human condition – and more so, that this condition is entirely self-inflicted, just as it is needless.
Armed with the understanding that the human body constitutes a battlefield for unseen forces, Lyndy Summerhaze exhibits a profound understanding of what Shakespeare was truly offering his public. She stands with a small group of people who recognise that the time has come to resolve this battle and to move on from the torments that have plagued mankind since time immemorial.
For the student of Shakespeare, this book is absolutely essential reading.
For the student of life, it is priceless.
~ Andrew Baldwin
REVIEW
Lyndy Summerhaze is the ultimate scribe for William Shakespeare. With her profound love and understanding of Shakespeare’s work, she effortlessly decodes the language and hidden meanings within the plays, to bring to life the timeless insights that are as relevant to our lives today as they were hundreds of years ago.
If you ever thought that you don’t like Shakespeare, or that the language is too complicated, wait till you have read this book. Flashbacks of high school English studies will melt away as the richness and depth of the plays are unfolded with a simplicity and joy that makes them universally accessible to all.
I studied King Lear in Year 11, and although I loved Shakespeare I didn’t enjoy the play at all. I found it so grim, so grey, and so bleak. To make matters worse, we were required to interpret the play through different lenses of thought, all of which only polluted and obscured the magic and insight that the play was offering, rather than drawing the meaning out. Lyndy’s chapter on King Lear is the complete antidote to this. She beautifully represents why the play is so necessarily grim while also breathing colour into aspects of the play that I had not been aware of before. Her understanding of the role of Cordelia is exquisite. The depth of love and truth that the King’s youngest daughter represents is explored in full, blowing away 2-D interpretations of virtue and benevolence, to unveil a strength that is unshakeable and does not play ball with the lies of the world, yet remains ever loving and understanding with no judgement – no matter what the cost.
Meanwhile, the behind-the-scenes desire for individuality and attachment that run all the other characters in the play, and how they are the architects of their own misery, is masterfully shown. Lyndy’s take on King Lear was an absolute joy to read. It was so vibrant it was like watching a movie, except so much richer in its insights. Highly recommended.
~ Jonathan B, NSW
REVIEW
Within her elucidating rendition of Twelfth Night Lyndy Summerhaze reveals the limitations, corruption and stagnancy of our world, which is mirrored in the world of the play. Shakespeare’s language is energetically explored as a means of revealing universal truth, if we but had the senses to receive it. But thankfully we now have Summerhaze, who magnificently does this for us, pulling back the curtain and illuminating the intrinsic wisdom within the play. A key revelation presented, that turns our understanding of gender on its head, is the hermaphroditic essence of love that is at the core of each human being. Indeed, her discussion of abuse, gender, relationships and love is a pioneering thesis that is nothing short of brilliant.
~ Anita Czoch, writer, composer and teacher
REVIEW
Don’t pick up this book unless you are ready to acquaint yourself with Shakespeare in a entirely new light. Lyndy Summerhaze skilfully penetrates the hidden meanings within some of Shakespeare’s most loved plays and reveals for the first time what you may never have intuited or imagined. Take A Midsummer Night’s Dream for example – a play that may be very familiar but you will never have never read an analysis quite like this well written and informative commentary in which Lyndy Summerhaze weaves together the insight of the Ageless Wisdom with the depth and wit of Shakespeare, all the while unpacking what he was hinting at with his exposé of the hidden and dark forces that control and manipulate the behaviour of human beings from behind the scenes, without anyone realising that they are being played like puppets. We may laugh at the foolish antics of the distraught lovers both human and faery, and the stupidity of the Athenian tradesmen but are we not in the same boat? This and so much more depth and wisdom is offered, which makes reading these writings a very enriching and rewarding experience and one that will give you much to ponder upon.
~ Josephine Bell
REVIEW
If you ever felt that Shakespeare held a depth of wisdom that you couldn't quite decode, that felt just out of reach of your full understanding, then this book is a must read. This is the kind of treatment of Shakespeare that I wish I had access to when I was studying at high school and University. I have to admit I have never been a huge Shakespeare fan. But when I read Lyndy's elucidations on The Tempest I realised that it was never Shakespeare I didn't enjoy, it was the reinterpreted and projected meanings imposed by intellectuals about what the plays meant that never seemed to resonate with me. This book provides a truly multi-dimensional view of Shakespeare lit up by the Ageless Wisdom of our modern times, like a painting that has been hung in a dimmed room now finally illuminated by the same source of light that it originated from. The only source that can truly shine a light back on it. This is Shakespeare. Honoured and fully restored.
~ Rebecca Baldwin