In a bookstore

I went to a bookstore in Memphis and was looking at periodicals, and came across some titles that took me aback. The journals in the spirituality section had the run of the mill Christianity Today and three or four Buddhist-oriented mags (Yoga Journal and other yoga magazines were relegated to the exercise section), but then I came across two “gems:” The first was Faerie Magazine, which features stories about people who like faeries, and believe that they exist. The magazine is replete with photos of people dressed like faeries, and illustrations of what a faerie might look like.
The second publication was Spirituality and Health, a benign enough name, the type of title that anyone might pick up. But the key feature of this month’s pub? “Find Your Stage of Consiousness: A Self Test.” I didn’t take the test, but did thumb through and saw page after page of glossy full color advertisements.

This isn’t the spirituality publication for me: I’d much rather see a self-published, international periodical like The Gurdjieff Journal, which supports itself through readership subscriptions and doesn’t offer such cheap buyout stories such as that. Their current series of essays on Gurdjieff vis-á-vis the New Age (called “Gurdjieff & the New Age”) shows such a broad and deep understanding of contemporary culture.