The Crystal Journey

About the Book

The Crystal Journey is an autobiographical novel describing seven years of Ivan’s life. It all started when he attempted to walk through the Himalayas into Tibet and leave the world behind - no such luck! He was hurled back into life, and given his first true warrior’s task, in service to the planet. He was guided to a broken mountain where there had been a recent rockslide. There he ‘found’ seven hundred incredibly clear, magical quartz crystals in a cliff face.

He became obsessed with one question: why had these beautiful crystal beings entered his life? He carried them to the Lake of the Moon, a fairytale lake at an altitude of fifteen thousand feet, which he had earlier discovered on his walk to Tibet. He camped there for a month, meditating and cleaning the crystals. There he received guidance both for his spiritual journey through life, and for what he needed to do with the crystals he had found.

Until this point in his life, Ivan had floated directionless, like flotsam on the tides of existence, at the mercy of chance. When the Crystal Beings entered his awareness, they gathered the threads of his attention, communicated the reason why they had appeared, and informed him about what he should do about it. You can imagine the joy he experienced when he realised that his faith had been rewarded, and his Way had been revealed for the first time! Having left his home far behind, he had traveled through the Unknown learning the rules as he went. He lived by his wits, learning skills along the way, following the whisperings of his heart. Now, after nearly ten years of journeying unknown pathways through strange lands, his trust had been rewarded. It felt as if he had been floating through the waters of eternity, and he had finally found land.

This is an original autobiographical novel of mystery, travel and adventure. The magical and incredible part about it is that it’s all true. For some strange reason those things that are usually only dreamed of, or read about in fairy stories, seem to happen to Ivan in his everyday life. He believes it is a magical agreement he made long ago with the forces of his destiny, but where and when he cannot remember. One moment he is talking with a friend, the next he is surrendered to death, the next he is battling for his life and sanity with a hoard of demons. It certainly keeps him on his toes, and his boundaries are constantly stretching into realms unimaginable!

The Crystal Journey is a magic-carpet book whisking the reader away both to interesting places around the world and to the landscape of our innermost fantasies. It connects us to the spirit of adventure, which, if journeyed with, will make all of our dreams come true.

We all have two lives that exist simultaneously. They are our physical lives, and our spiritual lives. Whether we like it or not, we exist in these two states all the time. In the modern world, we are taught to give all our attention to the former, for it is described as the way to success, fortune, and fulfillment. By giving the material life all of our attention, the other simply ticks over, malnourished, underdeveloped, sabotaging our hopes for a balanced, fulfilled existence.

We shy away from living spiritual lives because we associate the word ‘spiritual’ with loneliness, insanity, discipline, unnatural sexuality, harshness, obsession and ridicule. This is a very restrictive and biased view of the sacred. It is not generally understood that the word ‘Spiritual’ can also be described as ‘love’, ‘adventure’, ‘following your heart’, ‘trusting your intuition’, ‘embracing joy’, ‘walking one’s talk’, and ‘merging with the Beloved’. How often have you heard the expression, “Do you live by your heart, or your head? This simply means, did you give your spirit, or your physical awareness, priority? It important that we give both our physical and spiritual sides equal attention, as both need to be healt

About the Author

Ivan McBeth is a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. He founded both the Megalithic Order of Druids, and the Sacred Space School of Shamanic Studies. He has been a world traveler for many years, visiting places like the Sinai, Egypt, America, India, Australia and South Africa. He practices spiritual techniques from many cultures. Ivan entered the world of the shaman in 1974 and has been on the adventure of his life ever since. His passion is the creation of sacred space and stone circles in particular. He is married to Fearn and lives in Vermont, USA.