MALCOLM RITCHIE ~ The Crows of Gravity

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Through this memoir, Malcolm Ritchie take us on a journey from early childhood trauma and damage, onto a quest for self-knowledge and healing.  He describes how his life led him from an interest in the paranormal, to Jungian psychology, Buddhism and shamanic practices.  Along the way, we have his discharge from the Royal Air Force; his expulsion from art school; his theft, with three friends, of a Rembrandt from a museum; his encounter and association with Dr. John Layard – anthropologist and Jungian psychologist, who was once guru to W.H. Auden in Berlin in the 1920’s – and his relationships with several well-known and influential people during the 1960’s and 70’s both in the arts and literary scene, as well as in the world of fashion.  As his story, and all the many other stories contained within it unfold, we encounter a cast of poets, painters, healers, tinkers, shamans, Buddhist monks and Shinto priests, and many others.  We are guided into a spiritual realm of altered states of consciousness and other realities, through his involvement in training with a Buddhist monk and then a Japanese shamanic healer, resulting in spirit possession, and culminating in a dramatic exorcism in the Peruvian rainforest, described at the end of the book. Ritchie’s memoir pulses with a variety of different energies, and works on several levels, often placing it beyond the specific genre of memoir, taking the reader into a life of danger, adventure and revelation, all recounted and leavened by a mind redolent with a pantomimic and comedic sense of humour, but shadowed at the same time by a cynical eye cast over Western civilization and culture.

“Get this book!
Malcolm has written the autobiography of his/
our generation across four continents
from “angry young man”
to spiritual pilgrim
to poet of the great ley-lined earth
392 pages of astonishment.”
J O H N     M A R T O N E
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New and available now from Longhouse ~
Malcolm Ritchie The Crow of Gravity
A Correspondence of Wounds
392 pages
perfect bound
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$20Shipping $3.95 ~ U.S. orders with Paypal
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4 Responses to MALCOLM RITCHIE ~ The Crows of Gravity

    1. Message to Malcolm Ritchie, to thank him for posting me his book The Crow of Gravity, on request from Siobhan Tucker.
      I was struck by it as soon as I saw it for reasons of personal recognition, and it felt like a powerful object. Anyhow, I am
      just beginning it now …. winter feels appropriate, and I need a companion! I know it is going to make me feel like coming
      to Scotland for the wildness I miss and love.
      With thanks
      Camilla Robbins

      Comment by Camilla Robbins on 7 January, 2017 at 7:47 pm
    2. Hello Malcolm,
      How are you, a million years have past since I was living in your flat in the 60’s above the antique shop in Falmouth, that was when you were living with Ivy. I live in North Holland now after living over 40 years in Australia. I still write poetry. I will keep this brief, if you want to contact me my email address is below.

      Best wishes,
      David James

      Comment by David James on 9 March, 2018 at 3:43 pm
    3. Hello Malcolm
      Thinking of you and talking about you to a friend in my kitchen I asked my self at what stage of life you are within now and here I am looking on google to see what new book you might have written … and here I am writing this so called reply. Not knowing if you will read me
      I miss you my dear as I miss Masako
      Happy to know your are alive after so long …
      hope to read you soon
      Nourit

      Comment by Nourit masson-sekine on 11 December, 2020 at 8:47 pm
    4. Hello malcom all the best Io.x

      Comment by Io on 18 September, 2022 at 12:05 am

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