Reflections on the Spiral Stairs: Conversations on the Spiritual Path

Rex Simon lives alone, bemoaning his frustration with what he refers to as his "spiritual failure." He soon befriends an imaginary character in the form of a rat, who curiously enough is able to talk. The two individuals set up a routine of conversation, in which they explore various topics of spiritual significance. The rat, Charlemagne, seems to be gifted with a particular way of detailing certain of the more challenging aspects of the spiritual path. These details are based solely on metaphorical explanations of what he describes. This book is designed to give a general account of some of the difficult aspects of the spiritual path solely through the vehicle of metaphor. It does so with a slightly humorous twist, while discussing such concepts as pirates, war, secret agents, and super-heroes, all from the perspective of what they signify in the spiritual domain. These ideas, however, were not pulled out of a hat—they were delineated from what the speakers have garnered from the magical aspect of the world around them. As the rat Charlemagne himself states, the lines which delineate the ideas in book "were already drawn" by the code-like apparition of the world. This volume "merely colors them in."