{"id":2051,"date":"2014-08-18T15:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T20:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2014-08-30T17:17:02","modified_gmt":"2014-08-30T22:17:02","slug":"scorpio-rising-excerpt-2-9-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/?p=2051","title":{"rendered":"SCORPIO RISING: book excerpt 2.9"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/a>A couple of years ago I wrote\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>SCORPIO RISING<\/em>, the first book in my\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>New Age Noir<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0mystery series. In Scorpio Rising<\/em>, c<\/span>riminal profiler Axel Crowe investigates the killing of a New York heiress, and discovers her death is linked to two other murders on the same day: a dot-com millionaire in San Francisco, and the team leader of a counter-terrorist project in Los Alamos, New Mexico<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Reviewers have said that, no matter whether you’re an astrological neophyte or a professional, there’s something here for everyone to learn or be inspired.\u00c2\u00a0See the review highlights\u00c2\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To continue introducing the series, here is excerpt\u00c2\u00a0#2<\/span>. It’s taken from Chapter 4, in which my hero Axel Crowe, after giving a lecture on fingerprint interpretation to a Criminology class at the University of Toronto, drops by to see his guru:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~<\/span><\/p>\n

Axel Crowe whistled a lively blues tune as he approached an apartment building in the Parkdale neighborhood. Lately he\u00e2\u0080\u0099d learned to play Little Girl<\/em> from one of the early John Mayall albums on which Eric \u00e2\u0080\u0098Slowhand\u00e2\u0080\u0099 Clapton had established himself as a guitar god. Now the tune was stuck in his mind day and night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe entered the lobby and pressed a button on a mailbox. The door buzzed open and he walked inside. He took the elevator to the seventh floor and arrived at a door with a brass OM symbol mounted above the peephole. He knocked lightly, opened the door and entered. He slipped his shoes off and walked into the living room.<\/span><\/p>\n

The place was an incredible clutter. A take-out pizza carton lay on the coffee table. Newspapers littered the floor; stacks of books covered two-thirds of a sofa. Small brass statues of the elephant-headed god Ganesha<\/em>, Remover of Obstacles, and other Hindu deities stood atop the TV, on window ledges and bookcase shelves. Across the mantel of a fake fireplace, monkey god Hanuman<\/em> and other deities competed for space, reminiscent of battle scenes from the epic Ramayana<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guruji sat in a reclining chair watching the news on TV. He was East Indian, Bengali to be exact, seventy years old but looking ten years younger. His head was shaven and he wore a kurta<\/em>, a long check-patterned shirt that came to his knees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe bent and touched both hands to Guruji\u00e2\u0080\u0099s bare feet, then touched the top of his own head.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guruji used his remote to mute the TV. He gestured toward the pizza carton. \u00e2\u0080\u009cAre you hungry?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cNo, thanks. I ate earlier.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Crowe pushed some books aside to make room on the sofa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cWhat did you eat?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe shrugged.<\/span><\/p>\n

Guruji gave him a canny look. \u00e2\u0080\u009cSomething hot and spicy? Something that satisfied your appetite, or left you hungry for more?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe looked at the floor. There was no right answer to these rhetorical questions. Guruji had the uncanny ability to discern virtually anything about anyone. What color underwear were you wearing? What did you dream of last night? How much money in your wallet? These were parlor tricks Crowe had seen Guruji perform so many times that he\u00e2\u0080\u0099d long ago ceased to be astonished. You could hide no secrets from Guruji. If you\u00e2\u0080\u0099d spent a couple of hours with a woman, you might as well have tattooed all the details right there on your forehead for him to read.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cWhat a program! Constant eating is going on. What the eyes see, the eyes want, and then the belly cannot digest. Better that you should turn your eyes inward before you devour the world.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cYou would make me a blind man, Guruji?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cIf you had ears to hear, I could give you eyes to see.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI\u00e2\u0080\u0099m listening.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cListening is not enough. Invite five hundred people to a lecture, only two hundred will come. Of those two hundred, only fifty will listen. Of those fifty, only ten will remember. Of those ten, only one will practice. Where are you?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe descended from the sofa and sat cross-legged on the floor. \u00e2\u0080\u009cRight here, Guruji.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Guruji sighed. \u00e2\u0080\u009cIn the old days, a guru would beat a student with a stick until he wept tears of gratitude. Lucky for you I\u00e2\u0080\u0099ve become civilized from living in Canada too long.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI\u00e2\u0080\u0099m sorry to disappoint you, Guruji.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cYou are not sorry. You are an omnivore. You just want to eat everything on the table \u00e2\u0080\u0093 sound, touch, color, taste and smell.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI am here to learn.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cYou have learned all you can from me. We are finished with this program.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cBut there\u00e2\u0080\u0099s so much more. You said you would teach me…\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cStop it. You sound like a little kid whose eyes are bigger than his stomach.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe looked at the floor. Guruji had told him many times that he was an infomaniac, obsessively collecting concepts and techniques. Crowe acknowledged this truth but at the same time excused it because he was fascinated by the rich spectrum of Vedic thought. But Guruji had said it was all too easy to mistake information for knowledge, that long periods of reflection were necessary to let the big mind catch up to the little mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cWe have spent fourteen years together. In that time you have learned many useful tricks. I trust they serve you well.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe nodded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cIt would take me another seven years just to empty your head so we could start a new program. You would learn nothing new. You would have to deny yourself your usual pleasures. Only by letting go of everything coarse could you make yourself pure enough to let the light shine through. Are you ready for that?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI believe I am.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Guruji stared at him. \u00e2\u0080\u009cA man says to his parrot, \u00e2\u0080\u0098Are you ready to discuss the Bhagavad Gita<\/em>?\u00e2\u0080\u0099 And the parrot says, \u00e2\u0080\u0098I believe I am.\u00e2\u0080\u0099 What do you think?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cThat\u00e2\u0080\u0099s one smart parrot.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cJust because the bird speaks the language doesn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t mean it knows the subject.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cYou think I\u00e2\u0080\u0099m a parrot, Guruji?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cIt would be simpler if you were. I\u00e2\u0080\u0099d keep you in a cage away from the female parrots and you\u00e2\u0080\u0099d have eyes and ears only for me.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cWhat do you want of me, Guruji?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cNothing more. We have done our best but now it\u00e2\u0080\u0099s time to go our separate ways.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cWhat do you mean?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cIt\u00e2\u0080\u0099s time for you to fly away. You need to be with the other parrots.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cI don\u00e2\u0080\u0099t understand.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cYes, you do. And you know that\u00e2\u0080\u0099s why you have to go.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crowe stared at the floor. He\u00e2\u0080\u0099d always known this day would come but he hadn\u00e2\u0080\u0099t known it would come this soon. Perhaps that\u00e2\u0080\u0099s just the way it was, you were never quite as ready as you thought you ought to be. It was all part of the endless ebb and flow, the cycle of seeking, getting and letting go. But to be reborn, you first had to die\u00e2\u0080\u00a6 Crowe cleared the corner of his eyes with a finger.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cDon\u00e2\u0080\u0099t cry,\u00e2\u0080\u009d Guruji said. \u00e2\u0080\u009cThere was a time when that worked on me, but I have no sympathy for you now. You were a man before you met me, you will be a man once again.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cMay I have your blessing?\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u0080\u009cYou are already blessed. You need nothing more from me.\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n

Guruji laid his hand on Crowe\u00e2\u0080\u0099s head. Crowe sat motionless at Guruji\u00e2\u0080\u0099s feet. Hanuman<\/em> looked down from the mantelpiece with a magnificent scowl. Even the gods agreed, it was time for him to move on.<\/span><\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>If you’ve already read Scorpio Rising<\/em> and enjoyed it, please consider writing a review on Goodreads or the vendor site where you bought it. <\/span><\/p>\n

And now you can purchase #2 in the series, Felonious Monk<\/em>, at any of the following vendors: Amazon<\/span><\/a>, Apple<\/span><\/a>, Barnes&Noble<\/span><\/a>, Flipkart<\/span><\/a> or Smashwords<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago I wrote\u00c2\u00a0SCORPIO RISING, the first book in my\u00c2\u00a0New Age Noir\u00c2\u00a0mystery series. In Scorpio Rising, criminal profiler Axel Crowe investigates the killing of a New York heiress, and discovers her death is linked to two other murders on the same day: a dot-com millionaire in San Francisco, and the team leader […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,37],"tags":[171,172,40,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2128,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/2128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.navamsa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}