Book Review: Mystic Tea by Rea Nolan Martin

Confessing my prejudice against what might be chick-lit, I somewhat skeptically started into Rea Nolan Martin’s Mystic Tea after seeing it reviewed by a colleague on the Visionary Fiction Alliance website. I was, however, quickly drawn into its quirky world, inhabited by dopers, grumpy nuns, and genuine mystics, all drawn together into a decaying convent along the Hudson River. And I thoroughly enjoyed its superb blending of all the elements of an excellent story. Rea even wielded the ax against “established” patriarchal religion without coming off like a harridan.

Unlike some visionary fiction that is little more than diluted didacticism, Rea is a masterful storyteller whose message, promoting genuine spirituality over stodgy ritualism, is dripped into the reader’s mind by very real characters stumbling hilariously along in their quest for the “meaning of life.” She sneaks the higher dimension (spirituality) into the skeptic’s awareness in the same way that the unseen Universe insinuates Itself into our daily lives, crisis, glimmer or laugh at a time. An excellent application of the Hermetic principle: “As above so below. As below so above.”

Highly recommended as a work of visionary fiction in “mod” mode, or just a darn good book, especially if read with a steaming cup of mystic tea.

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