Since jnana yoga's secret simply consists in fully applying the mind to the matter at hand, any book will do.

Giordano Bruno even called the method of linking up through knowledge "copulating with the World Soul"!

Well, if so it won't hurt if the content is interesting or at least well-written.

James Hillman, undisputed master of depth psychology. Contains two essays on the World Soul. Essential reading. As an added bonus, Hillman is an extremely literary psychologist. Reading him is a joy.	Barrister student turned astrologer Charles Carter is said to have been the perhaps most clear-sighted 20th century British astrologer. His was a dry voice, sometimes sarcastic. A typical classicist. This, his first effort and written in the 1920s, is an enlightening and entertaining study in the astrological portents of quite a number of human follies.	Frenchman Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec, long-time resident in China turned out to be the perfect guide to Chinese astrology. Informative. I suspect this 1970s title is out of print now.
Not the easiest read due to the author's somewhat convoluted prose, but if you can stay focused it's an unbeatable introduction to essential stuff. Jampacked with information. Published in 1972 this is out of print, but I easily located a used copy on the Internet. Then read Plotinus in his entirety - the greatest mystic of the western world.	So many telepathic incidents "plagued" psycho-analyst Eisenbud's practice he had to branch out into parapsychology. A profound book. Eisenbud is so clever, keeps so many threads simultaneously alive, this is another one needing a mind fully awake! He is not afraid to face really big questions like, "Why doesn't the soul mind grabbing events from the future during our dreams, if it judges them the better to serve our needs in the here and now?" Not for the materialists or the imaginally underdeveloped!	Not a beginner's book on the pre-Socratics, and it's best to have a grasp on the neo-Platonists, too (see Wallis to the left). But after that, what a groundbreaking research Peter Kingsley has done here, putting the self-understanding of the western philosophical tradition in a truer perspective.
Engineer Arthur M. Young invented the helicopter as a tribute to the soaring human soul and then left the material industry and turned philosopher of mind. And what a philosopher! This is a must for all friends of zodiacal astrology. A very left-field meditation on the material world as revealed by the 12 signs of the zodiac - here ingeniously harmonized with 12 laws of motion currently used in air engineering.	Holmes Welch wrote a very good overview of the history of Taoism in the late 1950s. He has a wry sense of humor. Great reading.	This and Hillman's Re-Visioning Psychology, both from the early to mid 1970s, is mandatory reading for anyone interested in archetypes - those remaining patterns in the thought and behavior of mankind. Perhaps Hillman simplifed his writing and became more direct in later years, but I really love this elegant European style "intellectual prose." Content-wise, his concise history of psychology's beginnings is really fascinating.
A number of extremely rich and enlightening essays by famed I Ching translator Richard Wilhelm's son, sinologist Hellmut Wilhelm. It stands heads above much non-descript I Ching material that keeps pouring out. A Jungian slant can be discerned as the author explores a number of hexagrams and brings out subtle points. This collection was first published 1976 and is now, fortunately, back in print. Don't miss!	This large tome is still in my "to read" pile. It's a hefty piece of detective work from US Shakespeare scholar Hank Wittemore. Besides containing a new translation of the Sonnets, it is one of several books pin-pointing the 17th Earl of Oxford, Earl Edward de Vere, as the real author of Shakespeare's plays and poems. Check Amazon.com for a number of reviewers more initiated than I who all agree this is something else.

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