The Path of Return Trilogy

The Path of Return Trilogy is a single volume comprising three related and sequential novels by T.L. Orcutt, published November 11, 2011. The first novel in the trilogy is Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return and develops themes of paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. The immediate sequel, Collateral Karma, focuses on ritual, ceremony, magick, lucid dreams, evil, occult and shamanic magic. Third in the series, Letters from the Afterworld, published for the first time in this single volume trilogy, develops themes of soul essence, mediumship, automatic writing, astral projection, and reincarnation. The trilogy frequently incorporates elements of humor and satire.

The period of writing covers 21 years, from 1990 - 2011. The period of publication covers over 16 years from 1995 - 2011. Obviously, the world has changed considerably over 21 years and the author takes this into consideration by weaving the three stories with newsbites and historical events. Written from the first-person point of view through the protagonist, known by his alias Bob Kramer in the first novel, and Rickshaw Lubowski in the second and third novels, the genre of the work May Be considered as paranormal fiction, psychological thriller, adventure fiction, and science fantasy.

Synopsis

Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return

Set against the Aquarian optimism and affluence that dawned the new millennium in 1995 San Diego, Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return is a paranormal and mystical adventure marbleized with humor. Baby-boomer Bob Kramer arrives in mid-life crisis with a job loss and recent divorce. Jamayah, an unlikely cosmopolitan guru, mysteriously recruits Bob as an initiate on the Path of Return, a fusion of wisdom traditions tempered toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. The progressively intense challenge is how Bob will reconcile his scientific skepticism in a paranormal and mystical adventure that embraces a strip bar, demands trusting synchronicity in the face of homeless humility, and a past life regression realizing the horrors of war.

Three of the four initiations on which the story unfolds, in this first novel of The Path of Return Trilogy, focus on experiencing the optimal possibilities of human awareness: (1), mastering paranormal ability to explore an altogether different universe from the homogenized world view that is anchored in materialistic reality, (2), experiencing humility and trusting intuition and synchronicity, and (3), unattached observation of life in the moment. In the end, Bob returns to ordinary life, but feels detached, alone, and indifferent, a malaise Jamayah reframes as having passed a sacred rite of passage.

Collateral Karma

For ten years, Jamayah, a mysterious mystic from Argentina, has instructed Rickshaw Lubowski (formerly Bob Kramer in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return), wisdom teachings oriented toward paranormal command and cosmic awareness. After completing three initiations along the Path of Return, Rickshaw feels as if he knows everything he needs to know. Collateral Karma opens after Rickshaw has ditched the Path of Return in search of more tangible things - like [...], drugs, occultism, and sorcery. He realizes his vulnerability after becoming the target of a curse cast by an evil leader of a ceremonial cult called The Alliance, a sorcery coterie of the Order of Aldabaoth, who practice ritual [...] and black magick.

Rickshaw’s descent into the world of sensation and desire has generated collateral karma that incurs freakish nightmares all too real, starting with the obsessively expected death of his new fiancé. Realizing his grave mistake for running around in the playground of the Devil and driven to desperation, Rickshaw attempts to reconnect with his teachings and powers to no avail. Spiritually lost and adrift in a world that spins him out of control, he can only hang on while everything around him begins to crumble. Seeking help wherever he can find it, he meets a blind fortuneteller who seems to know more about his destiny than anyone should and with whom he falls in love. Only when Rickshaw truly believes that he has lost touch with himself and reality does his mentor, Jamayah, appear. Together, they join forces to confront the evil intentions of Aleister, the leader of The Alliance. With the help of two Native American shamans, one a Navaho and the other a Chiricahua Apache, Jamayah and Rickshaw use all their powers to attempt to save not only Rickshaw’s life, but Jamayah’s as well.

In the end, Jamayah requires Rickshaw to complete a fourth initiation. Now discovering that Raoul, Jamayah’s son, and Crystal Meadows, Carmela’s daughter, have been on the Path of Return and have already completed this initiation as well, in spite of his common sense, Rickshaw is compelled to undergo the initiation. Called cascading boulders in trance, this initiation is about completely trusting in the universe at the risk of physical death.

Letters from the Afterworld

The third novel in The Path of Return Trilogy, Letters from the Afterworld, begins with Rickshaw reminiscing about his wedding to Crystal Meadows a year before. Crystal is an almost blind fortuneteller, daughter of Carmela de Avila, and a former apprentice on the Path of Return. The event brought together the five members of the Posse, a renegade faction of Sigma Nu Mu at Berkeley. Following a reunion nostalgia that flushes out Rickshaw’s early family life and friends, Rickshaw attends an advertised seance sponsored by Paradigm Research Institute at Kirkwood Inn in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, conducted by a famous medium with a gift for automatic writing. At Kirkwood Inn, he meets new friends and during the seance receives a channeled letter for his friend Murdock.

According to the afterworld letter, Murdock is on a soul recall list of people whose souls prematurely inhabited their selected bodies this time around on planet Earth. Besides Murdock, other friends of Rickshaw and Crystal have dreams of similar recall letters and incur near fatal illnesses and accidents to ensure they will comply with the letters’ intentionally vague instructions. Rickshaw and Crystal try to get a hold of Jamayah who is on another sailing adventure in Cabo San Lucas. Jamayah seems reluctant to respond, but eventually gets word to Rickshaw to seek out Raoul - destination unknown. Eventually desperate, Rickshaw travels to Tijuana to find Raoul. Surprisingly, Juan (an acquaintance in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return) finds Rickshaw and takes him to his brother’s (Carlos) mobile home at Rosarita Beach.

Juan informs Rickshaw that Jamayah believes hybrid souls (souls who formerly incarnated on an alien planet), are exploiting humans for enzymatic blood transfusions. The hybrid souls’ former embodied lives limited their current metabolism, which translates to a shorter life span and more illnesses. The tradeoff is they have amazing psychic powers. Juan knows because he is a hybrid soul himself, once healed by Jamayah, who we discover was a restoration master (one who prepares souls for return) between embodied lives. Stakes are raised when Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan are kidnapped and a ten year old son of Crystal’s friend is murdered.

Rickshaw, Jamayah, SBL, Weird Willie, Raoul, Juan, Apollo, and a modern day Billy the Kid mobilize the Cosmic Rangers and drive to Mexico to find Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan. After finding a torched police car and three dead policemen, they discover a sustainable society of thousands of hybrid souls living underground, and with a medical clinic for the enzymatic blood transfusions that will extend their longevity and restore the health of their soul-race. As becomes necessary, all of the hybrid souls are in instant communication with each another by telepathy. The Cosmic Rangers manipulate Wasabi Kuroda, spokesperson for the hybrid clan, to give them an underground tour to check the condition of Murdock and Dan. Once inside and entrapped behind vault doors, where they find their friends drugged for the transfusion, a war begins between the formidable hybrid forces armed to the hilt and the Cosmic Rangers. Fighting their way out with explosives and automatic weapons, the Cosmic Rangers escape above ground where the last bloody battle gives way to freedom and justice for all.

The Cosmic Rangers return home to their various lifestyles. Jamayah goes on another fishing voyage. Five years pass and Rickshaw visits Naomi, the crone psychic. She informs him that Jamayah, Bamboo II, and the captain passed when Zephyra, (the yacht), capsized in a storm. She also informs him that she has less than a year to live herself because of diabetes. In the end, Carmela visits Rickshaw and tells him that Jamayah visited her after his death with the information that Rickshaw is also a hybrid soul, but not to worry. Jamayah has taken care of all the karmic repercussions. Rickshaw and Crystal should live a healthy, long, and wonderful life.

Setting

The trilogy is set in downtown San Diego, the harbor and beaches. There are four travels to Mexico: downtown Tijuana, the Tijuana countryside, Cabo San Lucas, and in the desert southwest of Mexicali. Travels extend to Julian, Santa Ysabel, Del Mar, Laguna Beach, Malibu, Santa Monica, and Santa Barbara.

Characters

There is an expansive cast of over 60 characters. About a third are major characters, central to the story, and are ordered according to overall contribution and importance to the entire trilogy. The remaining minor characters are contained in subplots, introduced to embellish the larger story or major characters and are ordered alphabetically. As the three novels are sequential, central characters are often repeated and minor characters are less repeated.

Major Characters

• Rickshaw Lubowski - Rickshaw Lubowski (alias Bob Kramer) is the protagonist. Bob Kramer was a college classmate’s name that Rickshaw used to maintain his anonymity during his adventures in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return. Born in 1954, and having graduated from Berkeley, his first job was as a biochemist for Bhaisajya Pharmaceuticals until the company needed to downsize. At the time of being laid off, he was in a divorce settlement with his unfaithful wife. Without job or wife, he began an apprenticeship with Jamayah in 1995 at the age of 41. In Collateral Karma Bob Kramer’s real name of Rickshaw Lubowski is disclosed along with his family of origin, college friends, and intimate relationships. Following his divorce from Mariah, Rickshaw marries Natasha who is murdered through sorcery in Collateral Karma and then at the beginning of Letters from the Afterworld, we find out he has married Crystal Meadows, the fortune teller, daughter of Carmela and former apprentice on the Path of Return.

• Jamayah (nickname for Jose Guerrero) - A genetic and cultural blend of Spanish, indigenous Argentinean, Italian, and English and speaks Castellano, Basque, and English. He is an educated and senior gentleman, dyslexic, over six feet tall, chestnut skin, lanky frame, large appetite, and passion for fishing. Jamayah is an unconventional visionary and healer who sells Bob Kramer on the commitment to become his currently singular apprentice in an inner wisdom tradition oriented toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. His spirituality most closely associates with Zen and Advaita Vedanta (non-duality). Jamayah does not get wet in the rain and has powers of: forecasting the weather, clairvoyance about events and people arriving and departing, seeing auras, ghosts, and disembodied entities, exorcism, soul retrieval, medical intuition, healing, herbology, and astral travel. He lives aboard a gifted sailboat, a forty foot gaft-rigged yawl named Zephyra, moored in a luxurious San Diego marina. A chocolate-pointed Siamese cat, named Bamboo, makes home aboard the vessel as well. Jamayah cannot solo sail and must hire a captain for Zephyra’s lengthy excursions along the west coast of North America. In Collateral Karma, Jamayah is largely on another sailing and fishing adventure to Cabo San Lucas until desperately needed by Rickshaw. In Letters from the Afterworld, he has gone fishing again, but eventually returns to help Rickshaw fight the hybrid souls by organizing the Cosmic Rangers.

• Naomi (no last name) - A Piscean crone and clairvoyant who divines from cards and birds. Living aboard a fishing boat across the docks from Jamayah, she “sees” Bob Kramer astral travel. Along with Jamayah, Naomi gives Bob an exorcism of a demon that enters him during his first seance in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return. More than Carmela, Naomi is a continuing source of consolation to Bob Kramer/Rickshaw Lubowski throughout the “The Path of Return” series. Naomi correctly predicts Rickshaw’s struggles with Aleister and a path of darkness, as well as his expected challenges with the hybrid souls.

• Brodie (no last name) - A member of the five man Posse who quit Berkeley after a year to work at a surf shop in Malibu. His girlfriend is Hannah and works as a waitress. Brodie is the major confidant who Rickshaw shares the truth about his adventures on the dark side and the only person he trusts implicitly, trust being a major theme in the trilogy.

• Richard Murdock (addressed by the surname of ‘’Murdock’’) - A member of the five man Posse and one of Rickshaw’s best friends with whom he went to Berkeley and golfs regularly. Murdock is a Capricorn and middle management businessman working for Jack-in-Box. He loves to eat with a pot roast and peas appetite, is ultra realistic, compulsive, devoid of compassion, secretive, owns an arthritic dog, wears wire rims, dresses poorly, does not like to think, and lives in the chic neighborhood of Little Italy. Murdock has no affiliation with the world of paranormal beliefs, but is the focal point in the automatically written letter from the afterworld that was channeled in the Kirkwood Inn Seance.

• Crystal Meadows - A 33 year old, mostly blind fortuneteller with whom Rickshaw falls in love and weds. Crystal’s mother is Carmela de Avila and Crystal’s father was an army officer who died in the Vietnam war. Carmela never saw Crystal’s father after Crystal was born. Meadows is Carmela de Avila’s real maiden name that she no longer uses. Crystal is lean, willowy, attractive without intention, a Pisces with blond hair, values healing the soul over healing the body, ‘’sees’’ the whole picture and respects all beliefs. In a former life, her and Rickshaw were lovers, during which time she was a prostitute. She and Rickshaw live in a small wood framed house in Ocean Beach.

• Struck-by-Lightning (often addressed as SBL) - SBL was raised on the Navajo reservation. At twelve his father died of hepatitis from [...] addiction. A year later, his mother passed from pneumonia. His uncle, a Navajo witch of the Corpse-Poison Way, raised him and at 17 wanted to initiate him into the witch medicine tradition. Initiation required murdering a child. SBL refused and his uncle cursed him. Four days later, SBL was struck by lightning. Unexpectedly, the lightning gave him a vision to counter all forms of black magick. Unified with his vision was a powerful energy the lightning had given him, one that shoots bolts of energy from his fingers.

• William Randolph Sterling (nickname Weird Willie) - A subcontractor-mentor for Jamayah who supervised Rickshaw’s second initiation about humility and trusting synchronicity. In Vietnam, he was Army Special Forces, received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Service Cross for bravery and heroism. Choosing to live as a homeless person in downtown San Diego, he is an artist who lives on a ranch in Julian, where he makes masks for children of poverty, disability, or disease. Willie rescues Cinnamon immediately after her automobile accident. He is the Field Commander of the Cosmic Rangers.

• Rattlesnake Dan (sometimes called Dan) - An old Chiricahua Apache who migrated from New Mexico to live in the desert near Indio. At 12, he hired out to local ranches as a cowboy and breeder of pigs. Similar to Jamayah’s son Raoul, he has an interest in snakes and healing. Snakes do not bite him. Similar to advanced yoga techniques, Rattlesnake Dan uses a practice of recirculation to neutralize energy thresholds and restore energy. He is a keen observer of weather, insects, and animals and uses this wisdom in his medicine.

• Carmela de Avila - A voluptuous Wiccan sorceress and former lover of Jamayah. Raoul Guerrero is their only child conceived together out of wedlock. With a different lover, Carmela gave birth to Crystal Meadows. Carmela’s surname is taken from Avila where she was raised, a town in the south of Old Castile, Spain and the capital of the province by the same name. She is clairvoyant and has the abilities to levitate, astral travel, and heal. Carmela chooses Bob Kramer as the appropriate apprentice for Jamayah and is the healer who gives him a past life regression in a castle on a mountain outside Tijuana. She shows briefly at Rickshaw’s and Crystal’s wedding and briefly at the end of the trilogy.

• Aleister Dalton - The antagonist in Collateral Karma. Aleister was the alpha male of ‘’The Alliance’’, a secret order about celebrating pleasure and valuing earthly passions equal to spiritual devotion. Submission to the spiritual domain was replaced by humanistic respect. Magick used in ‘’The Alliance’’ was empowered by a [...] process similar to Tantra. He was once a student of Jamayah who was dismissed from the ‘’Path of Return’’. Following Rickshaw leaving ‘’The Alliance’’, Aleister murders Rickshaw’s second wife, Natasha.

• Raoul Guerrero (nickname Snake Wizard) - The only son of Jamayah and Carmela, he is the same age as Rickshaw, has a husky physique, broad facial features like an indigenous Indian, penetrating eyes, and a tattoo of a snake winding around his left arm. Raoul lives in Tijuana, surfs, and works as a healer, supporting himself by selling poisonous snake venom to hospitals. Earlier in life, he was given the nickname Snake Wizard. He is a serious meditator and was an apprentice to Jamayah on “The Path of Return”.

• Juan Gomez - A close friend of Jamayah, who jokingly impersonates a federal Sergeant and detains Bob Kramer on his way to visit Carmela. He lives in an apartment in Tijuana, but resides as often at his brother’s (Carlos) trailer on the surf at Rosarita Beach when his brother is away. Juan is a hybrid soul, formerly healed by Jamayah.

• Natasha Lubowski - A 26 year old with brown eyes, auburn hair, and white skin. She is a Russian and Turkish divorcee from a Jewish psychiatrist. Rickshaw meets her at an espresso cafe and about a year later, she becomes his second wife. Shortly thereafter she is murdered through sorcery by Aleister Dalton.

• Apollo Kraikos - A member of the five man Posse and one of Rickshaw’s best friends. With Greek heritage, he was raised in Culver City. He is independent, nontraditional, dedicated to creating his own reality and taking responsibility for his own health. He is a professional hypnotherapist, pursues out-of-body experiences, is against medications and Western medicine, prefers alternative healing methods of acupuncture, herbs, and nutrition. He rarely returns phone calls, but responds to e-mail. He drives a bright cherry convertible Porch and dates Irina - well educated and of Russian descent.

• Cordero Perez - A sitter at the Kirkwood Inn seance with whom Rickshaw makes friends. Raised in Puerto Rico, he immigrated to Florida and worked at dishwashing, bus-washing, and paper route delivery. He migrated to San Diego in 1988 and has been a taxi driver for Ride-Safe ever since, affording him to live in a midrise apartment on the Pacific Beach rim of Mission Bay. Committed to remaining single, he is generous, well mannered and romantic to a stream of girlfriends. He is devoted to liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and justice, and not in a shy way. He attended workshops on motivation and usually greets with a high five and fist bump.

• Henry McCarty (alias Billy the Kid or Billy) - A 21 year old friend of Rickshaw Lubowski, who is extremely similar to the historic Henry McCarty. Rickshaw meets him at the Kirkwood Inn seance and solicits him to become an active member of the Cosmic Rangers.

• Todo (no last name) - Having tired of the rigid requirements of his monastery and now living in San Diego, Todo is a Japanese Zen Master who was Jamayah’s primary mentor. He golfs with only a three iron and teaches Bob Kramer to empty his mind by playing golf with an imaginary golf ball.

• Wasabi Kuroda - The antagonist and spokesperson for the hybrid souls’ underground community in Mexico south of Mexicali in Letters from the Afterworld. Wasabi hold unique moral values for the preservation of his soul culture, but nonetheless exemplifies the justification of exploitation, no different than the historical position of religions and cultures of the world who have gone to war for their own survival and capitalist principles.

• Jack Bledsoe - A famous medium known mostly in England, Germany, and France, who is responsible for conducting the Kirkwood Inn seance for Paradigm Research Institute in Los Angeles. At age 12, his parents died in an automobile accident and Jack was raised in an orphanage in England. At 18, he left the orphanage and as a territorial explorer, roamed the planet before roosting in the remote jungles north of Bangkok, where he studied in a native village with a tribal shaman for five years and became a navon and thi-Naung. Jack returned to England where he discovered a natural gift for automatic writing.

• Cinnamon (no last name) - The exotic dancer who Bob Kramer helps rescue after her automobile accident. She and Bob enter into a brief and passionate relationship that ends after a demonic possession from attending her grandmother’s seance in Julian.

Minor Characters

• Amber - A 26 year old, temporary girlfriend to Rooster

• Ashley Cooper-Summers - A 25 year old close friend of Crystal Meadows who has managed Daisy’s Floral Garden for 4 years.

• Bamboo and Bamboo II (called Bamboo) - Jamayah’s first and second Siamese cats who live aboard his yacht, Zephyra.

• Black Waters (nickname B.W.) - Bob Kramer’s primary spirit guide who helps save his life.

• Bree Johansen - Born in 1979, she is a close friend of Crystal Meadows and one of the people injured by the hybrid souls.

• Carlos Gomez - Brother of Juan Gomez.

• Carter Melford Lewis - An unemotional member of the five man Posse who became a wealthy dentist and no longer regularly communicates with the Posse. His life is endangered by a cardiac condition by the hybrid souls. His attorney wife is Namiko Lewis.

• Chad Ravens - A sitter in the Kirkwood Inn seance. He is a married, used bookstore owner, and Wiccan practitioner.

• Colin (no last name) - In Rickshaw’s (alias Bob Kramer) former life, one of his squad who was executed at Camp O" Donnell, a concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines.

• Corporal Kimoto - In Bob Kramer’s former life, a low ranking officer under Major Nakagawa who helps execute Bob Kramer and his squad at Camp O" Donnell, a concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines.

• Dolly (no last name) - Richard Murdock’s ditzy girlfriend.

• Dr. Liverpool - A coroner from the San diego County Medical Examiner’s Office who examines the body of Natasha.

• Dr. Worenbrow - A psychiatrist who Rickshaw visits to discuss his obsessive paranormal dream of Natasha’s death.

• Garth (no last name) - U.S. Major who betrays Bob Kramer at Camp O" Donnell, a concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines, and by his escape, triggers the death of the entire squad.

• Gerald Montgomery and Jessica Steel - Ghosts at Kirkwood Inn. An unwed couple who died in the 1959 Laurel Canyon fire.

• Grandmother (no given name) - Cinnamon’s grandmother who channels Bob Kramer’s first seance.

• Hannah (no last name) - Brodie’s domestic companion and eventual wife.

• Hannibal - Carmela del Avila’s Shih Tzu dog who guards the castle.

• Irina (no last name) - Apollo’s girlfriend.

• Jack Walker - One of a two person team from Ace Medical Response team who tries to revive Natasha.

• Jazmyn Porter - A sitter at the Kirkwood Inn seance. She holds a B.A. in Women’s Studies from the University of Michigan. Her attention in life is divided equally between meditation and material success.

• Jim Sutherland - A fundamentalist Christian and radio talk show host for GoodNooz.

• Liza (no last name) - A married friend of Sutra’s.

• Major Nakagawa - Officer in charge of Camp O" Donnell, a concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines, in which Bob Kramer is imprisoned and tortured in a former life. Major Nakagawa executes Bob Kramer and his squad.

• Marcus (no last name) - An aggravating ghost at Kirkwood Inn who was a movie mogul and died in the 1959 Laurel Canyon fire.

• Maggie (no last name) - A sitter at Grandmother’s seance in Julian.

• McGregor (no first name) - Grandmother’s spirit guide for the seance in Julian.

• Michelle Blatsworth - A sitter in the Kirkwood Inn seance. A married homemaker, assertive, social butterfly, married to a dealership manager who needs an identity outside of wife and mother. Opening a boutique is the only passion that interests her.

• Namiko Lewis - An attorney in Los Angeles who is Carter Melford Lewis’s wife.

• Officer Bernard - A desk Sergeant in the El Centro Police Department.

• Officer Samson Billingsworth - A U.S. Customs Officer who follows and accompanies Bob Kramer to deliver medicinal herbs to Jamayah in San Diego.

• Pepe Gonzalez - Raoul’s half-brother by a different father. Carmela de Avila is the common mother.

• Ralph (no last name) - A sitter at Grandmother’s’ seance in Julian.

• Rooster - Named after his Chinese zodiac sign, a bartender at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and boyfriend to Amber, both of whom Rickshaw met in Mexico.

• Sergeant Riley - The police officer who Rickshaw dealt with twice after being stabbed in downtown San Diego during his second initiation, unmasking the [...] soul, and then met again in the El Centro Police Department.

• Sir Chester - Cat in Kirkwood Inn seance who prefers to be left alone.

• Skip Burkett - A sitter in the Kirkwood Inn seance. A 60 year old overweight actor with aggressive lymphoma cancer that he wants to heal. He won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting role. Skip’s cancer is also related to the hybrid souls malicious threats.

• Sutra (no last name) - A five foot seven Hindu immigrant from Kolkata. Rickshaw meets her in Houston, but neither show mutual interest until after the Black Mass adventure in Mexico. A Taurus with emerald eyes, and long crimson black hairs, she seduces Rickshaw in Iztapa-Zihuatanejo. She later settles in Las Vegas where she begins supporting herself as an exotic dancer, but later changes occupations to being a masseuse for a resort spa. Her primary importance is as a former girlfriend to Aleister Dalton.

• Uriel (no last name) - Raoul’s cousin, a taco vendor who tries to give Bob Kramer directions to and later serves his cousin and Bob lunch. Later,, Uriel goes with Raoul to the rain forest.

• Walker Summers - The ten year old son of Ashley Cooper-Summers. The only civilian outside the police, who was killed by the hybrid souls before the battle engagement.

Occult Symbolism

Special to The Path of Return Trilogy is the Afterword. Orcutt has been conferred the title of Tarot Grand Master by the Tarot Certification Board of America and is a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Freemason In the Afterword,the author reveals that he employed and used as a blueprint a variety of occult symbolisms in the writing of the series.

Initiations

Occult and esoteric traditions are taught through a series of initiations oriented toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. Initiations are adopted by shamans, yogis, mystics, occultists, sorcerers, martial warriors, Zen practitioners, fraternal organizations, and both magickal and magical societies. Progressive initiations are rites of passage, guided by mentors at evolved levels who conduct rituals and ceremonies to inaugurate transformations into new roles. In the odyssey of the trilogy, Jamayah (the mentor) confers upon Rickshaw Lubowski (alias Bob Kramer) four initiations. Three are given in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return and one in Collateral Karma.

Initiation One

Flying the cosmic boomerang aimed at minimizing rational thought and empowering paranormal ability. Within Western Elemental theory, it represented fire and symbolized creative emanation.

Initiation Two

Unmasking the [...] soul aimed at neutralizing the importance of the ego through humility and trusting synchronicity. Within Western Elemental theory, it represented water and symbolized emotional transmission.

Initiation Three

Objectively observing the world aimed at realizing the unity of self and Spirit through meditation. Within Western Elemental theory, it represented air and symbolized balanced harmony.

Initiation Four

Cascading boulders in trance aimed to empower ultimate trust in the universe through trance-walking. Within Western Elemental theory, it represented earth and symbolized materialization.

Title

Within the title, The Path of Return has two esoteric meanings. Occult tarot is the story of life unfoldment, the individual development of the personality and the evolvement of the human soul. It outlines the specific challenges to the personality and the soul in life’s journey. Tarot has been referred to as the path of return. Similarly, the protagonist’s journey in The Path of Return Trilogy is an unfoldment, a journey of ordinary personality development, extraordinary paranormal mastery, and an expansion of cosmic awareness. With such an awareness, increasingly, life is lived as preparation for passing into the afterworld. A secondary meaning of The Path of Return is that with increased awareness of the life, death, and the rebirth cycle, increasingly evolved beings more naturally reach out to mentor, teach, and heal others who are interested, but who are suffering, struggling, or are impoverished.

Tarot Archetypes

Tarot involves 78 cards, 56 Minor Arcana that reflect an ordinary playing card deck and the development of the personality, and 22 Major Arcana (numbered 0 - 21), that represent the evolutionary journey of the soul. As a guideline for content format in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return, Orcutt used 16 of the 22 Major Arcana archetypes (also called secrets, trumps, or keys). in whatever order made the story work and not necessarily sequentially. The Afterword details the Major Arcana themes that were used in each chapter.

Astrological Themes

Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return represents cardinal themes, those that symbolize the first 4 weeks of a season, beginnings, and independence. Collateral Karma represents fixed themes, those that symbolize the middle 4 weeks of a season, preservation, and maintenance. Letters from the Afterworld represents mutable themes, those that symbolize last 4 weeks of a season, adaptability, and transitions.

The Death Card

The Death Card in Tarot has been given the number XIII. There is an association to Friday the 13th and the meaning of bad luck. The exoteric meaning often refers to a divorce, end of a job, or a move in residence. As a snake sheds its skin and symbolizes a shift in cycles, the old giving way to the new, the esoteric meaning reveals a major transformation. The entire trilogy comprises thirteen Parts, resulting from four in the first novel, five in second, and four in the third.

Numerological Significance

Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return, in its orientations toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness, represents the numbers 2, 3, and 4, and symbolizes the thesis. Collateral Karma, in its inquiry into the nature of evil, represents the numbers 5, 6, and 7, and symbolizes the antithesis. And Letters from the Afterworld, in its application of initiations and principles in the first and second novels, represents the numbers 8, 9, 10, and symbolizes the synthesis.

Philosophical Themes

Organized Religion

The value of organized religion is viewed as a social institution that teaches ethics and social responsibility. It provides a sanctuary for the celebration of weddings and baptisms and offers comfort with terminal illness and grieving at memorial and funeral services. Prayer is viewed as a meaningful act that counteracts narcissism and hedonism. Religious observance is a reminder there is more to life than materialism. However, church attendance and observational service does not lend itself to spiritual evolution and has no transformational power. Additionally, ecclesiastical control is viewed as political and exploitative, if not corrupt.

Mysticism

Mysticism weaves throughout the novel. The primary guru in the trilogy is Jamayah (nickname for Jose Guerrero). Identifying himself as a mystic, his path most closely associates with Zen and Advaita Vedanta (non-duality). Therefore, his teachings favor an immanent God over a transcendent God and therefore meditation is favored over prayer. Occultism, esotericism, and in particular, Western esotericism, are viewed as paths toward a universal and inclusive reality. Initiations, as rites of passage, are implemented for increasingly inclusive levels of consciousness.

Paranormal Experience

Paranormal experience is a major theme in the trilogy that includes: astrology, numerology, divination (tarot and ornithomancy), magick, clairvoyance, telepathy, psychokinesis, levitation, out-of-body experience (OBE), forecasting weather, perception of auras, ghosts, and disembodied entities, exorcism, soul retrieval, medical intuition, spontaneous healing, synchronicity, lucid dreaming, and astral travel. The trilogy takes the viewpoint that Occidentals (more than Orientals) can benefit from the psychic dimension as a sublime and effective bridge to enlightenment. Prone to the rational, logical, and mechanical dimension, rigid thoughts can be sabotaged by psychic practice and seduced into trusting the spiritual domain. Paranormal experience is a valuable, if not critical method for Occidental transformation.

Evil Power

As stated in the trilogy,"Power in its natural state is neutral and it is the user who determines both its force and value"and "the value of power is defined by the result of usage. When the use of power is life-enchancing, when it optimizes the health, wisdom, and integrity, and freedom of all concerned, it is benevolent. When the use of power is life-limiting, when it exploits, diminishes, or decreases any sentient being’s own measure of contribution, then it is evil."

Reincarnation

Within the trilogy, reincarnation is a conspicuous reality that deserves no special attention. Reincarnation presumes that after the death of the body, the soul returns (reincarnates) in a new human body. The more evolved and conscious a person is at the time of death, the greater the opportunity for choice regarding time of rebirth, parental and body selection, and path selection.

Karma

Karma is the universal law of cause and effect through the natural laws of causation. It is a repetitive theme in Collateral Karma. Neither punitive or rewarding, karma is simply a consequence of intention, thought, and action. Karma is stored through many lifetimes and is therefore a principle in conjunction with reincarnation. Effects may be mitigated by past and future actions and are not necessarily fated. Neither is the process a simplistic one-to-one correlation, but takes into consideration the totality of actions in the stream of consciousness through many lifetimes.

Ethics

Ethics yield to karma, though openness toward acceptance of all beliefs is favored, including Mormonism, Scientology, Jehova’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and Freemasonry.

Government

Government is viewed as the most successful gangster. The system is not broken. By nature, it is political, corrupt, and economically exploitative. It is nonetheless needed for the management of a large, capitalistic, and free society. There is no favoritism toward either Republican or Democratic philosophies.

Science

Quantum mechanics and metaphysics are supported over classical mechanics.

Health/Medicine

Alternative medicine and healing are favored over allopathic medicine.

External links

• T.L. Orcutt's official website