Mary Garden - Author

Mary Garden is the Australian author of two books...

The Serpent Rising - a Journey of Spiritual Seduction

- based on her years in India in the 1970's as a "guru junkie"

- revised edition released November 2003

Coming Together - a Journey through Passion

- a collection of poems

She also assisted Bernard Gunther in the production of a collection of the writings of Rajneesh: a book called Neo Tantra - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh on sex love prayer and transcendence, published by Harper & Row, New York, 1980.

For four years she held a major role in the Black Possum Publishing Co-operative based at Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Queensland.

She worked on most of their community anthologies of poetry, cartoons, recipes, short stories and artwork. She was the co-ordinator and production manager for their 1993 publication Flights of Fantasy; the production manager for the Black Possum Diary 1993: We are the world, we are the people and the co-editor for the Black Possum Diary 1992 - A Celebration of Life.

Over the summer of 2002, after reading and being inspired by Stephen King's On Writing, she decided that she was going to become a full-time writer, focusing on feature articles until she wrote her next book. Within a few months she had a major article examining the myths of divorce published in Australia's newspaper of "most weight" - The Australian Financial Review. Other successes have followed.

Published works and articles

Books

2003, The Serpent Rising - a journey of spiritual seduction, Melbourne, Sid Harta Publishers.

1992, Coming Together - a journey through passion, Maleny: Mary Garden.

1988, The Serpent Rising - a journey of spiritual seduction, Brisbane: Brolga Publishing.

Articles

2003 ' The trouble with gurus', The Australian Financial Review, 21November, pp. 6-7s

2002, 'The unholy war against divorce', Journal of Social Alternatives, Brisbane: University of Queensland, Vol 21, No4, pp. 52 - 55.

2002, Mind Control and Religious Cults, (a revised version of the 1990 Nature & Health article) http://home.hetnet.nl/~ex-baba/engels/articles/mindcontrol.html

2002, 'Pro-Marriage Politicians Rely on Flawed Studies', Womensenews, New York, October 9. http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1066/context/archive

2002, 'Dogs, Cats and Ecovillages', Permaculture South Australia, Adelaide: Permaculture Association of South Australia, Winter, pp. 11-13.

2002, 'Alarmist tales divorced from reality: Mary Garden challenges some damaging myths about ending a marriage', The Australian Financial Review, 9 August, pp. 6-7s

2002, 'No Pets in Paradise - Eco-village living', Pets n People, Brisbane: Barkin' Mad Media, Volume 5, Issue 24, pp. 44- 46.

1991, 'Guava Garden - a journey of culinary seduction', Black Possum Diary 1992 - A Celebration of Life, Maleny: Black Possum Publishing Cooperative Society Ltd, p. 89.

1990, 'Mind Control and Religious Cults', Nature & Health, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 32-35.

Poetry

1993, 'Stuffed with Fantasy', Flights of Fantasy, Maleny: Black Possum Publishing Co- operative Society Ltd, p. 86.

1993, 'A Perfumed Invitation', The Naked Pomegranate - Collected Women's Writing, South Australia: Tryfoss, Issue 2, p. 40.

Book Review

1991, review of Natural Gardening and Farming in Australia by Jeffrey Hodges, Consciousness (ATPR & AIPR joint newsletter), Christmas, 1991.