OCEAN WISDOM

A professional seashell reader gleans spiritual lessons from the denizens of the deep.

In this work, Hanson, the author of Ocean Oracle (2007), explores the hidden truths that shells can impart about human life and emotion. Drawing on intuition as well as 20 years of experience giving shell readings, the author posits that attraction or revulsion to a particular type of shell can reveal aspects of the subconscious mind. For Hanson, the shell wrapped around the body of a mollusk is symbolic of the patterns of thought and behavior that limit human growth: “Our own comfort zones likewise surround us like shells. They define our boundaries.” The author identifies the aspects of human experience that various shells can illuminate, given their physical attributes or the behavior of their former mollusk inhabitants. Hanson interprets historical associations between the sand dollar’s five-pointed star and the sacrifice of Christ as indicating our hidden divinity, which can act as a counter to feelings of hopelessness. The author ties the use of salt to lure razor clams from their burrows to the need to rid oneself of bitterness; the cowrie’s additions of new layers of shell (in addition to its cultural links to childbirth and fertility) indicate an openness to new experiences. The way that moon snails excrete absorbed water to fit back into their shells reminds Hanson of people who turn minor problems into major crises out of a need for love and attention, while the mussel’s use of byssus (tough filaments) to secure itself to objects suggests that no generous impulse comes without strings attached. Hanson also explores the use of shells in energy work, correlating the number of excretion holes in abalone shells to the chakras. Skeptics may view the insights the author derives from the shells as nothing more than common-sense generalizations one could draw from any number of objects, but that doesn’t negate their worth. The book doesn’t have a great deal to offer to those with a strictly scientific interest in shells, but Hanson’s clear, compassionate writing will appeal to believers and seekers.

A unique take on spirituality and the natural world.