English translation of the wording on the back cover of "Les gardiens de l’âme", the French edition of my Keepers of the Soul

Sylviane Burner, the excellent translator of Les gardiens de l’âme, (my Keepers of the Soul), now published by Satas of Belgium (www.satas.com), has written a very moving tribute to my book which appears on its back cover.  I have in turn translated this into English, and have her permission to reproduce it below.  She has a true feeling for what my book is about, and I am privileged to have her as translator of what is definitely my most complex book.

“The Keepers of the soul – the five guardian elements of acupuncture” by Nora Franglen is not simply another book about acupuncture.  The author does, of course, talk about acupuncture, discussing the mysterious qualities of the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water), which she has studied in depth as a five element acupuncturist.  Starting with the correspondences between the elements and nature and the seasons, she writes about each of them in detail and with a rare poetical approach.  Taking the reader on a journey of initiation into great universal truths and into the most intimate depths of ourselves, we are told about the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses which our guardian element, our constitutional element, has bestowed upon us since our birth.  Acupuncturists will learn to use the five elements, and most particularly our guardian element, to correct the imbalances we suffer from, and psychologists will discover the subtle workings of this guardian element which places its seal upon the personality of each one of us;  with surprise, we will learn to understand  why we react as we do, why we behave as we do, why we are attracted to some people as we are, why we are frightened by what we are, in other words, what makes us who we are as individuals.  Step by step, subtly and gently, and with enthusiasm and humility, Nora Franglen guides us through the complexities and byways of the human soul, truly a voyage into the infinite which opens up for us many perspectives to help us relate more easily to ourselves and to others, and to understand why, faced with the same situation, each of us will react either in the same or quite different ways.  In this journey into ourselves, as we pass through the cycle of the seasons at the whim of the vagaries of life, accompanied by an element which emphasizes our relationship to these seasons, it is our guardian element, truly a keeper of the soul, which will guide us throughout our life.

                                                                                                            Sylviane Burner