LitPick Review
It is said that we each have one good book in us that we could write about our life. Meeting a capable writer like Corliss Corazza would make writing our personal book that much easier. This is what happened to Connie Castro Jackson. Cut Open the Sky written by Corliss Corazza is about Connie’s life and spirituality. It is an interesting story of personal growth, self-realization, and psychic transformation.
Written by Ms. Corazza in the first-person as if she were speaking as Connie, we learn about Connie’s growth from childhood into adulthood, her mother and father, their poverty as a migrant family, being raised as one of 11 children (by three different men), the prejudice and racism faced as a child of bi-racial parents (a Filipino father and Caucasian mother), and her eventual fortune in meeting her husband Ray. Connie then has her own daughter and granddaughter, all adding to her life experiences and learning. During her life, through her experiences and the people she meets - teachers, angels, and guides – she achieves a higher understanding of herself and her inner energy which she refers to as the Source or Higher Self and recognizes and enhances her own ability as “a psychic transformation coach and multi-level channel.”
Connie advocates meditation to help a person connect or “tune in” with their Source or Higher Self and to “get closer to the absolute truth of self.” Throughout the book, she also discusses spirituality and the concepts of Guidance, Truth, karma, angels, channel, vibrations, energy, shifting, clearing, and fear, as well as the importance of our own unique and personal experiences in shaping who we are.
In the book, most of Connie’s philosophy about life and spirituality is presented through discussions of various events in her own life. Connie, as the author in first person, also shares with the reader various stories about people who have come to her for readings or advice. These vignettes and their surrounding discussions further highlight Connie’s beliefs surrounding our human self and our higher self, and the balance we all should seek to achieve. The book concludes with a personal Message from Connie to the reader, Quotes to Ponder, Numbers and What They Represent, a Meditation Guide, Questions and Contemplations, and Suggested Resources.
Opinion:
Cut Open the Sky by Corliss Corazza is an insightful and thoughtful book about a person who must find her own answers to difficult issues which she faces during her journey in life. One of the strongest themes throughout Connie’s story is her feelings and experiences being a child of a bi-racial marriage. “I am certain that I was resistant to being dark skinned even before I was born.” She also explores how these feelings affected her relationship with her parents, and subsequently, how she was able to evolve from victimhood to inner peace. I feel that this element of the book alone makes it a very valuable, relatable, and timely story as there appears to be a growing number of miscegenation and interfaith marriages. The children of these marriages are likely to face similar feelings as expressed by Connie and can benefit from her discussion of self-realization toward finding inner peace and her Higher Self.
Another theme making the book very worthwhile for certain people is how Connie explores her feeling of being “empty” at times in her life. She also shares her past sense of rejection and failure, emphasizing the importance for each of us to find our uniqueness as a spiritual being and as our own source of inner strength and energy. “I had struggled [with the needing to be loved] most of my life, until I recognized that I am my own energy generator.” Connie’s discovery of her Higher Self or Source, also helps her deal with recurrent tragic personal loss. How she discovers her Source serves as a guide to us, especially for those of us without a strong religious faith.
At times the book seems to ramble and become redundant. I was also not fully convinced of Connie’s psychic powers, although I am a believer that there are forces in our lives that science has yet to explain. To some degree, Connie seems to search for higher spiritual meaning everywhere, even among unexplained coincidences. For example, her meeting her husband, her daughter’s attraction to certain men, or her interpretation of a father’s stock advice to a son. Overall, though, Connie’s life philosophy and her recommendations in this book will help many people. In fact, I would say that while alive, Connie was practicing a form of spiritual psychology (psychosynthesis) or transpersonal psychology through her counseling and advise to others. And Ms. Corazza, through this wonderful book, has memorialized Connie’s thoughts and advice so she can go on continuing to help others for years to come.
In summary, I enjoyed Cut Open the Sky and encourage people to read it. I especially recommend this book to those people who feel an emptiness in life or who are searching for an inner peace that will help them deal with those around them. Racism, hatred, personal conflict, and death are ubiquitous challenges which confront us all, but as Connie says, “the higher self is the solution.”
