THE NECKTIE AND THE JAGUAR

Greer offers the story of his evolution from business leader to shamanic practitioner.

The book opens with a ritual that the author and a shaman did to “summon and engage helpful energies, including that of the jaguar.”The memoir goes on to peel back the layers of Greer’s life. He was raised in a Midwestern suburban communityin the 1950s, which encouraged hard work, a lack of emotional expression, and a belief in traditional and stereotypical masculine roles. These notions, he says, shaped his early life choices to pursue metallurgy and a career in the oilbusiness. Although these decisions brought him some outward success, he says, they left him hungry for deeper connections with other people. As he confronted health and marital problems, he realized that his competitive nature had serious drawbacks; his marriage later ended. He refocused his life with a blend of Jungian analysis and shamanic spirituality, which, he says, helped him to deal with childhood feelings of loss and to reconnect with his high school sweetheart, whom he later married. Now he’s both a student and teacher of shamanic spirituality.Greer’s work is filled with engaging moments of self-reflection, as when he highlights how many of his life choices were driven by his fear of a deeper calling; for instance, he notes that he used metallurgy to “burn out” his poeticism. Throughout the narrative, Greer effectively invites readers to look closely at the ways they may be unknowingly limiting their own potential. To foster such analysis, he includes thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter, encouraging readers to recognize and challenge familiar patterns of their lives—and he notes that it’s never too early, or too late, to examine one’s own life in this way. The book’s ultimate message is that when one accepts one’s true self, one can discover new creativity, passion, and possibilities.

A compelling and cathartic remembrance and self-help guide.