18. Starr, Meredith / [Roland Meredith Starr] / [Meher Baba].
The Way of Escape.
First Edition / Original Edition. Cambridge, Published by the National Poetry Circle, [1931]. Small Octavo (12.7 cm x 18.8 cm). 15 pages. Original Softcover, stapled with cover-illustration by Meredith Starr, monogrammed in the plate “M.S. 1931”. The booklet rests loosely inside the original softcover wrappers. The staples a little rusty. Otherwise in excellent condition with only minor signs of external wear. This pamphlet is of extreme scarcity ! The last two pages of the publication are basically an advertising for the retreat center which Meredith Starr established in 1931 at East Challacombe, North Devon (a couple of miles from Combe Martin), to where he invited Meher Baba in order to come and meet westerners. In his preface, [Roland] Meredith Starr writes: “The Way of Escape” is a symbolic poem that deicts some of the complexes of modern life, particularly those responsible for the cleavage between thought and reality ! The ways of Escape, the path leading to the North, represents the attainment of synthesis (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual maturity) in a world disintegrated by analysis. Neither realism nor idealism can satisfy the needs of the present age. Both are necessary and both must be integrated in a Higher Consciousness. In this connection the remarks of Jung in “Psychological Types” concerning the symbol will repay serious investigation. A symbol is composed of elements that are both real and unreal, and hence can bridge the gulf between and illusion. In the poem this Higher Consciousness is indicated by the description of Alaska and by the utterances of Christ – not the Christ of dogmatic religion, but the living Christ of universal love and wisdom immanent in every human heart and personified by the great religious teachers of Mankind – Combe Martin, Meredith Starr”.