Monument Eternal

By: Alice Coltrane, Ashley Kahn - foreword

Narrated by: Michelle Coltrane

The long-awaited reissue of Alice Coltrane’s original spiritual teachings and reflections, which provide powerful insight into her transcendent music, cherished by millions across the globe.

ALICE COLTRANE (1937–2007) was a composer, master of various musical instruments, improviser, spiritual leader, and wife of John Coltrane. Throughout her adult life, she worked within and combined a broad range of musical genres, including gospel, R&B, bebop, free jazz, Indian devotional song, and Western art music. She recorded more than twenty full-length albums for Impulse and Warner Bros. Her music speaks to her experiences as a child playing for church congregations in Detroit; the transcendent and mind-bending avant-garde improvisations she performed with her husband John Coltrane; and her religious pilgrimages to India.

When Monument Eternal was originally published in 1977, Alice Coltrane was living in Southern California and had recently become a swami, building and nurturing an alternative spiritual community. She says that the book is “based upon the soul’s realizations in Absolute Consciousness and its spiritual relationships with the Supreme One.” Monument Eternal offers deep insight into Coltrane’s tremendous musical output and shines a light on her transformation from Alice McLeod, Detroit church organist and bebopper, to sage thought leader Swami Turiyasangitananda. It also reflects the extraordinary fluidity of American religious customs in the mid- and late-twentieth century.

Akashic’s long-awaited reissue of Monument Eternal includes a new foreword by Ashley Kahn.

©2025 Alice Coltrane (P)2025 Dreamscape Media

Intense, But Life Changing for Me

As a long-time agnostic, Alice Coltrane (Turiyasangitananda) has broken through to me in a way that few have.

Ram Dass and Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha are among those other few.

This book was too much for me at first. If you read it, you’ll see what I mean.

I was a John Coltrane fan looking for anecdotes. This is not that.

But, due to my love of analog synthesizers, I stumbled upon her devotional albums (namely Turiya Sings and Divine Songs—only available as bootlegs). I was blown away. After many times listening, I now hold those two albums at equal esteem with A Love Supreme.

This led me to read her book Divine Revelations to find out more about the spirituality that made her capable of producing such works.

Then I watched the four episodes of her TV program, Eternity’s Pillar, on the Criterion Channel.

Then I read Turiya Speaks.

Then I attended a Zoom Sunday service for her Vedantic Center.

Then I joined their study circle.

The deeper I go, the deeper it gets.

And I intended to keep following this path to see how far it takes me.