Rating: 
Summary: A great message for women in midlife
Review: Although the author can be a bit pedantic and repetitive at times, the basic message is one I really needed to hear at this stage in my life. The information on the historical sights she visited is also quite interesting.
Rating:
Summary: good reading for any age
Review: Bolen goes into territory that most of us have forgotten about. She reminds women of the part we play in life. Not just now but for thousands of years before. I am not going through I mid- life change, but what I call my quarter life change. She helped put into words some of experinces I have felt for the past few years. I have yet to talk with other women my age who could put words to the changes I am experiencing. I think any woman who is experiencing a significant change, what ever the "age" should read this book and share it with others who she feels are in similiar postions.
Rating: 
Summary: For women of any age.
Review: I am not middle-aged - I'm just 30, and I picked this book up only because it was next to "Goddesses in Everywoman" on the library shelf. But all the way through, I found the book speaking to me and to the transitions I have experienced in my own life. I thought at first it might be too new-agey, but it actually helped broaden my spiritual perspective, which I appreciated. When I was finished, I wanted to call up Jean Shinoda Bolen and invite her over for a cup of tea and a long chat.
Rating:
Summary: For women of any age.
Review: I am not middle-aged - I'm just 30, and I picked this book up only because it was next to "Goddesses in Everywoman" on the library shelf. But all the way through, I found the book speaking to me and to the transitions I have experienced in my own life. I thought at first it might be too new-agey, but it actually helped broaden my spiritual perspective, which I appreciated. When I was finished, I wanted to call up Jean Shinoda Bolen and invite her over for a cup of tea and a long chat.
Rating:
Summary: Also searching for Avalon
Review: I am only 25 years old but did not let the "a woman's midlife pilgrimage" phrase on the cover stop me, and I was definitely not disappointed. This book struck a chord by bringing to light many things that ring true. An excellent help for any woman who has ever in her life felt that something wasn't quite right, or "isn't there more than this?" (and who hasn't?) I would recommend this to every woman (and even men), no matter if we realize yet that what we've been searching for is the Goddess. I felt a kinship with the author when she mentions her divorce, and I feel a little better understanding toward childbirth and menopause. An excellent step toward our much-needed realization that we are WOMAN and are all beautiful. Also, her references to _The Mists of Avalon_ (by Marion Zimmer Bradley) excited me since that is my all-time favorite novel. From here I continue my quest for the Goddess within us and through us, and I wish every one of you the best of luck in your own search
Rating:
Summary: Perfect timing.....
Review: I was laying in a hospital bed sicker than I had ever been in my life....not sure how it was going to turn out and terrified. A friend of mine brought me her copy of this book. I told her that it was one of this authors that I had not read, in part because it was so focused on women's issues. She wisely told me to read it.....and I did.It made a difference. The idea that women experience pain in childbirth but understand that through that pain something good comes helped me survive a hell of a lot of pain. I returned the copy my friend lent me and bought my own. Whenever I see it....I remember what I learned....how do you review such a thing? Hmmmm maybe this is the way.
Rating:
Summary: An inner and outer journey through the mid-life passage
Review: In her book, Jean Shinoda Bolen takes her reader on a pilgrimage to ancient sites of the Goddess religions. At the same time, she journeys through the mid-life passages of her own soul, weaving the inner quest and the outer pilgrimage together with the wit, wisdom, and insight we have come to expect from her writing. Only one real weak point -- her presentation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's writings as anthropological fact rather than as the presumably researched and insightfully imagined historical fiction they are was disappointing. This is only a minor glitch, however, and certainly doesn't significantly detract from the value, pleasure, and insight to be found in Bolen's book.
Rating:
Summary: A healing book for women
Review: Jean Shinoda Bolen writes beautifully and creates vivid imagery. She describes the earth as a mother, a temple as a woman's body, and the sacred places of the earth as "acupuncture points". She draws the reader into her journey by weaving archetypes into her descriptions throughout the book. And she articulates this herself beautifully; "Artists and writers whose work touches us deeply instinctively access collective symbols. They "Dream" for us; they bring images and stories from their own depths that could be our own. If we are conscious we recognize ourselves in them. Otherwise we only know that we are moved. Seen from this perspective, artists or authors are our contemporary versions of shamen who have visions for their tribes. They tap into a deeper stratum and express it. And that stratum-the collective unconscious-draws upon more than the culture of the time or the experience of that particular individual..."(p.36). She says that everyone who works towards raising awareness or acting with compassion is linked to everyone else who does also. Crossing to Avalon is a very healing book for women of all ages (and also men). I especially enjoyed reading about her experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. I also loved hearing her thoughts on women falling in love with women, or falling in love with the goddess within a woman. She talks about how a woman can have a male archetype within her and that the goddess energy can be inside of a man as well. A beautiful and healing journey, a celebration of life and womanhood.
Rating:
Summary: A healing book for women
Review: Jean Shinoda Bolen writes beautifully and creates vivid imagery. She describes the earth as a mother, a temple as a woman's body, and the sacred places of the earth as "acupuncture points". She draws the reader into her journey by weaving archetypes into her descriptions throughout the book. And she articulates this herself beautifully; "Artists and writers whose work touches us deeply instinctively access collective symbols. They "Dream" for us; they bring images and stories from their own depths that could be our own. If we are conscious we recognize ourselves in them. Otherwise we only know that we are moved. Seen from this perspective, artists or authors are our contemporary versions of shamen who have visions for their tribes. They tap into a deeper stratum and express it. And that stratum-the collective unconscious-draws upon more than the culture of the time or the experience of that particular individual..."(p.36). She says that everyone who works towards raising awareness or acting with compassion is linked to everyone else who does also. Crossing to Avalon is a very healing book for women of all ages (and also men). I especially enjoyed reading about her experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. I also loved hearing her thoughts on women falling in love with women, or falling in love with the goddess within a woman. She talks about how a woman can have a male archetype within her and that the goddess energy can be inside of a man as well. A beautiful and healing journey, a celebration of life and womanhood.
Rating: 
Summary: About Crossing to Avalon
Review: This book is about goddess, the grail, women's spirituality, midlife transitions, depressions and crises, Glastonbury, Chartres Cathedral, labyrinths, pilgrimage, and meetings with remarkable people. It is also a spiritual autobiography. I wrote it as a personal narrative, and then put it away for a number of years, because it felt too personal. I had written Goddesses in Everywoman, which is about archetypes, and was again writing about the goddess, but this time from a very different perspective. To cross the mists to Avalon, is to enter the numinous realm of the goddess, which is a sacred, embodied, mystical, subjective personal experience, and thus to tell of it, requires a personal narrative. it is through such experiences, and though the image of the earth as seen from outer space, that the goddess is returning to the world.
|
