Customer Reviews

Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Womens' wisdom & ways of knowing are almost always discounted by the male-dominated world. The Kirkus Review says, "... quickly degenerates into pop psychology and pseudo-profundities." Why do supposedly intelligent people bother to negate what's profound for someone else? A simple statement that the profundity was lost on you would suffice.

That said, I found this to be a glorious book about a woman's pilgrimage in midlife that changed her deeply and will affect the rest of her life. Women need to hear womens' stories. It's what we've always done & hopefully will continue to do and benefit from.

I found her descriptions of the places she visited absolutely lovely and enriching. Without her extremely intimate perspective, this book would only be an interesting travelogue - not something that inspired me to listen to myself and my body!

To know that my perspective may help someone else clarify theirs is reason enough for me to say all women everywhere should read this one, and share it with the people in their lives.

If you choose not to believe that women all over the world are reawakening to Goddess, that's fine. No one who reveres Goddess will try to change your mind. We simply understand there also was a time when most people thought Earth was flat.

I am not anywhere near midlife (I'm in my early 20's), but I still enjoyed this book. 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 shaman 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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Three meaningful themes emerge in this account of one woman's midlife passage: the struggle for authenticity, the importance of naming experiences and sharing life stories, and the merging of masculine and feminine energies. Not only is her journey one of hard-won insight, it is also a description of a real-life pilgrimage to sacred places. Her pilgrimage experience creates an archetype for menopausal women. Standing barefoot on the High Altar at Glastonbury, she experiences the merging of God and Goddess--the divine flow of masculine and feminine. A year later she looks back and knows that at that moment she was experiencing her last bleed--it was her MOMENT of menopause. Her integration of the Grail story creates a work that should be just as meaningful to men as women, particularly the last half of the book. Powerful, comforting, loving. Each time I finish a book, I think of someone I know that would benefit from reading it. Crossing to Avalon goes on my list for &qu! ot;Everyone Over 40 and Nearly Everyone Else."

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

This book DID literally hit me over the head - in a book shop! I was browsing through the books and this novel fell off the top shelf landing on my head before it hit the floor. At the time I was more interested in the books I had under my arm so I placed it back on the shelf....but 6 months later I regretted that decision and trackedit down.

I have a large interest in Avalon - I find that era particularily fascinating and this book was a great insight but more importantly it was just a great read about one womens journey and connection to Avalon. There are so few books like this around (that I can find) - I am grateful this one smacked me over the head to be noticed, lol!

I just read this book as I approach my 60th birthday and am having some discomfort with reaching that age. I had read Crones Don't Whine several years ago also by this author, but didn't connect it when I purchased Crossing to Avalon.
I found this book so interesting, enlightening, and helpful that it will go on the shelf with other books I lend out but always want back. I was able to connect the Goddess ideas with the Jungian archetypes and then directly to how I feel personally in a more direct way than with any previous books I've read. I would highly recommend this book. I'm not sure if it would have made the same great impression on me if I hadn't earlier done some reading on these subjects.

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.