The Dancing Animal Woman : A Celebration of Life [Paperback]

Anne Hillman (Author), Brian Swimme (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1994

Anne Hillman mentors groups and individuals who seek a mature spirituality. An author and educator, her writing and experiential learning groups are an invitation to step into a creative framework larger than those our cultures tend to offer. Educated at Smith College, she was originally a classical musician, singer and choral conductor, and later received a Masters degree in Adult Learning and Organization Development from Boston University. She became a consultant and for twenty years helped a broad spectrum of organizations tap new levels of group functioning and creativity in times of rapid change. Since 1978, she has explored the internal aspects of social change, an inquiry into the kinds of interior development that can contribute to fundamental changes in a culture. She is the author of Awakening the Energies of Love, Discovering Fire for the Second Time. Her articles have appeared in national journals and in newspapers and her poetry in several anthologies. She is certified by the graduate Institute.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

I think Anne Hillman offers her readers the possibility of entering their own journeys in consciousness, journeys that can benefit from what she has come to know and feel.

From the Back Cover

Matthew Fox, author, The Reinvention of Work
Entering this book is an adventure in the Spirit.

Thomas Berry, Ph.D., author, The Dream of the Earth:
Anne Hillman evokes the mutual reverence, the mystical bonding needed between human beings and the natural world. Right on target.

M.C. Richards, Ph.D., potter, poet, author, Centering in Pottery, Poetry and the Person:
Exciting. Impressive. From its opening image of the cracked seed to the emergence of the wild soul of the dancing animal woman, the whole work is an ongoing explosion, an evolving like that of the original fireball, which contained within it all that we have become. The transformation it teaches is meant to awaken and fire the energies of the reader, liberate us from cultural patterning and bring us home to our primal creativity. Anne Hillman invites us to embody more fully the nonverbal languages of body and psyche, shared with other forms of life. Personal and cosmic story, social history, poetry and dissolving time unfold before our eyes and imagination to birth a deeper belonging in the universal communion where nothing, and no one, is left out.

Willis Harman, Ph.D., Founder, Institute of Noetic Sciences, author, Higher Creativity, Global Mind Change:
Sometimes prose is poetry. That is what I felt when reading Anne Hillman's beautiful account of her own journey through her body to herself. It is poetry in the deeper sense of pointing to a deep knowing which cannot be directly described in words. Tagore said, "It is by merging our will with the world-dharma that we become truly free. This is Anne's chronicle of how she discovered that, aided by some nudging from the universe when she faltered. A deeply feminine story, it is a treasury of wisdom for man and woman alike.

Richard Moss, M.D., author, The Second Miracle, and The Black Butterfly:
Today at 30,000 feet en route to New York from Seattle, I have had a truly exhilarating encounter with Anne Hillman's manuscript, The Dancing Animal Woman. What she says is vital stuff that we collectively must hear now and in many voices. Her voice, however, is particularly important because it is that of the mature woman, not the voice of a scientist or politician. Her logic comes from her womb, from the children she has born, from the love she's shared, the men she has supported and taught. It is the voice of the woman who engaged the male-oriented role demands, succeeded, lost herself and returned, scouting new territories in herself, and now, for others. Anne's story will illumine the way for many.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Bramble Books; First Printing edition (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883647010
• ISBN-13: 978-1883647018
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,020,623 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed, March 9, 2005

By 

Ann E. Oshaughnessy "Soul Flares" (Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dancing Animal Woman : A Celebration of Life (Paperback)

Five years ago I picked up a book called The Dancing Animal Woman by Anne Hillman. I was alone in a small bookstore, relishing the time I had to slowly browse. At first I shied away from its title; it might be too "new agey" for me, but the free-spirited artwork on the cover drew me to it. I read a few lines that I liked, but bought it mostly because I was strangely compelled. I was living then with a newly born, but shaky resolve to trust my own song. Anne's story strengthened that resolve and carried me through those first baby steps towards living more truthfully.

I've read a lot of books in my life. There are a few, however, that arrive at exactly the right moment, delivering just the right message I need. Anne Hillman's book, The Dancing Animal Woman - A Celebration of Life, was one of those books. I had just left a ten-year marriage and was wobbling out into the world pushed by the tremendous force of this decision. I was searching for "passionate aliveness", as Anne calls it.  
Anne's book is personal, honest telling  of her own struggles and illuminations, inspiring and heartening for anyone on the brink of a big life change or in the middle of one.  

Ann O'Shaughnessy - editor of Heron Dance www.herondance.org

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A magical book -- Wonderful reading!, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dancing Animal Woman : A Celebration of Life (Paperback)

A magical book of creative non-fiction, concerning a woman's reflections on her relationship to the universe, herself, and Spirit. Wonderful reading!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I had no idea the journey that Anne Hillman would take me on, October 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dancing Animal Woman : A Celebration of Life (Paperback)

I had no idea the journey that Anne Hillman would take me on through the pages of The Dancing Animal Woman. I was looking for a way to integrate all I have been learning about the Universe Story (Swimme, Berry and Conlon) and was drawn to this book. I finished the book changed deeply. I began the descent into my journey within myself and with the Universe.