Customer Reviews

Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power Of Intimate Relationships

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is her best book yet. There is a mystical quality to the writing itself. Marianne creates a context for relationships in Enchanted Love, rather than just telling you what to specifically do to get them to happen. Without this context, it doesn't even matter what you do, in a certain kind of a way. With this book, Marianne goes more to the essence of what is needed in order for us to create the kind of relationships we all dream about. I read some of these customer reviews and I think a lot of people are maybe looking to this book as some kind of self-help book, having certain expectations for what it's supposed to be. You know, step one, do this...step two, do that. I think Marianne breaks that mold with this book. For me, just reading it shifted me, opened me. She is speaking to another part of our brain, I think. In other words, it's the kind of book that gets in there, even when you are not looking. For instance, I read Enchanted Love and then a couple of days later I found myself referring to certain ideas Marianne talks about in the book, while I was talking with a friend...concepts I didn't even know had particularly registered with me while I was reading them. I find myself doing that a lot...going back to sections of it over and over again. Almost everyone I know who's read it says they want to read it again. I am constantly amazed at how much more I can see about life, about love, and about romance since I read Marianne's remarkable book. Do yourself a favor, sit with it. Read it slowly. Let it sink in. Think about it. Savor it. It'll open doors. It did for me, anyway.

If you want to have an idea of this book, i suggest reading the Amazon.com and the Booklist reviews, as i will add to those comments. It is right to point out that some of Marianne's theories about male-female dynamics are rather surprising of her. Such theories certainly do not stem from the teachings of A Course In Miracles and are misguiding. But, that putted aside, her teachings are very usefull in bringning light on many aspects of intimate relationships. To illustrate the principles exposed in her book, the author shares a text addressed to her lover (be he her true lover or an imagined one). These are by far the most touching and powerful parts of this whole work. Marianne's words come from deep within her heart and are very useful to put the reader in the spirit of the denser and more "practical" parts of the book. Booklist's reviewer don't seem to share this opinion, to make your mind on this topic and to have a good idea of the book, i recommend you read the two chapters that the author lets you read for FREE. On a closing note i would say to those who have read ACIM, that Marianne's new book's message seems to be that intimate relationships are not all "special relationships" and that they can be used as healing and holy relationships, and i can only agree with her. She comes to find a name for those relationships; Sacred Romance. I would give this book 4½ stars, but that being not not possible, i will give 4 stars, for its tiny flaws.

Oh, you silly willies! She says in the introduction that "ENCHANTED LOVE" is a collection of prayers, meditations, and little more than her own impressions about love - it's not a "book" in any sense of the word at all - and she didn't mean it to be. It's instead sort of an intimate evening at home discussing romantic love with Marianne. She's just sort of free-associating at times - and if this works for you, great! If not, well, there are plenty of "how to" books out there. This is a great book, if you're willing to "forget logic. Forget your head. Open your heart, and come with me," as she writes in the frontispiece. And I think the dedication is VERY classy!

I am now reading this book for the second time and I love it just as much now as I did the first go around. Marianne Williamson really understands how spiritual contact with a Higher Power influences and shapes the kinds of love we initiate and sustain in our lives. I particularly like the way she describes the relationship dynamics between men and women in the midst of intimate relationships and just how much spiritual work needs to be done. The prayers that she intersperses through the book are beautiful and moving.

As for those who try and insult her work just because she hasn't been married to 'Joe Schmoe' for 25 years with a whole troop of kids and grandkids...might I remind those that true love does not always take the traditional conventional route. Some of the greatest loves of my life have been men I never married and never would, the real point is that they were all still worthwhile and valid experiences that contributed to my growth and knowledge as a person. Also just because someone manages to stay married for 25 years in no way means that relationship is healthy, happy or worth emulating.

With that being said this book has to be one of her more underrated works yet in my opinion I found it to be the most poignant and moving. It has definitely deepened my emotional and spiritual capacity to feel and accept love into my life.

"Enchanted Love" is simply a beautiful book. Particularly in the introduction and through the early chapters, it truly is an enchanting journey along a path of romance into a woman's essence. While some of the enchantment seems to be abandoned in the later chapters, where she turns more philosophical, the poetic dialogues that illustrate the book have the ability to carry the reader back into the greater depths of love where enchantment lives, and bring bearing to her more surface, technical beliefs and observations.

In particular, I was surprised by her views on monogamy. They seem almost to be an intrusion on the feelings carried earlier in the book; but as she says, she is a complex woman who makes no apologies for being, "high maintenance". She does, indeed, appear to be a woman leading the way into a new era of open expressiveness and freedom, although I'm not convinced through reading this book that her ideas are as independent as they are rebellious, which is where the intrusion is made on the enchantment.

Still, from a man's perspective, reading this book has the familiar comfort of laying in a lover's arms for a beautifully intimate moment. Williamson's words often assume the texture of a golden honey being poured into the reader's soul, and bear a sense of authenticity and subject-knowledge reminiscent of her work in "A Woman's Worth" This book is highly recommended reading for anyone who has ever felt in love.

Marianne Williamson, lecturer on metaphysics and spirituality, turns her attention to romantic love in Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power or Intimate Relationships. The book is in thirteen chapters with titles such as "The Enchanted Sea" and "Of Space Captains and Angels." It also contains poems and prayers by the author.

One of Ms. Wiliamson's earlier books, A Return to Love, explained some of the principles of A Course in Miracles as they relate to issues in daily life. A Return to Love was a very clear, well written book, that I have enjoyed reading at least five times over the past few years. Unfortunately I found Enchanted Love something of a disappointment. It lacks the organization around clear topics that one finds in A Return to Love. Enchanted Love contains some very good paragraphs, but the book often seems like a not very interesting assortment of preachy pronouncements. Although some of the author's statements are explained with examples, others are simply uttered, and one may well wonder "Is that really true?" or even "What does that mean?"

We are told, for example: "I once heard Pat Allen say that men produce into women's appetites. Men are by nature producers, and one of the things they produce into is female desire. From our sexual lives to our emotional lives, that is an archetypal pattern of great beauty and significance." I do not have the vaguest idea who Pat Allen is. I have never before heard the verb "produce" followed by the preposition "into." I cannot imagine what "produce into" means, but "producing into" certainly does not sound like a pattern of beauty to me. Perhap there are circles of people who know of Pat Allen and who speak of "producing into appetites." Who knows? I don't. One wonders what sort of editorial process the book went through.

Ms. Williamson writes, "Marrieds and singles are constantly sending telepathic communications to each other. There is a constant conversation everyone knows is there, but which few dare to verbalize." I was unaware of such constant telepathic communication. Is it really taking place?

Although some of the author's poems and prayers may serve as worthwhile meditations, some are quite banal. One poem, for example, contains the line "Your issues are more interesting now." Is that poetry, or merely the sort of psychobabble one may routinely hear at twelve-step meetings?

Fans of Ms. Williamson may find that the book contains some interesting material and food for thought. For those unacquainted with Ms. Williamson, I would recommend A Return to Love, but not Enchanted Love.

Thank you Marianne for this beautifully eloquent expression of real and deep love. My husband and I read this book together and from page one we were amazed at how truly you captured the experience of true, romantic love. For those of you looking for a "how to" book on love, I agree with your reviews that this would have missed the mark for you. But for those of us out there who are blessed with the gift of being in an enchanted love, it was amazing to see on paper what it is most times impossible to ever find words to describe. Your book touched my husband and I tremendously and reminded us that we indeed have been given a gift from God in each other and the heights of love that we are able to experience. It is also a reminder to us both that the love we share is something we should never dare to take for granted or treat lightly. Enchanted love is rare and when we are chosen and blessed in this lifetme to experience it, it is to be cherished. For those of you who read this and didn't quite "get it ", then my guess is that your beloved has not yet entered your life. When they do, you will know it, and then re-read this book. I guarantee you it will be a totally different book for you the second time around and will touch your heart as much as it has mine and my husband's.

I am not one for self help books, I really don't buy in to the dysfunctional ways of our society. I have read every Marianne Williamson book on the market (more than once.) I like what she has to say. I am not a literary scholar..just a woman making it in this world. My spiritual journey has been long, profound, and quite beautiful..I have some questions for her though, I would love to pick her brain. Enchanted love was my favorite of all her work and an awakening to spiritual growth and letting go of all that I was raised with. Most of us believing we have to be strong,get a college degree, and only depend on ourselves. Most of us have a low opinion of men, marriage and have lost the key to what those relationships should mean in our lives. We so desperately want to be married and live the "dream" but that dream has three parts one of our mothers, one of our grandmothers, and one of our own ..we were disillusioned. What I wonder and question is when we have done the work,come full circle, discovered our true selves, and find the key..the key being..loving yourself more, believing in the Word of the Lord, and ultimately surrendering to the Word, and surrendering to that child like state that we all want to inherintly surrender to...I ask only this: Marianne what are we to do when we believe in the power of your words, of His word, surrender, and are ultimately left in pain, that pain we were so afraid of to begin with? I have prayed the prayers and believed in the Word..this has left me in more pain than I have ever known or imagined. To love like this is a very big risk, it is so unconditional, so beautiful, and when this happens it is very few that can reciprocate-even from those of God.. I wish I could talk to her about this book..it has affected my life in a very powerful way. It wasn't the book alone, however,it was all of the actions and the journey prior to reading this book that led me to such a beautiful place of seeing those around me. I see miracles happen every day..I feel the Lord stronger than I have ever felt..but to love like that is very painful. Sometimes I wonder if what our mothers taught us would not be better. "you don't need a man!" I don't want to believe that, but after taking those steps she outlined in her book and being left where I am now..I can not help but wonder who is emotionally better off?

If you can read this book and not be excited about loving someone in your life, you had better check your pulse. Marianne's imagery and poetry thrill the soul. While it comes with words of wisdom, I think it is like sex, it needs to be savored and felt, rather than analyzed and diagramed, slowly with full attention. Marianne's own sensuality and beauty comes out in her words. One can picture her soul mate being called to and responding with a love that makes the world spin even faster than normal. Bonding is the deepest of all relationships.

In the midst of the holiday mayhem - Marianne Williamson has brought me home - a place for me that's all too easy to forget. When I'm feeling confused and crazy I have often sought refuge in the comforting words of Marianne - A Return to Love, Woman's Worth and Illuminata - I feel blessed to have yet another gift added to my collection. This book has not only reminded me of what's important but has possibly saved a troubled marriage - by reminding me there's never been a storm that hasn't passed - the enchantment still exist.