Customer Reviews

From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine's Journey through Myth and Legend

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Finally, a book on the hero's journey when that hero's a woman! Ms. Frankel covers so many cultures I've never even heard of- Anatolia, Samoa, Xhosa, Ugarit, plus all the obvious Greek-Scottish-China-Germany fairytales and myths. It's a lot like Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, but addresses women's issues like finding out you married a beast, overcoming child abuse to find your place in the world, and questing for a lost lover or child. The author covers all the steps from leaving home as a girl to becoming, you guessed it, a godddess! Then she starts all over and covers all the archetypes, like trickster, warrior, spirit, but again, all female. And it's all from literally hundreds of texts of heavily researched mythology. She has lots of resources and booklists at [...]as well. If you enjoy mythology but find all the hero quests a bit sexist, this is the book for you.

Who knew those familiar fairy tales we all grew up with as children could be so relevant, enlightening teens and adults to the workings of our modern world? Laced with familiar and not so familiar ancient myths and tales with variations on the same themes, Ms. Frankel's book. "From Girl to Goddess" explores the meanings behind the stories and the lessons they hold that still ring true today concerning relationships, abuse, greed, life cycles, life styles, the powerful and powerless and much more.

Valerie knows her subject, having carefully researched how these myths and stories embedded in every culture, explain both our natural world order and manmade laws. "From Girl to Goddess" includes a wide collection of myths and stories belonging to tiny villages, ancient religions and modern countries throughout the world. These tales have been handed down by elders to successive younger generations over many centuries to explain natural events such as the seasons, birth and death or leaving ones home of origin and the familiar to seek the truth.

Many of these quests come full circle as the seeker finds answers within themselves as they explore an assortment of attributes such as patience, real love, commitment, strength, trust, intelligence, faith and often, out of the box thinking, to solve problems often not of their own making. In a gentle way, this descriptive text helps the reader face their own weaknesses, building self esteem while becoming less helpless in dealing with their own problems, from reading how heroes, victims, seekers of truth, etc. become their own wise mentors and journey from child to adult or girl to goddess. Valerie Estelle Frankel's newest book, "From Girl to Goddess" is a must on every feminist reading list and library bookshelf, and for men who want to better understand the women in their lives.

Solid scholarship underlies the fascinating excerpts from myths drawn from around the world. This very readable volume explores the deep psychological themes that resonate across culture and time.

Ms. Frankel skillfully juxtaposes tales which poignantly expose how Women took their place as co-creators of the World. Every reader will be inspired as well.

If you're interested in understanding the feminine journey, this is a book you should read. It's invaluable for analyzing and understanding literature, but I also found that it helped me understand my own life. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

In essence, this book takes Joseph Campbell's model of the heroic quest and changes some of the names and situations to fit women rather than men. Frankel accepts that stories told by men about women (as most myths probably are) provide an accurate portrayal of what a woman's life is about. Hence she concludes that the goal of the heroine's journey is "triumphant motherhood" - rather insulting to women who might think that they have more to offer than procreation. She reiterates the idea that women's lives follow the stages of Maiden-Mother-Crone, concepts Toni Wolff pointed out are based on masculine ideas of the female-in-relationship-to-men. The witch and the terrible mother are other masculine ideas of women Frankel accepts without question. A telling chapter heading is "Divorcing Anima" in which Frankel frequently confuses the anima - a man's projection of his own complexes about women onto women - with the woman herself.

The heroic quest model does not fit women. For example, Dorothy follows the heroic quest to a T as she journeys through Oz. Yet when she returns, no one believes her and she returns to her life exactly as it was before. We see the same problem at work in current pop culture stories about women heroines like Buffy, who no matter how many times she saves the world, never seems to get to a place of peace with herself or have the freedom to create her own life as she desires.

Frankel's book could have been a fun exercise in turning male ideas on their heads to see what might or might not be relevant to women. But instead Frankel tries too hard to make the masculine model fit women, and as a result only ends up promoting masculine ideas about women.