Red Moon Passage: The Power and Wisdom of Menopause [Hardcover]

Bonnie J. Horrigan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0788169068 | ISBN-13: 978-0788169069

A delightful, thought-provoking book about menopause as a spiritual journey to a new way of being. Celebrates menopause as a spiritual journey of transformation. Through the words of a culturally diverse group of some of the wisest & most visionary women of our time, this book conveys the idea that menopause can usher in a dynamic new way of being, filled with increased creative & intuitive abilities. Includes enlightening conversations with 8 extraordinary women from a number of spiritual traditions: Jeanne Achterberg, Paula Gunn Allen, Angeles Arrien, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Kachinas Kutenai, Carol S. Pearson, Jamie Sams, & Barbara G. Walker.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Articulate feminists of diverse backgrounds share their similar thoughts about menopause as a transforming spiritual experience. Horrigan, publisher of the journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, sought out eight women whose work she admires- -a healer, an English professor who is also a shaman, an anthropologist, a Jungian psychoanalyst and performance artist, an Apache medicine woman, a college dean, a part-Cherokee, part-Seneca songwriter, and a feminist writer--and interviewed them for their views on menopause. Every interview is accompanied by a glowing tribute from the author, who presents her interviewees as remarkable, wise, and deeply spiritual and insightful women, and herself as the novice who gains in wisdom as she listens to them. The women explore the female psyche through visions, parables, ancient myths and legends, and tales of goddesses, archetypes, and matriarchies. The book's title has a mythic ring, but it is a phrase Horrigan devised to evoke a positive image of menopause as a transforming journey out of a time of monthly bleeding into a time of creativity not based on reproduction. Menopause, the reader is reminded often, is to be viewed not as an ending but as a beginning. For women in touch with their spirits, as the author and her interviewees presumably are, menopause is a time not simply of biological change, but of spiritual transformation marking the beginning of the most powerful years of a woman's life. Devotees of Joseph Campbell will find much that is familiar here, and the author's advice to follow one's heart echoes Campbell's counsel to follow one's bliss. Inspirational reading for New Age feminists, especially comforting to those approaching menopause. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

"Red Moon Passage does not come from one particular culture. In renaming menopause for myself, I tried to find words that would describe both our growing out of the blood cycles and childbearing years, our indelible physical connection to the feminine, and the fact that as menopause is completed, we enter into a new realm of being. In every way, we are on a voyage to a new land."
--Bonnie J. Horrigan, from the Introduction to Red Moon Passage


In the spirit of The Feminine Face of God, Coming Into Our Fullness, and When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple, this new perspective on women and spiritual power, Red Moon Passage, celebrates menopause as an archetypal journey of transformation. Written with notable grace, it contains a personal story of sorrow and triumph as well as enlightening conversations with eight extraordinary women from different backgrounds and traditions: Jeanne Achterberg, Paula Gunn Allen, Angeles Arrien, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Kachinas Kutenai, Carol S. Pearson, Jamie Sams, and Barbara G. Walker. These women attest to the magical, life-affirming, creative and re-generative potential of menopause that is within every woman.

Red Moon Passage  provides uplifting, thought-provoking insights about menopause as a spiritual journey to a new way of being. It shows that the Red Moon Passage is not a transition to an end stage of life, but is itself a magnificent and powerful new phase. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Harmony Books (December 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788169068
• ISBN-13: 978-0788169069
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,282,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine and sensitive insight into the passages of women

, June 3, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Red Moon Passage: The Power and Wisdom of Menopause (Paperback)

Bonnie Horrigan has served a fine favor to women who

confront the mysterious passage of menopause as

both a physical and a spiritual transition. She

provides answers with compassion, depth with

clarity, and wisdom without complexity.

Ms. Horrigan has created a book which all men and all women
will do well to absorb as part of their life-insights collection.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Red Moon Passage, August 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Red Moon Passage: The Power and Wisdom of Menopause (Paperback)

This book is an exciting find. The wonderful selection of mentors for women seeking ways to survive a sometimes very tulmultous time in their lives gave me hope for a my heart and body being wiser for the experience. I would recommend this fine text to anyone who wants to understand the path of the maturing female.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Such postive mentors !, April 16, 2004

By 

Susanna Duffy (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Moon Passage: The Power and Wisdom of Menopause (Paperback)

How wonderful to find such positive guides and mentors in this cofusing time of life. The loss of our menstrual cycle makes us disconnect for a while from our own rhythms, passing through the menopausal journey is an in-between state, and it's easy to be confused about our own place in the whole scheme of things.

These women have been there, and they have words to guide