Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny [Hardcover]

Zsuzsanna Budapest (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 1998

The Fates, also called luck or destiny, are three goddesses who rule over the challenges and opportunities we face in our lives. So powerful that even the other gods and goddesses cannot defy them, the Fates are said to control the thread of each life. The ancient Europeans knew the secrets of communicating with the three sisters who preside over our daily lives, but such arcane knowledge has been lost in modern times.  
        
In Northern Europe the Fates are known as the Norns: Urdh, Verdandi, and Skuld. The sisters correspond to the past (what has been), the present (what is now), and the future (what must be). The three in turn rule our lives in thirty-year cycles--childhood and young adulthood are ruled by Urdh, adulthood by Verdandi, and the crone years by Skuld. The Fates are especially active at the major life turning points, when we receive new missions for our life's work. These main turning points occur in the early thirties and late fifties when restlessness with your previous life can take on a sense of extreme urgency. At such times, the Fate who oversees your next destiny is reaching out to you. Summoning the Fates is the first book to show how to interact with these primal forces to fulfill the destiny that awaits you. Z. Budapest gives spells, rituals, and prayers to bring the psychological and material support you need into your life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Just 23 years ago, Budapest (The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries) was arrested and convicted under anti-divination laws for telling fortunes in her L.A. candle shop. Now this matriarch of the growing movement that links feminism to witchcraftAand to the elusive, transcultural religion of the GoddessAdescribes the workings of the three Fates. Budapest's artist mother once gave her an altar piece depicting the Fates: the spinner, the weaver and the woman with shears. "One started the thread of life, the other developed it, the third one cut it," Budapest writes. Growing up in magic-steeped Hungary, Budapest learned to summon and honor these "raw forces of nature" that, she contends, govern lives. Blending autobiography and Hungarian folklore with ritual, the author describes the seasons and cycles of the three fates as they correspond to astrology. Hence, the fate "Verdandi" (the weaver, or Fate associated with adulthood) takes over for Urdh (the spinner) at 28, an age astrology deems governed by the "Saturn return." Budapest's rituals for summoning the "conductors of luck" combine sensuality and joy with reverence for the unknown. She writes that "divination was given to us by the Fates to keep us from losing hope." This charming book shows readers how rituals and faith can lead us inward to find the wisdom and goodness of the Goddess in our own lives. Line drawings.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Budapest's rituals for summoning the conductors of luck combine sensuality and joy with reverence for the unknown. . . . This charming book shows readers how rituals and faith can lead us inward to find the wisdom and goodness of the Goddess in our own lives."        
--Publishers Weekly


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1st edition (April 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517708736
• ISBN-13: 978-0517708736
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,480,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have book for those who question your destiny., June 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny (Hardcover)

Z Budapest's new book " Summoning The Fates" is a thought provoking look at each of our lives. This great story teller weaves her messages through inspirational stories as she explains the Fates and the effect they have on each of us. She explains destiny, what part it plays in our lives, and how to communicate with the Fates to find our own destiny. A hard to put down book for all who question their purpose, Z looks at age cycles, rituals, astrology always tying in her exquisite stories to teach us of the Fates and help answer our deep inner questions.

As I read Z's words, a great calming came over me. I watched as my life unfolded before me in the passages of the life cycles or fate dates. "On these fate dates you can see how certain issues come to the fore in your life and need to be addressed for you soul's progress. Being able to look back on the fate dates of your life will help you see the unfolding of the larger pattern of the story of your life." I compared these fate dates with my own life and saw at 30 I changed careers, at 33 I took a new lover, at 36 I started building on a dream, at 42 I found the Goddess, and at 47 I have had a soul retrieval and have made great strides in the healing of myself. I was awe struck as I came to understand why I was pulled to make many of my choices in life. "To work with the Fates, you need to connect with them at the deepest level, the level that goes beyond words, the level of ritual...we have to surrender ourselves into her hands and stop hanging on to the past...there is a magic moment when everything comes into focus, and we know who we are and why we are here...she sets us to become the individuals we really are...she rules over our inner transformations and reveals their connections to the changes that take place in the outer world." This book has given me the strength to stand proud and walk my path with conviction. "It is written. It is woven. It is spoken. Blessed be."

The last chapter on the hist! oric cycles of time was difficult to connect to the rest of the book. This chapter is a history of time, rather then of individual cycles covered in the rest of the book. This is too large a topic for one chapter. Z should consider using this chapter as an outline for an entire book.

I highly recommend this as a must read book for anyone connected with the Goddess, as well as anyone looking for answers to the simple question of " why am I here?"

Z. Budapest, Summoning The Fates, A Woman's Guide to Destiny, Harmony, New York, 1998.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IMHO: absolutely, positively MUST read!, March 4, 2000

By 

Aisling D'Art "artist and author" (Portsmouth, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny (Paperback)

This book practically leaped off the shelf, into my hands, and I'm so glad that it did! Easily one of Z's best, and she shares well-researched ideas that others often overlook, despite their importance. Her map of what happens in what years of your life... well, that proved amazingly accurate. Almost spooky. I wish I'd had this info fifteen years ago. This is a must-read, must-own book, in my opinion.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Discovering the meaning of the Fates, December 15, 2001

By 

Boudica (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny (Paperback)

Those of us who know the Fates are probably most familiar with the Greek versions. Clotho, the Spinner, spinning the threads of life, Lachesis, the Disposer of Lots, measuring the length of threads, and Atropos, the Inevitable, with her golden shears, cutting mans' destiny. When they are good, they are the Graces, when angry, they are the Furies.

Z. Budapest, in her book "Summoning the Fates" introduces us to the Northern European versions of the Fates. They are called the Norns (Germanic) and they are: Urdh (what went before), Verdandi (that which is becoming) and Skuld (that which must be). Ms. Budapest introduces us to these Fates, and shows us the Cycle of Life as it applies to these Fates.

I originally picked up this book, having read Ms. Budapest's interview, and was looking for an introduction to her works. I found this book refreshing, and a wonderful read. I was delightfully surprised.

In this book, Ms. Budapest mixes a magical blend of folk tales, personal insights, and ritual to give us a picture of how the Fates work in our lives, how we can approach them and work with them. She also gives us a sort of "personal autobiography" of her own introduction and workings with the Fates, that lends a personal touch to the book.

Ms. Budapest introduces us to each of the Fates and their characteristics. She uses folk tales, some from Hungary, some with a gypsy flavor, or a personal story, to show the influences the Fates have on a persons life. She offers a special lesson, combined with true country common sense, to show how we can apply these Fates to our daily lives. She also provides rituals to be used to introduce ourselves to the Fates, to incorporate them into our daily lives, and for the general enrichment of our spiritual lives.

Ms. Budapest has compiled a unique book of material here, using stories/lessons of childhood tales and personal stories to illustrate the basic laws of working with the Fates. Her insight into the meanings and purposes of these stories are wonderful, clear and easy to understand. And her rituals, as free flowing as Ms. Budapest herself, are simple yet elegant, making it easy for each of us to reach and touch the Fates in our spiritual lives.

This book is for those seeking to get in touch with their Spiritual Path as it applies to the Fates. This book offers contact with the three Goddesses who have laid our our lives for us. It enables us to better understand the Cycles of our lives in relation to the Fates, so we can utilize these cycles and better understand ourselves and each other.