93 of 99 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Political Classic; As Important as Lakoff's Don't Think of An Elephant,, August 26, 2005
This review is from: Urgent Message From Mother: Gather The Women, Save The World (Hardcover)
Urgent Message From Mother: Gather The Women, Save The World
This is a very, very important book that anyone who cares about the endangered state of the USA and the world must read, male or female.
In Crawford, Mother Cindy Sheehan has changed the balance here in the US. It's because she is speaking as a mother. This book is an inspiring strategy book, a historic compendium of how women have used the feminine archetype and women's ways to heal society, to rescue cultures from world. Consider as powerful and profound and take it to heart.
Jean Shinoda Bolen is dead on right when she says that we need to gather the women to save the world, I'm a guy, and I'm certain that it is male or masculine energy that is screwing things up here.
Bolen presents, in many different ways, examples, evidence and proof of how women do things differently and how that different approach is desperately needed now. It's not that men can't do what is needed. Men CAN do it too, but they have to embrace the approaches that women use, the reactions and strategies that women use to react to stress, to trouble, to war, because the way women responds is more nurturing, more healing, more likely to build community rather than competition, more likely to create synergy.
I discovered this book because I came to the conclusion that the right wing in the USA and fundamentalists throughout the world are engaged in a huge backlash and war against both women, women's right and the feminine archetype. I concluded that their reaction is a last dying paroxysm of resistance to a trend that is inevitable-that women regain the rights and privileges they had thousands of years ago, before agriculture and the hierarchical culture and slavery it produced appeared-when goddesses and priestesses were common and when women shared in leading society.
Having also studied George Lakoff's books, including Don't Think of An Elephant, Moral Politics and Metaphors We Live By (which I read in the 1980's) I concluded that Lakoff's model, which has led to him becoming a "framing" guru for Democratic leaders, could benefit by adding a mythic, feminine archetype perspective. When he talks about nurturing parent and strict parent cultures and families, he could also be talking about masculine archetype and feminine archetype families and cultures.
Jean Shinoda Bolen's new book provides a conceptualization of ways to think about language, interventions, cultural phenomena, and change strategies that have the potential to be just as powerful as Lakoffs. She's not talking about framing, but she is offering a different way to approach the same problems. Any reader of Lakoff's Don't Think of An Elephant should find this book rewarding, empowering, enlightening and energizing, with a plethora of ideas of how to take action and go the next step to make a difference.
This is a book every woman who cares about politics and change should read and every man who can handle dealing with embracing the feminine will love.
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58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compelling, Alarming, and Promising, September 12, 2005
This review is from: Urgent Message From Mother: Gather The Women, Save The World (Hardcover)
"...The urgent message from Mother Earth and the archetypal feminine is to gather the women and save the world, because leaving it up to the men is going badly, and will be catastrophic. The premise on which men rule the world is religion, with monotheism the form of religion that is bringing us to the brink." - From the book
According to author Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., the legacy of patriarchal history is competition, domination and control. Patriarchal religions such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam are hierarchical in nature, sanctioning war against each other and claiming divine superiority and favoritism. Patriarchy revels in the humiliation of enemies and amassing bigger and badder toys-nuclear missiles being the epitome-while women, children, and the planet suffer from male egos run wild.
Bolen, a psychiatrist and Jungian analyst, steps into the role of mother bear in her newest book Urgent Messages from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World-declaring, "Enough is enough!"
Invoking the archetypes of Mother and sister/Artemis, Bolen rings the alarm bell as Earth heads towards certain disaster. Unless women rise up, empower others, and lend their voice, she asserts, the vulnerable will continue to pay the price for patriarchal values.
Citing numerous sociological and psychological studies, Bolen shows how-in general-women and men think, behave, and communicate quite differently. For example, stress triggers the "flight or fight" response in men, resulting in isolation and aggression. Women, however, react to stressful conditions with a "tend and befriend" response. Females seek social contact and support, as well as protect and nurture their young. Adrenaline and testosterone promote the "flight or fight" response, while estrogen and oxytocin promotes calm, relaxation, and maternal feelings.
Because of hormonal differences, most women find it stress reducing to admit a mistake or discuss a problem. For them, such problem solving generates ideas, support, and possible resources. For most men, however, there is a hierarchal structure of one-up or one-down. Beginning in the schoolyard, boys learn that asking questions or looking "weak" begets derision, humiliation, and exclusion. Interestingly, this is why men often don't ask for directions when lost. Projected on the global scale, however, these differences are even more obvious. Women tend to seek compromise and consensus, pursuing what is best for all people-especially the vulnerable. Men, however, often seek to dominate, conquer, and "be right"-with grave consequences.
Using biblical examples like Cain and Abel and the Great Flood, Bolen paints a chilling portrait of what happens when patriarchal spirituality perpetuates unquestioned. She writes:
"Through a psychological lens, the image of the Lord is of a controlling father who overreacts and justifies what he did by blaming the children for bringing it on themselves. Living with an authoritarian father, children learn never to question anything and to accept his rules and punishment."
When God takes the role of authoritarian father-with males made in his image-women are devalued as belonging to an inferior gender. In fact, the women and children suffer the most from fundamentalist religions who stress male dominance, conquest, and moral, spiritual superiority. Discrimination, genital mutilation, and domestic violence are just a few forms of suffering caused by this kind authoritarianism.
With humor, candor, and compelling anecdotes-as well as various scientific studies-Bolen establishes the differences between patriarchy and its opposite, egalitarianism. She traces the effects of established patriarchal beliefs and attitudes on societies and individuals, including how the erasure of the feminine face of God has contributed to violence, war, and poverty. Affirming that women in general have qualities needed for the surviving and thriving of the human family and the planet, Bolen points to two antidotes:
1. The visible power of women together
2. The invisible power of women's circles
Building on previous books such as The Millionth Circle, Bolen offers gripping historical, cultural, and theological insights about the Sacred Feminine as well as practical advice for bringing the feminine principle into consciousness. It is not too late to change direction, helping to heal Mother Earth, our human family, and ourselves:
"It is time to `gather the women'-for only when women are *strong together* can women be fiercely protective of what we love. Only then, will children be safe and peace a real possibility."
Considering the mess the planet and its inhabitants are in, what do we have to lose by promoting, engaging, and honoring the feminine principle?
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