12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sacred Path for All Creative People, March 10, 2009
This review is from: Writing as a Sacred Path: A Practical Guide to Writing with Passion and Purpose (Paperback)
What writer hasn't succumbed in frustration and fear to the anti-muse, writer's block? For that matter, what about the composer who thinks her melody or theme seems stilted or drab? Or the artist who stares in despair at the nothingness of a blank canvass? When creative people feel they've lost all imagery and invention, they need to open Writing as a Sacred Path and embark on one of the many invaluable exercises to tap into that mystery and wisdom of the creative mind.
Jill Jepson is a magician of the imagination. In Writing as a Sacred Path, Jepson takes the reader on a journey. She leads us into the worlds of mystics, monks, shamans, and warriors. Jepson uses these different archetypes as prompts to spur the writer's creative endeavors. Throughout the book are "sacred tools," or exercises, which enable us to dig deep into the caverns of our imaginations in an almost hypnotic way. Although this sounds like a New Age book, it's not. It's a well-thought-out, inspirational, and inventive guide to expand and unlock the reader's creative potential.
I am both an artist and a writer, and have read many books about writing. But Jepson's is the only one I've read that excites me, mesmerizes me, and spurs my imagination. If you're a writer, artist, composer, or actor, or know anyone who is, this is the one book you should read this year.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Other aspects of the writing life, April 23, 2009
This review is from: Writing as a Sacred Path: A Practical Guide to Writing with Passion and Purpose (Paperback)
I enjoyed the richness of Jepson's perspective--that writing isn't only a number of words per day or a well-crafted sentence. In Writing as a Sacred Path, it's a calling, a spiritual exploration, a life commitment, as well as practical pursuit. This was affirming and inspirational for those of us who spend long hours in front of our keyboards and sometimes wonder why we can't give it up!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Writers Who Have Heard the Sacred Call, February 15, 2010
This review is from: Writing as a Sacred Path: A Practical Guide to Writing with Passion and Purpose (Paperback)
I believe writing is a spiritual practice, and so I was drawn to the title of Jill Jepson's book. She approaches writing through four gateways to the sacred: the mystic, the monk, the shaman, and the warrior. It is a book full of writing ideas as well as affirmations for the writing life.
The mystic helps us "develop our own unique perspective"; the monk teaches us to foster silence and solitude as well as the "importance of community in the writing life"; the shaman teaches writers to "journey in the realm of memory, imagination, myth and dream and how to draw energy from our relationship with the natural world." Lest you feel the need for down-to-earth practical advice, the warrior's training teaches and inspires "focus, discipline, and strategic skill."
Jepson begins the book saying: "If you are reading this book, you have already heard the call." That simple sentence is an honoring of the life we writers have chosen, or more accurately perhaps, the life that has chosen us.
One of the "sacred tools" presented early in the book is "Offering Your Story." This means offering our story to a particular person or to the world, while keeping our personal gift of writing in mind. When our story is finished Jepson suggests we infuse it with love, light a candle and "hold the story up toward the sky or close to your heart." As Jepson writes: "Whatever you can do to ritualize your offering will confirm that you are bestowing a gift that is not only priceless, but unique in all the world."
Each chapter offers philosophies and beliefs central to the four gateways and paths and is filled with exercises, activities and prompts. There is much that is affirming and inspiring here with quotes from writers and practices from indigenous people. Jepson has invented many "sacred tools" as influenced by her decades of studying spiritual traditions all over the world.
Each pathway offers sage advice and there are numerous practices to use on your own or with your writing circle. Jepson writes "...the opportunity to write is a gift that comes with great responsibility." She honors the practice of writing and teaches that we have the task of "serving the living and non-living world around us...to give them voice."
by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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