The Body Sacred (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: evil auctioneer, The Healer, The Dancer, The Mother (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Americans are not just engaged in wars on terror and drugs, says Wiccan priestess Sylvan. We are also waging a war against our bodies, trying to prevent our breasts from sagging, our faces from wrinkling and our buns from expanding. Sylvan, a self-proclaimed fattie, has had enough. Marrying cultural critique with user-friendly how-to, she urges readers to reject society's insistence that they spend countless hours and billions of dollars trying to look thin and youthful. Rather, says Sylvan, women should embrace their bodies for what they are—incarnations of the Goddess. Above all, this book is practical. Sylvan suggests exercises and rituals designed to help readers live more comfortably in their own skins: envision five women who hate their bodies, and then note that these women probably look perfectly fine; meditate on Artemis, the divine huntress, an "intensely physical goddess"; tape a copy of Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman" to the mirror; dance or take up tai chi. What distinguishes this book more than anything is Sylvan's sense of humor—she's tackling a serious topic, but she'll have readers laughing from page one. Pull-out quotes in the margins offer inspiring wisdom from women ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt to Alanis Morissette. (Oct.)
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Product Description

When you look in the mirror, do you see a Goddess?
For anyone who's experienced a "fat day" or wished a doctor could make them younger, Wiccan Dianne Sylvan speaks candidly about overcoming body hatred and offers a spiritual path back to Divine femininity.

Sharing her own struggles with poor body image and self-acceptance, Sylvan explores how the impossible standard of female beauty has developed and endured. Emphasizing the Mother, the Healer, the Lover, and other archetypes of one's relationship with the sacred body, the author provides a uniquely Wiccan approach to achieving a healthy, new self-perception as Goddess.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0738707619
• ISBN-13: 978-0738707617
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #227,258 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY!, November 9, 2005

By	Patricia Gose "Patti" (Edmond, OK United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My spirituality can have humor in it! Thank Goddess for that!

I love how approachable Dianne Sylvan makes her books and the material she so genuinely shares with her readers. She honestly conveys her ideas and experiences in a way that is easily identified with and reminds us all of the potential our paths hold once we make peace with the idea of perfection. She is a true daughter of The Great Weaver, herself expertly weaving a series of cords between our bodies and our minds that supports the kind of spiritual growth every advancing Pagan woman needs. Her ideas are simple in their truth and reality, but this is not a book that will leave you bored. On the contrary! I haven't felt so alive with potential or so certain of my direction in life as I have after picking up this book. It's so much more than just a new age book on feeling and living a spiritual life, though it does live up to that promise. She shows you, in real life terms, how to make your body your altar and she does it without coming across preachy or assuming.

It's truly like sitting down with your best friend.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our Inner Goddess, October 18, 2005

By	Sarah K. Colton (Lincoln Park, Mi) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is so important to women of all ages and shapes. Dianne Sylvan demonstrates how we are pelted by media with impossible body standards. She reminds us to love ourselves despite our imperfections because we are Goddesses in our own right. She explains that self-love has to come so that we may enjoy our bodies to their full potential and do the work of God and Goddess.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I give this book 5 pentacles and it's worth it, April 25, 2007

By	Rogna - See all my reviews

The Body Sacred is an amazing book
which should be on every Wiccan's/Pagan's
bookshelf.

This is a book in which so many readers
can relate. I thought, "OMGoddess, she's
writing MY story, MY thoughts, answering
all MY questions, and she is doing it with
a wonderful sense of humor!"

I recommend this book to everyone.