Dreaming the Dark : Magic, Sex, and Politics (Paperback)

by Starhawk (Author)
Key Phrases: talking self, Younger Self, Reclaiming Personal Power, Building Community (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Wisdom from a witch: a thoughtful but sometimes sloppy-minded blend of manifesto (down with the patriarchy!), grand Manichean vision (soulless technocracy's war on Immanence), historical primer (how the Protestant ethic, the Enclosure Acts, the Industrial Revolution, etc., cut the umbilical cord binding us to the earth), personal memoir (the Diablo Canyon blockade), and practical advice on running a coven/consciousness-raising group. As in her 1979 The Spiral Dance, Starhawk (Miriam Simos) shows herself to be a passionate but sensible radical, a leading light in what she hopes will be the glorious pagan renaissance - to end the Dark Ages of hypermasculine barbarism, militarism, devastation of nature, sexual persecution, and so forth. All this is fine, especially since Starhawk has a realistic awareness of how San Francisco-weird her sermons about union with the Goddess, and her stories about blissful naked worship, must strike the average feminist. Still, there are problems with her argument. She often oversimplifies: all "power-over' hierarchical structures are bad. (Has she tried raising kids in her role as an egalitarian "facilitator"?) She's as naive as the Playboy folk in imagining that sexual guilt can or ought to be wiped out in our lifetime. And once or twice she loses touch completely: the Diablo Canyon power plant never opened because the rituals and "many focused powers" of the protestors, past and present, put a beneficient whammy on it. Such lapses aside, Starhawk is an eloquent spokeswoman for many good causes (which, she plausibly insists, are really a single cause). Flawed but forceful. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
Featuring narrative, chants, songs, and rituals, Dreaming the Dark (100,000 copies sold) brilliantly combines the world of magic and spirituality with the world of political and social change. This fifteenth anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author.

Dreaming the Dark is [Starhawk's] best book; it offers myths of fulfillment, rituals of healing, an unusual but perhaps ultimately pragmatic cultural perspective, and a vision for survival and growth.

--The Bloomsbury Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; 15 Anv edition (April 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807010375
• ISBN-13: 978-0807010372
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #634,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #16 in

  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Starhawk

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkness, Magic, and Truth, March 21, 2007

By	Abel R. Gomez (San Bruno, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Enter the mysterious world of magic, sexuality, and the deepest part of yourself. This is the goal of "Dreaming the Dark" by Starhawk, author of the bestselling book "The Spiral Dance", considered essential reading in most Wiccan circles. Picking up where her other books leave off, "Dreaming the Dark" is a guide for putting one's beliefs into practice, an attempt to reach out to a world largely deprived of spiritual experience and reclaim the sacred within and fuse it with political activism.

Starhawk co-founded the Reclaiming Collective, a Wiccan tradition that emphasizes spirituality and political action, and a majority of the text is focus on examining structures of power. She separates power into two categories: "power over" and "power from within" and discusses how such structures have been used throughout history to suppress and control. Magic, as Starhawk defines as "the art and practice of changing consciousness at will", can be teamed with political action to cause effective change in our society and help to preserve what we hold as sacred.

For those unfamiliar with Paganism, "Dreaming the Dark" is the perfect collection of stories, chants, and bits of information that will give the reader and accurate portrayal of Pagan paradigm. Starhawk clearly examines what Witches and Pagans hold sacred, specifically Nature and how it is essential that action is taken for preservation. Beautiful and often poetic descriptions of the Goddess and rituals paint vivid picture of the triumphs and struggles of many in the Pagan movement.

"Dreaming the Dark" is not a book for the faint of heart, but it is necessary. It is challenging yet inspiring and deeply moving. For anyone interested in modern religious movement and especially those interested in politics, it is an essential read. "Dreaming the Dark" is not a book of spells, meditations, or ritual, it is an invitation, a calling to take a stand in the face of injustice and reclaim the whole of our being.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DREAMING THE DARK is a self and Earth saver., September 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: DREAMING THE DARK REV (Beacon Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Dreaming the Dark was the first book I was able to read as I healed from a severe traumatic depression. It was an offered hand of a friend. It was wisdom, hope, and inspiration. Starhawk offers a guide to positive action, to change. Do you want to know HOW to save the world and yourself? Read this book. It will give you the confidence to change yourself and affirms, by stories rich with technique, the attitude that you are an important factor in social change and the evolution and adaptation of the human race.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading, August 27, 2004

By	Seed Crystal (California) - See all my reviews

The writing skillfully integrates annecdotes with philosophy and there are exercises useful to any group of pagans. For Starhawk, Witchcraft and environmentalism and activism and gender awareness are natural companions; what Witch doesn't care about the earth and nature? What Witch would not know the power of the individual and of people together? How can anyone who honors the Goddess not strive to be aware of gender politics, sexism, and the power of sex? What Witch would not know the power of will, awareness, perspective? But as natural and integrated as these themes are for her, some traditional Wiccans and other pagans are very hostile about Starhawk. There is a lot for even non-pagans to learn from her, and I think every serious pagan should read her work. If it upsets you - please, ask yourself why; what exactly does she threaten? This book is dated, and the history is only as good as we (all) knew when it was first published, but if you want to understand group dynamics, if you ever wondered if Witches should be political, or environmentalist, or activist, or gender aware - read this book.