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Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine
 
 

Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine (Paperback)

~ (Author) "opened the bulky enve that had come in the day's mail and found an invita that would change my life..." (more)
Key Phrases: sister pilgrims, greening power, goddess consciousness, Fisher King, Chartres Cathedral, Dalai Lama (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

List Price: $16.95
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Frequently Bought Together

Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine + Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty + Crones Don't Whine: Concentrated Wisdom for Juicy Women
Price For All Three: $31.74

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  • This item: Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine by Jean Shinoda Bolen

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1986, in the midst of a midlife crisis, Bolen (Ring of Power, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) received an invitation to a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Europe. With three other women, she traveled to places such as Chartres Cathedral, Iona, and Glastonbury-where traditionally "one crossed the mists to Avalon, the realm of the Goddess." Bolen interweaves her personal spiritual journey and midlife passage with a discussion of the psychological significance of mythic quests and a reinterpretation of the Grail Legend that illuminates its feminine aspects. While lacking the storytelling immediacy of Clarissa Pinkola Estes's Women Who Run with the Wolves, Bolen's narrative has a sweetness that lingers with the reader. Many will respond to the author's hopes that her story will remind others of the importance of their own "soul journey." An essential purchase for public libraries; important also for academic libraries with popular psychology, women's, and religious studies collections.
Carolynne Myall, Eastern Washington Univ. Libs., Cheney
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Booklist

This compilation of experiences, thoughts, scholarly research, and, above all, the feelings of a woman at midlife amounts to a revelation. On pilgrimage to sacred sites including Chartres, Glastonbury, and Iona, Bolen, a physician, Jungian analyst, and professor of clinical psychiatry, traces their histories and significance. She relates these places' earliest uses by societies with earth-based belief systems to the concept of key energy centers all about the globe, and she links her inner journey of the spirit to her physical travels and the primal knowledge of the sacred that women have experienced for thousands of years without naming it. This quest for the holy grail involves more than a personal transformation; it is, she says, everywoman's secret, potential pathway to the roots of her strength and wisdom. An essential addition for collections concerned with women's spirituality and goddess worship. Whitney Scott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: HarperOne (February 3, 1995)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0062502727
  • ISBN-13: 978-0062502728
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #30,598 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #20 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > Women
    #48 in  Books > Reference > Writing > Travel
    #61 in  Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Mysticism

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Jean Shinoda Bolen
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
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 (9)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Why am I not surprised?, March 22, 2003
By Maia Pearl "Blue" (Denver, Co USA) - See all my reviews
Womens' wisdom & ways of knowing are almost always discounted by the male-dominated world. The Kirkus Review says, "... quickly degenerates into pop psychology and pseudo-profundities." Why do supposedly intelligent people bother to negate what's profound for someone else? A simple statement that the profundity was lost on you would suffice.

That said, I found this to be a glorious book about a woman's pilgrimage in midlife that changed her deeply and will affect the rest of her life. Women need to hear womens' stories. It's what we've always done & hopefully will continue to do and benefit from.

I found her descriptions of the places she visited absolutely lovely and enriching. Without her extremely intimate perspective, this book would only be an interesting travelogue - not something that inspired me to listen to myself and my body!

To know that my perspective may help someone else clarify theirs is reason enough for me to say all women everywhere should read this one, and share it with the people in their lives.

If you choose not to believe that women all over the world are reawakening to Goddess, that's fine. No one who reveres Goddess will try to change your mind. We simply understand there also was a time when most people thought Earth was flat.

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33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A healing book for women, October 30, 2002
Jean Shinoda Bolen writes beautifully and creates vivid imagery. She describes the earth as a mother, a temple as a woman's body, and the sacred places of the earth as "acupuncture points". She draws the reader into her journey by weaving archetypes into her descriptions throughout the book. And she articulates this herself beautifully; "Artists and writers whose work touches us deeply instinctively access collective symbols. They "Dream" for us; they bring images and stories from their own depths that could be our own. If we are conscious we recognize ourselves in them. Otherwise we only know that we are moved. Seen from this perspective, artists or authors are our contemporary versions of shamen who have visions for their tribes. They tap into a deeper stratum and express it. And that stratum-the collective unconscious-draws upon more than the culture of the time or the experience of that particular individual..."(p.36). She says that everyone who works towards raising awareness or acting with compassion is linked to everyone else who does also.

Crossing to Avalon is a very healing book for women of all ages (and also men). I especially enjoyed reading about her experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood. I also loved hearing her thoughts on women falling in love with women, or falling in love with the goddess within a woman. She talks about how a woman can have a male archetype within her and that the goddess energy can be inside of a man as well.

A beautiful and healing journey, a celebration of life and womanhood.

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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars For women of any age., August 7, 1998
By A Customer
I am not middle-aged - I'm just 30, and I picked this book up only because it was next to "Goddesses in Everywoman" on the library shelf. But all the way through, I found the book speaking to me and to the transitions I have experienced in my own life. I thought at first it might be too new-agey, but it actually helped broaden my spiritual perspective, which I appreciated. When I was finished, I wanted to call up Jean Shinoda Bolen and invite her over for a cup of tea and a long chat.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars This book literally hit me over the head
This book DID literally hit me over the head - in a book shop! I was browsing through the books and this novel fell off the top shelf landing on my head before it hit the floor... Read more
Published on June 13, 2007 by S. Forrest

5.0 out of 5 stars Appreciated by someone younger also
This book was appreciated from perspective of a younger woman also, so not only midlife women will enjoy! Made me think!
Published on April 4, 2007 by T. Rice

5.0 out of 5 stars Put it all together for me
I just read this book as I approach my 60th birthday and am having some discomfort with reaching that age. Read more
Published on January 21, 2007 by Sharon Weiler

2.0 out of 5 stars Mythos for Women
Crossing to Avalon is part of the Goddess Movement that many women are finding after being raised in male-dominated religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Read more
Published on August 25, 2006 by Jennifer Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars I am a man, watch me roar (if I have to I can do anything - I am stong, I am invincible...I am mannnnnnn)
You know, I have to say - this book is awesome - especially if you are a woman.

I am not. Read more
Published on February 21, 2006 by Biggie Man

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect timing.....
I was laying in a hospital bed sicker than I had ever been in my life....not sure how it was going to turn out and terrified. A friend of mine brought me her copy of this book. Read more
Published on January 4, 2003 by oberon0690

4.0 out of 5 stars good reading for any age
Bolen goes into territory that most of us have forgotten about. She reminds women of the part we play in life. Not just now but for thousands of years before. Read more
Published on September 19, 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars A great message for women in midlife
Although the author can be a bit pedantic and repetitive at times, the basic message is one I really needed to hear at this stage in my life. Read more
Published on July 29, 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars An inner and outer journey through the mid-life passage
In her book, Jean Shinoda Bolen takes her reader on a pilgrimage to ancient sites of the Goddess religions. Read more
Published on March 28, 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars An inner and outer journey through the mid-life passage
In her book, Jean Shinoda Bolen takes her reader on a pilgrimage to ancient sites of the Goddess religions. Read more
Published on March 28, 1999

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