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

by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Book Overview

A MIDLIFE QUEST FOR THE GRAIL AND THE GODDESS

Dr Jean Shinoda Bolen's extraordinary memoir celebrates the pilgrimage that heralded her spiritual awakening and leads readers down the path of self-discovery. In this account of her journey to Europe in search of the sacred feminine, she unveils the mythological significance of the midlife search for meaning and renewal.

"[Bolen] charts a path that will lead many readers to the heart of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062502727
• ISBN13: 9780062502728
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Why am I not surprised?

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.

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. I told her that it was one of this authors that I had not read, in part because it was so focused on women's issues. She wisely told me to read it.....and I did.It made a difference. The idea that women experience pain in childbirth but understand that through that pain something good comes helped me survive a hell of a lot of pain.I returned the copy my friend lent me and bought my own. Whenever I see it....I remember what I learned....how do you review such a thing? Hmmmm maybe this is the way.

A healing book for women

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.

For women of any age.

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.

A Real-Life Pilgrimage to Sacred Places

Three meaningful themes emerge in this account of one woman's midlife passage: the struggle for authenticity, the importance of naming experiences and sharing life stories, and the merging of masculine and feminine energies. Not only is her journey one of hard-won insight, it is also a description of a real-life pilgrimage to sacred places. Her pilgrimage experience creates an archetype for menopausal women. Standing barefoot on the High Altar at Glastonbury, she experiences the merging of God and Goddess--the divine flow of masculine and feminine. A year later she looks back and knows that at that moment she was experiencing her last bleed--it was her MOMENT of menopause. Her integration of the Grail story creates a work that should be just as meaningful to men as women, particularly the last half of the book. Powerful, comforting, loving. Each time I finish a book, I think of someone I know that would benefit from reading it. Crossing to Avalon goes on my list for & qu! ot;Everyone Over 40 and Nearly Everyone Else."