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Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine
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 their own emotional and spiritual pilgrimages."- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"This wise and challenging work, the most personal of Jean Shinoda Bolen's books, is an absorbing often uncannily perceptive, and useful companion for the soul journeys of our time, which is The Time of the Goddess Returning.- Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple
"In Crossing to Avalon, Jean Shinoda Bolen turns her acute and brilliant eye toward the interconnectedness of women's mysteries, sacredness of the body, the effect of pilgrimage on soul, and deep feminine friendships."- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., author of Women Who Run with the Wolves
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., is a Jungian analyst and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, and The Tao of Psychology.
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 their own emotional and spiritual pilgrimages."- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
"This wise and challenging work, the most personal of Jean Shinoda Bolen's books, is an absorbing often uncannily perceptive, and useful companion for the soul journeys of our time, which is The Time of the Goddess Returning.- Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple
"In Crossing to Avalon, Jean Shinoda Bolen turns her acute and brilliant eye toward the interconnectedness of women's mysteries, sacredness of the body, the effect of pilgrimage on soul, and deep feminine friendships."- Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., author of Women Who Run with the Wolves
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., is a Jungian analyst and clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Goddesses in Everywoman, Gods in Everyman, and The Tao of Psychology.
303 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
About the author
Jean Shinoda Bolen
54 books426 followersJean Shinoda Bolen, M. D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing’s "Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing Award". She is a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
March 6, 2010
I have re-read this book many, many times since I was about 16 years old. Not just for women in mid-life.
October 10, 2021
2021
Tomorrow I am giving this book to my student who has the healing nature of a curandera. She has a calm healing nature. She works as a dental assistant, a healing occupation.
Before giving her the book, I have quickly reviewed/reread the book again. Once again I am floored. Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen talks a bit, just a bit, about synchronicity. And synchronicity I have experienced today in reviewing the book. While I am giving this book to my student so she can benefit from it as she enters middle age, I find that I benefit too. Isn't that often the way with teaching? As for me, I plan to read a chunk of fantasy and science fiction next year. In Shinoda Bolen's book, I find chapter-length discussions that apply in most general terms to much of SFandF and more specifically to SFandF which has female heroes. Discussions include--in most general forms--archetypal or spiritual
Journey
Mysteries
Pilgrimage
Pilgrims
Otherworld
Motherworld
Landscape
Forest
Wasteland
Circumambulation
Greening of the Wasteland
Sacred places
Mother Earth
Return
Definitely worth a complete reread before starting my SFandF study next year.
2015
Wow. I read this book in middle age, and felt floored and filled. As an older woman, I am floored and filled.
Tomorrow I am giving this book to my student who has the healing nature of a curandera. She has a calm healing nature. She works as a dental assistant, a healing occupation.
Before giving her the book, I have quickly reviewed/reread the book again. Once again I am floored. Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen talks a bit, just a bit, about synchronicity. And synchronicity I have experienced today in reviewing the book. While I am giving this book to my student so she can benefit from it as she enters middle age, I find that I benefit too. Isn't that often the way with teaching? As for me, I plan to read a chunk of fantasy and science fiction next year. In Shinoda Bolen's book, I find chapter-length discussions that apply in most general terms to much of SFandF and more specifically to SFandF which has female heroes. Discussions include--in most general forms--archetypal or spiritual
Journey
Mysteries
Pilgrimage
Pilgrims
Otherworld
Motherworld
Landscape
Forest
Wasteland
Circumambulation
Greening of the Wasteland
Sacred places
Mother Earth
Return
Definitely worth a complete reread before starting my SFandF study next year.
2015
Wow. I read this book in middle age, and felt floored and filled. As an older woman, I am floored and filled.
September 7, 2011
As someone else said in her review, you don't have to be at midlife (or a woman, for that matter) to enjoy this book. Jean Shinoda Bolen takes on a tour of some of the ancient mystical Goddess sites of Europe. I have been to these sites many times, and it was nice to take a trip back there with Bolen and observe the different feelings she felt on her journeys. It was hard for me not to get a little depressed, as I always do, at the almost complete annihilation of matrifocal worship in our world's history, but Bolen reminds us with this offering that it is essential that we all tell our psychic/spiritual/dream stories of "remembering" that history for ourselves.
January 28, 2013
Actually, I just started this today 4/21/12. I had only read the Preface when I posted and I picked it up today and read to the fourth chapter. I'm torn between this book and everything else that calls for my attention -- one very good reason to dive in! It's about just that -- participating in an archetypal inner journey that transforms one's life in the outside world. That transformation is described -- and through the Grail Legend, no less -- in a way that rings so true and is so pertinent to me that synchronicity once again proves the power of the intuition.
Bolen's work in Women's Spirituality adds another impetus to this study -- towards incorporating essential feminine wisdom into the cultural and political spheres even as one becomes able to deepen the very personal experience of life. I will do my best to finish this weekend. I won't have to try; the only effort required will be warding off the doubts telling me it's not worth the time. This one surely is, for me!
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4/23/12
And yes, this book was my guide on a 3-day pilgrimage, one that helped me regain connection with soul-saving energies through the network of sacred light -- the Woman at the heart of all Women. A gracious, articulate and wise companion, Jean Shinoda Bolen weaves a beautiful and useful fabric of stories that animate the darkness, the wasteland, the forest and the shrine of the Goddess. And gives them all meaning in the context of our personal and collective lives. Yes!
Bolen's work in Women's Spirituality adds another impetus to this study -- towards incorporating essential feminine wisdom into the cultural and political spheres even as one becomes able to deepen the very personal experience of life. I will do my best to finish this weekend. I won't have to try; the only effort required will be warding off the doubts telling me it's not worth the time. This one surely is, for me!
------------------------------------------------------
4/23/12
And yes, this book was my guide on a 3-day pilgrimage, one that helped me regain connection with soul-saving energies through the network of sacred light -- the Woman at the heart of all Women. A gracious, articulate and wise companion, Jean Shinoda Bolen weaves a beautiful and useful fabric of stories that animate the darkness, the wasteland, the forest and the shrine of the Goddess. And gives them all meaning in the context of our personal and collective lives. Yes!
October 30, 2011
Hmm, what to say about this book. I liked a lot of the ideas the author had, but by no means all of them. Sometimes I felt like she was generalizing too much in her analysis of peoples lives. People frequently (myself included) make statements and use the word "everyone" carelessly. This felt more deliberate then that, as if she truly felt that every single woman should feel this way, and have such and such understanding of the world. I am glad I read it, and agreed with the general feeling of the book, but I think the author took the application of her philosophies to other peoples lives a little too far.
March 19, 2015
This book takes you on a magical journey from the very first page. It will make you honor your inner self as a woman. This is a book to be savored and I will continue to read it to reinforce my sense of self worth as a beautiful soul, called woman. It is written in such a way as to make you think and ponder life in general. This book will be on my nightstand, along with my Bible and my daily affirmations. I highly recommend this book and I would like to thank my wonderful friend Christine, for introducing me to this amazing book. Read this book!
March 3, 2008
The author is a jungian analyst (psychiatrist affiliated with UCSF). She has written a variety of interesting books. I enjoyed this one because of her focus on mid-life, the divine feminine and Glastonbury, England - which is a town (and Tor) we have enjoyed.
Read
August 4, 2011Some parts are fascinating, and some parts seem to lack focus and drag on. Definitely still worth a read, but read Goddesses in Everywoman first.
April 16, 2023
Vejam a minha opinião em vídeo, AQUI.
September 15, 2016
While "Crossing to Avalon" is completely and utterly in my wheel house and unofficial Celtic studies, I found fault in a great many things I can barely name all in one review. in "Goddesses in Everywoman," Bolen does have a knack for understanding and analyzing archetypes beneficial to the topic at hand. My biggest issue, as the child abuse survivor that I am, is presuming in journalistic inclined statements generalizing the experience in one sentence then mea culpa-ing that statement up until the end of the chapter!
As a fan of Celtic (source) literature, I was also very disappointed in Bolen's overall argument every time she placed in a Mists of Avalon reference, but especially tweaking the Rites of Beltane on page 134 into a journalist inclination to expand on the masculine relationship with the Goddess that goes far deeper than the "gateway" literature that is MZB's finest. Is it more important to use literature to drive the point or the very well research behind it from people who once lived?
To water down my opinion on the book as a whole: this is a book for the 101 interest in the Celtic or for the woman in the book. if I wasn't a writer or have the interest in the Celtic studies, I wouldn't find fault in this at all. Hell, when spiritual affirmation statements come up, I quite like it. But the form itself is clunky, weaving in and out of her own spiritual experience and the research to only come back to the overall story or specifics. Book motion sickness that can only be done right if you're Anne Carson (imho). I wanted to love this and especially as someone who has entered the Celtic world via Mists of Avalon, something beautiful and spiritual deserves something streamlined. But perhaps that's the point in Bolen's experience in the book, its episodic, a little messy, but beautiful in its core and intent.
As a fan of Celtic (source) literature, I was also very disappointed in Bolen's overall argument every time she placed in a Mists of Avalon reference, but especially tweaking the Rites of Beltane on page 134 into a journalist inclination to expand on the masculine relationship with the Goddess that goes far deeper than the "gateway" literature that is MZB's finest. Is it more important to use literature to drive the point or the very well research behind it from people who once lived?
To water down my opinion on the book as a whole: this is a book for the 101 interest in the Celtic or for the woman in the book. if I wasn't a writer or have the interest in the Celtic studies, I wouldn't find fault in this at all. Hell, when spiritual affirmation statements come up, I quite like it. But the form itself is clunky, weaving in and out of her own spiritual experience and the research to only come back to the overall story or specifics. Book motion sickness that can only be done right if you're Anne Carson (imho). I wanted to love this and especially as someone who has entered the Celtic world via Mists of Avalon, something beautiful and spiritual deserves something streamlined. But perhaps that's the point in Bolen's experience in the book, its episodic, a little messy, but beautiful in its core and intent.
January 3, 2017
"Take what you need and leave the rest." That's what Al-Anon says. I found plenty to leave in Crossing to Avalon but quite enough to take as well. I don't entirely buy the Goddess concept, for I have long determined that my Roman Catholic triune God definitely has a feminine component, aka the Holy Spirit or Holy Wisdom. Yet much of Bolen's very personal memoir is enlightening and - no disrespect here - entertaining.
November 6, 2009
I just couldn't get through this. I thought the subject material was interesting, but her writing style does not jive with me. It felt choppy and monotone, and read more like a textbook than something written about an inspiring, life-affirming journey. I tried and tried to finish this and finally gave up.
February 29, 2020
“Living for at least five thousand years in cultures where there is no Goddess, no reverence for childbearing and childrearing, where dominating the earth and women is theologically sanctioned... any woman, no matter how personally privileged, is spiritually oppressed.”
A few really fascinating ideas to incorporate into my personal theology. Some parts were a little far out.
A few really fascinating ideas to incorporate into my personal theology. Some parts were a little far out.
January 3, 2009
For those of us who search for expression of the Divine Feminine, Jean Shinoda Bolin shines a light.
November 28, 2009
A bit "woo woo" but interesting non the less.
September 21, 2020
I enjoyed this book because I am a spiritual pilgrim! I plan to visit all of the places the author mentions for similar reasons. The book is a great staring point for someone in the beginning of their pilgrimage search. I enjoyed the descriptions very much, but they are only a brief encapsulation - her personal journey was distracting for me - but completely understand why she shared it. It is affirming for those in that place in their lives.
December 23, 2020
Brilliant, soulful, deeply moving - a beautiful expression of mythic understanding on a personal and transpersonal level.
March 21, 2013
The description of how she started her journey prepares the reader for a magical journey, and leads the reader to believe it'll be equal parts magic, description, theory, history, and adventure. Her book circuitously hits some of those points but inconsistently.
The Author is a highly-thinking therapist moving steadily into heart-opening and mystery -- and this journey is very moving at times, but in a subdued manner. There's smaller revelations that add up, rather than a few building with a sense of adventure towards those few. So it doesn't read like a Novel, even though you think it *might* initially. Be prepared for Theory and Examples.
There's a big chunk in the middle that talks at length about the wounded Fisher King. I have to admit I sincerely began to overlay this woundedness over my own personal template and consider all the various journeys and my approaches I have taken. What ails thee? This is the big question. Ask it humbly and sincerely.
I wanted more about ley lines and how magic builds up there. And what the forces are behind them and how it affects our lives, journeyperson's lives...i.e., people that decide to do these physical Quests. I *loved* the section on Glastonbury and want to go there. A bit of a tease, because we don't find out a lot about its history; just enough in relation to the few meditative rituals she participated in. Enough to make you want to attempt it yourself.
Ditto for Findhorn. Ditto for Chartres Cathedral, too.
The writing style can be dry for long stretches when Ms. Bolen talks about examples of people's wounds in her Therapeutic practice. There are times she drifts far from her personal story and includes too many examples of others we haven't gotten to know that well...and it is in those parts that it starts to read too Clinical. Unfortunately there's a good half of the book that is like that; I personally still found it worth it and intellectually stimulating, though those parts definitely could have been edited and consolidated (some examples definitely felt repetitive), with personal connections and the context and details of the actual holy spots she visited -- expanded and filled with more excitement and emotional description (Meat!) to chew on.
I really feel that approach would best illustrate and support her passion for people hunting out their wounds and finding their Temple, which, she points out may well be hidden in the mist. (That reminds me, she speaks highly of and references quite frequently The Mists of Avalon. I definitely want to grab that book, too.) Thanks for the journey, Jean! Important allies and tools along the way. I am thankful.
The Author is a highly-thinking therapist moving steadily into heart-opening and mystery -- and this journey is very moving at times, but in a subdued manner. There's smaller revelations that add up, rather than a few building with a sense of adventure towards those few. So it doesn't read like a Novel, even though you think it *might* initially. Be prepared for Theory and Examples.
There's a big chunk in the middle that talks at length about the wounded Fisher King. I have to admit I sincerely began to overlay this woundedness over my own personal template and consider all the various journeys and my approaches I have taken. What ails thee? This is the big question. Ask it humbly and sincerely.
I wanted more about ley lines and how magic builds up there. And what the forces are behind them and how it affects our lives, journeyperson's lives...i.e., people that decide to do these physical Quests. I *loved* the section on Glastonbury and want to go there. A bit of a tease, because we don't find out a lot about its history; just enough in relation to the few meditative rituals she participated in. Enough to make you want to attempt it yourself.
Ditto for Findhorn. Ditto for Chartres Cathedral, too.
The writing style can be dry for long stretches when Ms. Bolen talks about examples of people's wounds in her Therapeutic practice. There are times she drifts far from her personal story and includes too many examples of others we haven't gotten to know that well...and it is in those parts that it starts to read too Clinical. Unfortunately there's a good half of the book that is like that; I personally still found it worth it and intellectually stimulating, though those parts definitely could have been edited and consolidated (some examples definitely felt repetitive), with personal connections and the context and details of the actual holy spots she visited -- expanded and filled with more excitement and emotional description (Meat!) to chew on.
I really feel that approach would best illustrate and support her passion for people hunting out their wounds and finding their Temple, which, she points out may well be hidden in the mist. (That reminds me, she speaks highly of and references quite frequently The Mists of Avalon. I definitely want to grab that book, too.) Thanks for the journey, Jean! Important allies and tools along the way. I am thankful.
December 18, 2018
The way out is the way in.
Bolen's tale of searching for meaning at midlife is distinguished by its veering off the beaten path onto another path that's equally beaten, but far less respected. Gifted by a patron with the funds to go on pilgrimage (!), Bolen tours significant goddess spirituality sites in Europe, including Glastonbury, Chartres, and Iona. Her struggle to make sense of midlife's difficulties plays out in her travels, heavily punctuated with ritual, ceremony, and heaps of grail imagery. It is, in short, the perfect memoir for women of similar inclinations (but fewer funds) to dream on and, perhaps, work through her own midlife muddles.
As a respected writer and scholar, Bolen definitely has the free time to undertake such journeys, which allows those of us with thinner pocketbooks to follow metaphorically in her footsteps and dream a while; our grails live in skyscrapers and public housing, but are no less real for all that. The tone is conversational and the narrative thread a bit rambly, almost as if you were having a cup of tea with the author and she were telling you all about her travels. Whether you're familiar with the mythology or not, the result is hypnotic; if you are not moved to consider your own path and journey as a result of reading, you're probably just not ready.
Recommended for all libraries based on the reputation of the author, and to make the collection more inclusive (Christian books still dominate publishing, so you need all the other good stuff you can get). A lovely book with which to while away a winter.
Bolen's tale of searching for meaning at midlife is distinguished by its veering off the beaten path onto another path that's equally beaten, but far less respected. Gifted by a patron with the funds to go on pilgrimage (!), Bolen tours significant goddess spirituality sites in Europe, including Glastonbury, Chartres, and Iona. Her struggle to make sense of midlife's difficulties plays out in her travels, heavily punctuated with ritual, ceremony, and heaps of grail imagery. It is, in short, the perfect memoir for women of similar inclinations (but fewer funds) to dream on and, perhaps, work through her own midlife muddles.
As a respected writer and scholar, Bolen definitely has the free time to undertake such journeys, which allows those of us with thinner pocketbooks to follow metaphorically in her footsteps and dream a while; our grails live in skyscrapers and public housing, but are no less real for all that. The tone is conversational and the narrative thread a bit rambly, almost as if you were having a cup of tea with the author and she were telling you all about her travels. Whether you're familiar with the mythology or not, the result is hypnotic; if you are not moved to consider your own path and journey as a result of reading, you're probably just not ready.
Recommended for all libraries based on the reputation of the author, and to make the collection more inclusive (Christian books still dominate publishing, so you need all the other good stuff you can get). A lovely book with which to while away a winter.
March 15, 2017
It's nice to add a book to my all time favorites shelf. It's been a long time since I've been able to do that!
This book was incredibly profound and was exactly what I've been looking for at this time in my life. Having become very interested in and involved in the Goddess movement..... or, push towards Feminine Divine consciousness, I found this book to be very balanced. It meant a lot to me that JSB finds a way to hold both God the Father and Mother Goddess in her heart in a real and balanced way.
I loved reading about her journey through the sacred Goddess sights in France and England. I have visited several of them already but want to return and add some of her other stops to my itinerary!
Jean Shinoda Bolen has a such a way of writing that you feel like you are having an afternoon of tea and sharing with a dear friend. She is absolutely honest, sincere, vulnerable, accessible. I just love her. I love her mission. I love the way her writing touches the reader and is inclusive of everyone.
Thank you so much for your journey and your writing, Jean Shinoda Bolen! You are truly a mentor and an inspiration!
This book was incredibly profound and was exactly what I've been looking for at this time in my life. Having become very interested in and involved in the Goddess movement..... or, push towards Feminine Divine consciousness, I found this book to be very balanced. It meant a lot to me that JSB finds a way to hold both God the Father and Mother Goddess in her heart in a real and balanced way.
I loved reading about her journey through the sacred Goddess sights in France and England. I have visited several of them already but want to return and add some of her other stops to my itinerary!
Jean Shinoda Bolen has a such a way of writing that you feel like you are having an afternoon of tea and sharing with a dear friend. She is absolutely honest, sincere, vulnerable, accessible. I just love her. I love her mission. I love the way her writing touches the reader and is inclusive of everyone.
Thank you so much for your journey and your writing, Jean Shinoda Bolen! You are truly a mentor and an inspiration!
May 21, 2017
This book was kind of like an Eat, Love, Pray setup but a lot less exciting. I'd say it was not so heavy on her story, but more of a half and half-story to teaching ratio. She gave us a lot of analysis of the symbols in her journey, and didactic writing about the feminine hero's journey. If you've read her other books then it becomes a little repetitive. It was good to hear about her mystical experiences as she travels, and to learn about these sacred sites she traveled to. It reads very casually though, as if we're reading her journal entry. Its not very descriptive and exciting. So just don't expect a novel.
November 28, 2022
I loved this book. So much. Jean Shinoda Bolen is one of those people who, upon discovering her, I vowed to read every book she's ever written.
Even though my own midlife crisis didn't entail a pilgrimage to sacred sites around the world, she took me there in my mind. And she is just so relatable. This was one of those books that came to me through a series of synchronicities at exactly the right time. It helped me tremendously to identify what I had been through in the last few years as a crisis. But crisis brings opportunity.
Even though my own midlife crisis didn't entail a pilgrimage to sacred sites around the world, she took me there in my mind. And she is just so relatable. This was one of those books that came to me through a series of synchronicities at exactly the right time. It helped me tremendously to identify what I had been through in the last few years as a crisis. But crisis brings opportunity.
April 19, 2009
I enjoyed the way the author pointed out connections between pagan traditions and Christianity in this book, as well as the various ties/aspects of women's involvement. The reason I've rated it a 3 is because there are sections that are poorly written, and thus are somewhat difficult to understand. I would also like to have seen a basic description of the Grail myth at the beginning (for those of us who don't know much about it) since much of the book presupposes this knowledge.
March 10, 2011
I have a fondness for Bolen since she was on the vanguard of the goddess spirituality movement with 'Goddesses in Everywoman' in the mid-'80s. This book has some interesting personal insights, particularly when she contrasts the different spiritual encounters she has had with God vs. those with the Goddess. But overall, the book has a cerebral rather than spiritual tone & reads more like a psychology text (she's a Jungian analyst) on the symbolism of the Grail legend. So, eh.
February 7, 2015
Part memoir of spiritual awakening, part self help book. I expected it to be a bit more memoir than it actually was. It's definitely a useful book, though I didn't find it as engaging as I did Goddesses in Every Woman (by the same author). This would be of interest to anyone looking for their spiritual path or anyone interested in finding the goddess in themselves and in the world.
May 8, 2017
I found this book as a recommendation for an Iona retreat I will be attending this fall. I found the portions on Iona interesting as well as a couple of the French locations I have been to before. I was a fish out of water for much of the book. I also enjoyed the last chapter of the book.
May 9, 2019
4.5. I loved this book so, so much. Some of it seemed way off base, but most of it felt true to me, at least in the “I can see this as a possibility” way. Fit right into my theology as a woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and provided lots of interesting food for thought.
November 29, 2020
mm..meh. This is the kind of book that might have been meaningful to me about 20 years ago but now it's just not resonating with me.
May 4, 2023
This book was more psychological than I expected, but then again, the author is a psychiatrist and analyst so that would make sense. I had mistakenly assumed it would go into great detail about the author’s pilgrimages to Glastonbury, Findhorn, Lindisfarne, Iona and Chatres, and the book would be more of a travel story. Thus I was a bit disappointed. The author writes more about ancient Celtic myths of Perceval and the Grail, ancient Greek mythology, Marion Bradley’s best seller “Mists of Avalon”, women’s spirituality, and the goddess religion than her pilgrimage experiences. There was so much discussion about myths the book became a comparative literature treatise. These myths, though, serve as a helpful foundation to the reader who is unfamiliar with them. Bolen connects these myths to the middle aged woman in general and herself as a female going through a midlife crisis seeking a new course in her life, and how theses myths and pilgrimages awakened her discovery of women’s power and spirituality.
What I like very much about this book is that it examines patriarchy and matriarchy over time in society. It delivers a big punch to patriarchy, showing how toxic and detrimental it is to the world. This book is strongly feminist, which I really liked and reminded me of the 1970s feminists who similarly said the very same thing the author does. I also like how the book explains the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the story of Perceval, which I didn’t know before.
I found it interesting that a Japanese American woman who had been interred in a World War II camp would be drawn to such classic European stories. I like that these myths pulled her out of her midlife crisis and made her stronger and happier.
I hated when she used the term crone in describing older women. Although crone has been used for centuries, it was a real turnoff as to me it has a negative connotation.
Unfortunately the author bounces around too much for me, darting from the various myths, her own personal struggles and psychological journeys, then back to mythology and her pilgrimages across Northern Europe. She also repeats herself going back to the Grail story and Greek mythology, so at times the book was jumbled, went off tangent, and didn’t flow. I hung in there, hoping that she’d write more about her pilgrimage experiences. I almost quit reading the book as I became frustrated with her brief descriptions of her pilgrimages. And surprisingly enough not every pilgrimage made an impact on her but at least she is honest about that.
Bolen does successfully tie it all together at the end, relating psychology to these myths and her midlife crisis, suggesting that the way to heal is through women’s spirituality. By the time I finished the book, I felt satisfied and am interested in reading some of her other books.
What I like very much about this book is that it examines patriarchy and matriarchy over time in society. It delivers a big punch to patriarchy, showing how toxic and detrimental it is to the world. This book is strongly feminist, which I really liked and reminded me of the 1970s feminists who similarly said the very same thing the author does. I also like how the book explains the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the story of Perceval, which I didn’t know before.
I found it interesting that a Japanese American woman who had been interred in a World War II camp would be drawn to such classic European stories. I like that these myths pulled her out of her midlife crisis and made her stronger and happier.
I hated when she used the term crone in describing older women. Although crone has been used for centuries, it was a real turnoff as to me it has a negative connotation.
Unfortunately the author bounces around too much for me, darting from the various myths, her own personal struggles and psychological journeys, then back to mythology and her pilgrimages across Northern Europe. She also repeats herself going back to the Grail story and Greek mythology, so at times the book was jumbled, went off tangent, and didn’t flow. I hung in there, hoping that she’d write more about her pilgrimage experiences. I almost quit reading the book as I became frustrated with her brief descriptions of her pilgrimages. And surprisingly enough not every pilgrimage made an impact on her but at least she is honest about that.
Bolen does successfully tie it all together at the end, relating psychology to these myths and her midlife crisis, suggesting that the way to heal is through women’s spirituality. By the time I finished the book, I felt satisfied and am interested in reading some of her other books.
February 3, 2024
Thanks to Joseph Campbell (with an assist from George Lucas) most people are familiar with the Hero’s Journey. This is a tale in which a young person (usually a male) leaves home behind and sets out on a quest. There are other challenges for the hero to face later, but because these are more complex and nuanced, they don’t get as much attention. A young man fighting a dragon gives the CGI crew something to do and the film studio a poster to promote; a king brooding on his throne and privately counseling doubts is a little less cinematic.
Author and M.D. Jean Shinoda concerns herself not just with the less examined “middle period” of the hero’s life, but its feminine aspects. She is obviously a woman, and relates female mythic archetypes to her own experiences, but men should not be dissuaded from reading the book. Her grasp of mythology—especially its Jungian and Campbellian glosses—is very good. She also proves a companionable tour guide as she leads the reader through various historic sites she visited, associated with myths.
She’s on shakier ground when she makes blanket assertions without footnotes, and really goes offtrack when it comes to the parapsychological, things like morphic resonance and ley lines. An open mind doesn’t mean an undiscerning mind—that’s a gaping mind, caused by head trauma. And even if one is willing to countenance the parapsychic (or supernatural), their endorsement shouldn’t be mixed in with the falsifiable and concrete.
The numinous, the platonic, and the ding an sich may in fact be real things, as real or realer than me sitting here typing this. One may even, as I think Mircea Eliade once claimed, step across a threshold between the mundane and the sacred, Kronos time into Kairos time. One may even be able to use the entering of literal historical and archeological sites to instantiate this magic, as Shinoda claims to do.
And to consider the study of the magical and the animist—their history and their effect—on human civilization is no crime. There’s in fact a lot to be gained from the study. But an ought cannot be derived by an is, even when one claims their pseudoscience and pseudohistory are counteracting a historical lineage of patriarchal oppression and iconoclasm. In other words, I’m not willing to countenance an actual goddess’s immanence for the same reason I’m not willing to burn a woman as a witch. Even if she claims she’s a witch. Nor does the iconoclast’s act of dashing the statues of the conquered make their own statues the true gods. That men started it by trying to efface and rewrite the matriarchal myths in their own image doesn’t mean restoring those lost myths makes them real.
A fascinating read, and by no means a waste of time on my part, but I’d feel ethically wrong pretending its assumptions didn’t grate at times.
Author and M.D. Jean Shinoda concerns herself not just with the less examined “middle period” of the hero’s life, but its feminine aspects. She is obviously a woman, and relates female mythic archetypes to her own experiences, but men should not be dissuaded from reading the book. Her grasp of mythology—especially its Jungian and Campbellian glosses—is very good. She also proves a companionable tour guide as she leads the reader through various historic sites she visited, associated with myths.
She’s on shakier ground when she makes blanket assertions without footnotes, and really goes offtrack when it comes to the parapsychological, things like morphic resonance and ley lines. An open mind doesn’t mean an undiscerning mind—that’s a gaping mind, caused by head trauma. And even if one is willing to countenance the parapsychic (or supernatural), their endorsement shouldn’t be mixed in with the falsifiable and concrete.
The numinous, the platonic, and the ding an sich may in fact be real things, as real or realer than me sitting here typing this. One may even, as I think Mircea Eliade once claimed, step across a threshold between the mundane and the sacred, Kronos time into Kairos time. One may even be able to use the entering of literal historical and archeological sites to instantiate this magic, as Shinoda claims to do.
And to consider the study of the magical and the animist—their history and their effect—on human civilization is no crime. There’s in fact a lot to be gained from the study. But an ought cannot be derived by an is, even when one claims their pseudoscience and pseudohistory are counteracting a historical lineage of patriarchal oppression and iconoclasm. In other words, I’m not willing to countenance an actual goddess’s immanence for the same reason I’m not willing to burn a woman as a witch. Even if she claims she’s a witch. Nor does the iconoclast’s act of dashing the statues of the conquered make their own statues the true gods. That men started it by trying to efface and rewrite the matriarchal myths in their own image doesn’t mean restoring those lost myths makes them real.
A fascinating read, and by no means a waste of time on my part, but I’d feel ethically wrong pretending its assumptions didn’t grate at times.
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