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

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 320 pages
• Published by: HarperOne February 3, 1995
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0062502727
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0062502728
• Book Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 6.4 ounces

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 lady 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.

Reader 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.