The Feminine Face of God: Pandora's Box?

The Feminine Face of God

In this book, one of the great points the authors make is that in most heroic tales involving men, opening the secret door to knowledge leads to wisdom and maturity and dreams coming true. But for women, the secret key (or secret knowledge) opens the door to a world of trouble!

"Portrayals of women as the holders of keys to locked doors behind which lie demoniacal forces, sin, and death abound in our myths and stories, both sacred and secular. And the message that these stories communicate is that women are innately connected with evil and darkness: when our questioning leads us to oppose male authority and open closed doors, all humankind must forever suffer for our disobedience. Is this the lesson we'd learned about the consequences of asking questions, we wondered?" ~~p.80

Indeed! And is that the truth about how things work in our world?

Perhaps we do face "trouble" when we ask questions, decide to determine our own spirituality, or reject a mainstream spiritual viewpoint. But it is nothing like the forecast above or that we learned in myths.

And in this book, they tell the stories of women who forged ahead, asking anyway. Who developed spiritual practices that worked for them and created a spirituality that empowered and nurtured them.




I highly recommend this book! Thanks for letting me share it with you this month.

Have a great day!

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What would it be like to design a daily spiritual practice

that's perfect for you because it's based on
who you are at the core?

Take the Mystic Quiz and discover the mystic within

who has been waiting to be found.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Feminine Face of God: Leaving Home

The Feminine Face of God

The women at Your Inner Goddess Circle are reading this book, too, and in this video, Megan continues the discussion we started last week about how spiritual growth and transformation often starts with a profoundly disruptive loss of what once made you feel secure. The promise is that eventually, just as is sometimes true with knitting or other craft projects, what is being pulled apart will be put back together in a new, even stronger, better way.

Have you experienced that kind of tearing apart to be remade new in any area of your life? I have experienced it almost every time my faith or beliefs shifted in a major way. I completely agree about both how disruptive and disturbing it is in the beginning, and how the end process feels like a better creation than what I had before.

Has it been that way for you, too? 

"Each woman leaves home in her own way. However, each of the women whose stories we have told found ways to be faithful to what was coming into form and emerging from within them. Moreover, this faithfulness did not spring from any idealized notion of what she should do or be or believe. It came through risking 'encounters at the edgelessness of reality,' as Meinrad Craighead puts it, 'facing the anxiety of the uncertain and ambiguous' and learning to trust the process unfolding through her own life." ~~p.71 

Have a great day!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

What would it be like to design a daily spiritual practice

that's perfect for you because it's based on
who you are at the core?

Take the Mystic Quiz and discover the mystic within

who has been waiting to be found.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Feminine Face of God & Total Disruption

The Feminine Face of God

One of the issues the authors examine in this book is the difficulty we sometimes face as women in transitioning from attending towhat we've been told about spirituality, about God, about life and the way the world works, to listening to our own inner wisdom...

"...another reason why it is so difficult for women to trust their own truth and why it has taken us so long to begin our search for spiritual authenticity: We might have to let go of certain 'authoritative truths' which, even if we cannot make them fit with our experience, have nevertheless given us a sense of security." ~~p.18

"What we have learned over the past four years is that stripping away the layers of encultured patriarchal values and beliefs is a profoundly disruptive process. One reason for this is that when we let go of authoritative truths that have made us feel secure in the past, what arises in their place is great uncertainty." ~~p. 18

But they go on to say that the willingness to go through that disruptive process is what created such profound transformation for so many of the women they interviewed.

Have you experienced that kind of transition or disruptive process in your own spiritual life?

Have a great day!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

What would it be like to design a daily spiritual practice

that's perfect for you because it's based on
who you are at the core?

Take the Mystic Quiz and discover the mystic within

who has been waiting to be found.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Feminine Face of God: A Gift of Knowing

The Feminine Face of God

I am reading this wonderful book along with the women of the Your Inner Goddess Circle and each week they have had thoughts and questions for us to ponder as we read along.

"What if you we were given a gift?  A gift of knowing how to develop your spirituality in a way that you see fit – following your heart and soul to guide you." ~~Your Inner Goddess Circle

"You will be the teachers for each other. You will come together in circles and speak your truth to each other. The time has come for women to accept their spiritual responsibility..." ~~The Feminine Face of God, p.4

Do you have a sisterhood or circle of women to nurture your spirituality?

Have a great day!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

What would it be like to design a daily spiritual practice

that's perfect for you because it's based on
who you are at the core?

Take the Mystic Quiz and discover the mystic within

who has been waiting to be found.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Feminine Face of God

The Feminine Face of God

Now Reading...

 Running the gamut from Anglicanism to Zen, psychologist Anderson and consultant Hopkins present an uncritical examination of uniquely feminine aspects of faith. Offering a complex, densely layered montage, based on extensive interviews with over one hundred women--each of whom has "found her own direct relationship with the divine or the real''- -the authors seek to extend studies positing a distinctly feminine moral development to a consideration of "the way women experience the sacred in their lives." Included are ministers, rabbis, priests, nuns, and former nuns (both Christian and Vedantic), spiritual healers, tribal elders, and contemplatives, working variously as therapists, teachers, writers, artists, and social activists, and all meeting a basic requirement of striving to "embody" their beliefs "in everyday life.'" Most compelling within this spiritual supermarket are several detailed looks at individual quests...~~Kirkus Review

Want to join me? I'd love to discuss it with you!

Have a great day!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

What would it be like to design a daily spiritual practice

that's perfect for you because it's based on
who you are at the core?

Take the Mystic Quiz and discover the mystic within

who has been waiting to be found.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~