Feminine face of God

Informationen zum Autor Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins Klappentext "An honest, compelling, surprising, and vastly reassuring book about the spiritual life of women . . . This landmark book is spiritual precisely because it is authentic."-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind With a foreword by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. For many contemporary women, the old patriarchal models of religion are no longer relevant, forming a need to look beyond the male-oriented past to a wider, more fulfilling spiritual horizon. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Sherry Anderson and Patricia Hopkins show how many women have redefined traditional beliefs and rediscovered their own unique spiritual heritage-The Feminine Face of God. Anderson and Hopkins guide you through the sacred garden of: • Childhood-seedbed of life's sacred passage • Leaving home-finding your own inner authority • Relationships-new perspectives on intimacy • Spiritual practice-the importance of guidance and discipline • Sexuality-a wild card constantly cracking open the heart • And much more As women enter their sacred garden and learn the art of inner listening, they acquire the tools for living, loving, and praying authentically. In The Feminine Face of God there are seeds for growth: for creating and sustaining intimacy and love in a new way; for a new understanding of sexuality; for a new vision of family, a family of choice in a community of love. Zusammenfassung An honest! compelling! surprising! and vastly reassuring book about the spiritual life of women . . . This landmark book is spiritual precisely because it is authentic.Joan Borysenko! Ph.D.! author of Minding the Body! Mending the Mind With a foreword by Jean Shinoda Bolen! M.D. For many contemporary women! the old patriarchal models of religion are no longer relevant! forming a need to look beyond the male-oriented past to a wider! more fulfilling spiritual horizon. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book! Sherry Anderson and Patricia Hopkins show how many women have redefined traditional beliefs and rediscovered their own unique spiritual heritage The Feminine Face of God. Anderson and Hopkins guide you through the sacred garden of: • Childhoodseedbed of life's sacred passage • Leaving homefinding your own inner authority • Relationshipsnew perspectives on intimacy • Spiritual practicethe importance of guidance and discipline • Sexualitya wild card constantly cracking open the heart • And much more As women enter their sacred garden and learn the art of inner listening! they acquire the tools for living! loving! and praying authentically. In The Feminine Face of God there are seeds for growth: for creating and sustaining intimacy and love in a new way; for a new understanding of sexuality; for a new vision of family! a family of choice in a community of love. ...

Auteur

Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins

Texte du rabat

"An honest, compelling, surprising, and vastly reassuring book about the spiritual life of women . . . This landmark book is spiritual precisely because it is authentic."-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

With a foreword by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D.

For many contemporary women, the old patriarchal models of religion are no longer relevant, forming a need to look beyond the male-oriented past to a wider, more fulfilling spiritual horizon. In this fascinating and thought-provoking book, Sherry Anderson and Patricia Hopkins show how many women have redefined traditional beliefs and rediscovered their own unique spiritual heritage-The Feminine Face of God. Anderson and Hopkins guide you through the sacred garden of:

• Childhood-seedbed of life's sacred passage
• Leaving home-finding your own inner authority
• Relationships-new perspectives on intimacy
• Spiritual practice-the importance of guidance and discipline
• Sexuality-a wild card constantly cracking open the heart
• And much more

As women enter their sacred garden and learn the art of inner listening, they acquire the tools for living, loving, and praying authentically. In The Feminine Face of God there are seeds for growth: for creating and sustaining intimacy and love in a new way; for a new understanding of sexuality; for a new vision of family, a family of choice in a community of love.

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter 1
THE QUESTION THAT WOULDN’T GO AWAY
 
Shekhinah. Shekhinah. The word simply popped into my mind like an uninvited guest and wouldn’t go away. At times it seemed to disappear, but then it would come again, quietly, this strange word—Shekhinah. It seemed to be waiting patiently for me to pay attention to it. After hearing it in my mind for three days I tried saying it out loud. “Shekhinah.” It had an interesting sound. And when I said it, I felt a soft tug somewhere deep inside.
 
I began to ask my friends if they knew what it meant. It sounded as if it could be Hebrew, but although I knew some Hebrew, it was not familiar to me. When my husband and friends were unable to help, I tried the library in our small town but found no answer there either. Shekhinah. Shekhinah. It was becoming more insistent now, demanding my attention.
 
Still puzzling over what it could mean, I was sitting in my bedroom one morning when my friend Joan hurried through the door. She strode across the room and thrust a book into my hands. “Let’s try this,” she said. I glanced down at the blue cover on which the word Kabbalah was written, and turned to the index. Running my finger quickly down the S. column, I read, “Shekhinah: the feminine face of God.”
 
The words sent shock waves rippling down my spine and goose flesh bristling on my bare arms because I realized at once that the Shekhinah was not an uninvited guest at all. She had been announced to me with great ceremony in a powerful dream a full month earlier.
 
In the dream, I happily soar high above the clouds on a great golden dragon until I wonder, “Is this all there is?” The dragon immediately descends to earth, alighting at the side of a jewellike temple on a large body of water. I want to enter the temple, but I’m afraid to go in alone. I turn back to the dragon, hoping it will come and protect me. But this temple is human-sized and the dragon will not fit through the door.
 
I begin to climb the stairs to the entrance anyway, and now I see a ferocious temple guardian with bulging eyes looming menacingly in the doorway. Black dogs snarl on either side of him. With uncharacteristic bravery I continue walking, and as I stride through the door the guardian and his dogs evaporate as if made of fog.
 
Once I’m inside the doorway, an old man with long robes and a white beard emerges from an inner hallway to greet me. Without actually speaking, he lets me know that his name is Melchizedek. He is wearing a handsome dagger with a handle of turquoise and jade, and as soon as I notice this he presents me with a matching dagger, indicating that I am to wear it on my right side. Then he motions me ahead of him. It is clear that he expects me to lead the way.
 
I step into a long hallway with a high ceiling and red tiles on the floor. Walking slowly, we eventually come to a pair of polished wooden doors at the end of the corridor. I open them silently and lead the way into a large, empty room. A plain wooden stage is set against the far wall. At the back of the stage is a built-in cabinet. I approach the cabinet and pull open the doors.
 
I am dumbfounded by what I see. Rolled onto finely carved wooden poles is the most sacred object in Judaism, the Torah. I learned as a…