Crossing to Avalon: Woman's Midlife Pilgrimage, A
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...
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A MIDLIFE QUEST FOR THE GRAIL AND THE GODDESSDr 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 San Francisco Chronicle “[Bolen] charts a path that will lead many readers to the heart of their own emotional and spiritual pilgrimages.”
Invitation: Pilgrimage \ I opened the bulky envelope that had come in the day's mail and found an invitation that would change my life. A total stranger was inviting me on a pilgrimage. She intended that I might "experience my spiritual sources" and so was proposing a pilgrimage to the sacred sites in Europe. I recognized the names of some of the places she suggested I visit -- Chartres Cathedral in France; Glastonbury, England; and Iona, an island off the coast of northern Scotland. And she had timed the trip so that I could meet the Dalai Lama, who would be in the Netherlands when I arrived. The packet contained the letter of invitation, dated February 6, 1986, from Mrs. Elinore Detiger of the Tiger Trust, the Netherlands; a check ; and a beautiful handmade gold pendant in the shape of a vesica piscis. I would later find that this was the same design as on the wellhead of the Chalice Well at Glastonbury, the well in which the Grail was once supposedly hidden.\ Glastonbury, England, was a place that had been alive in my imagination for years, ever since I had a dream through which I made a connection with this site. Here exist the ruins of what was once the greatest Christian abbey in Britain, which was reputed to be the site of the first humble church to be consecrated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, Glastonbury was also the fictional location where one could cross through the mists to Avalon, the realm of the Goddess.\ This amazing gift of pilgrimage actually had its origins in Glastonbury, where through a series of coincidental events, my book Goddesses in Everywoman had reached Mrs. Detiger. A woman from Glastonbury had visited San Francisco several months before and had been given a copy of Goddesses in Everywoman by a friend who also knew me. She had then taken it back to Glastonbury and was in the midst of reading it when Mrs. Detiger paid her a visit, discovered the book, and decided to bring its author to Europe.
Preface 1. Invitation: Pilgrimage 2. Meeting: The Dalai Lama 3. Quickening: Chartres Cathedral 4. The Grail Legend: The Spiritual Journey 5. Women's Mysteries and the Grail 6. Pilgrimage to Glastonbury 7. Sister Pilgrims: Glastonbury Tales 8. Avalon: Otherworld and Motherworld 9. In the Forest: Midlife Landscape 10. The Wasteland: Depression and Despair 11. Circumambulation: London 12. The Greening of the Wasteland: Findhorn 13. Musings: Iona and Other Sacred Places 14. Holy Island: Mother Earth 15. Down to Earth: Return Acknowledgments References Index
\ Alice Walker"[W]ise and challenging...an absorbing, often uncannily perceptive, and useful companion for the soul journeys of our time."\ \ \ \ \ San Francisco Chronicle"[Bolen] charts a path that will lead many readers to the heart of their own emotional and spiritual pilgrimages."\ \ \ San Francisco Chronicle“[Bolen] charts a path that will lead many readers to the heart of their own emotional and spiritual pilgrimages.”\ \
