Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman

by Gabrielle Roth

Book by Roth, Gabrielle

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Psychology, Bodies, Self Help, Paganism, Personal Growth

170 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Gabrielle Roth was a musician, author, music director, dancer, philosopher and recording artist in the world music and trance dance genres, with a special interest in shamanism.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago at the beginning of my Nia training. I enjoyed it then and got lots out of it AND re-reading it years later after dancing the 5Rhythms regularly, it makes even more sense and the wisdom of this work comes through even more clearly. Read it, but more importantly, dance it.

[Caitlin H · Rating 1 out of 5]

Took this off my shelf because i've decided i'm not going to finish it. It already made me roll my eyes numerous times, & Roth's holier-than-thou tone grated on my nerves so. Much. She had made good points about anger & its validity, but she sure as hell lost me when she talked about her version of compassion, which didn't include meeting people where they were at the moment, but demanding they come up on her physical level-- which was also a way of saying "I think you need to grow up & stop wallowing." How is it that Roth ~knew~ whether or not that person was "wallowing"? That's not compassion, that's that holier-than-thou attitude coming right to the fore. Instead of offering real compassion, she demanded-- forced-- immediate change from a person who was hurting. That's not true compassion.

I also side-eyed the beginning of the third chapter, where Roth insists that we all go through the same life stages & have the same "sacred teachers" at each stage, the first two being "mother" & "father". Can you get anymore rigidly heterosexual? Even aside from that, what about all the people who maybe have only one parent? Or none? Who are raised by other guardians? What about those of us who have a parent walk out on us, whether when we're young or older? Claiming we all have the "same teachers" is extremely narrow-minded & erases many people & life experiences. And saying "mother/father figure(s)" doesn't change this fact.

What really did it for me was the phrase "we're all suffering from emotional AIDS." This book was published in the '80s during the AIDS crisis, for fuck's sake; throwing the disease around for ~impact~ or whatever is disgusting & insulting to all the lives lost from actual AIDS. You don't get to take a highly stigmatized disease, one that at the time was thought to only affect an already stigmatized grouping of people, & one that at the time meant almost certain death if contracted, & apply it to something like this. I literally threw the book away from me when i read that, i was so done & disgusted. It shows a huge lack of respect & decency on Roth's part, & starkly shows her cishet privilege. Only someone so unaffected by true AIDS could have had the gall to use it as a metaphor. And if she had friends who were affected by it, that doesn't change the fact that she should have known better. In fact, it makes it worse.

I went into this book really hoping i would like it, really hoping it would offer me healing in some way. Instead, i avoided reading it as much as possible because it irritated me so much. I kept giving it "another chance" over & over, hoping i might find something worthwhile in it, but after that "emotional AIDS" statement, i'm flat-out done with this book. I lost any respect i might have had for Roth when i read that (& i already was side-eyeing her a ton because of her attitude & tone throughout the book). I'm not going to drag myself through an unreadable book by someone who clearly thought so well of herself that among other things she could demand suffering people meet her where she was (instead of vice versa) & claim that's compassion; as well as thinking it was perfectly okay to freely throw around the concept of AIDS, with no regard to the people suffering (& dying) from the disease & the huge stigmatization of it.

[Bennett Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

swept me away... I got this book after doing a 5 rhythm workshop... the workshop blew me away... the practice enlivens me and makes me happy... the book revealed to me why I have throughout my entire life (I'm now 72 years old) chosen dance and movement as a way to break through my conditioned, rigid patterns and taste the joy of the bliss that is what we are.

Gabielle is the real deal... and her 5 rhythm practice and her books are about much more than a dance. She offers the reader and the practitioner of the 5 rhythms a way to find and embody our eternal selves... our true nature.

Read her books if you like, but as Gabrielle advises us,"Dance your dance - If you don't dance your dance, who will?" Gabrielle's passed on now... but she lives in her words and her dance... which are simply an invitation for us to come alive... and offers a way to allow that to happen.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book to read in the last couple of weeks of December, the time of reviewing the old year and setting intentions for the new. Gabrielle Roth was a very wise woman. I look forward to reading her other books.

[Vladimir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Her life would be a good subject for a biography (nudist adventures with Fritz Pearls and dancing with Gregory Bateson are enough for this nerd to buy the book); her 5Rhythms workshops are probably profoundly important to those how attend. However, this book is not good. Writing lacks rhythm (wink wink nudge nudge) and she doesn't really know how to get her point across. What she describes are transformative experiences comes off as boring or just overstated, not to use stronger words. I assume it's because as a dancer she'd be more comfortable using other ways of expressing herself.
It's readable, interesting on occasion but largely new agey, full of chliches and worn out phrases.

[Amy Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Gabrielle's book after getting involved with a 5 Ryhythms class. What an amazing and talented force of nature Gabrielle was. I wasn't even expecting her to be such a great writer. This is a must read not only for anyone who's been touched by Gabrielle's spirit through conscious dance but for anyone interested in expanding your consciousness and learning more about the amazing art form of dance.

[Malvolio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmmm. I really like Gabrielle Roth. I like dancing to her music. And I like reading her books. This one, as well as Sweat Your Prayers. Very good teaching, leading rehearsal techniques. I dig it. Chilled me out and made me want to move and teach and change the world. Good stuff.

[Alona Perlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed some parts of this book, but it was a little too broad! I wasn't sure what the common threat of book was. It was beautifully written, but lacked focus. I'm saddened to hear that Gabrielle Roth passed away last year. I heard she was an inspired dancer!

[Edward Amato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this was like visiting a Lon lost friend. I was introduced many years ago to G.R.'s work and it was an epiphany for someone who carried a lot shame, bad self image and anger. I was blessed to be able to meet Gabrielle in Seattle and understood what it was like to be in the presence of an "illuminated soul." Years have passed since then and I have lost touch . A friend gave me this book and it has reawakened those gifts that this amazing woman has shared.
I had also learned that GR had died in 2012. Made the reading bittersweet and even more relevant to her message. Live now!

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book several years ago when I was first introduced to 5Rhythms but now that I have been practicing on a more regular basis I feel that Roth's explanation of the various maps makes so much more sense. And the truth is that as others have said reading the words is only a small sliver of the work-- you need to dance and move your body to come to understand the maps.

[Assem Elsheemy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two or three chapters were amazing... Every word made me wanna step up and dance!

The rest of the book is Gabrielle's advice about life, emotions and spirit. I am not spiritual in any sense, so I did not enjoy this part at all.

[Theremin Poisoning · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's as if the school counselor from Heathers and Professor Trelawney wrote a new age self help musical. Not my speed at all.
"Life is sacred. Life is art. Life is sacred art. The art of sacred living means being a holy actor, acting from the soul rather than the ego. The soul is out of space and time and hence always available, an ever-present potential of our being. It is up to each of us to celebrate and to actualize our being, and to turn each meal, conversation, outfit, letter, and so on, into art. Every mundane activity is an opportunity for full, authentic self-expression. The soul is our artistic self, our capacity for transforming every dimension of our lives into art and theater."

I guess it reminds me of the know-it-all voice of so many Boomer hippies advising X-ers through the 1990s. No thanks. Your experience does not apply to mine.

ALSO:
Includes the line, "We're all suffering from emotional AIDS" And in the next paragraph, she compares the experience of having an imperfect relationship with a parent to children in the Vietnam war.

I can't.

[Aelia]

As Gabrielle writes in the introduction of her first book, she always felt like an "obsessed cartographer surveying the geography of inner space" (p. xviii). Through her own work exploring the "uncharted interior" to observing the movements of her students, she came to see patterns that guided any dance. She came to believe that those guideposts (5 rhythms) were not individual but universal. They were an underlying structure of all experience and a "living language". She called them maps.

I am reading this book as my ongoing study of the five rhythms which I came to know and dance in 2019. I am reflecting on her approach in my blog https://experiential-dance.com/2022/0...

Writing is easy and not something that lovers of literature would look for. Despite it, it is a good source for those interested in dance as a movement practice, as a self-exploration/expression/healing method.

On another note, it is my aspiration to bring dance to more people eventually, perhaps I will do it as a teacher of 5 rhythms...

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabrielle Roth is a rare transcendent human. Her journey of healing herself and healing others through movement, and the way she sees and writes about life's journey in Maps to Ecstasy is truly unique

It was difficult to get through at times due to the abstract nature of her content, plus my own reading style (where I struggle to focus on the highly abstract), but well worth it. Because of this though I don't recommend it as the first book anyone should read if they're just embarking on their spiritual journey and don't have any experience or intuition about it, whether through dance or meditation

But for those who have ventured into dance or some other spiritual practice, and have taken steps along their spiritual journey this will definitely fill in the gaps and provide strong insights

[Cherie Kephart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, poetic, and raw, Maps to Ecstasy is less than a map and more of an intimate voyage equipped with an experienced guide. Gabrielle Roth unveils the rhythms of life through movement as she has come to know it, thrusting us into unseen places within ourselves so we can discover our own rhythm, our own healing. There were a few parts in the book that jarred me and with which I did not resonate. However, I feel that is a natural facet of being daring enough to expose our truths—which this author has done. Her language is engaging and invites us to venture into the recesses of our lost lives, waiting to be brought forth into the world, igniting our own unique living ecstasy.

[Amy GB · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came to the 5 Rhythms through actor training with a Pure Movement teacher. It's been a brilliant practice for me and I do it weekly with some friends. Thought this book would offer more about the practice, but it's mostly about how the philosophy of the practice connects with a larger worldview. And there are some beautiful, insightful gems of wisdom in here. But it's hard to disentangle them from the heteronormativity, woo-woo spirituality, and faux anthropology. I'm so for building non-religious spiritual practice. But this particular one doesn't suit me.

[Tim Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book on a off over 1 year and feel it’s a book I will come back to. As a 5 R dancer it was wonderful to get the structure behind the dance form and also how Gabrielle Roth applies the 5 states to so many other maps of life

For example:

Emotions —
Stages of life
5 R
Stages of being
Types of personas

And others — intuition

And more that I can’t recall

I will be returning to this book again

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just recently discovered 5 Rhythms dance as a movement practice. Gabrielle Roth is the creator and this book explains her psychological and healing framework for the practice. Her framework intuitively suits me and healing through movement is where I'm at in life at this moment. There is so much food for thought in these pages.

[Clay Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought the book to understand more about dance as a spiritual practice. And it did not disappoint. While the book is principally about movement, it's so much more than that. It's about healing, about spiritual philosophy, about being a modern day shaman. If you're into transformational practices in general and spiritual healing specifically, Maps to Ecstasy is a good choice.

[F J Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The seminal book by the founder of the 5 Rhythms method of dancing, which I have found quite liberating. Roth's mixture of autobiography, therapy and instruction is compelling; she has the force of a prophet and the vulnerability of the best autobiographers. A revelation.

[J Crossley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabrielle Roth transforms everyday life into art. She combines movement with healing. She talks about five sacred powers and five life cycles that we go through. This book works with these cycles by teaching you to free your body to heal.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. My experience with ecstatic dance drew me to this book of remarkable light, energy, and wisdom, from a woman remarkably so embodied: Gabrielle Roth, godmother of ecstatic dance, urban shaman, a master. Who I wish I’d been able to meet, and move with.

[Connor Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I needed for where I was at.

[Layna T · Rating 4 out of 5]

** 3.75 some problematic and aged concepts but i really enjoyed this overall

[Maryana Palamar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Espectacular!

[Marina Ricart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó. Fue el inicio de un viaje hacia mi cuerpo.

[andrés torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

me gustó que estuviera en primera persona, algunas partes se sentían como chisme, not my cup of tea tho

[Aleta · Rating 3 out of 5]

same review as "Sweat Your Prayers"

[Jean Marie Angelo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sorry she is gone. Read this years ago. Liked it. I did not love it.