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The Body Sacred
When you look in the mirror, do you see a Goddess? For anyone who's experienced a "fat day" or wished a doctor could make them younger, Wiccan Dianne Sylvan speaks candidly about overcoming body hatred and offers a spiritual path back to Divine femininity.
Sharing her own struggles with poor body image and self-acceptance, Sylvan explores how the impossible standard of female beauty has developed and endured. Emphasizing the Mother, the Healer, the Lover, and other archetypes of one's relationship with the sacred body, the author provides a uniquely Wiccan approach to achieving a healthy, new self-perception as Goddess.
Praise:
"This topical guide to reclaiming a positive self-image, which builds on foundations presented in Sylvan's earlier work and is written in a very personal and approachable style, is not imbued with self-help jargon and platitudes but with the author's hard-won self-respect and perspective."--LIBRARY JOURNAL
"Marrying cultural critique with user-friendly how-to, [Sylvan] urges readers to reject society's insistence that they spend countless hours and billions of dollars trying to look thin and youthful. Rather, says Sylvan, women should embrace their bodies for what they are--incarnations of the Goddess. Above all, this book is practical... What distinguishes this book more than anything is Sylvan's sense of humor--she's tackling a serious topic, but she'll have readers laughing from page one."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sharing her own struggles with poor body image and self-acceptance, Sylvan explores how the impossible standard of female beauty has developed and endured. Emphasizing the Mother, the Healer, the Lover, and other archetypes of one's relationship with the sacred body, the author provides a uniquely Wiccan approach to achieving a healthy, new self-perception as Goddess.
Praise:
"This topical guide to reclaiming a positive self-image, which builds on foundations presented in Sylvan's earlier work and is written in a very personal and approachable style, is not imbued with self-help jargon and platitudes but with the author's hard-won self-respect and perspective."--LIBRARY JOURNAL
"Marrying cultural critique with user-friendly how-to, [Sylvan] urges readers to reject society's insistence that they spend countless hours and billions of dollars trying to look thin and youthful. Rather, says Sylvan, women should embrace their bodies for what they are--incarnations of the Goddess. Above all, this book is practical... What distinguishes this book more than anything is Sylvan's sense of humor--she's tackling a serious topic, but she'll have readers laughing from page one."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
312 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2005
23 people are currently reading
502 people want to read
About the author
Dianne Sylvan
33 books626 followersDianne Sylvan, author of the Shadow World novels (Queen of Shadows, Shadowflame, Shadow’s Fall, the forthcoming Of Shadow Born, and at least one more) as well as two books on NeoPagan spirituality (The Circle Within: Creating a Wiccan Spiritual Tradition and The Body Sacred), lives in Austin, Texas, the only sane part of the entire state.
She is an unabashed Mac enthusiast, a froofy iced coffee beverage addict, a chronic Twitterer, a seasoned snark professional, a Spiritual Nomad, a shameless Vampire Diaries (TV) fangirl, a happy herbivore, a bit of a moody Scorpio, a sock junkie, a slightly freaky tattooed postmodern hippie, a cupcake baker extraordinaire, and is prone to hyperbole as well as fits of profanity.
When she’s not glued to the internet or writing about vampires, she works in the veterinary clinic and volunteers as bio writing coordinator for the animal rescue organization Austin Pets Alive.
She collects vegan cookbooks, wacky t-shirts, blank journals, obsessions, and dust.
She lives with two neurotic cats, Stella and Owen.
She is an unabashed Mac enthusiast, a froofy iced coffee beverage addict, a chronic Twitterer, a seasoned snark professional, a Spiritual Nomad, a shameless Vampire Diaries (TV) fangirl, a happy herbivore, a bit of a moody Scorpio, a sock junkie, a slightly freaky tattooed postmodern hippie, a cupcake baker extraordinaire, and is prone to hyperbole as well as fits of profanity.
When she’s not glued to the internet or writing about vampires, she works in the veterinary clinic and volunteers as bio writing coordinator for the animal rescue organization Austin Pets Alive.
She collects vegan cookbooks, wacky t-shirts, blank journals, obsessions, and dust.
She lives with two neurotic cats, Stella and Owen.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
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May 28, 2010this book changed my life. as a woman, i'm forced to believe that my outside appearance will never be good enough unless i'm photoshopped. dianne helped me realize that i shouldn't let this rule my life. my life is for me, for nature.
March 8, 2013
Since this book was written for Wiccans, a lot of the content, exercises and meditations had no particular relevance to myself as a non-Wiccan. My spirituality harbours a distinctly different worldview and thus clashes with all of the "we come from the Goddess," "chakras," and "four elements" stuff. However, much like Starhawk's The Earth Path (which I reviewed here), I was still able to look beyond the Wiccan concepts and gain something from the book.
First off, it's amazingly well-written in a fantastically conversational tone (which included sarcasm, win!) so reading it was indeed a pleasure. A few exercises like creating a list of inspirational women or self-pampering to get more in touch with your body and tend to it as sacred are things I felt would prove useful to myself, and really had nothing to do at all with spirituality and thus anyone could do them. The book is built around the archetypes of the Goddess (i.e., Mother, Healer, Lover, Dancer, and Crone) and while those were irrelevant to me, the information on health, sex, the way body image is attacked in media, and much more was all very applicable to myself.
Secondly, a couple lines from the book sort of whacked me upside the head and are quotes I really need to adopt as self-reminders when negative thoughts begin to take over. However, the cover of the book did bother me a little. In a book that is targeted at body image — and more matter-of-factly targeted to plus-size women (and the author herself being plus-size) — the cover features a nude thin person, which I found a bit antithetical. But, I know authors have no control over this so I just overlooked it.
I won't hesitate to recommend this to Wiccans.
July 27, 2019
One of the best books I have read about Wicca/Paganism as it relates to the body and the stages of life.
Full review here, including quotes and links. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lfam...
Full review here, including quotes and links. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lfam...
September 7, 2022
A must read especially for women with body image issues. It really opened my eyes and helped me on my journey.
December 28, 2023
should be retitled to book of white feminism
October 30, 2012
It took me a while to read this book, Not for the fact that it was bad, as you can see from my rating, I believe it was far from bad, but due to the fact that I got sidetracked by fiction and life.
I remember when I first started reading this book, my whole outlook on things started changing. I became more confident, more reflective and started to actually care about my body, my life and how society and others really sneak their way into how we think and feel about ourselves and our situations.
I love how truthful and blunt, yet understanding and caring Ms. Sylvan writes. There are many notes and quotes I have taken from this book, and in fact am in the midst of typing them and making a collage to help remind me of those key points that I found profound.
This book is definitely a keeper. Reread parts or all. Give thought to what you read and reread. Don't just mindlessly read it. This book can do so much to those who take the time to actually listen to not only Ms. Sylvan's voice, but those who have helped influence and teach her. Also, many of the quotes should be delved upon. Their are quite a lot of good ones that really give you pause for thought.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially women in this day and age when women still have to fight for just the little things and yet are treated like meat or worse, turn on each other. We are so much more than what society and even ourselves think we are.
It's about time to start changing our way of thinking to the positive, and Ms. Sylvan does an excellent job of doing just that.
I remember when I first started reading this book, my whole outlook on things started changing. I became more confident, more reflective and started to actually care about my body, my life and how society and others really sneak their way into how we think and feel about ourselves and our situations.
I love how truthful and blunt, yet understanding and caring Ms. Sylvan writes. There are many notes and quotes I have taken from this book, and in fact am in the midst of typing them and making a collage to help remind me of those key points that I found profound.
This book is definitely a keeper. Reread parts or all. Give thought to what you read and reread. Don't just mindlessly read it. This book can do so much to those who take the time to actually listen to not only Ms. Sylvan's voice, but those who have helped influence and teach her. Also, many of the quotes should be delved upon. Their are quite a lot of good ones that really give you pause for thought.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially women in this day and age when women still have to fight for just the little things and yet are treated like meat or worse, turn on each other. We are so much more than what society and even ourselves think we are.
It's about time to start changing our way of thinking to the positive, and Ms. Sylvan does an excellent job of doing just that.
August 9, 2015
If you're a woman walking around on the planet, you've probably had a struggle or two with hating your body. There are a lot of books out there that tackle this problem and provide a framework for changing your thinking. Sylvan's is most appropriate for women who consider themselves Wiccan or Pagan, but other open-minded readers will find valuable advice here as well. Sylvan talks about the obstacles to self-love (figuratively and, er, literally) and talks about how women at all stages of their lives can strengthen their relationships with themselves and (if they choose) the Goddess and God. Sylvan's tone comes across like an older, wiser cousin, somebody who's been around the block a few times and is willing to be kind, but firm, with you about you getting your shit together. Good medicine, delivered in an amusing pill, with a surprisingly low floofy-woo-woo quotient. Nice to see something helpful directed at women whose self-exploration doesn't necessarily include pink book covers or breathy affirmations.
August 8, 2018
When you look in the mirror, do you see a Goddess? For anyone who's experienced a "fat day" or wished a doctor could make them younger, Wiccan Dianne Sylvan
speaks candidly about overcoming body hatred and offers a spiritual path back to Divine femininity.
Sharing her own struggles with poor body image and self-acceptance, Sylvan explores how the impossible standard of female beauty has developed and endured.
Emphasizing the Mother, the Healer, the Lover, and other archetypes of one's relationship with the sacred body, the author provides a uniquely Wiccan approach
to achieving a healthy, new self-perception as Goddess.
I have been working on being a healthier person and this book has really helped me in my journey. I've recommended it to pretty much everyone I know and a few I don't. The book has such a positive image and I know I will be reading it for a long time.
And guys, you can read this book, too!
speaks candidly about overcoming body hatred and offers a spiritual path back to Divine femininity.
Sharing her own struggles with poor body image and self-acceptance, Sylvan explores how the impossible standard of female beauty has developed and endured.
Emphasizing the Mother, the Healer, the Lover, and other archetypes of one's relationship with the sacred body, the author provides a uniquely Wiccan approach
to achieving a healthy, new self-perception as Goddess.
I have been working on being a healthier person and this book has really helped me in my journey. I've recommended it to pretty much everyone I know and a few I don't. The book has such a positive image and I know I will be reading it for a long time.
And guys, you can read this book, too!
October 9, 2016
I have been reading this book over the course of a few years, picking up chapters here and there. I really enjoyed it but I don't think I like it as much as Dianne's other work.
As someone who identifies with Wicca, I loved the rituals and Goddess themes throughout. I think the book would value to have a little more balance, due to the author making snide remarks about skinny people throughout the book. There is no need to take smaller women down to make ourselves feel better. We are ALL Goddesses, whether you're skinny, voluptuous or in the middle somewhere. I also wish the cover was different, though I know this has nothing to do with Dianne's writing.
I would recommend this book as a casual read for the bath tub or for a quick pick me up if you are feeling a little down. The rituals are really nice and I would recommend it to fellow Wiccans, Witches etc.
As someone who identifies with Wicca, I loved the rituals and Goddess themes throughout. I think the book would value to have a little more balance, due to the author making snide remarks about skinny people throughout the book. There is no need to take smaller women down to make ourselves feel better. We are ALL Goddesses, whether you're skinny, voluptuous or in the middle somewhere. I also wish the cover was different, though I know this has nothing to do with Dianne's writing.
I would recommend this book as a casual read for the bath tub or for a quick pick me up if you are feeling a little down. The rituals are really nice and I would recommend it to fellow Wiccans, Witches etc.
October 9, 2011
I'm not a Wiccan and honestly don't know anything about the practice. But I picked up this book after reading the intro. I love the message. Like many women out there, I struggle with body image on a regular basis. The author, Dianne Sylvan, talks openly and with humor about the negative thoughts we as women have about our bodies and provides insight with how to manage and overcome a poor body image. Great message to all young girls and women. We are Goddesses! :)
One of the quotes from the book that I really like:
“...But we also believe that part of our mission in life is to find our bliss and follow it. Life is a precious and delicate gift. How much of that gift do we squander out of fear?”
One of the quotes from the book that I really like:
“...But we also believe that part of our mission in life is to find our bliss and follow it. Life is a precious and delicate gift. How much of that gift do we squander out of fear?”
December 14, 2014
Okay so. When I was in high school/undergrad, this book was exactly what I needed to hear and made me feel so empowered to make changes and kick negative bullshit out of my life. And I think that if you're a cis woman, it'll probably make you feel that way, too.
That said, now, as an adult gender queer person, this mostly made me feel more isolated than welcomed or helped, and none of it was really helpful anymore.
Again, I know that it's a wonderful book for cis women looking to reclaim their bodies from the diet industries. It's just not for queer, trans, or gender confused people, probably.
That said, now, as an adult gender queer person, this mostly made me feel more isolated than welcomed or helped, and none of it was really helpful anymore.
Again, I know that it's a wonderful book for cis women looking to reclaim their bodies from the diet industries. It's just not for queer, trans, or gender confused people, probably.
May 22, 2013
This book has created a space within myself to let my inner Goddess come out. I am so grateful to Dianne for putting her thoughts and beliefs out there for this book.
I have about 40 pages left in this book but I have also gathered a list of recommended reading from it! I don't think I have ever had a reading list this long before but I am betting that if Dianne says it's good it probably is!
I have about 40 pages left in this book but I have also gathered a list of recommended reading from it! I don't think I have ever had a reading list this long before but I am betting that if Dianne says it's good it probably is!
April 24, 2012
This week Storm and Sorcha have a discussion with author Dianne Sylvan about her books "The Circle Within" and "The Body Sacred". Musical Interlude: "Mother Earth" by Freedom Call. Vote for your favorite pagan podcast on Podcast Alley and look for more Proud Pagan Podcasters!
http://wp.me/p1AMCH-8z
http://wp.me/p1AMCH-8z
July 21, 2012
Excellent for anywoman who has body image issues. Though written for Wiccans, I really don't see why others couldn't use this book. Whether your issues are weight, body type, age..........don't worry. The exercises/visualization/rituals will take you step by step to a newer way of looking at yourself.
August 23, 2013
This book is wonderful - especially for women with self esteem or body image issues. This book is about celebrating who you are as a person, not simply a body.
*one note: this book is Pagan in nature, but that does not distract from the books message: You are special and gorgeous just the way you are.
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*one note: this book is Pagan in nature, but that does not distract from the books message: You are special and gorgeous just the way you are.
.
April 24, 2009
This book, while its written primarily with women in mind, was one of the books that helped inspire my own journey into self-loving and body appreciation. Its fun to read, the exercises are easy to do and make sense, and its really good for your mental health (its been so helpful in my own life).
January 5, 2016
This book was very good. I actually bought it after I returned it to the library. Certain sections interested me more than others, but overall a worthwhile read for every woman. Evey woman should be able to gain something away from reading it.
December 19, 2007
Another great Wiccan book outside what has been the norm. If I didn't already love her after reading the Circle Within, this book really did it.
February 23, 2010
This is a refreshingly positive book about body acceptance; and most imporantly, about self-love.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2011
I'm not really into all the Wiccan stuff, but I liked the way she talked about body image and learning to love what you have.
June 20, 2012
I appreciated the author's candor. She was quick-witted, and very uplifting. I read this book, and it made me appreciate being female even more.
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November 6, 201318
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March 14, 2011i love it.I absolutely admire her and her works.Avery strong woman
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April 21, 2012This book changed the way I think about my body! This is by far one of my favorite books!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews