[Crossing to Avalon: A Woman's Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine] [By: Bolen M.D., Jean Shinoda] [May, 2004]

by Jean Shinoda Bolen

Proving prayer to be as valid and vital a healing tool as drugs or surgery, the bestselling author of Meaning & Medicine and Recovering the Soul offers a bold integration of science and spirituality.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Womens, Memoir, Psychology, Feminism, Goddess

Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M. D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing’s "Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing Award". She is a former board member of the Ms. Foundation for Women.

Reviews

[Cynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

2021
Tomorrow I am giving this book to my student who has the healing nature of a curandera. She has a calm healing nature. She works as a dental assistant, a healing occupation.

Before giving her the book, I have quickly reviewed/reread the book again. Once again I am floored. Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen talks a bit, just a bit, about synchronicity. And synchronicity I have experienced today in reviewing the book. While I am giving this book to my student so she can benefit from it as she enters middle age, I find that I benefit too. Isn't that often the way with teaching? As for me, I plan to read a chunk of fantasy and science fiction next year. In Shinoda Bolen's book, I find chapter-length discussions that apply in most general terms to much of SFandF and more specifically to SFandF which has female heroes. Discussions include--in most general forms--archetypal or spiritual

Journey
Mysteries
Pilgrimage
Pilgrims
Otherworld
Motherworld
Landscape
Forest
Wasteland
Circumambulation
Greening of the Wasteland
Sacred places
Mother Earth
Return

Definitely worth a complete reread before starting my SFandF study next year.



2015
Wow. I read this book in middle age, and felt floored and filled. As an older woman, I am floored and filled.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have re-read this book many, many times since I was about 16 years old. Not just for women in mid-life.

[Tristy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone else said in her review, you don't have to be at midlife (or a woman, for that matter) to enjoy this book. Jean Shinoda Bolen takes on a tour of some of the ancient mystical Goddess sites of Europe. I have been to these sites many times, and it was nice to take a trip back there with Bolen and observe the different feelings she felt on her journeys. It was hard for me not to get a little depressed, as I always do, at the almost complete annihilation of matrifocal worship in our world's history, but Bolen reminds us with this offering that it is essential that we all tell our psychic/spiritual/dream stories of "remembering" that history for ourselves.

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually, I just started this today 4/21/12. I had only read the Preface when I posted and I picked it up today and read to the fourth chapter. I'm torn between this book and everything else that calls for my attention -- one very good reason to dive in! It's about just that -- participating in an archetypal inner journey that transforms one's life in the outside world. That transformation is described -- and through the Grail Legend, no less -- in a way that rings so true and is so pertinent to me that synchronicity once again proves the power of the intuition.

Bolen's work in Women's Spirituality adds another impetus to this study -- towards incorporating essential feminine wisdom into the cultural and political spheres even as one becomes able to deepen the very personal experience of life. I will do my best to finish this weekend. I won't have to try; the only effort required will be warding off the doubts telling me it's not worth the time. This one surely is, for me!

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4/23/12
And yes, this book was my guide on a 3-day pilgrimage, one that helped me regain connection with soul-saving energies through the network of sacred light -- the Woman at the heart of all Women. A gracious, articulate and wise companion, Jean Shinoda Bolen weaves a beautiful and useful fabric of stories that animate the darkness, the wasteland, the forest and the shrine of the Goddess. And gives them all meaning in the context of our personal and collective lives. Yes!

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm, what to say about this book. I liked a lot of the ideas the author had, but by no means all of them. Sometimes I felt like she was generalizing too much in her analysis of peoples lives. People frequently (myself included) make statements and use the word "everyone" carelessly. This felt more deliberate then that, as if she truly felt that every single woman should feel this way, and have such and such understanding of the world. I am glad I read it, and agreed with the general feeling of the book, but I think the author took the application of her philosophies to other peoples lives a little too far.

[Deborah Blanchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes you on a magical journey from the very first page. It will make you honor your inner self as a woman. This is a book to be savored and I will continue to read it to reinforce my sense of self worth as a beautiful soul, called woman. It is written in such a way as to make you think and ponder life in general. This book will be on my nightstand, along with my Bible and my daily affirmations. I highly recommend this book and I would like to thank my wonderful friend Christine, for introducing me to this amazing book. Read this book!

[Mily · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author is a jungian analyst (psychiatrist affiliated with UCSF). She has written a variety of interesting books. I enjoyed this one because of her focus on mid-life, the divine feminine and Glastonbury, England - which is a town (and Tor) we have enjoyed.

[Courtney Anthony]

Some parts are fascinating, and some parts seem to lack focus and drag on. Definitely still worth a read, but read Goddesses in Everywoman first.

[Tita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vejam a minha opinião em vídeo, AQUI.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

While "Crossing to Avalon" is completely and utterly in my wheel house and unofficial Celtic studies, I found fault in a great many things I can barely name all in one review. in "Goddesses in Everywoman," Bolen does have a knack for understanding and analyzing archetypes beneficial to the topic at hand. My biggest issue, as the child abuse survivor that I am, is presuming in journalistic inclined statements generalizing the experience in one sentence then mea culpa-ing that statement up until the end of the chapter!

As a fan of Celtic (source) literature, I was also very disappointed in Bolen's overall argument every time she placed in a Mists of Avalon reference, but especially tweaking the Rites of Beltane on page 134 into a journalist inclination to expand on the masculine relationship with the Goddess that goes far deeper than the "gateway" literature that is MZB's finest. Is it more important to use literature to drive the point or the very well research behind it from people who once lived?

To water down my opinion on the book as a whole: this is a book for the 101 interest in the Celtic or for the woman in the book. if I wasn't a writer or have the interest in the Celtic studies, I wouldn't find fault in this at all. Hell, when spiritual affirmation statements come up, I quite like it. But the form itself is clunky, weaving in and out of her own spiritual experience and the research to only come back to the overall story or specifics. Book motion sickness that can only be done right if you're Anne Carson (imho). I wanted to love this and especially as someone who has entered the Celtic world via Mists of Avalon, something beautiful and spiritual deserves something streamlined. But perhaps that's the point in Bolen's experience in the book, its episodic, a little messy, but beautiful in its core and intent.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Take what you need and leave the rest." That's what Al-Anon says. I found plenty to leave in Crossing to Avalon but quite enough to take as well. I don't entirely buy the Goddess concept, for I have long determined that my Roman Catholic triune God definitely has a feminine component, aka the Holy Spirit or Holy Wisdom. Yet much of Bolen's very personal memoir is enlightening and - no disrespect here - entertaining.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get through this. I thought the subject material was interesting, but her writing style does not jive with me. It felt choppy and monotone, and read more like a textbook than something written about an inspiring, life-affirming journey. I tried and tried to finish this and finally gave up.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Living for at least five thousand years in cultures where there is no Goddess, no reverence for childbearing and childrearing, where dominating the earth and women is theologically sanctioned... any woman, no matter how personally privileged, is spiritually oppressed.”

A few really fascinating ideas to incorporate into my personal theology. Some parts were a little far out.

[C.J. Prince · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who search for expression of the Divine Feminine, Jean Shinoda Bolin shines a light.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit "woo woo" but interesting non the less.

[Lisal Kayati Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book because I am a spiritual pilgrim! I plan to visit all of the places the author mentions for similar reasons. The book is a great staring point for someone in the beginning of their pilgrimage search. I enjoyed the descriptions very much, but they are only a brief encapsulation - her personal journey was distracting for me - but completely understand why she shared it. It is affirming for those in that place in their lives.

[Avalon French · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, soulful, deeply moving - a beautiful expression of mythic understanding on a personal and transpersonal level.

[Anthony Larusso · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description of how she started her journey prepares the reader for a magical journey, and leads the reader to believe it'll be equal parts magic, description, theory, history, and adventure. Her book circuitously hits some of those points but inconsistently.

The Author is a highly-thinking therapist moving steadily into heart-opening and mystery -- and this journey is very moving at times, but in a subdued manner. There's smaller revelations that add up, rather than a few building with a sense of adventure towards those few. So it doesn't read like a Novel, even though you think it *might* initially. Be prepared for Theory and Examples.

There's a big chunk in the middle that talks at length about the wounded Fisher King. I have to admit I sincerely began to overlay this woundedness over my own personal template and consider all the various journeys and my approaches I have taken. What ails thee? This is the big question. Ask it humbly and sincerely.

I wanted more about ley lines and how magic builds up there. And what the forces are behind them and how it affects our lives, journeyperson's lives...i.e., people that decide to do these physical Quests. I *loved* the section on Glastonbury and want to go there. A bit of a tease, because we don't find out a lot about its history; just enough in relation to the few meditative rituals she participated in. Enough to make you want to attempt it yourself.

Ditto for Findhorn. Ditto for Chartres Cathedral, too.

The writing style can be dry for long stretches when Ms. Bolen talks about examples of people's wounds in her Therapeutic practice. There are times she drifts far from her personal story and includes too many examples of others we haven't gotten to know that well...and it is in those parts that it starts to read too Clinical. Unfortunately there's a good half of the book that is like that; I personally still found it worth it and intellectually stimulating, though those parts definitely could have been edited and consolidated (some examples definitely felt repetitive), with personal connections and the context and details of the actual holy spots she visited -- expanded and filled with more excitement and emotional description (Meat!) to chew on.

I really feel that approach would best illustrate and support her passion for people hunting out their wounds and finding their Temple, which, she points out may well be hidden in the mist. (That reminds me, she speaks highly of and references quite frequently The Mists of Avalon. I definitely want to grab that book, too.) Thanks for the journey, Jean! Important allies and tools along the way. I am thankful.

[Leigh Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way out is the way in.

Bolen's tale of searching for meaning at midlife is distinguished by its veering off the beaten path onto another path that's equally beaten, but far less respected. Gifted by a patron with the funds to go on pilgrimage (!), Bolen tours significant goddess spirituality sites in Europe, including Glastonbury, Chartres, and Iona. Her struggle to make sense of midlife's difficulties plays out in her travels, heavily punctuated with ritual, ceremony, and heaps of grail imagery. It is, in short, the perfect memoir for women of similar inclinations (but fewer funds) to dream on and, perhaps, work through her own midlife muddles.

As a respected writer and scholar, Bolen definitely has the free time to undertake such journeys, which allows those of us with thinner pocketbooks to follow metaphorically in her footsteps and dream a while; our grails live in skyscrapers and public housing, but are no less real for all that. The tone is conversational and the narrative thread a bit rambly, almost as if you were having a cup of tea with the author and she were telling you all about her travels. Whether you're familiar with the mythology or not, the result is hypnotic; if you are not moved to consider your own path and journey as a result of reading, you're probably just not ready.

Recommended for all libraries based on the reputation of the author, and to make the collection more inclusive (Christian books still dominate publishing, so you need all the other good stuff you can get). A lovely book with which to while away a winter.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's nice to add a book to my all time favorites shelf. It's been a long time since I've been able to do that!

This book was incredibly profound and was exactly what I've been looking for at this time in my life. Having become very interested in and involved in the Goddess movement..... or, push towards Feminine Divine consciousness, I found this book to be very balanced. It meant a lot to me that JSB finds a way to hold both God the Father and Mother Goddess in her heart in a real and balanced way.

I loved reading about her journey through the sacred Goddess sights in France and England. I have visited several of them already but want to return and add some of her other stops to my itinerary!

Jean Shinoda Bolen has a such a way of writing that you feel like you are having an afternoon of tea and sharing with a dear friend. She is absolutely honest, sincere, vulnerable, accessible. I just love her. I love her mission. I love the way her writing touches the reader and is inclusive of everyone.

Thank you so much for your journey and your writing, Jean Shinoda Bolen! You are truly a mentor and an inspiration!

[Green Iona · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was kind of like an Eat, Love, Pray setup but a lot less exciting. I'd say it was not so heavy on her story, but more of a half and half-story to teaching ratio. She gave us a lot of analysis of the symbols in her journey, and didactic writing about the feminine hero's journey. If you've read her other books then it becomes a little repetitive. It was good to hear about her mystical experiences as she travels, and to learn about these sacred sites she traveled to. It reads very casually though, as if we're reading her journal entry. Its not very descriptive and exciting. So just don't expect a novel.

[Kelly J Applegate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. So much. Jean Shinoda Bolen is one of those people who, upon discovering her, I vowed to read every book she's ever written.
Even though my own midlife crisis didn't entail a pilgrimage to sacred sites around the world, she took me there in my mind. And she is just so relatable. This was one of those books that came to me through a series of synchronicities at exactly the right time. It helped me tremendously to identify what I had been through in the last few years as a crisis. But crisis brings opportunity.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the way the author pointed out connections between pagan traditions and Christianity in this book, as well as the various ties/aspects of women's involvement. The reason I've rated it a 3 is because there are sections that are poorly written, and thus are somewhat difficult to understand. I would also like to have seen a basic description of the Grail myth at the beginning (for those of us who don't know much about it) since much of the book presupposes this knowledge.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a fondness for Bolen since she was on the vanguard of the goddess spirituality movement with 'Goddesses in Everywoman' in the mid-'80s. This book has some interesting personal insights, particularly when she contrasts the different spiritual encounters she has had with God vs. those with the Goddess. But overall, the book has a cerebral rather than spiritual tone & reads more like a psychology text (she's a Jungian analyst) on the symbolism of the Grail legend. So, eh.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part memoir of spiritual awakening, part self help book. I expected it to be a bit more memoir than it actually was. It's definitely a useful book, though I didn't find it as engaging as I did Goddesses in Every Woman (by the same author). This would be of interest to anyone looking for their spiritual path or anyone interested in finding the goddess in themselves and in the world.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book as a recommendation for an Iona retreat I will be attending this fall. I found the portions on Iona interesting as well as a couple of the French locations I have been to before. I was a fish out of water for much of the book. I also enjoyed the last chapter of the book.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. I loved this book so, so much. Some of it seemed way off base, but most of it felt true to me, at least in the “I can see this as a possibility” way. Fit right into my theology as a woman in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and provided lots of interesting food for thought.

[Kim Sasso · Rating 2 out of 5]

mm..meh. This is the kind of book that might have been meaningful to me about 20 years ago but now it's just not resonating with me.

[Rosa O. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este es un libro sobre la experiencia humana, sobre la búsqueda, sobre la vida, en definitiva.

La temática en sí me apasiona y esperaba una lectura gustosa. Sin embargo, el estilo de la autora me ha resultado algo pesado y no muy fluído. En un principio pensé que quizás era debido a la traducción (la escritora es norteamericana y lo he leído en español), pero más adelante también he notado que el contenido peca de cierta falta de estructura. He leído algunas de las reseñas con las valoraciones más bajas (tengo esta tendencia cuando la mayoría de las valoraciones son altas...) y mis impresiones parecen coincidir con algunos de los motivos de esas valoraciones. Para mí, el estilo y la estructura no son menos importantes que el contenido (ellos facilitan - o dificultan-, llegar al contenido, a la esencia del libro), y de ahí que sólo haya valorado el libro con tres estrellas.*

A pesar de la mejorable "experiencia lectora", recomiendo el libro a toda aquella persona (no solo mujeres, aunque está muy orientado a nosotras y habla mucho de la Diosa, la divinidad femenina) que le guste leer sobre misticismo y disfrute con fascinantes interconexiones entre ideas, lugares, tradiciones, personajes conocidos, literatura, .... En este libro hay mucho mucho de ésto. Habla de las leyendas sobre el Grial, de mitología, de las iniciaciones, del viaje del héroe, de arquetipos, de las diferentes etapas de la vida, de peregrinaciones, del "despertar", de la energía kundalini, de simbolismo, de psicología (la autora es analista junguiana) ... y también del Dalai Lama, de la catedral de Chartres, de Findhorn y otros lugares sagrados desconocidos para mí hasta el momento (Clava Caims, la abadía de Pluscarden, Cluny Hill e Iona) y, por supuesto, de Glastonbury/Avalon.

A lo largo del libro se entremezclan referencias a todo lo mencionado anteriormente con las reflexiones y experiencias de viaje y de vida de la autora, creando una especie de diario de viaje íntimo compartido con todo aquel que sienta, como yo he sentido, el deseo de leerlo.

* Me desagrada cuando los autores repiten la(s) misma(s) idea(s) o situación(es) en varias partes del libro como si no lo hubieran mencionado ya antes . A menudo no es necesario y valdría con un "como ya indicado anteriormente", o similar. La repetición da a entender que ha habido cierta distancia en el tiempo a la hora de redactar dichas partes o capítulos, y quizás no se acuerdan de que ya incluyeron ese contenido anteriormente. Sin embargo, especialmente si lees un libro de un tirón, o no dejas pasar mucho tiempo de lectura entre las partes, como lector notas mucho esas repeticiones innecesarias. A muchos editores parece no importarles mucho estas situaciones, pues de otra manera lo mejorarían. Supongo que es demasiado trabajo; el contenido necesitaría quizás más una reescritura que un ligero editado. O quizás opinan que esas repeticiones pueden ayudar en caso de lecturas no lineales, para aquellos que abren un libro y se ponen a leer el primer capítulo con el que dan, o tardan meses en finalizarlo. O quizás simplemente prefieren dejar el contenido tal y como le ha salido al autor sin importar una estructura más allá de los capítulos. No sé... me gustaría que alguien comentara algo al respecto para entenderlo mejor pues noto ésto a menudo. Si estás leyendo ésto y te animas a dejar tu opinión, te lo agradezco.

[Wendy H · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was more psychological than I expected, but then again, the author is a psychiatrist and analyst so that would make sense. I had mistakenly assumed it would go into great detail about the author’s pilgrimages to Glastonbury, Findhorn, Lindisfarne, Iona and Chatres, and the book would be more of a travel story. Thus I was a bit disappointed. The author writes more about ancient Celtic myths of Perceval and the Grail, ancient Greek mythology, Marion Bradley’s best seller “Mists of Avalon”, women’s spirituality, and the goddess religion than her pilgrimage experiences. There was so much discussion about myths the book became a comparative literature treatise. These myths, though, serve as a helpful foundation to the reader who is unfamiliar with them. Bolen connects these myths to the middle aged woman in general and herself as a female going through a midlife crisis seeking a new course in her life, and how theses myths and pilgrimages awakened her discovery of women’s power and spirituality.

What I like very much about this book is that it examines patriarchy and matriarchy over time in society. It delivers a big punch to patriarchy, showing how toxic and detrimental it is to the world. This book is strongly feminist, which I really liked and reminded me of the 1970s feminists who similarly said the very same thing the author does. I also like how the book explains the symbolism of the Holy Grail and the story of Perceval, which I didn’t know before.

I found it interesting that a Japanese American woman who had been interred in a World War II camp would be drawn to such classic European stories. I like that these myths pulled her out of her midlife crisis and made her stronger and happier.

I hated when she used the term crone in describing older women. Although crone has been used for centuries, it was a real turnoff as to me it has a negative connotation.

Unfortunately the author bounces around too much for me, darting from the various myths, her own personal struggles and psychological journeys, then back to mythology and her pilgrimages across Northern Europe. She also repeats herself going back to the Grail story and Greek mythology, so at times the book was jumbled, went off tangent, and didn’t flow. I hung in there, hoping that she’d write more about her pilgrimage experiences. I almost quit reading the book as I became frustrated with her brief descriptions of her pilgrimages. And surprisingly enough not every pilgrimage made an impact on her but at least she is honest about that.

Bolen does successfully tie it all together at the end, relating psychology to these myths and her midlife crisis, suggesting that the way to heal is through women’s spirituality. By the time I finished the book, I felt satisfied and am interested in reading some of her other books.