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Seeing Red: A Women�s Quest for Truth, Power and the Sacred
Seeing Red is an astounding journey that traces one woman's search for personal truth and power. Set against the backdrop of the holy Mount Kailas in Tibet, her marriage in California, and Kali's temples in Nepal, it takes the reader on an unforgettable journey of creation and dissolution that is as enlightening as it is heart-wrenching.
212 pages, Paperback
First published October 29, 2012
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December 28, 2012Ha! Am I allowed to rate my own book? Well, why not?
I've read this book to eternity and back, several times over, so I think I'll let it be for now, but I'd love to hear what you think of it.
I've read this book to eternity and back, several times over, so I think I'll let it be for now, but I'd love to hear what you think of it.
December 11, 2012
Seeing Red is a wonderful, revealing, and exciting true story. Lone's adventurous tale touches the archetypal and reflects our common pilgrimage through the passage of our lives: our hopes, relationships, aspirations, doubts, fears, mistakes, and insights. Her intensely open, honest, and intimate story illuminates her global quest like a brilliant light shining through the prism of her personal experiences. An exploration of sensitive, universal themes, this book awakened me to possibilities, revealed the value of sharing one's private search, and evoked fresh insights and expanded perceptions of life. She bridges the spiritual and earthy, the sacred and the sensual, from Europe to America, Nepal, and the wild hinterlands of Tibet and Mt. Kailas. Lone has a courageous and remarkable talent for self-expression, and her book is full of heart. She writes from her soul, bares all, and I love it.
March 1, 2013
A great true story. Actually broadened my perspective on all things from earthly to spiritual.
March 17, 2015
Lone Mørch, a native of Denmark, took a job with CARE Nepal and fell in love with the people and the country. There, she was introduced to mountains as saintly abodes and to the notion of the sacred. She became focused on Kalais in Western Tibet. Kalais is held to be the center of the universe and believed to hold the white light of human consciousness. To complete the Kora, a ritual circumambulation of the mountain, is said to erase the sins of a lifetime.
Mørch strives to complete the ritual, and we meet her after her initial failed attempt to do so. Embracing sacred mountains as a metaphor for her life, she also fixates on the color red as a symbol for feminine sexuality and power. When she meets Gerry, her future husband, she is wearing her red coat. She feels the coat shapes this view of her in his eyes. She longs to be the "red coat me."
She undertakes the task of travelling with Gerry and leading a pilgrimage to Kalais to clear her karma. The reader is privy to her indecisiveness and second guessing as she leads this trip. We also witness her over-analysis of her time with Gerry. Mørch notes that, "So often in Western culture we seek someone to blame when something bad happens." Through most of this book she is struggling to come to terms with her own frailties, seeking to find her self-worth in Gerry's eyes and by completing the Kora. Despite her accomplishments, if she doesn't perceive Gerry as viewing her as the "red woman," then the problem is with the relationship or with Gerry. In many ways, she is self-absorbed and seeks her identity through others.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, Mørch reflects, noting that "she didn't know how to be both powerful and receptive, assertive and mind and heart." It is in the last third of the book and of Mørch's ten-year journey that she uses the term "dance" to describe the developing sense of trust in herself, a sense that she says "paled against the red coat me." She leads us to her conclusion that, "What others said or did was suddenly a lot less important than what I said or did in return."
Mørch fills her story with rich descriptions of Kalais and the pilgrimage for Kola. There is also quite a bit of description of discreet occurrences and reactive interpretations of many of the events in her life. At times, I found these descriptions difficult to wade through, singularly one-sided and self-absorbed. As I finished the memoir, I realized that if she had not detailed these events at such length, I could not have appreciated the struggle of her journey and celebrated her conclusion. In many ways, this is an adult version of a coming of age story of an adult woman offering personal insights with which we can all identify. Seeing Red: A Woman's Quest for Truth, Power, and the Sacred is well worth the read.
by Diane Stanton
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
Mørch strives to complete the ritual, and we meet her after her initial failed attempt to do so. Embracing sacred mountains as a metaphor for her life, she also fixates on the color red as a symbol for feminine sexuality and power. When she meets Gerry, her future husband, she is wearing her red coat. She feels the coat shapes this view of her in his eyes. She longs to be the "red coat me."
She undertakes the task of travelling with Gerry and leading a pilgrimage to Kalais to clear her karma. The reader is privy to her indecisiveness and second guessing as she leads this trip. We also witness her over-analysis of her time with Gerry. Mørch notes that, "So often in Western culture we seek someone to blame when something bad happens." Through most of this book she is struggling to come to terms with her own frailties, seeking to find her self-worth in Gerry's eyes and by completing the Kora. Despite her accomplishments, if she doesn't perceive Gerry as viewing her as the "red woman," then the problem is with the relationship or with Gerry. In many ways, she is self-absorbed and seeks her identity through others.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, Mørch reflects, noting that "she didn't know how to be both powerful and receptive, assertive and mind and heart." It is in the last third of the book and of Mørch's ten-year journey that she uses the term "dance" to describe the developing sense of trust in herself, a sense that she says "paled against the red coat me." She leads us to her conclusion that, "What others said or did was suddenly a lot less important than what I said or did in return."
Mørch fills her story with rich descriptions of Kalais and the pilgrimage for Kola. There is also quite a bit of description of discreet occurrences and reactive interpretations of many of the events in her life. At times, I found these descriptions difficult to wade through, singularly one-sided and self-absorbed. As I finished the memoir, I realized that if she had not detailed these events at such length, I could not have appreciated the struggle of her journey and celebrated her conclusion. In many ways, this is an adult version of a coming of age story of an adult woman offering personal insights with which we can all identify. Seeing Red: A Woman's Quest for Truth, Power, and the Sacred is well worth the read.
by Diane Stanton
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
March 5, 2014
This book is beautiful, as is Lone Mørch. My review can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews