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Summoning the Fates: A Generational Woman’s Guide to Destiny and Sacred Transformation
The Fates, also called luck or destiny, are three goddesses who rule over the challenges and opportunities we face in our lives. So powerful that even the other gods and goddesses cannot defy them, the Fates are said to control the thread of each life. The ancient Europeans knew the secrets of communicating with the three sisters who preside over our daily lives, but such arcane knowledge has been lost in modern times.
In Northern Europe the Fates are known as the Norns: Urdh, Verdandi, and Skuld. The sisters correspond to the past (what has been), the present (what is now), and the future (what must be). The three in turn rule our lives in thirty-year cycles--childhood and young adulthood are ruled by Urdh, adulthood by Verdandi, and the crone years by Skuld. The Fates are especially active at the major life turning points, when we receive new missions for our life's work. These main turning points occur in the early thirties and late fifties when restlessness with your previous life can take on a sense of extreme urgency. At such times, the Fate who oversees your next destiny is reaching out to you. Summoning the Fates is the first book to show how to interact with these primal forces to fulfill the destiny that awaits you. Z. Budapest gives spells, rituals, and prayers to bring the psychological and material support you need into your life.
In Northern Europe the Fates are known as the Norns: Urdh, Verdandi, and Skuld. The sisters correspond to the past (what has been), the present (what is now), and the future (what must be). The three in turn rule our lives in thirty-year cycles--childhood and young adulthood are ruled by Urdh, adulthood by Verdandi, and the crone years by Skuld. The Fates are especially active at the major life turning points, when we receive new missions for our life's work. These main turning points occur in the early thirties and late fifties when restlessness with your previous life can take on a sense of extreme urgency. At such times, the Fate who oversees your next destiny is reaching out to you. Summoning the Fates is the first book to show how to interact with these primal forces to fulfill the destiny that awaits you. Z. Budapest gives spells, rituals, and prayers to bring the psychological and material support you need into your life.
333 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 12, 2009
Z's work is a must for any woman, on the path to Women's Mysteries. I can highly recommend any of Z's work and she's a wonderful teacher.
March 20, 2008
This book has changed my life, it covered topics I've never even heard anywhere else.
March 8, 2020
I enjoyed this book, but then I always love Budapests work.
It rekindle the Norns for me and I learnt that they like 3s and the colour red.
The book was going threw our lives and how the Norns interplay with that.
So me in my 40s is in verdandis hands. What I can expect, how I can prepare for Skuld if I'm lucky enough to get there, Some nice little rituals. And an enjoyable olde book.
It rekindle the Norns for me and I learnt that they like 3s and the colour red.
The book was going threw our lives and how the Norns interplay with that.
So me in my 40s is in verdandis hands. What I can expect, how I can prepare for Skuld if I'm lucky enough to get there, Some nice little rituals. And an enjoyable olde book.
March 21, 2021
Great read ❤
November 28, 2023
This is an excellent book that I have read many times.
May 15, 2011
Although this book is aimed at being a guide for women, I truly believe the information and stories are accessible for everyone, no matter their sexual identity. In typical Z fashion, the Goddesses are invoked and worked tas words on the page. The Fates, no matter which culture they are experienced in, will always have a similar attitude towards mortals. Z expresses this point, almost as if the Fates are speaking THROUGH her:
“Guess what? The Fates don’t do details. Wiping things off the Earth is not their beat. They only do the big picture, turn the wheel of the ages, and facilitate our souls’ choices. The Fates don’t create evil. Evil is a perception from our point of view. It belongs to the small picture. To us it is overwhelming, but cosmically it is the bat of an eyelash. It is a knot, a rough thread in the Fates’ hands, but they don’t tangle it. Despite everything we can do to snarl up the works, they turn the wheels and keep everything moving, flowing, spinning. Surviving” (p.51).
So when Urdh hands over the reigns to Verdandi around the age of 29-32, we return to the crossroads. Some people go back to school, others divorce or have babies, start a new career… there’s a multitude of changes that occur during this tumultuous time. Everything up to this point was in preparation for what our life’s work is to be and now we get to be more of who we truly are. Z offers up prayers, small rituals, and reflections that give hope and meaning to difficult periods in our lives. In helping us to understand these cosmic energies, Z is giving us the tools in an age when information empowers.
As someone who has JUST passed through my first “Saturn Return” (as they call it), I can attest to the transforming energies which take over things. My life completely changed; I got married, had a baby, stayed home and went back to school for a Master’s… I also gained weight, lost some friends, and moved far away from family. It was at this time Hekate came into my life as well. By accepting what was presented to me, I have opened up more potentialities and opportunities for spiritual and financial growth in BIG ways; everything with Saturn is larger than life. With Verdandi in charge, we hone our talents… blooming under the immense pressure of the crown as we become masters of our selves, or buckling under it’s weight. I, for one, hope to turn into a diamond.
“Guess what? The Fates don’t do details. Wiping things off the Earth is not their beat. They only do the big picture, turn the wheel of the ages, and facilitate our souls’ choices. The Fates don’t create evil. Evil is a perception from our point of view. It belongs to the small picture. To us it is overwhelming, but cosmically it is the bat of an eyelash. It is a knot, a rough thread in the Fates’ hands, but they don’t tangle it. Despite everything we can do to snarl up the works, they turn the wheels and keep everything moving, flowing, spinning. Surviving” (p.51).
So when Urdh hands over the reigns to Verdandi around the age of 29-32, we return to the crossroads. Some people go back to school, others divorce or have babies, start a new career… there’s a multitude of changes that occur during this tumultuous time. Everything up to this point was in preparation for what our life’s work is to be and now we get to be more of who we truly are. Z offers up prayers, small rituals, and reflections that give hope and meaning to difficult periods in our lives. In helping us to understand these cosmic energies, Z is giving us the tools in an age when information empowers.
As someone who has JUST passed through my first “Saturn Return” (as they call it), I can attest to the transforming energies which take over things. My life completely changed; I got married, had a baby, stayed home and went back to school for a Master’s… I also gained weight, lost some friends, and moved far away from family. It was at this time Hekate came into my life as well. By accepting what was presented to me, I have opened up more potentialities and opportunities for spiritual and financial growth in BIG ways; everything with Saturn is larger than life. With Verdandi in charge, we hone our talents… blooming under the immense pressure of the crown as we become masters of our selves, or buckling under it’s weight. I, for one, hope to turn into a diamond.
July 29, 2012
Zsuzsanna Budapest is a leading figure in the women's spirituality movement, yet somehow this was my first encounter with her as a writer. I really enjoyed this book. Budapest looks at life through astrology, focusing on the Norns and the Fates as guides for different phases of life. Instead of the Western concept that the round numbers (like 30, 40, and 50) mark dramatic change, Budapest advocates for a complex astrological cycle.
Although I didn't understand some of her ideas, my own life seems to line up to what she's saying: evidently, the first major transitional period in life occurs sometime between the ages of 26 and 30, where the first self gives way to the second self. I certainly feel like I'm starting my second identity as a writer!
Her writing style is conversational and filled with folk tales and rituals, making this an easy read. Don't read the epilogue: it's a bit more, um, biased than the rest of the book. If you enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd's "Dance of the Dissident Daughter", "Summoning the Fates will be right up your alley.
Although I didn't understand some of her ideas, my own life seems to line up to what she's saying: evidently, the first major transitional period in life occurs sometime between the ages of 26 and 30, where the first self gives way to the second self. I certainly feel like I'm starting my second identity as a writer!
Her writing style is conversational and filled with folk tales and rituals, making this an easy read. Don't read the epilogue: it's a bit more, um, biased than the rest of the book. If you enjoyed Sue Monk Kidd's "Dance of the Dissident Daughter", "Summoning the Fates will be right up your alley.
July 8, 2011
Women's spirituality in connection with the three Fates. The author uses the three Fates from the spiritual traditions of Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and other myths to explain the three phases of a woman's life: the maid, the matron, and the crone. There are elements of astrology, Wicca, and women's folk wisdom interwoven with the myth of the Fates, which add up to a rather ecclectic type of women's spirituality. At this point I am not sure what to make of it. There is some wisdom in nurturing the godess in a woman's being, especially for someone like me who feels patriarchal religion stifles a woman's spiritual being in some ways. This book is food for thought at least.
October 2, 2011
Hm. She has many interesting stories to tell, but the book ends up reading like a watered-down spell book or something. It feels hokey and silly. Take your three brown eggs out by moonlight and recite this poem/prayer and ... I don't know. I guess I thought I'd be reading something about ways to view life and its stages. Instead, it feels like a hodgepodge of witchy something or other.
February 9, 2008
Absolutely brilliant!
August 12, 2016
A wonderful book about women's life cycles as relate to the three Fates. Includes ways to recognize the movements of the Fates in life.
February 12, 2012
I really enjoyed the first nine chapters of the book. Chapter 10 was...interesting...and I could have done without the Epilogue.
July 6, 2013
I found this book really interesting and seeing her view on the Fates and the stories she told in there were really helpful.
August 2, 2013
Great look at the threads in our lives.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews