WITCH, HEALER, PRIESTESS, OUTCAST: Divine Feminine Archetypes for Modern Life

WITCH, HEALER, PRIESTESS, OUTCAST: Divine Feminine Archetypes for Modern Life
JULIE PETERS
Verbena(non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$19.99 all editions, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A Journey Through the Divine Feminine Archetypes of Goddesses and Mythic Figures

In Witch, Healer, Priestess, Outcast, explore original retellings of mythic figures and goddesses from around the world, discovering how to embrace both the dark and light aspects of life. Learn how embodying the power of witches, healers, priestesses, and outcasts can help you navigate your deepest emotions, reclaim your place in a fast-paced world, and bring new meaning to your experiences.

Drawing inspiration from the ancient tradition of oral storytelling, uncover forgotten figures whose tales may have been lost to time, yet have much to teach us about what it means to live as a woman fully empowered. Witch, Healer, Priestess, Outcast shines a new light on these lost figures, while offering fresh perspectives on those we know well. Each story is a chance to be inspired, and through guided meditations, you'll learn how to integrate that inspiration into your life.

Embrace the Divine Energy of Healing: Connect with an ancient lineage that honours the feminine power to nurture and heal.

Discover the Magick of Feminine Power: Explore the stories of Hekate and Morgan Le Fay to gain fresh insights into the enduring power of women—and how it has often been misunderstood.

Practical Exercises for Daily Growth: Integrate the power of the goddesses into your life with guided meditations that deepen your connection to each story's message and help you embody their transformative energy.

Step into your own divine power, awaken the wisdom of the goddesses, and begin your transformative journey today.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: No, I don't believe in magic, or gods/powers/spirits as forces in the material world...if they're real, why's there so much awful crap happening (as there always is and always has been)? This is called the Problem of Evil. No one's posited an answer that survives the question.

This does not mean I'm not open to learning wisdom, however it's dressed, from those who came before us. The persistence of stories in the world means the best way to communicate wisdom is via that medium. Stories work best with clear characters, real conflicts, and resolutions to those conflicts...no matter how ambiguous. Read my review of The Swerve, or better still, the book.

This book's all-female archetypes of wisdom are handsomely represented in artwork, well-chosen to demonstrate the author's desired celebrated qualities:

The introductory matter, simple and concise, tells us we're going to go deep into the world of women's experiences, archetypes, and the wisdoms these impart. As the span of (recorded) history is mostly the record of misogyny and repression, that doesn't sound cheery.

It is, and it isn't. Without sugarcoating or avoiding the violence meted out by men, the images are gynocentric and the wisdom positive and constructive. Your young wiccan, budding feminist with a spiritual bent, or simply young woman void of course can use this book for encouragement, for assistance, and for the many pleasures of a beautiful object on its own.

Let's enjoy the art:

the loa get a look-in!

the Irish, too

mediterranean myths, anyone?

nordic ladies, here you go

Conclusions to be drawn...an inviting and trenchant way to absorb the wisdom of the women who keep the world running.

TAKE THE LEAD, an essay Jessica Simpson didn't need to offer but chose to, empowering disempowered women

TAKE THE LEAD: An Essay
JESSICA SIMPSON, KEVIN CARR O'LEARY
Amazon Original Stories
$1.99 Kindle edition, FREE to read for Prime customers

Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded up because Author Simpson deserves all the plaudits in the world for wanting to help the people who used and abused her in spite of everything

The Publisher Says: An inspiring and revealing essay about motherhood, self-acceptance, and overcoming the fears that hold you back by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Open Book.

“If I want to lead myself into something greater than yesterday, I have to surrender the things that scare me and hold me back.”

Jessica Simpson collected so much emotional baggage over the course of her life that she began to feel like she couldn’t carry anything else. She knew she needed to confront her fears. She made a to-do list for the life she wanted. No more struggling to please everyone else. No more dulling the pain. No more avoiding the scary stuff. From now on, she’ll focus only on the expectations she has for herself. With her inviting warmth and trademark intimacy, Jessica reflects on the example of her daughters and son, reclaiming her power and taking the lead in her own life.

THIS IS AN AMAZON ORIGINAL STORY, AVAILABLE FREE FOR PRIME MEMBERS (LIKE ME).

My Review: Four short chapters, all in all a half-hour's read, that bid fair to do more good for people stuck in Plague Year Mode than all the well-intentioned and hamfisted punditry on the TV and internet.

Facing fear; parenting; breaking free of obsessive cyclic behavior. In short, letting go and letting yourself actually be free. These are excellent messages. Simpson is a poster girl for all of them. She's never been out of the public eye since her pop-star days, and her awful reality TV show with her abusive first husband is one of the primary reasons I don't watch the stupid things. (Except #GBBO.) The toll this took on her is well-documented if twisted into criticisms of her even then.

Author Simpson is to be celebrated for telling her side of things without rancor or self-pity...excessive rancor or unwarranted self-pity, I suppose...and this free-with-Prime read builds on that mature image.

I don't know if most people who read my reviews feel the need of this kind of cheerleading, encouragement, to make change and get inspired to seek their own best methods to accomplish this (that is the main take-away of this essay), but please...don't turn up your nose or look down it at a woman whose personal power, her control over her body, was utterly voided and who is now redressing that life-long wrong.

And for goodness' sake, stop voting for old white men whose purpose it is to make that heinous crime a legally protected abuse.