Cassandra Speaks

<p>What story would Eve have<br>told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And<br>what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but<br>cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers?</p><p> <p/>Elizabeth Lesser believes<br>that if women's voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history <br>humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories--stories<br>that value caretaking champion compassion and elevate communication over<br>vengeance and violence. <p/>Cassandra Speaks is about the<br>stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It's about the<br>stories we still blindly cling to and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales <br>the guiding myths the religious parables the literature and films and fairy<br>tales passed down through the centuries about women and men power and war sex<br>and love and the values we live by. <br>Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity.<br>We have outgrown so many of them and still they endure. This book is about<br>what happens when women are the storytellers too--when we speak from our<br>authentic voices when we flex our values when we become protagonists in the<br>tales we tell about what it means to be human. <p/>Lesser has walked two main<br>paths in her life--the spiritual path and the feminist one--paths that sometimes<br>cross but sometimes feel at cross-purposes. Cassandra Speaks is her<br>extraordinary merging of the two. The bestselling author of Broken Open and<br>Marrow Lesser is a beloved spiritual writer as well as a leading feminist<br>thinker. In this book she gives equal voice to the cool water of her meditative<br>self and the fire of her feminist self. With her trademark gifts of both humor<br>and insight she offers a vision that transcends the either/or ideologies on<br>both sides of the gender debate. <p/>Brilliantly structured into<br>three distinct parts Part One explores how history is carried forward through<br>the stories a culture tells and values and what we can do to balance the<br>scales. Part Two looks at women and power and expands what it means to be<br>courageous daring and strong. And Part Three offers A Toolbox for Inner<br>Strength. Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change <br>and that no one--woman or man--is immune to the corrupting influence of power.<br>She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted. <p/>Cassandra Speaks is a<br>beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling memoir and cultural<br>observation. Women men and all people will find themselves in the pages of<br>this book and will come away strengthened opened and ready to work together<br>to create a better world for all people.<br></p>