The Goddess Wheel

<h3><center>THE GODDESS WHEEL:</center></h3> <h3><center>A Meditation Guide on Woman's Sacred Cycles and Sexual Mysteries</center></h3><h3><center>By Karin E. Weiss Ph.D.</center></h3><p>Although this book is full of colorful pictures the written text is its main feature.The paintings in this picture book are rendered in a distinctly dilettante style and the subject matter intrigueingly portrayed. The text is well written and thought-provoking. Weiss writes in a mix of fantasy philosophy and poetic prose to express profound wisdom in plain words. Her ideas are deceptively simple for every sentence reveals deeper meanings about women's experiences of life love and longing. In the introduction she writes:<p><i>Feminine spirituality is about becoming Whole. It is about containing connecting uniting and bonding. It is about affirming and celebrating all living things. It is about harmonizing and balancing the masculine and feminine principles in all our lives. The Mother-god's most important lesson is that Divinity exists in everything; that all life is sacred and erotic. . . . The feminine spiritual message is perpetually revealed by the turning of the seasons and above all we see our own experience of transitions and changes mimed by the moon's monthly orbit. Like the faces of the moon women's own cycles moods and roles pantomime the ever-changing Essence of female sexual and spiritual power.</i> <p>The book derives from the author's extensive life-travels as a sex therapist astrologer gardener and breeder of pedigreed cats. Her love of animals shows through the paintings. Her empathy for human foibles and her sympathy for Nature's caprice lends a sometimes shocking humor combined with honest revelation to her concept of Woman's erotic spirit. Weiss offers a broad view of sexual-spiritual merging that encompasses shadow and light serious and playful foolish and wise. She is less sympathetic to the prevailing male-dominated culture however and a strong feminist bias shows through all of her work.<p>Here are the names of the eight Archetypes and their corresponding masks or faces or roles as Weiss has defined and arranged them: Mother Archetype: Mother Earth Divine Mother Grandmother. (New Moon)Maiden Archetype: Good Girl Naughty Girl Orphan. (Waxing Crescent Moon)Wild-woman Archetype: Dame Nature Maenad-Madwoman Whore. (First Half Moon)Muse Archetype: Clown Star Siren. (Gibbous Moon)Lover Archetype: Beauty Queen Sweetheart Vamp. (Full Moon.)Companion Archetype: Handmaiden Mate-Wife Sister-Friend. (Disseminating Moon.)Warrior Archetype: Heroine Huntress Rebel. (Second Half Moon.)Wise Woman Archetype: Mystic Priestess Witch-Shaman. (Balsamic Moon.)<p>This book is a gold mine of affirmation self-knowledge compassion and pure chutzpah for women and teenage girls today. Read it and learn to like yourself better-- even those parts of you that you have denied and tried to hide. Following are a few selected passages :<p>Earth remains ever the prototypical Female recreated in the fertility cycles and bodies of all women. The bond we inherit through our physical bodies to the earth connects us to all her creatures forever. Deep in our bones we remember our sacred earthy origins. (Mother Archetype first face: Mother Earth p. 16)<p>The Maiden is core to all others for she embodies the soul's dream. In her world the magic of make-believe prevails. The freedom to explore our fantasies as children gives us self-confidence to pursue our dreams as women. ( Maiden Archetype p. 22)<p>The Wild-woman is the animal part of us who roars howls snarls screeches with untamed primitive passion. She is the keeper of an inner bestiary the choreographer of a psychic circus of ba