Product Description

Cultural anthropologist and award-winning author Angeles Arrien presents The Second Half of Life--a collection of teachings, reflections, and stories from around the world to open us to the challenges and deeper mysteries of "the great crossing" at midlife. Working with the images, poetry, metaphors, and other forms of symbolic language from diverse cultures, Arrien introduces us to the "Eight Gates of Initiation." By mastering their lessons and gifts, we harvest the meaning and purpose of our life, and come into our spiritual maturity. This popular seller is now available in paperback, with a foreword by John O'Donohue.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35823 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 175 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781591795728
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Angeles Arrien, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist, award-winning author, educator, and consultant to many organizations and businesses. Arrien is President of the Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research, and is currently an International Advisor at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Her books--available in nine languages--include The Nine Muses (Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2000) and The Four-Fold Way (HarperSanFrancisco, 1993).

From AudioFile
Subtitled THE BLOSSOMING OF YOUR CREATIVE SELF, this lovely and complex program is about opening to the deeper mysteries of who we are at midlife and recovering the great dream we have for our lives. Angeles Arrien, author, cultural anthropologist, and eloquent storyteller, describes the three principles that should inform the second half of life: generativity, intimacy and creativity. One way to follow these principles is to perform daily the three cross-cultural tasks referred to by Arrien as "the Blessing Way"--say a prayer or set a sacred intention, express gratitude and perform at least one life-affirming action. Many stories are interwoven throughout the program: Solomon's Wisdom, Pandora's Box, The 12 Labors of Hercules, and The Nine Muses. Eloquent and provocative, Arrien provides not only stories and myths, but also many practical instructions to encourage us to change at mid-life. To paraphrase the poet Rumi, Arrien inspires her listeners to drop "the shrouds of insufficiency" and to return to our souls' highest nature. A well-crafted, superbly recorded, and rewarding audio work. C.S. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

A Balance of Letting Go and Drawing Closer
There is nothing new in Angeles Arrien's book about the second half of life. Indeed, there isn't meant to be. Our lives at midpoint are about putting aside newness and embracing the ancient, the everlasting, the always true.

We live in an age that worships youth. Alongside this naive, if not indeed tragic pursuit to resist aging in all its aspects, we find ourselves as a society becoming ever more superficial, ever more devoted to what is external only, short on endurance, shallow in meaning. Small wonder so many of us approach midlife in a state of "crisis."

Yet there is no crisis. Arrien reminds us, by assembling in this collection of eight chapters named for eight gates, that this is not a time in our lives to resist or fear, but that it is, in fact, a time of wonder and beauty -- of the deeper and more meaningful kind. To pass through each of these "gates" is to be opened and enriched by the enlightenment of the second half of our lives. In each chapter, Arrien has brought together age-old quotes and wisdom from many different cultures, tested by time and place. Each chapter describes the gate through which we must pass, the task we must undertake to do so, the challenge, the gift we receive if we meet the challenge, reflections that help us to understand more fully this threshold, a list of practices to make this gateway a discipline.

The gates: silver (facing the new and the unknown); white picket (discovering one's true face); clay (intimacy, sensuality, sexuality); black and white (relationships and the crucible of love); rustic (creativity and service); bone (authenticity, character, and wisdom); natural (happiness, satisfaction, and peace); gold (letting go).

Each chapter guides us, gently yet firmly, toward facing what is around us as well as what is in us. The overall effect is soothing, I find, to the degree that it has helped me, approaching my own midpoint in life, see the aging process for the beauty and freedom it brings. It is a time to free oneself of the cumbersome masks one has worn in a more naive youth, to embrace wisdom and meaning rather than that which passes quickly and leaving no lasting mark. It is a time to gather all that we have learned in the first half of our lives and bring it all to fruition, entering a time of unbounded creativity, love based on truth rather than illusion, and finding a peace that will make crossing that final gold gate a time of celebration for a life well lived.

If we have lost respect for aging in our society, it is time we take it back. Arrien reminds us, by bringing back the wisdom of the ages, that age in ourselves is something to be welcomed rather than resisted. To resist it is to rob ourselves of what may well be the best time of our lives.

The Physical beauty of this book is surpassed by content!
What a surprise this beautiful book was for me. Because I have and will continue to listen to Dr. Arrien's taped set on The Second Half of Life many times, I had not thought to buy the book. It came as a gift, whatta gift! The surprise is how the content compliments the tapes. No mere regurgitation of previous material, it is chock full of imagery and archetypal information that meets my mind in what it knows and gently points in the direction of making me and my life bigger----indeed, wiser. Like Dr. Arrien's The Four Fold Way this is a book to be read slowly and savored again and again. From my experience with her materials, I know this new jewel, The Second Half of Life, is a deep well from which to drink and will keep my elder years a time a growth and expansion. I recommend it without reservation---it has gone to the top of my list of books I will be gifting my friends with!

A perfect gift
Angeles Arrien has created a wonderful book of wisdom and beauty. Grounded in cross-cultural knowledge,inspiring stories,and practical suggestions, this book is the perfect gift for anyone who has crossed over the threshold of the second half of life.