Product Description

Proving prayer to be as valid and vital a healing tool as drugs or surgery, the bestselling author of Meaning & Medicine and Recovering the Soul offers a bold integration of science and spirituality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53123 in Books
• Published on: 1995-02-03
• Released on: 1995-02-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Library Journal
In 1986, in the midst of a midlife crisis, Bolen (Ring of Power, HarperSanFrancisco, 1992) received an invitation to a pilgrimage to sacred sites in Europe. With three other women, she traveled to places such as Chartres Cathedral, Iona, and Glastonbury-where traditionally "one crossed the mists to Avalon, the realm of the Goddess." Bolen interweaves her personal spiritual journey and midlife passage with a discussion of the psychological significance of mythic quests and a reinterpretation of the Grail Legend that illuminates its feminine aspects. While lacking the storytelling immediacy of Clarissa Pinkola Estes's Women Who Run with the Wolves, Bolen's narrative has a sweetness that lingers with the reader. Many will respond to the author's hopes that her story will remind others of the importance of their own "soul journey." An essential purchase for public libraries; important also for academic libraries with popular psychology, women's, and religious studies collections.
Carolynne Myall, Eastern Washington Univ. Libs., Cheney
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This compilation of experiences, thoughts, scholarly research, and, above all, the feelings of a woman at midlife amounts to a revelation. On pilgrimage to sacred sites including Chartres, Glastonbury, and Iona, Bolen, a physician, Jungian analyst, and professor of clinical psychiatry, traces their histories and significance. She relates these places' earliest uses by societies with earth-based belief systems to the concept of key energy centers all about the globe, and she links her inner journey of the spirit to her physical travels and the primal knowledge of the sacred that women have experienced for thousands of years without naming it. This quest for the holy grail involves more than a personal transformation; it is, she says, everywoman's secret, potential pathway to the roots of her strength and wisdom. An essential addition for collections concerned with women's spirituality and goddess worship. Whitney Scott

From Kirkus Reviews
A vivid account of one woman's pilgrimage to the shrines and sacred sites of the New Age quickly degenerates into pop psychology and pseudo-profundities. Bolen (Goddess in Everywoman, 1984), a Jungian psychoanalyst and a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, begins this spiritual memoir at a low point in her life. Nearing 50 and recently separated from her husband, she is searching for a new direction. Just at this midlife crossroads, an invitation arrives from a Netherlands foundation to undertake a journey. She is to visit many of the supposed holy places of Europe. Readily accepting this apparent godsend, she begins her quest for fulfillment with an arranged audience with the Dalai Lama. The spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan Buddhism seems, by the author's own account, more bemused than captivated by her question about possible connections among Tibetans, the Hopi Indians, and the Oracle at Delphi. Her next stop is the great cathedral at Chartres, where she meditates on its relation to the Earth Goddess. A lengthy discussion of the legend of the Holy Grail and its psychological meaning precedes and follows her visit to Glastonbury, where the Grail was supposedly brought by Joseph of Arimathea. The book's title derives from the mystical island other world to which King Arthur sailed in death. Two places in Scotland- -Findhorn, a well-known New Age commune, and the Isle of Iona, an ancient Christian community--round out her personal quest. As she journeys, she picks up other spiritual vagabonds in the manner of Chaucer's travelers to Canterbury. Jungian psychological concepts form an overlay. Although the trip chronicled was undoubtedly meaningful for the author and will appeal to New Age seekers, it will leave others cold. ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

This book literally hit me over the head
This book DID literally hit me over the head - in a book shop! I was browsing through the books and this novel fell off the top shelf landing on my head before it hit the floor. At the time I was more interested in the books I had under my arm so I placed it back on the shelf....but 6 months later I regretted that decision and trackedit down.

I have a large interest in Avalon - I find that era particularily fascinating and this book was a great insight but more importantly it was just a great read about one womens journey and connection to Avalon. There are so few books like this around (that I can find) - I am grateful this one smacked me over the head to be noticed, lol!

Appreciated by someone younger also
This book was appreciated from perspective of a younger woman also, so not only midlife women will enjoy! Made me think!

Put it all together for me
I just read this book as I approach my 60th birthday and am having some discomfort with reaching that age. I had read Crones Don't Whine several years ago also by this author, but didn't connect it when I purchased Crossing to Avalon.
I found this book so interesting, enlightening, and helpful that it will go on the shelf with other books I lend out but always want back. I was able to connect the Goddess ideas with the Jungian archetypes and then directly to how I feel personally in a more direct way than with any previous books I've read. I would highly recommend this book. I'm not sure if it would have made the same great impression on me if I hadn't earlier done some reading on these subjects.