Product Description

Cakes for the Queen of Heaven explores the relationship between women's religious history and the personal issues that arise in women living in this patriarchal society. Women struggle with issues of body image, troubled mother-daughter relationships, sexual freedom and access to power. We need to know that there was a time when the female body was sacred; that there once was a long-lasting religion in which the chief divine actors were a mother and her daughter; that in very ancient times women had significant power in their societies; that although patriarchal societies have oppressed women for centuries, there have always been strong and talented women. Our female history has been erased and trivialized for too long. In this book we meet ancient goddesses and their stories from around the world, real women in ancient Sumer, in Greece, in Judaism and in Christianity. In Cakes for the Queen of Heaven the past is before us, the women are there, and they help us change our lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #791129 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-10
• Released on: 2006-05-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 193 pages

From Booklist
Many thousands of Unitarian women have participated in the curriculum whose title this book bears and that was designed by Ranck, a minister of that faith, to introduce congregations to the ancient religions of the goddess. In her semiautobiographical exploration of the eclipse of women's spiritual power and its recent rebirth, Ranck solidifies her position as one of the leaders of the contemporary women's spirituality movement. She suggests that the women's movement has brought a shift from an outwardly oriented religion, devoted to a deity imagined to be elsewhere than the human body, to an inwardly oriented religion in which the body is central. Many of her meditations and prayer suggestions aim to reinforce a sense of woman's power as centered within her own mortal, human container. Accessible without being simplistic, this thoughtful account makes an excellent addition to the literature of women's spirituality and will be popular in public libraries. Pat Monaghan

About the Author
Dr. Shirley Ann Ranck is a Unitarian Universalist minister, a Crone of wisdom and power who has touched the lives of many women. Trained in education, psychology and ministry, she has drawn upon all these disciplines to create the female spiritual journey contained in Cakes for the Queen of Heaven.

Customer Reviews

A One Person Version of the Curriculum.
This version of Cakes for the Queen Of Heaven is an excellent presentation of the weeks long curriculum offered in UU churches. It's a shame for it to be out of print. Shirley, consider Print On Demand. Some publishers will publish out of print books free.