The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

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  I have read this book twice now, and each time I have walked away with a different take. The first time around, I was enamored of the Craft and all things Earth Worshipping (with Earth as a symbol for Gaia, the Great Mother). Now, I am a rationalist, so I'm reading it with a different lens.

  Both takes are immensely rewarding. This is a fantastic book, an excellent journaling/account of a woman's search for her faith, a faith occluded for the first part of her lifetime by a blinding she cou... (show more)

  I have read this book twice now, and each time I have walked away with a different take. The first time around, I was enamored of the Craft and all things Earth Worshipping (with Earth as a symbol for Gaia, the Great Mother). Now, I am a rationalist, so I'm reading it with a different lens.

  Both takes are immensely rewarding. This is a fantastic book, an excellent journaling/account of a woman's search for her faith, a faith occluded for the first part of her lifetime by a blinding she couldn't name.

  Sue Monk Kidd is an expressive, emotive writer. She conveys her sense of isolation and loss very effectively, and as a fellow apostate from Judeo-Christian programming, I felt a lot of empathy for the path we both walked. She took one path and retained a sense of greater connectedness to a spiritual existence. I followed a more existentialist path. Regardless, this is a superlative read, that is equally important for all genders and orientations. (show less)

   

  by Facebook User on Feb 03, 2009 at 07:09PM

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  I found the beginning of the book to be repetitive and whiney. I must say, however, that the last two chapters make it worth the read. The choice of repeating her experiences over and over as touch points to her journey did make sense eventually but tended to give a chaotic feeling to her timeline. This gives the reader a sense of the chaos that she was feeling and I appreciated the feeling of confusion, rethinking, revisiting her decisions, doubting her decisions that this imparted.
  For ... (show more)

  I found the beginning of the book to be repetitive and whiney. I must say, however, that the last two chapters make it worth the read. The choice of repeating her experiences over and over as touch points to her journey did make sense eventually but tended to give a chaotic feeling to her timeline. This gives the reader a sense of the chaos that she was feeling and I appreciated the feeling of confusion, rethinking, revisiting her decisions, doubting her decisions that this imparted.
  For me, the last two chapters finally got down to what she actually wanted to say. Having a daughter in somewhat the same place as hers, and wanting to impart something of the same message to her about her ability to be divine, this book provided some support to the message that I have been trying to share over the years with all my children. That the divinity is not somewhere out there but a part of each of us. Despite the church's best attempts to teach otherwise we are all part of the divine not some old man in a beard up in the sky nor the males that "represent" HIM in the church.
  I would still love to not have to continue the struggle of lanquage and perception and exclusion.
  Someday... (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Apr 08, 2009 at 02:49PM

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