Enlightenment Through Motherhood

Enlightenment Through Motherhood

Author: Astra Niedra

Publisher: Voice Dialogue in Daily Life

Published: 2013-12-13

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13:

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Motherhood is misunderstood. Since time immemorial we've believed that when women become mothers they are taking time out from real work and serious personal growth, especially spiritual development. But we've got it all wrong. While heavily pregnant with her third child, personal growth writer Astra Niedra attempted a holiday in the tropical paradise of Australia's Far North with her husband and two young daughters in tow. During this ‘holiday’ (we need another word to describe 'an extended overnight excursion with young children) she discovered that the skills and abilities mothers are required to use each day as part of their job are the same as the practices prescribed for enlightenment seekers. Join Astra on her journey of discovery and feel inspired, entertained and spiritually uplifted, all the while becoming increasingly grounded in the unshakeable truth that there is far more to being a mother and raising children than conventional wisdom would have us believe. “Absolutely brilliant! This book is just what the world needs now as our planet continues to move towards political and ecological disaster while the patriarchal systems that still dominate our thinking continue to devalue everything traditionally – and biologically – female.” "In a most perfect balance of yin and yang, of logic and feeling, of humor and gravity, Astra Niedra reclaims for all human beings – not just women – a precious element of that which is truly sacred in life." “Her simple spellbinding stories, her keen intellect, and her unfailing humour make this book a pleasure to read. Here is a new way of thinking of spirituality, of valuing our humanity while living a spirit-infused life, and a fascinating (and novel) path to enlightenment! It's a consciousness changer and I loved it." – Dr Sidra Stone, author of Embracing Our Selves, Partnering, Embracing Your Inner Critic, and The Shadow King "I enjoyed this immensely... Definitely a fun and entertaining book while sharing a bit of spiritual goodness as well." – Katie "This book put into words just what, and how, I was feeling about my own spiritual journey. Women and men have such different experiences and this book beautifully articulates them." – Amanda "A great read for all mothers, I loved this book!" – Ann Shepich “Enlightenment indeed! I hope many women have the opportunity to read Astra’s book. Being pregnant, birthing and mothering are the most important jobs on earth. Honouring these roles is important for governments and society to appreciate and elevate to a much higher status. Astra’s journey is familiar, delightfully written and inspiring.” – Susan Ross, Midwife, Birth Educator and author of Birth Right


Women's Spirituality

Women's Spirituality

Author: Johanna H. Stuckey

Publisher: Inanna Publications & Education

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13:

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This book comes directly out of women's grassroots efforts to understand and transform their spiritual traditions. It is a comprehensive account of the discussions, arguments, perspectives and approaches of contemporary women in Canada toward spirituality and the monotheistic religions. The author presents a concise history of each religion, discusses normative practices and focuses on the roles, rituals and rights of contemporary women as they accommodate to and deal with their respective religions. It deals with women's encounters with spirituality within the framework of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and outside of this framework within the new religions of contemporary Goddess worship.


Soul Talk

Soul Talk

Author: Akasha Gloria Hull

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2001-04-01

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1594775214

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• A celebration of the journey of African-American women toward a new spirituality grounded in social awareness, black American tradition, metaphysics, and heightened creativity. • Features illuminating insights from Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Dolores Kendrick, Sonia Sanchez, Michele Gibbs, Geraldine McIntosh, Masani Alexis DeVeaux and Namonyah Soipan. • By a widely published scholar, poet, and activist who has been interviewed by the press, television, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered From the last part of the twentieth century through today, African-American women have experienced a revival of spirituality and creative force, fashioning a uniquely African-American way to connect with the divine. In Soul Talk, Akasha Gloria Hull examines this multifaceted spirituality that has both fostered personal healing and functioned as a formidable weapon against racism and social injustice. Through fascinating and heartfelt conversations with some of today's most creative and powerful women--women whose spirituality encompasses, among others, traditional Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, Native American teachings, meditation, the I Ching, and African-derived ancestral reverence--the author explores how this new spiritual consciousness is manifested, how it affects the women who practice it, and how its effects can be carried to others. Using a unique and readable blend of interviews, storytelling, literary critique, and practical suggestions of ways readers can incorporate similar renewal into their daily lives, Soul Talk shows how personal and social change are possible through reconnection with the spirit.


Captivating

Captivating

Author: John Eldredge

Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc

Published: 2022-08-16

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1400200385

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What Wild at Heart did for men, Captivating is doing for women. Setting their hearts free. This groundbreaking book shows readers the glorious design of women before the fall, describes how the feminine heart can be restored, and casts a vision for the power, freedom, and beauty of a woman released to be all she was meant to be.


Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa

Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa

Author: Nwando Achebe

Publisher: Ohio University Press

Published: 2020-07-14

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13: 0821440802

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An unapologetically African-centered monograph that reveals physical and spiritual forms and systems of female power and leadership in African cultures. Nwando Achebe’s unparalleled study documents elite females, female principles, and female spiritual entities across the African continent, from the ancient past to the present. Achebe breaks from Western perspectives, research methods, and their consequently incomplete, skewed accounts, to demonstrate the critical importance of distinctly African source materials and world views to any comprehensible African history. This means accounting for the two realities of African cosmology: the physical world of humans and the invisible realm of spiritual gods and forces. That interconnected universe allows biological men and women to become female-gendered males and male-gendered females. This phenomenon empowers the existence of particular African beings, such as female husbands, male priestesses, female kings, and female pharaohs. Achebe portrays their combined power, influence, and authority in a sweeping, African-centric narrative that leads to an analogous consideration of contemporary African women as heads of state, government officials, religious leaders, and prominent entrepreneurs.


Women's Spirituality in the Transformation of South Africa

Women's Spirituality in the Transformation of South Africa

Author: Azila Talit Reisenberger

Publisher: Waxmann Verlag

Published:

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9783830961277

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The changes in South Africa, as well as globally, have had varying effects on the lives of South African women. This book traces some of these changes - as well as aspirations for change - in a particular field: women's search for the beyond, the transcendent. The papers range from personal experience to academic proposals for change.


When Women Were Priests

When Women Were Priests

Author: Karen J. Torjesen

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 1995-04-15

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0060686618

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This landmark book reveals not only that women were priests, bishops, and prophets in early Christianity, but also how and why they were then suppressed.


Righteous Content

Righteous Content

Author: Daphne C. Wiggins

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2006-03

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0814794092

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Enter most African American congregations and you are likely to see the century-old pattern of a predominantly female audience led by a male pastor. How do we explain the dedication of African American women to the church, particularly when the church's regard for women has been questioned? Following in the footsteps of Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham's pathbreaking work, Righteous Discontent, Daphne Wiggins takes a contemporary look at the religiosity of black women. Her ethnographic work explores what is behind black women's intense loyalty to the church, bringing to the fore the voices of the female membership of black churches as few have done. Wiggins illuminates the spiritual sustenance the church provides black women, uncovers their critical assessment of the church's ministry, and interprets the consequences of their limited collective activism. Wiggins paints a vivid portrait of what lived religion is like in black women's lives today.


Women's Spirituality

Women's Spirituality

Author: Joanne Wolski Conn

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2005-11-01

Total Pages: 493

ISBN-13: 1597523771

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'Women's Spirituality' is an enlarged and revised edition of the widely used anthology that looks at the spiritual and psychological dimensions of women's lives. Using classical and contemporary texts, the present volume illuminates the way feminist issues find grounding in great spiritual teachers such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola, and Jane de Chantal. Four sections develop the central theme. The first considers contemporary issues: women in ministry, different forms of feminist spirituality, and sexism in the church. The second provides contemporary resources for psychological development. The third gives examples of spiritual development in the biblical, Ignatian, Carmelite, and Salesian traditions. The final section considers new visions of women's spirituality in the present day. Contributors to this volume include Anne Carr, Joann Wolski Conn, Kathleen Fischer, Constance FitzGerald, James Fowler, Carol Gilligan, Rosemary Haughton, Elizabeth A. Johnson, Robert Kegan, John McDargh, Jean Baker Miller, Sandra M. Schneiders, Elisabeth Schÿssler Fiorenza, Mary Jo Weaver, Rowan Williams, and Wendy M. Wright.