Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!jagardner
From: jagardner@watmath.UUCP (jagardner)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: spirtual books with a feminist flavor
Message-ID: <12017@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 17:13:06 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.12017
Posted: Mon Mar 18 17:13:06 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 03:49:00 EST
References: <4327@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: jagardner@watmath.UUCP ()
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 27

[...]

Synchronicity that a list of pagan/feminist books should be posted to
net.books just as I have begun to be interested in such things.  I come
to the study through the back door of Jungian psychology.  As the poster
mentioned, Jung has undergone some criticism that his system perpetuates
patriarchal attitudes towards women.  In fact, I think it is fairer to
say that Jung himself had patriarchal attitudes towards women (he was a
product of his age, like anyone else).  However, Jungian psychology can
be adapted to a less patriarchal stance and this is now being done.

I recommend the book "Goddesses in Everywoman" by Jean Shinoda Bolen,
as another book that deals with women and pagan themes.  Bolen is a
Jungian psychologist who suggests that the seven most important Greek
goddesses are representative of archetypes that live inside every woman.
The goddesses are divided into three groups: the "virgin" goddesses
Artemis, Athena, and Hestia, who have "independent" natures of one form
or another; the "vulnerable" goddesses, Hera, Demeter, and Persephone,
who depend on others for a meaning in life; and the "alchemical" goddess
Aphrodite, who manages to combine independence and contact with others.
As with all archetypes, none of these influences are necessarily good
or bad -- they simple ARE.  The point of the book is that recognizing
the strengths and weaknesses that accompany each archetype can free a
woman from unknowing submission to psychological forces.

			Jim Gardner, University of Waterloo