Essays by Founding Mothers of the Movement

A Classic Anthology of the Women’s Spirituality Movement

Edited by Charlene Spretnak


Contents

Preface: The First Twenty Years (added in the 1994 edition)

Introduction

Part One:
Discovering a History of Power
What the Goddess Means to Women
Mythic Heras as Models of Strength and Wisdom

Part Two:
Manifesting Personal Power
Consciousness/Energy/Action
Self-Images of Strength and Wholeness

Part Three:
Transforming the Political
The Unity of Politics and Spirituality
Applications of Spirituality as a Political Force

Afterword: Feminist Politics and the Nature of Mind

Reviews and Endorsements

"The new vision of reality that is now emerging in science and is being shaped by various social movements is ecological, feminist, and spiritual. Charlene Spretnak's important anthology explores, for the first time, the relationship and political implications of these major currents in our culture. "

"An indispensable anthology for the increasing numbers of scholars of both sexes who understand that the literature of women's spirituality and eco-feminism holds the key to a more fundamental analysis of today's crises of patriarchal, technocratic industrialism. "
"Spretnak has done an artful job of collecting in a single volume the best of writing at the cusp of feminism and spirituality - a zone of excitement, ferment, and challenge."
"Charlene Spretnak has gathered feminist thinkers who have evolved a spirituality that is informed by their politics and that informs their progress toward social change. Such feminist writing provides important alternative visions of spirit and power."
"The issues raised by holistic, postpatriarchal, nature-honoring spirituality are insightfully explored in The Politics of Women's Spirituality."
"For news of an important merger [between the transformational and feminist movements], check out The Politics of Women's Spirituality."

Anchor Press / Doubleday and Company, originally published The Politics of Women’s Spirituality in 1982. They published a new edition in 1994 with a new cover (by Mayumi Oda); an added Preface by Charlene Spretnak (“The First Twenty Years” [of the Women’s Spirituality movement]); an updated bibliography; and a new subtitle: Essays by Founding Mothers of the Movement. The original subtitle, in 1982, was Essays on the Rise of Spiritual Power within the Feminist Movement.