Review: Weaving the Visions

Recently I've been studying on Women and religious Spirituality. Particularly, why don't we as Mormons know our Mother in Heaven? I checked out 'Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality' from my local library, and it's a great book. It's a collection of essays about Feminist spirituality. Since it is a bunch of essays, if I don't like one of them, or am just not interested in the topic, I can skip it.

There aren't any essays by Mormon women included (so far at least, I'm only halfway through), but that doesn't mean the experiences of others isn't applicable. One of the Editors, Judith Plaskow, is Jewish, so that ensures a certain amount of Monotheism (Judaism is a lot closer to Mormonism than some would think) that other compilations concentrating on Goddess worship ignore (ie, "God" is also a Male figure, not just a Female one).

Essay topics include: Native American Traditions, Adapting Jewish customs and historical spirit to include women, Lesbian Nuns, Greek Goddesses, Ritual, Jungian Archetypes and so on. There are thirty three different essays, plus seven overviews / introduction / preface / etc.

Even though I don't agree with everything, or even a majority of what's in this book, I find most of it well written and thought provoking. If you have any interest in this subject, I heartily recommend it.

And, as a side note, I also checked out 'Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women' and it was truly awful. I actually had to write a comment in the margin (shh, don't tell the librarian) to counter some of the things it was saying. (like stating that the bible commands child sacrifices)