Heart & Hands | Women's Sexual Passages | The Circle of Life

"Once in a while, a book goes to the heart of what it means to be a woman, and connects this to women throughout time and across the world. The Circle of Life is such a book, with a permanent place at my bedside. A stellar work!"     --Suzanne Arms, author, Immaculate Deception
The Circle of Life: Thirteen Archetypes for Every Woman  by Elizabeth Davis and Carol Leonard About this book About the Matriarch Why Thirteen Archetypes? Reviews Order

Elizabeth Davis and Carol Leonard, certified midwives with fifty years' combined experience as health care providers and healers, developed the Circle as a synthesis of their work in women's health, spirituality and psychology. The Circle of Life draws on more than one hundred interviews with women of all ages who have found this model to be an inspiring and revolutionary path for more powerful living. 

Women who have turned to feminist spirituality for appreciation of women's ways of knowing have struggled with the confining concept of the triple goddess--Maiden, Mother and Crone. Where does a woman in her forties fit in? Beyond childbearing, but not yet ready to call herself Crone, she is at the height of her personal power. A natural leader, she is the Matriarch! 

The Matriarch is the Queen of the Harvest--reaping the rewards of sustained effort in all aspects of her life. Elegantly self-possessed and sexually self-assured, she is poised to rekindle the passions, dreams, and spiritual inclinations of her youth with a mature intensity and a clear sense of direction. She represents the challenge facing midlife women today--how to take credit for their work, and make time for personally rewarding pursuits. 

The Matriarch is but one of thirteen archetypes presented in The Circle of Life. From Daughter to Blood Sister, Mother to Amazon, Sorceress to Crone, this groundbreaking work reveals the grand pattern of women's lives, rich and complex, beautiful and mysterious. 

Also: Read more about the Blood Mysteries.

Why thirteen archetypes? 

Thirteen is the sacred number of women's mysteries -- thirteen lunar cycles in a year, and thirteen lunar months in the original, pre-Christian calendar. Although the stages on the Circle are somewhat sequential, the thirteenth stage of the Transformer allows us to move freely back and forth about the Circle, leaping ahead intuitively to a stage beyond our years or revisiting a particular stage for pleasure or consolidation (the Lover, for example). The Transformer is both resting place and change matrix -- she is the weaver and the web. 

Characteristics of the Archetypes

The Daughter--innocent, growing rapidly, beholden only to herself 
The Maiden--knows The Blood Mystery of menarche, moon equally dark and light, half child-half woman 
The Blood Sister--moves in groups, bonds with her peers for strength and identity 
The Lover--realizes love for another, based on self-love discovered as Blood Sister 
The Mother--brings love to fruition, whether a biological child or project of her dreams, in the Blood Mystery of birth 
The Midwife--extends nurturing to larger group by teaching, enabling, mentoring 
The Amazon--rekindles her original face as Daughter, begins the second half of life on her own terms 
The Matriarch--knows rite of Blood Bonding, equally dark and light, reaps harvest of power 
The Priestess--reconnects with spiritual pursuits, rediscovers the power of circling with women 
The Sorceress--refines the alchemy of love/self-love to discover synchronicity of word and deed 
The Crone--trickster and storyteller, knows The Blood Mystery of menopause and becomes the mother of society 
The Dark Mother--translucent wise woman, weaves the cord of her own rebirth and knows the mystery of death 
The Transformer--change agent, weaver of the web, keeper of the keys, finds rest in the dark forest of reanimation 

How freely have you embraced these archetypes in your life?
If you have ever felt discouraged from claiming your power -- here is what a woman in her 50's has to say:

"It is nearly impossible not to get stuck in mothering in our society. That's certainly the role culture prefers, as far as I can tell. Women's basic and very good impulse to mother children has been so exploited by patriarchy that we end up being mother to grown men, who are free to behave like children and become very boring. It's a major cause of dissension between men and women, this pull to keep us locked into that place. 

To break out of being defined as a nurturer, a woman has to commit to her own life, and doing that is scary--choosing yourself instead of someone else is really frightening, like you're being a bad girl. But even as a mother, you have to make a commitment to your own life. And I don't think that can be done without a circle of women that love you very much--it helps you decide you are worth it, that your own life really must come first." 

Reviews of The Circle of Life

"Adds an insightful new formulation to our understanding of the stages of women's development." 
    --Starhawk, author, The Fifth Sacred Thing, The Spiral Dance

"No one gets left out here. All of our collective and individual strengths and differences as women are depicted in their glorious power and beauty. I bless this book!" 
    --Christiane Northrup, M.D., author, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

"A tremendously useful book in defining women's experience of maturation. This book is a gem!!" 
    --Brooke Medicine Eagle, author, Buffalo Woman Comes Singing

"Reading The Circle of Life is like going on a long and powerfully energizing journey among goddess-loving cultures." 
    --Michel Odent, M.D., author, Birth Reborn

"I love this book. I recognized myself--thirteen times." 
    --Judy Grahn, author, Blood, Bread and Roses

"Elizabeth Davis and Carol Leonard combine the best of midwifery wisdom with the extraordinary depth of their own experience." 
    --Robbie Davis-Floyd, Ph.D., author, Birth as an American Rite of Passage

"A long awaited recognition of female diversity and development."
    --Vicki Noble, author, Shakti Woman, Motherpeace

To Order

The Circle of Life 
by Elizabeth Davis and Carol Leonard
Available from: Celestial Arts Publishing/10 Speed Press
Find it on: Amazon