books on birth and spirituality
Jul. 21st, 2005 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekittySo, I recently requested through ILL all the books that I thought might be appropriate to my current research topic of birth and spirituality. I studied them all (rather than reading them through) and am now prepared to give a bit of a review...
Celebrating Life by Tzipporah Klein - A book about life passages in general with a section on birth and a section on wiccanings. Definitely from the pagan perspective. Nothing that made me go "Wow!"
Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition by Starhawk and, um, Somebody - A book about pagan parenting in general with a chapter on birth. Some really good pregnancy rituals and a story that made me cry are featured.
MotherPrayer: A Pregnant Woman's Spiritual Companion by Tivka Frymer-Kensky - The first book that I studied that was totally on-topic. However, I didn't like it a whole lot. It was written more for scholars than for anxious moms. Also, it was more dogmatic/scriptural than I would have liked, in a very Judeo-Christian way. There was at least one pagan prayer in there that was rewritten to be Christian. I wish I had a way to see the original version but I guess we can't complain, 'cause we do it to them all the time. There were a few things I liked in it, but mostly I found it pretty dry.
Rituals of birth: From prehistory to the present by Ann Warren Turner - So far, this one is my favorite. It is fictionalized, written from the perspective of expectant parents in various societies and time period. It has a lot of neat stuff about what people have thought about birth, very different ideas from ours. This is probably the book I'm actually going to buy for my collection, instead of just photocopying one chapter of.
Blessingways: A Guide to Mother-Centered Baby Showers by Shari Masser - This is the only book so far that's come out in this decade. It looks really good, and isn't centered on one spiritual tradition, although it's inspired by Dineh traditions. I have a little longer with this one, so I read the other ones first. I think it's going to be the other book I definitely buy, though.
Celebrating Life by Tzipporah Klein - A book about life passages in general with a section on birth and a section on wiccanings. Definitely from the pagan perspective. Nothing that made me go "Wow!"
Circle Round: Raising Children in the Goddess Tradition by Starhawk and, um, Somebody - A book about pagan parenting in general with a chapter on birth. Some really good pregnancy rituals and a story that made me cry are featured.
MotherPrayer: A Pregnant Woman's Spiritual Companion by Tivka Frymer-Kensky - The first book that I studied that was totally on-topic. However, I didn't like it a whole lot. It was written more for scholars than for anxious moms. Also, it was more dogmatic/scriptural than I would have liked, in a very Judeo-Christian way. There was at least one pagan prayer in there that was rewritten to be Christian. I wish I had a way to see the original version but I guess we can't complain, 'cause we do it to them all the time. There were a few things I liked in it, but mostly I found it pretty dry.
Rituals of birth: From prehistory to the present by Ann Warren Turner - So far, this one is my favorite. It is fictionalized, written from the perspective of expectant parents in various societies and time period. It has a lot of neat stuff about what people have thought about birth, very different ideas from ours. This is probably the book I'm actually going to buy for my collection, instead of just photocopying one chapter of.
Blessingways: A Guide to Mother-Centered Baby Showers by Shari Masser - This is the only book so far that's come out in this decade. It looks really good, and isn't centered on one spiritual tradition, although it's inspired by Dineh traditions. I have a little longer with this one, so I read the other ones first. I think it's going to be the other book I definitely buy, though.
