This text provides the author's word pictures of women dancing, chanting and moving through rituals that honour womanhood. She shares spiritual insights and teaches women how to plan unique rituals that enhance pride and pleasure in womanhood.

Women's Rites of Passage grew out of Abigail Brenner s desire to answer some fundamental questions about the role of rites of passage in contemporary women s lives. Relying on a research study involving over 50 women, Brenner shows how women today understand the need to take responsibility for their lives and for directing their own paths, and are beginning to do so by creating their own very personal rites of passage.

Any surface can become an altar. Geddes and Cunningham, with beautiful, inspirational photos and text that's both instructive and poetic, show us how. For women, they say, an altar can become a sacred space upon which to place symbols of her true self. Whether indoors or out, permanent or fleeting, an altar helps you to quickly focus on the spirituality inherent in common things -- the flicker of a candle flame, the heady scent of freshly picked lilacs. Part One of A Book of Women's Altars explains the cultural and historical background of the altar and why to create one. Making and using an altar literally clears a path for a woman through the clutter of her world. She creates a place where she is free to make her inner journey, where healing is abundant. Cunningham describes the process of selecting a theme, choosing a place, finding the right objects, and knowing when to change the altar. Part Two focuses on what to do with altars on special occasions. The author and photographer have created and illustrated -- with photographs and stories -- sixteen special altars. There are altars for the seasons of the year and the seasons of our lives -- including loss, remembrance, celebration of new life, and many more. Each has its own purpose, story, and ritual. Nancy Cunningham is an accomplished poet, author of A Book of Women's Altars, and workshop leader in yoga, meditation and ritual for more than 30 years.

During the adolescent years, young people seek to leave behind childhood and the age of "informed consent"--i.e, the years when adults informed and expected children to consent! Teenagers strive for adult roles and passionately seek ways to prove their maturity to themselves, peers, and adults. This quest for adult roles leads teens through a variety of rites of passage both formal and informal. Some rites of passage which involve youth/adult partnerships delineate the movement from childhood to adulthood in positive ways while young people (psychological orphans) who do not have adult support for rites of passage often create their own rites which involve dangerous risk-taking and destructive behavior. Aching to Age explores rites of passage both ancient and modern, formal and informal; examines the place of these rites in meeting the adolescent psychological quest for adulthood (adult roles); and also explores popular cultural practices by adolescents who lack or eschew established rites of passage. Further, Aching to Age looks at the purpose of these rites in the lives of adolescents and finally explores the importance of rites of passage and how adults who interact with adolescents become partners with young people in the transition to adult roles and responsibilities.

“The amazing tales of Jewish girls on six different continents who celebrate the Jewish ritual of becoming a woman.” —The Jewish Journal Winner, Spirituality Category, New England Festival Best Books of the Holiday Season Divided into nine regions—Africa; Asia; Australia and New Zealand; the Caribbean, Europe; the former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe; Latin America; the Middle East and North Africa; and North America—this book tells the story of each girl’s unique journey and introduction into womanhood. Gorgeously illustrated with more than 100 black and white family photographs, Today I Am a Woman also captures each area’s unique customs and how they affect the lives of Jewish girls and the local Jewish community’s traditions. “The editors scoured the globe to find powerful, varied, and moving depictions of bat mitzvah in the contemporary Jewish world. This is a rich resource for anyone interested in understanding religious diversity, folk practices, and cultural creativity through the lens of gender.” —Deborah Dash Moore, former Director of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and a Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan “The stories speak for themselves, putting Jewish girls and women on the center of the stage, into the limelight, and at the pulpit. By showcasing ritual innovation, they make a point about Judaism’s elasticity and women’s agency.” —Hasia R. Diner, coeditor of Remembering the Lower East Side

Goddess Wheel of the Year invites each of you to explore the many ways to enrich your spiritual life in ritual celebration of yourself and the Goddess. Learn to match your own developmental, psychological, and spiritual needs with specific Goddess aspects of the Maiden, Mother, Crone and Dark Goddess. Explore ways to celebrate at Solar and Lunar rites, as well as learn how to creatively re-imagine rites of antiquity or develop a unique year of celebration that reflects your own revelation of the Goddess. Whether you are new to the Goddess path or have been a life-long practitioner, you’ll find ample ideas to inspire you and reinvigorate your life.

Re-riting Woman is an ethnographic study of Dianic Wicca, a modern Pagan religion in which the divine is solely feminine. Kristy S. Coleman explores Dianic Witchcraft, what it really means to practice Wicca today, and how our understanding of womanhood can change with the experience of a divine feminine.