Healing the Sacred Divide

“Well-researched, this is rich with personal stories and reflections and supplemented with meditations and exercises that help the reader explore her own consciousness.” Publishers Weekly, 07/16/2012 “An important contribution to the continuing development of spirituality, bound to appeal to readers interested in gender roles, feminist approaches, and psychology.” Library Journal, 07/16/2012 Raffa (Dream Theatres of the Soul) posits that until modern religions stop overemphasizing the masculine and repressing the feminine, they will contribute to individual and societal dysfunctions. Deeply influenced by both her own spiritual journey and the work of Carl Jung, Raffa examines the evolution of God-images throughout history and the relationship between our God-images and the war being waged in our psyches “between two compelling needs: our need to preserve the self-images our egos have so carefully constructed and our need to transcend the limitations our egos have imposed.” She explores eight common ways of thinking about God that create problems for individuals and communities before urging the reader to adopt an integrated God-image that reflects both feminine and masculine principles. She then lays out nine “wisdom gifts,” such as emotional integrity, that derive from an integrated God-image. Through honoring the feminine, she ultimately argues, we come to the spiritual realization that there is unity in all of creation and we take the necessary steps toward healing ourselves and achieving universal peace, justice, and love. Well-researched, this is rich with personal stories and reflections and supplemented with meditations and exercises that help the reader explore her own consciousness. –Publishers Weekly-on-line Religion; July 16, 2012 Raffa (Bridge to Wholeness), inspired, in part, by the writings of Carl Jung, attempts to show here how certain preconceptions about God (masculine, tribal, childish, “like us,” gender-biased, external) have damaged us, our spirituality, and our relationship to the world. She suggests alternative understandings of God: holistic, light-giving, powerful, balanced, dialogic, and so on. Raffa’s conception is powerful and subtle, and goes well beyond a simple female-based spirituality; her execution suffers a little from trying to be very accessible. VERDICT An important contribution to the continuing development of spirituality, bound to appeal to readers interested in gender roles, feminist approaches, and psychology. –Library Journal on-line Spiritual Living; July 16, 2012

Jean Benedict Raffa is a former teacher, television producer, and college professor with a doctorate in Education from the University of Florida. In her late thirties she underwent a spiritual