On Be(come)ing a Woman of Wisdom - Patricia Spinoza

"On our trekking expedition, I would be caressed by nature's majesty and fall in love in extraordinary circumstances. Being with Sven in the Himalayan mountains cut to the core of my psyche and hooked a hidden web of tantric Shakti Energy. Lastly, I would stumble into a spiritual tradition, that I would one day recognize as a description of my true self.

With Sven, whose spirit of adventure matched mine, I had the traveling partner I craved. Our first morning in Pokhara, we brought our freshly purchased magic mushrooms to the restaurant, ate the earthy omelet, and headed to the lake. Sven rowed us across the placid waters and at my "spot," we pulled the boat ashore, climbed the short path, and emerged at the little waterfall. I had loved being there alone, but now sitting with Sven, being at the pool by myself, paled in comparison. Stripping down naked, daring to go into the water despite the leeches, laughingly splashing and entwining our bodies and pulling the leeches off us as soon as they attached, I gazed at the vibrancy of nature through the emerald-clear glasses of the mushrooms and couldn't wait to be in his arms making love.

Late afternoon, we returned to our rustic hotel room, and as the lights flickered in and out, we cheerfully lit candles and greedily succumbed to our lust and love. My orgasm exploded out of me and in that breathless moment, surrounded by those indescribable mountains, feeling the sacredness of the valley, the demands of sensual Shakti Energy nailed me willingly to the cross of our loving. By day our eyes feasted on the snow-covered Himalayas. By night our fingers feasted on the outlines of each other's body. In those mountains with Sven, I tasted what I would come to call the transcendent Shakti. This binding of Shakti magic, cast in the fires of our bodies, and the commanding nature of those mountains, would not be easily unbound."

From ordinary girl to wise crone, this daring and original book, tells the story of how one woman faced her demons and angels in order to manifest her full Shakti Energy which the author defines as the enlivening feminine energy that permeates the universe. In joyously and meticulously describing her blossoming and maturing sexuality, the author unashamedly exemplifies for all women a pathway through our conventional, societal, and personal limits to the hidden spiritual truths behind women's sexuality and truth-telling.

This volume, and the concluding volume to be published later this year, are nothing less than one woman's call to all women to dare to embrace their personal story, family lineage, intimate relationships, motherhood, and sexual energies with wonder and curiosity, and courageously tell their stories. Her memoir details how personal sexuality can open the door to transcendence. The author proposes that this vital ownership and declaration by women of the full power of the personal and transpersonal Shakti is the missing piece in our human evolution that can transform our society and our relationship with planet earth.