Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The bestselling author of Broken Open and Marrow delivers a feminist classic in the making that reveals how humanity has outgrown its origin tales, hero myths, and other stories, and empowers women to trust their instincts, find their voice, and tell new guiding stories for all people.
In Cassandra Speaks, Lesser persuasively argues that if women's voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history, humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories--stories that value caretaking, champion compassion, and elevate communication over vengeance and violence. For too long heroism has been defined through the lens of an outdated, imbalanced, male-dominated value-system.
Brilliantly structured into three distinct parts, the book explores how history is carried forward through the stories a culture tells and values, and what, finally, we can do to balance the scales. In Part One, Lesser gives us a fresh way to consider our deeply embedded Origin stories to see how these stories perpetuate the marginalization of women's voices. Part Two looks at Women and Power and redefines what it means to be courageous, daring, and strong. And Part Three offers "A Toolbox for Inner Strength." Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change, and that no one--woman or man--is immune to the corrupting influence of power. She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted, to overcome the "imposter syndrome," and to navigate what she calls "a collective rite of passage."
Cassandra Speaks is a beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling, cultural observation, and personal narrative. With her great gift of both humor and insight, Lesser has given us an important and much-needed antidote to the either/or ideologies on both sides of the gender debate. Women, men and all people will find themselves in the pages of this book, and will come away strengthened, opened, and ready to work together to create a better world for all.
Synopsis
What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers?
Elizabeth Lesser believes that if women's voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history, humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories--stories that value caretaking, champion compassion, and elevate communication over vengeance and violence.
Cassandra Speaks is about the stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It's about the stories we still blindly cling to, and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales, the guiding myths, the religious parables, the literature and films and fairy tales passed down through the centuries about women and men, power and war, sex and love, and the values we live by. Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity. We have outgrown so many of them, and still they endure. This book is about what happens when women are the storytellers too--when we speak from our authentic voices, when we flex our values, when we become protagonists in the tales we tell about what it means to be human.
Lesser has walked two main paths in her life--the spiritual path and the feminist one--paths that sometimes cross but sometimes feel at cross-purposes. Cassandra Speaks is her extraordinary merging of the two. The bestselling author of Broken Open and Marrow, Lesser is a beloved spiritual writer, as well as a leading feminist thinker. In this book she gives equal voice to the cool water of her meditative self and the fire of her feminist self. With her trademark gifts of both humor and insight, she offers a vision that transcends the either/or ideologies on both sides of the gender debate.
Brilliantly structured into three distinct parts, Part One explores how history is carried forward through the stories a culture tells and values, and what we can do to balance the scales. Part Two looks at women and power and expands what it means to be courageous, daring, and strong. And Part Three offers "A Toolbox for Inner Strength." Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change, and that no one--woman or man--is immune to the corrupting influence of power. She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted.
Cassandra Speaks is a beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling, memoir, and cultural observation. Women, men and all people will find themselves in the pages of this book, and will come away strengthened, opened, and ready to work together to create a better world for all people.