Women of Wisdom
Today I have the pleasure of hosting Kris Steinnes and her award winning book “Women of Wisdom: Empowering the Dreams and Spirit of Women,” as she goes on her Amazon.com tour. This is a unique book with inspiring stories, art, and poetry combined with strong voices of best selling women authors and leaders in their fields. Throughout the book they share thought provoking ideas that explore the hidden potentials and gifts that reside in the depths of the feminine spirit. Women who are seeking for meaning in their lives will find this book a powerful tool to guide and inspire them.
I particularly like this quote on page 36 by Angeles Arrien: The world is hungry for the healthy feminine, and the healthy feminine is the feminine that does not move to the extremity. The healthy feminine is one that doesn’t test love, or manipulate for love, attention, acceptance or approval. The healthy feminine doesn’t go into drama or victimization. The healthy feminine does not go into appeasement patterns, or collapse, or control, or seduction. These are all behaviors of the covert feminine that lives in every man and woman.
Women of Wisdom: Empowering the Dreams and Spirit of Women by Kris Steinnes
2008 Award winning finalist for Best New Non-Fiction from USA Book News
2009 Bronze award winner for Body-Mind-Spirit from Independent Publishers.
What is Women of Wisdom?
For seventeen years women have been attending the Women of Wisdom gatherings to uncover and celebrate the power of feminine spirit. In this compilation of spiritual, academic, and artistic contributions from professionals and lay people, poetry mixes with history, visual art with the inner spirit, and the intellect with soulful longing, creating an inspiring kaleidoscope of feminine reverence. This book offers practical and moving guidance that speaks to the divine within us all.
Key aspects of the book:
• Thought provoking essays from some of the greatest women thinkers and writers of our time from the Women of Wisdom Conference.
• Exercises to explore the topics in each chapter gives the reader an experience of their own personal journey toward self-awareness.
• Personal stories sharing life changes from their WOW experience
• Women of Wisdom’s story and development of key aspects of the conference – art, music, ritual theater, and circle leadership.
• The reader is taken on a journey through the conference with empowering presentations, workshops, ceremonies, art, poetry, stories, and circles.
• Art and poetry displayed throughout the book add a visual element that moves the reader to experience the creative feminine. Many of the poems are songs from well-known musicians from the women’s music movement such as Holly Near, Rhiannon, Cris Williamson, Ferron and Libby Roderick.
• Diversity of more than sixty contributors sharing their experience of the power of the feminine voice.
The ten key women presenters discuss many current problems facing women and our society today and offer words of hope and wisdom to help women tackle these problems that relate to their personal life.
Excerpt: “Have You Put Your Dreams On Hold?” (Angeles Arrien’s chapter)
Each one of us has a great dream and a great calling. Many of us have put our dreams on the back burner. We say, “Someday when I have enough time, when I have enough money; then I’ll do what I really want to do, what has fire for me.” At this time there is such a wonderful opening in history, in evolution, if we will just come and take our place.
What I’ve found among many of the indigenous peoples of the world is that they know how important it is to bring our medicine and our dreams to this world. If we want the earth to get better we need to show up and take our place, not with our shrouds of insufficiency, but with our long tall bodies and our deep, deep roots. The warrior’s way or the leader’s way is to show up. And then I can pay attention to what has heart and meaning, which is the healer’s way. I can’t know what has heart or meaning until I choose to show up, until I choose to be present.
Among the shamanic traditions of the world, if you go to a shaman or a medicine person, and you are dispirited, disheartened, or depressed, many of them will ask you one of four questions: “When in your life did you stop singing? When in your life did you stop dancing? When in your life did you stop being enchanted by stories, and particularly your own life story? And when in your life did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?”
Wherever we stop singing, dancing, being enchanted by stories or deeply comforted by silence, we begin to experience soul loss. There’s not a culture in the world that does not have song, or dance, or story, or doesn’t recognize that in the sweet territory of silence we connect to the mystery in our contemplative and reflective practices.
I know I’m not at home when I’m in appeasement, weak-heartedness, seduction, drama or exaggeration. I know I’m not at home when I am playing the martyr or the victim and wanting someone else to be responsible for my life and therefore guilt induce others. I’m not at home when I’m controlling, because the opposite of control is trust.
I am at home when I have fire; when I am deeply connected to what has heart and meaning, the heart’s fire; when I’m seized by a vision that I want to manifest and bring to the sweet face of Mother Earth. I know I’m on fire when I’ve lost time through some creativity, and when I’ve experienced a moment of tender sweetness and intimacy in a relationship that has substance and depth. I know I’m on fire when I’ve connected to something numinous and extraordinarily beautiful that can only be found when trusting in an unshakable part of myself, in a sacred refuge that I can find in my deep interior.
Angeles Arrien is a cultural anthropologist, award-winning author, educator, and consultant to many organizations and businesses. She lectures and conducts workshops worldwide, bridging cultural anthropology, psychology, and comparative religions. Her work is currently used in medical, academic, and corporate environments. Angeles is the President of the Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research. Her books, including The Four-Fold Way, The Signs of Life, and The Second Half of Life, have been translated into nine languages, and she has received three honorary doctorate degrees in recognition of her work.
To learn more about Kris Steinnes and her book Women of Wisdom: Empowering the Dreams and Spirit of Women, as well as the Women of Wisdom conference, visit www.womenofwisdom.org. Also check out ongoing Community Events Calendar in the Natural Choice Directory web page for future Women of Wisdom sponsored events.
Women of Wisdom: Empowering the Dreams and Spirit of Women – Order your copy TODAY and get over $3000 in free gifts – http://www.cli.gs/wow
Women of Wisdom by Kris Steinnes, is being offered beginning on June 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 am. We invite you to go to this page – www.wisewomanpublishing.com/womenofwisdom.html – to access the order page and then go back to this page to access the bonus page. On the Exclusive Private Invite page, enter your order confirmation code. That will allow you to gain entry to the bonus gifts that are available to people who buy the book on June 23rd.
Kris Steinnes Interview
I recently had the pleasure of connecting with Kris Steinnes as she embarks on her Amazon.com launch for her award winning book “Women of Wisdom: Empowering the Dreams and Spirit of Women.” Part of what intrigues me about this book besides the obvious fact that it’s about self-empowerment, is that it’s also multi-dimensional. The book incorporates many different forms of stirring the innate wisdom of the soul, such as poetry and drawings, along with its written teachings of wisdom. Her book launch officially begins June 23rd, and I’ll have more posted here on that day as well. She’s put together an amazing package of free gifts for you. You won’t want to miss it. In the meantime while we’re waiting for the main event, here are some little appetizers for you, as Ms. Steinnes graciously granted me an interview:
1. Kris, please define “empowerment.”
Empowerment to me means you are standing in your inner wisdom, confident who you are, and you know what you are willing to support and what you will speak up to change. You are willing to face your fears and be visible. You will show the world who you are, which will empower others to do the same. What also does it take to be empowered? You need to connect to the universal power, the love and light of the universe that supports us, not personal power. Call it whatever you’d like, God, Source, Love, Allah, etc. You’ll drain yourself fast if you are just using personal power.
2. Please define “wisdom.”
Wisdom comes from knowing who you are, knowing your gifts. You trust what you know from your gut, not your head. So it comes from a deep place inside of you, not from books, and knowledge. It comes from life experiences.
3. What makes a woman wise?
Knowing who she is, being strong and willing to be visible to show the world who she is.
4. Are women less empowered then men, and if so, why?
We are when we’re not wiling to speak up, be seen, be heard, and show ourselves as powerful. When we sit back and let others do it, we’re not in our power. Sometimes we take on an attitude of how can I make a change, I’m just one person, so why try. Or we think we have too much on our plate taking care of our children, our home, in addition to working that we don’t have any more time, let others do it. But everyone has an effect on the world. If you can touch one person by sharing who you are, sharing your stories, you are empowering them. If you know this, you are more willing to share yourself and your wisdom, your power to others.
5. Do both men and women have a divine right to create or is it just women?
Everyone has a divine right to create. Creativity is a feminine trait, that is not connected to gender, but is available to everyone. It may appear women are more creative as we birth new life, An important feminine trait that women have is they are interested in the process, allowing the process to naturally enfold, instead of focusing on the product, the end result. Both are important, but there’s not a balance if there’s more focus on the outcome, if there’s more focus on the masculine or yang in the world. Again that’s not a gender issue, but it can be sometimes. When men and women are both balanced in their feminine and masculine we all are creative and can co-create our new world.
6. How can a woman begin to become empowered? What are the first steps?
One idea I have is to look for people who you see as empowered. Observe them, see what makes them powerful. Acknowledge if you can see it in them, it’s in you as well. So find that in yourself and start practicing being that. Be clear on what you want in your life, be clear on what you want to develop. In order to do that there first is an inward journey to discover your gifts. It helps to have a circle of supportive friends to then practice sharing your gifts, sharing your voice. Practice using your voices with friends who will validate you for who you are. And be willing to make mistakes, keep finding that strength within to move forward in your life as you learn from those mistakes.
7. What is one secret gift that women have?
Do we? Shh don’t tell anyone! I feel that women are coming into their power and are glad they have come at this life time as a woman, as we’re bringing in a new way of being here at this time. That doesn’t mean it’s totally new, just means we’re reclaiming it, bringing it back to our awareness.
If there was one gift I’d say is important right now it’s intuition. Women are often gifted with that ability; it’s just a matter of trusting it and learning how to follow it. Another one is we comprehend the value of community, we know the value of friendships to support us. But a secret gift is hard to define. When I think about that to answer this it feels illusive, like it’s on the tip of my tongue, I know it, but I can’t define it. It’s just an exciting time to be a woman!
8. How can women begin to transform the world?
Women will transform the world when they share their wisdom, their ideas, their different ways of doing things every where they go. We can talk about change and want others to transform how things are, but it’s doing it in our own lives that will begin the real change. If we’re to change the world from a hierarchal world to a co-partnership world we have to manifest it in our personal lives. We have to see where the patriarchy is in our lives and transform those areas to co-partnership as Riane Eisler talks about ,or the feminine co-creator as Barbara Marx Hubbard calls it.
We can’t sit back and think we can’t affect change in the world, it’s too big, so why bother. It starts with what’s occurring in our lives. Where we see things that we feel need to change – in our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, any committee we are in – it’s up to us bring a new way of being, such as circle leadership, sharing responsibilities, changing the hierarchal model to an inclusive one that involves all voices to be part of the process. As we change that in our personal lives, it’ll begin to show up in the greater community, and the world.
Thank you, Kris for this enlightening interview!
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