Cakes for the Queen of Heaven: An Exploration of Women's Power Past Present and Future
Many thousands of Unitarian women have participated in the curriculum whose title this book bears and that was designed by Ranck, a minister of that faith, to introduce congregations to the ancient religions of the goddess. In her semiautobiographical exploration of the eclipse of women's spiritual power and its recent rebirth, Ranck solidifies her position as one of the leaders of the contemporary women's spirituality movement. She suggests that the women's movement has brought a shift from an outwardly oriented religion, devoted to a deity imagined to be elsewhere than the human body, to an inwardly oriented religion in which the body is central. Many of her meditations and prayer suggestions aim to reinforce a sense of woman's power as centered within her own mortal, human container. Accessible without being simplistic, this thoughtful account makes an excellent addition to the literature of women's spirituality and will be popular in public libraries.Pat Monaghan