Summoning the Fates: A Woman's Guide to Destiny
Just 23 years ago, Budapest (The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries) was arrested and convicted under anti-divination laws for telling fortunes in her L.A. candle shop. Now this matriarch of the growing movement that links feminism to witchcraftAand to the elusive, transcultural religion of the GoddessAdescribes the workings of the three Fates. Budapest's artist mother once gave her an altar piece depicting the Fates: the spinner, the weaver and the woman with shears. "One started the thread of life, the other developed it, the third one cut it," Budapest writes. Growing up in magic-steeped Hungary, Budapest learned to summon and honor these "raw forces of nature" that, she contends, govern lives. Blending autobiography and Hungarian folklore with ritual, the author describes the seasons and cycles of the three fates as they correspond to astrology. Hence, the fate "Verdandi" (the weaver, or Fate associated with adulthood) takes over for Urdh (the spinner) at 28, an age astrology deems governed by the "Saturn return." Budapest's rituals for summoning the "conductors of luck" combine sensuality and joy with reverence for the unknown. She writes that "divination was given to us by the Fates to keep us from losing hope." This charming book shows readers how rituals and faith can lead us inward to find the wisdom and goodness of the Goddess in our own lives. Line drawings.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.