Moonlit Path: Reflections on the Dark Feminine
by Fred Gustafson

Paperback: 262 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.47 x 8.56 x 5.64
Publisher: Nicholas-Hays, Inc.; (June 2003)
ISBN: 0892540648  Price $24.95

I consider myself to be very open minded when it comes to alternative paths and diverse Deity interpretations.  I also feel I'm quite generous when it comes to accepting the ideas of others that don't quite jibe with mine, usually being very open to the "agree to disagree" practice.  How someone could work so very hard to render the fascinating dark goddesses to such a mind-meltingly boring representation is far beyond me.  Getting past the nearly $25.00 price tag on this very simple 248 page book and teeniest, tiniest text size imaginable, one must then overlook the fact that this supposedly deep exploration of the dark goddesses has been edited by one man, forwarded by another man and the writers featured are about half men.  It's not that I'm prepared wax all femi-nazi here.  This book more than speaks for itself as to why meaningful studies of female deity, particularly their dark aspects, should never be left in the hands of the masculine gender.  Since they are intimidated by the darker side of femininity, it stands to reason they'd make a total balls up of anything to do with it.  The passages written by the women in the bunch are only marginally better and while the physical description of the goddesses concerned seem quite accurate (dealing with facts, a man thing), as soon as discussion wafts to the ways the goddess aspects affect us, the whole deal goes into the ditch (dealing with emotions, a woman thing and a man's disaster waiting to happen, or in this case, happening before our eyes).  Like watching an ugly jalopy of a train hurl itself off a cliff, this book drifts to some kind of psychological, allegorical rhetoric to which no human should ever be subjected.  No wonder the woman on the cover looks fairly daft.  

1 pent out of 5 

Reviews by Katrina Rasbold