‘El reino esta entre ustedes’ is what someone explained to me one day: We build the kingdom of God among us. My Christian faith informs and calls me to the cause of justice, and justice fuels my faith.
Reverenda Rhina Ramos, UCC minister
Rhina is one of forty women interviewed in Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine. Pre-order your copy now by clicking on the link below!
BIRTHING GOD: Women’s Experiences of the Divine collects testimony from a diverse, fascinating group of women who challenge us to understand divinity and spirituality beyond traditional ideas of gender and dogma. This book offers reflection, inspiration, and even practical guidance for anyone seeking to experience her faith more deeply.
–Lisa Catherine Harper, author of A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood
Powerful narratives of suffering, love, and hope that inspire
both personal and collective transformation.
In Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine, 40 women of faith describe inspirational, Spirit-filled moments: a Korean student feels the hands of God supporting her despite excruciating torture; a grieving pastor walks a labyrinth and rediscovers the Rock of her existence; a human rights advocate re-encounters Allah in an intensely visceral moment in the sun; a Salvadoran peasant woman under fire discovers within herself the God who gives her courage. Each woman’s story invites reflection and the deepening of readers’ own spiritual practices.
Order or preview at:
http://www.skylightpaths.com/page/product/978-1-59473-480-9
Also available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.
Peruvian women during June solstice
JOIN US FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY! Make your (free) reservation now!
March 7, 2013 at 6 p.m. Birthing God: Women’s Experience of the Divine potluck and sharing at Stillheart Institute, Woodside, CA.
“At last, a vibrant investigation into the lived spirituality of God-intoxicated women! Lana Dalberg’s Birthing God is more than a series of snapshots into the lives and thoughts of deeply spiritual women; it is a glimpse into the living Divine as She makes Herself known to us through these amazing seekers. The result is a spirituality of radical openness that offers a much-needed alternative to the closed-hearted and narrow-minded spirituality that dominates so much of contemporary religion.”
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature
Happy New Year to you! My blessing this coming year is a book, Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine, available March 1 from Skylight Paths Publishing. After laboring long hours and completing nearly sixty interviews, I am excited to bring it into the world, and of course, I want to share it with you!
In Birthing God, 40 women of different faiths describe inspirational, spirit-filled moments: a Korean student feels the hands of God supporting her despite excruciating torture; a grieving pastor walks a labyrinth and rediscovers the Rock of her existence; a human rights advocate re-encounters Allah in an intensely visceral moment in the sun; a Salvadoran peasant woman under fire discovers within herself the God who gives her courage. Each woman’s story invites reflection and the deepening of one’s own spiritual practices, whatever they might be.
Join me in celebrating the release of Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine!
http://www.skylightpaths.com/page/product/978-1-59473-480-9
Every time I enter a department store, I think of the recent sweatshop tragedy in Dhakah, Bangladesh. On November 24, 2012, over a hundred women and girls, forced to slave for hours in a sweatshop locked from the outside, perished when a fire broke out and they could not escape. But the Tazreem Fashions’ sweatshop owners are not the only ones responsible for their deaths. When we shop at Wal-Mart and buy dirt-cheap goods, some of that blood and ash gets on our hands, too, for we are driving the demand for sweatshop labor with our consumption.
So this holiday season, when everyone is expected to show their love through their purchases, what can we do? Here are a few solutions I’ve come up with:
I know that bucking the consumerist mindset during the holidays can be very challenging. I have to admit that I’ve 
already bought three big-box store items this year—their rock-bottom prices were just too hard to resist! But I have also purchased local, hand-crafted jewelry, written a few poems, shopped at second-hand stores, and even purchased a clothing item from what I used to call “those super-expensive, made-in-USA” stores. Yep, that’s right—me, a single mom and tight-wad daughter of depression-era parents. And if I can do it (well, almost do it), then we all can.
It’s time to take back our holidays from the corporations who benefit from so much spending and consumption. We can celebrate our holidays in ways that recognize that we are not separate from those who slave and perish in overseas factories. We can endeavor to show our love in actions and with gifts that nature holds out to us rather than depleting her abundance or demeaning other human beings.
So this holiday, let’s make the better choice. Even if we slip up and buy a sweatshop item, there’s always the next gift idea or activity that we can improve on, so that we can continue to celebrate the holidays in an increasingly interconnected and resplendent world!
When we act as the Divine Feminine, we support one another! This is a fun, short article I wrote for a blog on Patheos.
What is the title of your book?
Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine. It will be published by SkyLight Paths Publishing in March 2013.
Where did the idea come from for this book?
I’ve had a variety of experiences of Spirit, including mystical visions and nature-based revelations, and I was curious to learn about other women’s experiences of the Divine.
What genre does your book fall under?
Definitely nonfiction, although I crafted the interviews into narratives so that they read like stories.
How long did it take to write the first draft?
A year and two months. My goal was to interview 50 women by International Women’s Day. By the time I was done, I had interviewed nearly 60 women in total.
What actors would you use for a movie rendition of your book?
Hhhmmm. There’s 40 women’s stories, so I’d have to think of a lot of women actors: Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, Michelle Yeoh, Ellen DeGeneres, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Vanessa Redgrave…
What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?
In Birthing God, 40 women relate spirit-filled moments: a grieving pastor walks a labyrinth and rediscovers the Rock of her existence; a human rights advocate re-encounters Allah in an intensely visceral moment in the sun; an educator, moved by an ancestral vision, launches a global tree-planting project to heal the wounds of slavery; a revolutionary awakens from a coma and realizes that all of life is infused with Spirit. Each woman’s story invites readers to deepen and enliven their own spiritual practices. Oops, that was two sentences!
Will it be self published or represented by an agency?
My publisher is SkyLight Paths Publishing (www.skylightpaths.com).
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
My own mystical encounters and a craving to hear other women share their experiences since most spiritual accounts are authored by men.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
While spiritual memoirs abound, not many showcase 40 women’s spiritual stories in one book. The closest cousin to my book is the anthology, Women, Spirituality, and Transformative Leadership (SkyLight Paths 2011), where 30 women contribute their thoughts on women’s spirituality and the imperative for women’s transforming leadership in the world.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The stories sizzle with insight and intensity. For example, a Korean theologian and dharma teacher describes feeling the inexplicable consolation of God’s hands while she was being tortured in a South Korean prison. In another story, a Salvadoran under fire discovers within herself the God who gives her courage. (If it sounds like I’m totally jazzed by these stories, I am!)
Thanks to Lindsey Crittenden for inviting me to participate in this blog chain!
http://loveinshallah.com/contributors-2/
Ayesha Mattu’s first book, ‘Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women’ was featured globally by media including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Washington Post, The Guardian, Times of India, Dawn Pakistan and The Jakarta Post. She is working on a family memoir about three generations of Pakistani Sufi women, and blogs at Love InshAllah. http://loveinshallah.com/contributors-2/
Great news! Skylight Paths Publishing will be publishing my book, Birthing God: Women’s Experiences of the Divine in early 2013.
In Birthing God, forty women relate spirit-filled moments: a grieving pastor walks a labyrinth and rediscovers the Rock of her existence; a human rights advocate re-encounters Allah in an intensely visceral moment in the sun; an educator, moved by an ancestral vision, launches a global tree-planting project to heal the wounds of slavery; a revolutionary awakens from a coma and realizes that all of life is infused with Spirit; a peasant woman under fire discovers within herself the God who gives her courage; and a disabled doctor, embraced by Shekinah, turns her heart to rabbinical studies. Each woman’s story invites readers to deepen and enliven their own spiritual practices.
If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, join with me in celebration this coming weekend at the 6th annual herconference November 2-4 at herchurch, where I will be leading a workshop. See http://herconferencesf.org/workshops/ for more details. Hope to see you there!
womenspiritandfaith 