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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
EAN num: 9781591795728
ISBN number: 1591795729
Label: Sounds True
Manufacturer: Sounds True
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 175
Printing Date: 2007-09
Publishing house: Sounds True
Sale Popularity Level: 40600
Studio: Sounds True
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Brief Book Summary:
Cultural anthropologist and award-winning author Angeles Arrien presents The Second Half of Life--a collection of teachings, reflections, and stories from around the world to open us to the challenges and deeper mysteries of 'the great crossing' at midlife. Working with the images, poetry, metaphors, and other forms of symbolic language from diverse cultures, Arrien introduces us to the 'Eight Gates of Initiation.' By mastering their lessons and gifts, we harvest the meaning and purpose of our life, and come into our spiritual maturity. This popular seller is now available in paperback, with a foreword by John O'Donohue.
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Rated by buyers 
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A semi decent guidebook of how to handle life at 50 and beyond. I found some of the text stale to get thru. there were some very helpful areas that im sure that i will retain but for themost part i found this ti be a little too fluffy and 'spiritual'.
Rated by buyers 
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This is an amazing read. Thoughtful,introspective a real gem for the second half of life. We all can use the gates.
Rated by buyers -
This is the 1st book I've read by Dr. Arrien and I am impressed by the depth of her wisdom and the way she makes it accessible to the lay reader. Here she tempts us to go deep inside ourselves to acess our truest being. In this way, each of us has the capacity to "restore, renew, and heal ourselves" and to leave a legacy to future generations.
Arrien introduces the reader to the story of the "8 Gates," metaphorical rites of passage where we confront our demons and our angels. She encourages journaling and contemplation at each gate, as well as daily action to practice those areas that are most difficult for each one of us to attain.
She has organized her book around the 8 gates of wisdom she believes each ofus must open and traverse to reach our potential. In each chapter, she gently guides us to the Task, the Challenges we face, the Gift we recieve once we pass through this gate, what we might Reflect upon and how we can put this into Practice now.
Other reviewers have described the "Gates" well, so I won't do that here. The Second Half of Life is both contemplative and practical. Arrien's work is gives inspiration to people in mid-life to encounter their subsequent decades with anticipation and joy.
Rated by buyers -
Dr. Angeles Arrien is a cultural anthropologist who uses images, poetry, metaphor and other forms of symbolic language from world cultures in her work. I have enjoyed and learned from all her books: The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary; Signs of Life: The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them; The Nine Muses: A Mythical Path to Creativity; and The Tarot Handbook. They have inspired my writing and the writing I do in community with others. Arrien is a consultant to many organizations and businesses, serves as president of the Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research, and is a Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
In her latest book, The Second Half of Life, Arrien invites readers to reconnect and resurrect their dreams that may have been derailed along the way. She describes the thresholds we must cross, in our middle years, in order to fulfil the final stages of our destiny. It is a real honouring of our elder years, which I very much appreciate in a culture that wants us to look and act as if we are not aging at all.
The book was elegantly designed by Bren Frisch and Karen Polaski for Sounds True. The hand images at the beginning of chapters and the foot images at the end of chapters are symbols of entering and leaving the eight gates. They also symbolize much more, including the purifying or marking of hands and feet before or after an initiation, as is done in many cultures of the world.
The eight gates, each with a chapter devoted to it, include "the task," "the challenge," and "the gift" followed by "reflections." As Arrien points out, "Reflection is one of numerous contemplative wisdom practices found in all world traditions." Journaling your insights is suggested as "an old reflective practice" and one that will help you notice "what is arising in the moment." "Practice" follows "reflections" as a way to build upon reflection by taking daily action that supports change. For instance, the Silver Gate (the very first of the eight gates) compels you to look back at what you already know of yourself and to begin the "long journey back home to our true selves." The practice is to track the five stages of the soul--the call, the search, the struggle, the breakthrough and the return.
The task at the White Picket Fence is to "uncover or awaken to the essence of who we truly are beyond masks..." The Clay Gate (the third gate) is "our initiation into intimacy, sensuality, and sexuality." Arrien quotes a wide array of poets, writers and thinkers, including Eduardo Galeano who wrote, "The body says: I am a fiesta." When you think of your body in that way, it helps to embrace it more fully.
The Black and White Gate is a double gate of relationships and the only one you must go through in the company of at least one other person. Relationships (including those between mates and lovers, parents and children, teachers and students), according to the author, "teach us about our capacity for love, forgiveness, and respect for others."
At the Rustic Gate of weathered wood, readers are asked to explore meaningful work, service, and creativity. The challenge of this gate is to stay connected to the Four Rivers of Life and ask, "How will we use our generative energies?"
The sixth gate is the Bone Gate, which brings us to the "bones of who we are"--a metaphor for our authentic self. The Bone Gate urges a development of character, integrity, and wisdom. Again, Arrien passes on the wisdom of indigenous peoples who say "In order to return to our true nature, we must befriend four essential symbolic bones in our body"--the backbone, the wishbone, the funny bone and the hollow little bone. The hollow little bone allows "the Mystery to work us rather than trying to work the Mystery."
The seventh gate is the Natural Gate, where "we are encouraged to come home to our natural rhythm and our internal sanctuary." Many spiritual traditions recognize four natural sanctuaries as the desert, the mountains, the waters, and the woods. In the Practice section of the chapter, Arrien suggests spending an hour outdoors every day and spending at least a half hour every day in silence "to deeply listen to the center of your being."
The final gate in the initiatory process of the "second half of life" is the Gold Gate, the gate of "surrender, faith and acceptance." The challenge is to release critical judgments, accepting circumstances rather than resigning ourselves to them. Theologian Mary Reuter, to whom Arrien refers, "says that we can experience fearlessness through three layers of detachment: detachment from material gain; detachment from self-importance; and detachment from the urge to control or dominate others. To hold onto nothing is the root of happiness and peace." In the practice section of this chapter, Arrien suggests creating a Book of Revelations, ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
If you're looking for a way to effectively cope with challenges to your health and body as you age, you can add this book to the list, The author takes us through looking at our secret longings and how they shape us. I especially liked the questions and assignments at the end of eacy segment. I enjoyed reading the book more than I enjoyed listening to it --- because some of the concepts are deeply profound, I needed to go back over them and this was easier done with book in hand. Pamela D. Blair, Author The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond
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