A genuinely helpful guide to fulfilling feminine sexuality.

"My husband says there's something wrong with me." "I don't enjoy sex; I think I'm flawed." "I'm afraid I'll lose him." A surprising number of women are plagued with varieties of sexual dysfunction and unhappiness. Sometimes the problems can be traced to certain traumatic events in their lives, but often the unhappiness stems from ignorance or an inadequate conceptual framework by which women (mis)understand the dynamics of their own sexuality. Sex therapist and practicing psychologist Linda Savage has written a book to help both women and men become more sensitive to the ways in which women are sexual, from their youth into their elder years.

In Part One ("The Wisdom of the Goddess") Savage critiques the prevailing western worldview of female sexuality and outlines an alternative way, the way of the goddess. Drawing upon ancient Sacred Marriage traditions from around the world, a deep appreciation-actually, a veneration-of feminine sexual and spiritual being ("goddess sexuality") is described for the reader in lively, ucid prose. Savage emphasizes the life-affirming superiority of goddess sexuality through a fictional "Tale of Two Daughters": parallel accounts of Inanna and Eileen as they come of age sexually. Innana is a representative of a woman-positive culture wherein sexual desire is a gift, whereas Eileen is raised in a conventional modern mind-set which has taught her that sex is to be hidden for its sinfulness. Savage's tale introduces the notion of three life stages through which women grow: Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

Part Two ("The Three stages of a Woman's Life") explores in more detail the characteristics of each of these three life stages. During the Maiden stage women are discovering their individual creative potentials in many areas of life; most important for Savage's focus is the emergence of "a conscious relationship with intuitive body wisdom, which will continue for the remainder of life" (p.58). It is a time of exploring sexual pleasure without the responsibilities of motherhood. Here, as throughout the book, Savage is careful to recognize that no single pattern of pleasure-preferences is to be considered requisite or even normative for all women. With the first pregnancy comes the Mother stage of accepting responsibility, as women are physiologically and psychologically transformed to elevate the well-being of their children above all other concerns. Savages gifts the reader with insights into the potent-albeit less conspicuous-sexual nature of the Mother stage. Her insights are particularly helpful for husbands, since the season of child-bearing and -raising leaves many men confused and frustrated about their wives' sexual desires. Passing beyond those years women arrive at the Crone stage, a time of sharing wisdom. Here Savage illuminates a widely misunderstood and unappreciated area of female sexuality. She characterizes the Crone stage as one of sexual empowerment, by which she means "an inner confidence about your feminine sexuality that belies the physical image seen in the mirror . . .a state of awareness of the internal strengths of emotional compassion, focused will, and clarity of intention" (p.154).

In Part Three ("The Power of the Feminine Way") Savage applies the concepts outlined in the first two parts in very practical ways to the actual circumstances women face. The organizing principle of her advice is body wisdom: learning deeply from one's own physico-psychic signals and sharing that knowledge with one's partner for enduring and thrilling intimacy. The reader will find in these pages directly applicable exercises and rituals to expand the erotic senses.

Savage has written a genuinely helpful, reader-friendly book. Unafraid to share the story of her own life's odyssey, she exudes the compassion and commitment of the very life-stages about which she writes so well.

Dr. William Yarchin
Chair of the department of religion and philosophy at Azuza University