Cassandra Speaks, Elizabeth Lesser
Cassandra Speaks, Elizabeth Lesser
3 Rating(s)
List: $20.99 | Sale: $14.70
Club: $10.49

Cassandra Speaks
When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes

Author: Elizabeth Lesser

Narrator: Xe Sands

Unabridged: 6 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/15/2020


Synopsis

What story would Eve have told about picking the apple? Why is Pandora blamed for opening the box? And what about the fate of Cassandra who was blessed with knowing the future but cursed so that no one believed her? What if women had been the storytellers?Elizabeth Lesser believes that if women’s voices had been equally heard and respected throughout history, humankind would have followed different hero myths and guiding stories—stories that value caretaking, champion compassion, and elevate communication over vengeance and violence.Cassandra Speaks is about the stories we tell and how those stories become the culture. It’s about the stories we still blindly cling to, and the ones that cling to us: the origin tales, the guiding myths, the religious parables, the literature and films and fairy tales passed down through the centuries about women and men, power and war, sex and love, and the values we live by.  Stories written mostly by men with lessons and laws for all of humanity. We have outgrown so many of them, and still they endure. This book is about what happens when women are the storytellers too—when we speak from our authentic voices, when we flex our values, when we become protagonists in the tales we tell about what it means to be human.Lesser has walked two main paths in her life—the spiritual path and the feminist one—paths that sometimes cross but sometimes feel at cross-purposes. Cassandra Speaks is her extraordinary merging of the two. The bestselling author of Broken Open and Marrow, Lesser is a beloved spiritual writer, as well as a leading feminist thinker. In this book she gives equal voice to the cool water of her meditative self and the fire of her feminist self. With her trademark gifts of both humor and insight, she offers a vision that transcends the either/or ideologies on both sides of the gender debate.Brilliantly structured into three distinct parts, Part One explores how history is carried forward through the stories a culture tells and values, and what we can do to balance the scales. Part Two looks at women and power and expands what it means to be courageous, daring, and strong. And Part Three offers “A Toolbox for Inner Strength.” Lesser argues that change in the culture starts with inner change, and that no one—woman or man—is immune to the corrupting influence of power. She provides inner tools to help us be both strong-willed and kind-hearted.Cassandra Speaks is a beautifully balanced synthesis of storytelling, memoir, and cultural observation. Women, men and all people will find themselves in the pages of this book, and will come away strengthened, opened, and ready to work together to create a better world for all people.

About Elizabeth Lesser

Elizabeth Lesser is the cofounder of Omega Institute and the author of Marrow; The Seeker’s Guide; and the New York Times bestseller Broken Open. She has given two popular TED talks and is one of Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul 100, a collection of one hundred leaders who are using their voices and talents to elevate humanity. She lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with her family.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Geonn on November 10, 2020

As a man who writes women, I feel like this is required reading. From cave paintings, to myths, to beyond, the way women are presented and erased and how stories change when they're considered the hero of the tale. My one complaint is that the author would preface a chapter with a quote, and then re......more

Goodreads review by Britta on November 09, 2024

2nd Re-read (partly) in 2024 Re-read 2022. 2021: Some parts were a bit too fluffy and new age-y for me but the rest I really enjoyed. 3.5*......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on May 13, 2024

An approachable introduction to celebrating women's voices and aspiring to change the world. This book features in my Spring TBR video on BookTube.🌷 "When you make a study of a wide range of the old stories, it is stunning to see how many of them serve as warnings against women doing "unfemin......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on July 18, 2020

Women are all Cassandras, blessed with foresight but cursed with the inability to get men to listen to them. We are weighed down by ancient myths and male-authored stories that persuade us that we are foolish, manipulative, and the weak. Lesser persuasively insists that it is time to jettison these......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on April 08, 2021

3.5. Started out strong but she lost me about halfway through when it became more self-helpy. Still worth a read but I wanted to know more about Pandora and Cassandra and the language of our myths, could have skipped the meditations.......more