Books

The Sacred Book of U: Unveiling the Lost Teachings of the Deep Feminine by Ruth Gould-Goodman

The Sacred Book of U is wonderful — this book is not only an exploration of the deep feminine, but a virtual how-to manual for tapping into the wisdom of the physical body. Ruth Gould-Goodman shows a vast and comprehensive understanding of the power of that comes through inhabiting our physical body. The Sacred Book of U can truly show you how to tap into the wisdom of the ages — truly, it’s all within “U”.

The concept of “inhabiting our physical body” may seem strange, or obvious, but it’s actually difficult for most people. We spend a great deal of our time in our heads, not our bodies, and we either walk around in an entranced state, or we revere the mind at the expense of the body. Ruth Gould-Goodman uses her many years of experience in creative dance and body movement to illuminate what exactly we gain by re-inhabiting our bodies — and the answer is everything — the entire universe, with all of it’s knowledge, abundance, and creative energy resides within us.

The concept that we can learn all there is to know from our somatic experience is a fresh and startling simple idea. It is the logical next step in our mind/body evolution, and, as the author points out, the next progression in integrating the masculine and the feminine in all of us. With this model, every pain or ache is the intelligence of the body signaling us that something is out of balance — it is not to be avoided, but instead explored. Many who have worked with yoga, breath-work or dance will have some experience with this, but the author takes the idea further. Gould-Goodman makes the case for deferring to the body’s signals entirely as a new path to wisdom and wellness. By doing so, the author posits, we access all there is to know — we re-connect to our feminine creative energy, to all of the wisdom of our ancestors and to everything we need to heal our bodies, our relationships and the whole planet.

This is powerful stuff — try any one or two of the author’s exercises and you will see immediately what she is talking about. If you’ve never had a breakthrough moment of spiritual awakening, this practice will do it for you. If you have had those fleeting moments of enlightenment, this will teach you how to sustain and deepen the connection. As an added bonus, for those who feel they have failed miserably at all of the meditative practices, this does not require “emptying your mind” or achieving “nothingness.” All that is required is listening. You don’t even necessarily need stillness — as the author points out, some of the greatest moments of wholeness, healing, or interconnectedness come about through movement.

Ruth Gould-Goodman makes the case that these are very dynamic times right now, with great potential either for healing or for damaging ourselves and the world around us. The Sacred Book of U teaches healing and integration on a global level — with the masculine and feminine that we need to heal our Earth, and with the body and mind that we need to heal ourselves and our community. This book works on every level.

Ruth will be giving a talk and signing books at The New York Theosophical Society on Sunday, April 5th @ 3 PM.

The Quest Bookshop is also at this location:

240 E 53rd St.

New York NY 10022

(212) 758-5521

For more information, please visit www.ruthgouldgoodman.com

by Cheryl Shainmark
Ruth Gould-Goodman is a teacher of conscious embodiment, utilizing the expressive capacity of the breath, voice, and movement to help people recognize their own mastery. Ruth began her body-based exploration of consciousness as a dance therapy at NYU’s Health and Healing Professions Master’s program. For over thirty-five years, Ruth has explored the realms of the body, movement and spirituality. She is a practicing California-licensed acupuncturist with a private practice of intuitive energy healing. Through her own unwinding from early emotional pain, Ruth learned deep inner listening and attunement to the Life force within her own body. This not only guided her back to her spiritual center, but also opened within her a capacity to heal herself from food and love addictions. As she personally cleared the dark history embedded in her cellular memory, Ruth realized the universality of her understandings and has translated the wisdom she has received into a somatically aware embodiment teaching.