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    Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes
    Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes
    Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes
    Audiobook6 hours

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

    Written by Elizabeth Lesser

    Narrated by Xe Sands

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 15, 2020
    ISBN9780063034310
    Author

    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.

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    Reviews for Cassandra Speaks

    4.5/5

    121 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Yes! I loved this book. She put into words something so many of us already feel deep inside ourselves.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Loved it from start to finish. Lucid, dreamy, a rallying cry, a call to the heart. All these things and many more. Made me want to get on with the job of living and being human. I also loved the narrator, I feel like I could do anything with her in my ear.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was everything my soul needed at this moment. So thoughtful and all inclusively human. My husband will be reading it next. ?

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      What a great book! Very thought provoking. I plan to listen to it again. So many good nuggets. I appreciate the fresh perspective on the stories we’ve heard since childhood and how those stories impact how we interact in society. I feel empowered after reading it. I highly recommend it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Illuminating. Then firmly preachy. Reconstructing civilization is a complicated task.
    • 5/5
      You would think a 5 star rating would mean a perfect book for me, but this was not the case here. This book was a roller coaster for me. One sentence would jump off the page and speak directly to my mind or my heart. The very next sentence would make me feel defensive or argumentative. I think the important thing here is that every sentence engaged me on some level. I can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly connected to a text and I binged my way through this book. That justifies 5 stars for me. I would love to have a coffee with this author.