Guinevere: The True Story of One Woman's Quest for Her Past Life Identity and the Healing of Her Eternal Soul

by Laurel Phelan

ife regression. When the results pointed to a past life as Queen Guinevere, Laurel traveled back to that life to make peace with the woman she once was. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671526154
• ISBN13: 9780671526153
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 298 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

My Favorite Book

When I first read this book I was only 14 years old, it as summer break and I HATED READING, my eye sight is bad and I have always had problems with keeping attention. My friend and me were interested in reincarnation and wikken/pegan belifes so we went to the library to read more on the subject and came across Laurle's book. It took me all summer to read it but it was hard to put down even though I had to re-read areas many times to keep up. I'm 21 now and have read many books but this is the only book Ive read more than twice. I Own it in paper back and hard back. You do not have to belive in past life regresion to enjoy this book. this is a story about a very strong women named Guinevere living in a mans world raise by a man like a son. She one day has no choice but to become a women and the only way she can keep her inner strength is to marry one of the most powerful men in brittin "Lord Arthur of Briton".In many ways I feel like Guinevere is alot like my self and many women, the strength we posses deep-in-side. It is the part inside us screaming for control and power in a mans world. All the same though with all her strength is still filled with the emotions and love from a women. This book has helped me through many changes in my life with the strength to stay true to myself.I have read it a dozen times and wish it was a movie, every women I've lent it to, to read it has bought it. My other favirot authors are Anne Rice and C.s. Freedman if that gives you a good idea of my taste. I hope you buy this book or at least check it out so you can be inspierd like me.

Phelan's Guinevere *feels* real

Let me state my bias from the start: Laurel Phelan has done exactly what I want to do -- publish a book of past life recall of a famous incarnation. So I'm positively predisposed, of course.The author is a former secretary/bookkeeper whose past life experiences led her to become a regression therapist. She is not a writer by trade, and so her prose has that raw, "as-told-to" quality you will often find when non-writers set words on paper. At the same time, that raw style lends to the realism of her account. I know when I make notes on my own past life memories I am always inclined to write in present tense rather than past, as if I am currently there, and this book is written that way entirely; it is, in effect, one long set of regression notes shaped into a novel. It has the feel of past life memory, that distinctive combination of vivid realism, intense and coherent emotion, and missing detail you get when content is determined by what the memory has selected as important rather than the standard conventions of narrative.The Gwynnefwar she remembers being is very different from that of the standard Arthurian legend; not the delicate, beautiful paragon of womanhood we know, but an adventurous, headstrong girl whose father raises her as a son, teaching her to fight and developing her natural ability for strategy. Her Arthurian Britain is a much grimier-and thus more historically accurate-place than the magical world of the legend. As a pagan marrying a Christian, her idea of what her marriage to Arthur will be-a partnership of warriors and equals, in which affairs are permitted-is very different from his. And yet their love endures through bitter conflicts to the end.It is a story about changing societal mores as much as personalities; Gwynnefwar is baffled as to why a religion that worships a woman (the Virgin Mary) can so confine women, and Arthur is embarrassed to have to admit in front of his men that his teenaged wife has been supplying his brilliant war-plans. Interesting also is the aspect of magic, healing and herbal lore, which is presented entirely realistically, as far as I'm concerned; Gwynnefwar's psychically-gifted friend Merewyn is both accurate (if cryptic) in predictions and able to supply her with reliable herbal birth control-and yet does not have a solution for every problem. The account does not have the neatness of a story, in which all the loose ends are tied up and everything makes sense, but the messiness, the changes of heart, the endurances and forgivenesses, the mistakes and quirkinesses, of real life.Psychologically it is even more interesting. Laurel Phelan presents the life as her lesson in allowing herself to be what she really is-female, and free to express emotion, rather than male and controlled-and thus unleashing her true power. But under the surface you can trace the connection between Gwynnefwar's being raped as a young teenager, and her later difficulties expressing love and sexual passion along

An inspiring tale from the heart

In this book, Laurel Phelan paints a passionate, vivid picture of a Guinevere we never heard about in English class -- a fierce warrior and strategist who fought to save her land from the invading Picts and Saxons. Phelan's Guinevere is constantly at war with herself as well; her father raises her to deny her inner femininity so she can be a more effective leader, and only after many lessons does she finally overcome this obstacle by realizing that she does not have to be masculine or unemotional to be strong. Included in the story are some classical elements of the legendary Guinevere's story, such as her marriage to King Arthur and her affair with Lancelot. Those interested in Celtic culture and old Britain will likely find the observations in this book compelling. Taken all together, the tale is well-told and has a magical air about it, like you have a real window into the past. Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, "Guinevere" is fascinating; it is a story that will enchant you and maybe even get you thinking more about who you might have been in a past life.