The Yoni: Sacred Symbol of Female Creative Power

by Rufus C. Camphausen

Book Overview

From earliest times, humanity has found visual expression for the cosmic forces of creation, birth, and passion in artistic representations of human genitalia. Fertility cults centered on phallic worship are well documented, but older and even more pervasive are Goddess images of the vulva-known in the East since ancient times as the yoni. Yoni symbolism is a part of spiritual traditions in every part of the globe-from naturally occuring rock formations...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892815620
• ISBN13: 9780892815623
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Inner Traditions International
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Enlightening Book

This engaging, honest and beautifully written book is something that could make a grandiose change for the better in the lives of so many people. The author has a truly brave personality with a profound wisdom and sharp ability to understand life and women. I was surpised at the negative content of some reviews. One cannot really thrive on sustaining one's complexes and attempts to shed and ignore truth and facts.

Very Empowering!

I read this book because it was a required reading for a Yoga Prenatal Teacher Training I am taking. I would say this book is LIFE CHANGING. I am not kidding. This book blew me away. It has so much historical information in it, and it touches on so many issues from cultural to spiritual to sexual and emotional. If you are at all interested or intriqued, enough so that you are reading this, then you must buy it and read it. I'm loaning it and recommending it to all my female friends. And I have three young daughters, and I'm going to make sure they know all about their yonis and the power of creation they all carry within them.

Uplifting... I wish I could share it with everyone!

I know I won't get to share this wonderful book with all the women I work with. The reason for that is clear in some of the previous reviews. Mysogyny is so pervasive in American culture, that even women who want to be liberated cannot get past the brainwashing they have had to believe that thier yonis are "dirty" and "faulty" The yoni is, first and foremost, the origin of life! That, clearly, must be the basis of any understanding of yoni worship. Mr. Camphausen makes no secret of that fact as he explores the yoni as a sacred symbol.On page 15 of this incredible pictoral review of yonis the world over, I was thrilled to see a live photo of the yoni in action... as a baby's head is emerging. If you look at the photo closely, you can see the scars from two previous episiotomies. That, for me, says it all! Here is this magnificent organ, able to stretch to a size that can allow a baby's head to pass.... and yet, it has been cut (previously) because the false belief of western medicine that the yoni is a faulty organ incapable of bringing forth healthy life without tremendous help. I *will* be showing this page in my childbirth classes as it is the best picture I have seen to date that really shows what is being cut during an episiotomy. Magnificent!Thanks to the author for his tremendous steadfastness in completing years of research to bring forth this masterpiece. I will be recommending it to those I think are ready for it's healing message. To those who can move beyond the pain of growing up in a woman, and yoni, devaluing world.

Clean

The fellow a couple of reviews ago who went off on a tear about the vagina being "dirty" is exactly why this book is needed. Medically, the healthy vagina is not unclean -- but in our society it is considered dirty, dirty physically and dirty morally. How sad.

Great book, but very intense

This is a wonderful book. Their are numerous examples from the world over of the widespread worship of the yoni as illustrated thru the many works of art left to us by our ancestors. This book is not for everyone though. If you are not comfortable with the female body this book may be too much for you. The close-up images of human yonis are hard to look at when you are raised in Western society and taught to see female genitals as "dirty" or "nasty".However, this book is vital if you want to learn and see the history of humanity's reverence for the Goddess and Women. It provides several different types of information, definitions and imagery about yonis in a clear and direct way. If you are ready to challenge your patriarchal cultural conditioning, this book will do it.Calysta Rose [calysta@esoterika.com]