The Millionth Circle: How to Change Ourselves and The World--The Essential Guide to Women's Circles

Jungian analyst Jean Bolen hit the big time in the early 1980s with one of the first New Age publishing successes, Goddesses in Everywoman. Every woman in America seemed engrossed with identifying her goddess and using the archetypes of the Greek pantheon to guide her out of the patriarchal system to greater self-knowledge and self-esteem. Bolen again hangs a lantern aloft for feminists and lovers of light everywhere with this slim volume. Though only 87 pages, The Millionth Circle has the potential to become the latest bible for the Jungian/feminist/evolution-of-consciousness movement (remember Women Who Run with the Wolves?). The premise is based on Ken Keyes Jr.'s "Hundredth Monkey" theory: that a behavioral change in a growing number of individuals will reach critical mass, and the entire population's consciousness will leap forward to embrace the new behavior as if by magic. Bolen's version is this: form consensus-based, peace-loving circles of support, and one day the millionth circle could alter the psyche of the human race. Written in free verse from chapter 3 on, The Millionth Circle is a dandy manual for creating women's circles, which Bolen hopes will one day save the world. --P. Randall Cohan