false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167879921m/27308.jpg 27308 13 <i>Karen Armstrong</i> speaks to the troubling years following her decision to leave the life of a Roman Catholic nun and join the secular world in 1969. What makes this memoir especially fascinating is that Armstrong already wrote about this era once---only it was a disastrous book. It was too soon for her to understand how these dark, struggling years influenced her spiritual development, and she was too immature to protect herself from being be bullied by the publishing world. As a result, she agreed to portray herself only in as "positive and lively a light as possible"---a mandate that gave her permission to deny the truth of her pain and falsify her inner experience. The inspiration for this new approach comes from <i>T. S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday</I>, a series of six poems that speak to the process of spiritual recovery. Eliot metaphorically climbs a spiral staircase in these poems---turning again and again to what he does not want to see as he slowly makes progress toward the light. In revisiting her spiral climb out of her dark night of the soul, Armstrong gives readers a stunningly poignant account about the nature of spiritual growth. Upon leaving the convent, Armstrong grapples with the grief of her abandoned path and the uncertainty of her place in the world. On top of this angst, Armstrong spent years suffering from undiagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy, causing her to have frequent blackout lapses in memory and disturbing hallucinations---crippling symptoms that her psychiatrist adamantly attributed to Armstrong's denial of her femininity and sexuality. The details of this narrative may be specific to Armstrong's life, but the meanin! g she makes of her spiral ascent makes this a universally relevant story. All readers can glean inspiration from her insights into the nature of surrender and the possibilities of finding solace in the absence of hope. Armstrong shows us why spiritual wisdom is often a seasoned gift---no matter how much we strive for understanding, we can't force profound insights to occur simply because our publisher is waiting for them. With her elegant, humble and brave voice, she inspires readers to willingly turn our attention toward our false identities and vigilantly defended beliefs in order to better see the truth and vulnerability of our existence. Herein lies the staircase we can climb to enlightenment. --<I>Gail Hudson</I> 1107352 2004 The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness total:798|5:246|4:347|3:164|2:32|1:9| 798 3183 1199 145 5 5 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 26 09:55:41 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 09:56:31 -0800 2008
1. By the end of the book, I felt a bond with her that is similar to something I ...more...]]> 4 4 false false Thu Sep 04 14:07:26 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 14:13:21 -0700 2008 very rare occasions), both with remembered...more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jul 19 13:28:43 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 13:33:37 -0700 2008
I read The Spiral Staircase a few weeks back between road trips, first to visit an aunt and uncle in a small university community and se...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 15 15:18:38 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 15 18:31:10 -0800 2007 In 1962, British writer Armstrong (The Battle for God, etc.) entered a Roman Catholic convent, smitten by the desire to "find God." She was 17 years old at the time—too young, she recognizes now, to have made such a momentous decision. Armstrong’s 1981 memoi...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Apr 29 13:59:49 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 29 14:16:51 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Wed Oct 29 07:35:31 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 07:36:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 3 false false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 13:59:11 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 09:41:33 -0800 2009 4 1 false false Tue Mar 31 10:51:54 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 10:51:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 00:56:04 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 22:00:56 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 true false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 12:50:11 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 12:51:35 -0800 2009 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Aug 08 17:48:30 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 17:53:10 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Feb 27 17:03:09 -0800 2007 Thu Aug 02 20:34:37 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 02:53:13 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 13:58:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 20:45:37 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 20:53:44 -0700 2009 her failed acade...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Feb 27 10:04:07 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 10:53:19 -0800 2009 I stumbled upon this book for no good reason at a time when I was hurting and looking for answers to some of my deepest questions about life.
Karen takes the title of the book from the poem, Ash-W...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 30 09:25:07 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 09:53:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jun 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun May 11 19:27:53 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 09 16:48:58 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 19:48:42 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 27 11:17:25 -0700 2008
I am glad that I don't prescribe to this belief.

Slogging through the first 100 pages of Karen Armstrong's memoir The Spiral Staircase was a task. Peppered ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Feb 01 10:58:43 -0800 2009 Sat Jul 11 20:06:04 -0700 2009
I completed Through the Narrow Gate and wanted to add a few mo...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 07:35:31 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 12 07:57:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=27308