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The Sister From Below: When the Muse Gets Her Way
"Naomi Lowinsky has given us a remarkable, fearless, and full autobiography. Speaking in poetic, psychologically sensitive, scholarly dialogues with her shape-shifting muse, she has created a new form . . . This is a beautiful book to treasure and spread among worthy friends."--Sylvia Perera, Author of 'Descent to the Goddess' and 'Celtic Queen Maeve and Addiction.' ". . . Naomi Ruth Lowinsky offers us a superbly detailed investigation of the powerful, mythic forces of the world as they are revealed to the active creative self. Don't miss this enlightening and fascinating book." --David St. John, Author of 'Study for the World's Body: New and Selected Poems' and 'Prism.' "Naomi's poetry and prose is infused with the suffering and joys of humans everywhere. Insightful and deeply moving, she brings us the food and water of life." --Joan Chodorow, Author of 'Dance Therapy and Depth Psychology', editor of 'C.G. Jung on Active Imagination.' "A passionate love letter to those who yearn to be heard. A must read for every woman who longs to write poetry." --Maureen Murdock, Author of The Heroine's Journey and Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory. "Naomi Ruth Lowinsky reinterprets mythic and historical reality in provocative versions of the stories of Eurydice, Helen, Ruth, Naomi, and Sappho. The voice of the Sister from Below argues, cajoles, prods, explains, and yes, loves her human counterpart, and becomes the inspiration for Lowinsky's stunning poetry in this highly original book." --Betty de Shong Meador, Author of Inanna, Lady of Largest Heart and Princess, Priestess, Poet.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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July 4, 2010
NAOMI RUTH LOWINSKY: The Poet Awakened by her Muse
For those who have not discovered the wonders of the poetry of Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, and for this reader the ADAGIO AND LAMENTATION collection of her communication about the indelible effects of Shoah was the introduction to the magic of her talent, this book THE SISTER FROM BELOW: WHEN THE MUSE GETS HER WAY is a personal introduction from the author. The book contains poetry, but that is not the sole intent of the content. Lowinsky is a Jungian analyst and is with full utilization of her scientific training that she is so convincing about her entry into the dialogue with her muse, her 'sister from below'. Refresher point: 'Jungian analysis is a "depth psychology," or psychology of the unconscious. "The interpretation of dreams," Freud says, "is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious." Perhaps even more than in contemporary Freudian analysis, dream interpretation is integral to any Jungian analysis... Jung contends that most dreams are attitude-compensations. The attitudes that dreams compensate are those of the ego. Jung says that compensatory dreams "add to the conscious psychological situation of the moment all those aspects which are essential for a totally different point of view." Now, take this brief background of information and add it to the life of a woman who struggles for years to write her thoughts of her relationship to the arts, to history, to life and finds frustration until she gets in touch with her Muse and there is the banquet to which we as readers have been invited. And a rich banquet it is.
Given that at this stage in her life Lowinsky is a recognized poet of importance, it is the path to this point that THE SISTER FROM BELOW addresses. The technique of the book is an ongoing conversation between Lowinsky and her Muse, but this is no static armchair reverie. Not at all. This journey takes us throughout the world in place and in time, to Italy, to India, steeping back in time to biblical Canaan, discovering conversations with Sappho in ancient Greece, retelling of the myths of Eurydice and Helena, and ultimately to the discovery of her Male Muse - an entry into eroticism that steps out of her conversational writing to explore areas of her being that are newly enchanting.
There are pages of profound writing, often in the voice of the muse: 'Poetry is psyche's first language, everyone's first language. It begins in our ancestral need to talk to the gods, to invoke, to evoke, to chant, to pray, to use the human voice to make a bridge between the inner and outer realms......I am the poem that appears in the dark, when the fire has been lit. I am the trance that comes over you when you see the moon. I am that ineffable feeling you have when a boundary between the worlds has been crossed. I make my way through your throat to your tongue.....My voice comes to you from myth, from dream, from journeys, from gods that have appeared to you, poems that have passed through you. I am your guide from below, from within.'
It is through this path of conversation with her muse that Lowinsky proceeds to share some of her finest poetry, and a collection of poems is rarely shared with this much insight without removing the sheen of the beauty of the poetry. Reading this book feels more like not only a diary of the poet's realization of her gifts, but it also gives us the sensation and subsequent commitment that poetry such as Lowinsky's is within US! This is a lesson in getting in touch with our inner selves, our own muses, and rarely has a creative poet become such a passionate guide. This is one of those rare books that holds our hand throughout until, at last, we break through and breathe - and it just probably will sound like poetry!
Grady Harp
For those who have not discovered the wonders of the poetry of Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, and for this reader the ADAGIO AND LAMENTATION collection of her communication about the indelible effects of Shoah was the introduction to the magic of her talent, this book THE SISTER FROM BELOW: WHEN THE MUSE GETS HER WAY is a personal introduction from the author. The book contains poetry, but that is not the sole intent of the content. Lowinsky is a Jungian analyst and is with full utilization of her scientific training that she is so convincing about her entry into the dialogue with her muse, her 'sister from below'. Refresher point: 'Jungian analysis is a "depth psychology," or psychology of the unconscious. "The interpretation of dreams," Freud says, "is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious." Perhaps even more than in contemporary Freudian analysis, dream interpretation is integral to any Jungian analysis... Jung contends that most dreams are attitude-compensations. The attitudes that dreams compensate are those of the ego. Jung says that compensatory dreams "add to the conscious psychological situation of the moment all those aspects which are essential for a totally different point of view." Now, take this brief background of information and add it to the life of a woman who struggles for years to write her thoughts of her relationship to the arts, to history, to life and finds frustration until she gets in touch with her Muse and there is the banquet to which we as readers have been invited. And a rich banquet it is.
Given that at this stage in her life Lowinsky is a recognized poet of importance, it is the path to this point that THE SISTER FROM BELOW addresses. The technique of the book is an ongoing conversation between Lowinsky and her Muse, but this is no static armchair reverie. Not at all. This journey takes us throughout the world in place and in time, to Italy, to India, steeping back in time to biblical Canaan, discovering conversations with Sappho in ancient Greece, retelling of the myths of Eurydice and Helena, and ultimately to the discovery of her Male Muse - an entry into eroticism that steps out of her conversational writing to explore areas of her being that are newly enchanting.
There are pages of profound writing, often in the voice of the muse: 'Poetry is psyche's first language, everyone's first language. It begins in our ancestral need to talk to the gods, to invoke, to evoke, to chant, to pray, to use the human voice to make a bridge between the inner and outer realms......I am the poem that appears in the dark, when the fire has been lit. I am the trance that comes over you when you see the moon. I am that ineffable feeling you have when a boundary between the worlds has been crossed. I make my way through your throat to your tongue.....My voice comes to you from myth, from dream, from journeys, from gods that have appeared to you, poems that have passed through you. I am your guide from below, from within.'
It is through this path of conversation with her muse that Lowinsky proceeds to share some of her finest poetry, and a collection of poems is rarely shared with this much insight without removing the sheen of the beauty of the poetry. Reading this book feels more like not only a diary of the poet's realization of her gifts, but it also gives us the sensation and subsequent commitment that poetry such as Lowinsky's is within US! This is a lesson in getting in touch with our inner selves, our own muses, and rarely has a creative poet become such a passionate guide. This is one of those rare books that holds our hand throughout until, at last, we break through and breathe - and it just probably will sound like poetry!
Grady Harp
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