Vanya Leilani, The Flesh and the Fruit

During a time when unruly questions were disrupting her devotion to the religion of her youth, the author encountered Eve—not the literalized Eve that has for so long been a stand in for every (fallen and guilty) Woman and served as justification for horrific social injustices, but the mythic and archetypal Eve that shows us something about our deep lives. In the shadows of her questions, Vanya met the Eve that transgressed and became like the gods: sovereign and knowing.

Vanya remembers the story of Eve in the Garden of Eden, not only exposing the harmful ways it has been used, but more importantly, uncovering what is hidden in this story: the goddess in the garden along with her ways of being and knowing. Part mythological exploration, part cultural commentary, and part personal memoir, this book delves into the shadow this story has cast and, in that shadow, finds ways of being and knowing that have long been exiled in patriarchal consciousness. The original transgression, that has for so long been used as proof of our fallenness and depravity, emerges as a powerful creative act toward freedom, knowing, and sovereignty.

The Flesh and the Fruit is an invitation for us to learn to live more freely in our nature, to believe in our beauty and inherent worth rather than in a poisonous tale of our fallenness and depravity, and to challenge the hierarchical systems of power over that sever us from ourselves, from each other, and from the Earth. It is an invitation for us to step into the center of our own circles and to live from our own wild knowing.

Vanya Leilani is a depth psychologist, writer, teacher, and storyteller. She holds a PhD in Depth Psychology. She has completed a certificate training with Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes and has served as adjunct professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Originally from Brazil, Vanya lives in the Pacific Northwest of the US.
@drvanyaleilani, www.drvanyaleilani.com

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