CHRISTINE DOWNING, Ph.D., currently teaches in the Mythological Studies Doctoral Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, after serving for almost twenty years as chair of the Religious Studies Department at San Diego State University. Her thirteen books include The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine, and, mostly recently, The Luxury of Afterwards and Preludes.
In a personal account of her own journey through menopause, Downing, past president of the American Academy of Religion, combines religious studies with psychology to ``understand menopause as soul-event . . . regarding its symptoms as symbols.'' Her ``hunger for a more symbolic connection to these mysteries of feminine life'' led her initially to explore her dreams. Finally, at the end of a low-budget journey around the world that served as a metaphor for her own rite of passage, she rediscovered Hestia, goddess of hearth and home, whom she describes as ``a soul-guide.'' Downing's experiences and reflections may illuminate the experience of menopause for other women, but the religious framework of the book will limit its appeal. For feminist collections. Cynthia Widmer, Williamstown, Mass.
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