Full Description
More than ancient erotic love poetry, this celebration of the human relationship with Wisdom can be a companion for your own spiritual journey.
The Song of Songs is the Hebrew Bible's deeply erotic poem of love, sexual yearning and consummation. Holding it sacred yet troubled by its thinly veiled eroticism, Jews and Christians for millennia have read the Song of Songs as an allegory of God's love for Israel—the classic Jewish understanding—or Jesus's love for his Church—the classic Christian understanding. This fresh translation restores the Song's eroticism and interprets it as a celebration of the love between the Divine Feminine and the contemporary spiritual seeker.
Scholar and award-winning teacher Rami Shapiro renders this ancient love song as Lady Wisdom offering seekers physical and spiritual intimacy with her so that they might awaken to and participate wisely in the unity of God, woman, man and nature. His intriguing facing-page commentary provides historical, religious and spiritual insights from Christian and Jewish wisdom traditions as well as clear comparisons to other translations.
Now you can understand the poetry, beauty, genius and mystery of the Song of Songs with no previous knowledge of the Hebrew Bible or wisdom literature. Compelling in its novelty and accessible in its presentation, this version of the Song of Songs will beckon you more deeply into Jewish-Christian sacred texts while offering you wisdom teachings and practices rooted in but not limited to religion.
Contents
Foreword by Cynthia Bourgeault ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction
The Song of Songs as the Holy of Holies 1
God's Daughter
Wisdom as the Divine Feminine 17
Back to the Garden
From Eve to the Shulamite 29
Through My Flesh I See God
The Song of Songs as Jewish Maithuna 41
Chapter One 57
Chapter Two 67
Chapter Three 79
Chapter Four 87
Chapter Five 95
Chapter Six 103
Chapter Seven 109
Chapter Eight 117
The Path of Ecstasy
How to Use the Song of Songs 131
Notes to Front and Back Matter 143
Bibliography 147
