Lynn V. Andrews takes the reader with her as she goes on inward journeys with the help of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and relates the stories of others. Join her as she is initiated into the Sisterhood and creates her own shield, which will show her the nature of her spiritual path ( Spirit Woman ). Follow her to the Yucatan, where the medicine wheel leads her, and she is faced with the terrifying reality of the butterfly tree ( Jaguar Woman ). Enter the Dreamtime with her, where she emerges in medieval England as Catherine, and encounters the Grandmother, who offers to show Andrews how to make her life one of goodness, power, adventure, and love ( The Woman of Wyrrd ). Not all these stories describe the author's own spiritual experiences. Meet Sin Corazón, an initiate into the Sisterhood, whose husband abandons her. She nearly succumbs to her inner dark power and unleashes her rage on men and the Sisterhood ( Dark Sister ). Andrews also writes about the elder women of the Sisterhood: their loves, their lives, their losses ( Tree of Dreams ). Andrews shows us how to channel our own spiritual and intellectual energy and balance the need for love with the desire for power ( Love and Power ). She takes the reader on numerous spiritual journeys that inevitably uplift. "Lynn Andrews helps every woman find a sense of her own importance." -- Marianne Williamson, author of "A Return to Love""With exquisite clarity, "Love and Power" disarms the central complexes of the psyche that drain away (or abort) our access to personal freedom."-- Barbara Hand Clow, author of "The Pleiadian Agenda: A New Cosmology for the Age of Light""Lessons of the soul . . . love empowered. What wisdom this wonderful book offers! Lynn explores the secrets for balancing love with power, charting a path to integrate them into our lives. Never has her voice been truer, stronger, or more generous of spirit."-- Hal Zina Bennett, author of "Write from the Heart and Follow Your Bliss" Lynn Andrews is the author of nineteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers Medicine Woman and Jaguar Woman . A preeminent teacher in the field of personal development and spirituality, she is the founder of the Lynn Andrews Center for Sacred Arts and Training. Love and Power Awakening to Mastery By Lynn V. Andrews Jeremy P. Tarcher Copyright © 2007 Lynn V. Andrews All right reserved. ISBN: 9781585425754 The Essence of Love There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle. -Albert Einstein The Power of Love:Four Women I have three special women friends whom I have known since high school, and for me our relationship models the true essence of love. We are able to be both challenging and supportive of one another, because of the deep trust and sense of acceptance we have experienced together over the years. One summer, the four of us decided to take a short vacation together in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The trees and flowers were in bloom, and we sat outside on the patio under a bright blue umbrella at the La Posada Hotel. We were happy to be together, away from work and all our responsibilities. Over the years, our time together has become one of soul searching, a time when we each receive female support, understanding, and a real sharing of the changes in our lives and of the choices we have made since our school days. We have all gone in different directions. I have become an author and a healer. Patricia is one of the biggest actors' agents in Hollywood, much to her surprise. Jan is a mother and wife of a man who owns a plumbing company Gwen is a lawyer. As we sat at La Posada, sipping our iced teas and looking at one another, each of us observed the others' wonderful faces and contemplated the map of time and experience that had been written across our expressions and bodies. Finally, I said, "You know, I am so proud to know the three of you. You have each done such wonderful things with your lives." Gwen burst into tears. We were surprised by her emotion. I put my arm around her, since I was sitting next to her, and inquired, "Honey, what did I say?" She blew her nose into a tissue and took a deep breath. "Well, you know, I am making more money than I dreamed I ever would. It never occurred to me that I was going to be a successful lawyer. I became a lawyer because I was interested in law, because I loved what it meant to uphold what is right and to punish what is wrong. I wanted to help, somehow, to make this society moral. I wanted to mirror that by fighting for what has integrity and vision, in the best way that I could. But it never occurred to me that I would be so busy that I would lose myself in this stressful workaday world. I have dated very interesting men in these past ten years, but I never could give up my work enough to be married to any of them. Now that I'm nearing my fifties, I wonder what I've done, and that's why I'm