JAGUAR WOMAN: And the Wisdom of the Butterfly Tree

by Lynn V. Andrews ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 21, 1985

Carlos Castaneda has a lot to answer for: without his Don Juan series Andrews would never have been able to perpetrate the ongoing tale of her mythic-feminist vision quest (see Medicine Woman and Flight of the Seventh Moon), which for anthropological sloppiness and downright silliness is in a class by itself. This latest episode of Andrews' fantasy life (she calls it ""a true story"") begins in northern Manitoba as she confers with her mentors, Agnes Whistling Elk and Ruby Plenty Chiefs. We get the usual blend of improbable dream sequences (centered around a ""trickster tree"" blanketed with monarch butterflies) and ponderous pseudo-Indian psychobabble (""When your thoughts are contradictory, and have no clarity, you create a universe of thought forms that actually live off your energy""). Then Andrews takes them and her readers off on a hallucinatory trip to the jungles of Yucatan, where we meet yet another imperious-mysterious woman sage, Zoila Guitterez (sic) and engage in more psychic adventures. We get more primitive pop-Jungian wisdom (how to balance the conflicting forces of the ""ecstatic Rainbow mother"" [artistic instincts] and the ""nurturing Great Mother"") and more grief from Andrews' evil male antagonist, Red Dog. As usual, sisterhood triumphs, and Andrews comes away both enlightened and enriched by some cool mystical artifacts (a ""birthing mask"" and an obsidian butterfly). Andrews has done barely any homework for this book: in one typical scene the Jaguar Woman accepts some gifts ""with many beautiful Mayan words."" Feeble as fiction, hackneyed as supposed esoteric teaching, it may nonetheless enjoy the same modest success as her first two efforts--por desgracia.

Pub Date: Aug. 21, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1985

Categories: NONFICTION