ELDERWOMAN Reap the Wisdom, Feel the Power, Embrace the Joy by MARIAN VAN EYK McCAIN Findhorn Press $15.95 (softcover) reviewed by Margaret Doyle For many years a transpersonal psychotherapist, Marian Van Eyk McCain now teaches the wisdom of a woman’s elder years. Like Poor Richard’s Almanac by Benjamin Franklin, The Sayings of Chairman Mao, or Baby and Childcare by Benjamin Spock, this book is a bible for our time, when the postwar girls are reaching maturity — and not a coy "certain age" but "an elder stage." Stage is truly the word, for post-menopause is not only the third major period of a woman’s life (maidenhood, nurturehood, and elderwoman), but also a platform where a woman’s experience and guidance can be presented to the world. Unlike the insecurities and stress of girlhood and motherhood, the overriding blessing which elderwomen experience is "an increasing sense of personal power, to explore their freedom to be different. . . and to experiment with all the hitherto unlived aspects of their own natures." The author lauds her grandmother’s simple self-sufficiency, gentle love, and subtle wisdom. But McCain calls for a new model of Elderwoman to deal with the circumstances of modern life: technology, affluence, the pressures to purchase and consume. "My challenge would . . . be to bring all the simple values and pleasure of [my grandmother’s] life forward into today’s scene and adapt them into a form which is suitable for . . . me, and for others like myself who seek to make a difference in the world." This is not a cozy, sit-in-your-rocker-and-drink-tea book. This is a book that explains and challenges insidious market assumptions, that presents the difference between presence and preaching. "The Grandmother’s secret is that although she may appear innocent, harmless, perhaps even nondescript, she has the power to change the world, just as small green plants can push up through cement. . . her secret is more about being than doing. Her secret is in who she is and what she stands for." McCain discusses the reality of age without blinking — fatigue, loss of traditionally marketed beauty — and says, "I want to bring to every woman who fears the loss of her youth, the wrinkling of her skin or the waning of her sex appeal, the promise of new riches to come and the new sense of purpose which can be hers in this fruitful time of life. . . ." The Elderwoman’s power derives from embracing certain principles that, with a genius for synthesis, the author organizes according to the basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. "Earth is our place of belonging "Air is the element of lightness and freedom "Fire is the element of passion "Water is the element of fluidity" The organization of her philosophy is beautifully brilliant, and the words sing to a spirit that has long ignored the fundamental achievement, power, and influence of the Elderwoman. A sampling of McCain’s wisdom includes her mother’s parable of the ant and the tapestry, where the big picture is lost in the intricacy of the individual threads; the raisin meditation, where savoring the pleasures of anticipation, mindfulness, and consumption are observed; the concept of radical aliveness, "remaining fully open to all experience, whether pleasant or painful;" and the problems with overcoming addiction: peer pressure, personal "re-formatting," and the underlying pain the addiction disguises. The reading of this book has been a quiet, comforting, emboldening pleasure, savored over months of daily upheavals and providing a guide for dealing with life’s snafus, major and minor. The message is true, and the words are brilliantly right: "The Elderwoman. . . uses her creativity to produce something which is not only beautiful and nourishing to her. . . but rich in symbolic meaning. This ‘something’ which is her pièce de résistance, her major work, her triumph, is not a picture or a pot, a garden, a quilt or a novel — though any or all of these may form a part of it. It is her elderwoman self, created from the raw material of experience, improvised to suit the needs which have arisen in her life, cut and molded to fit her individuality, polished by the passing or years, decorated with her delight." Reading this book will prove a joy for readers, for word-lovers, and for wisdomseekers. It explores the essential difference between being a fussy old lady who is easily dismissed and relegated to bingo halls and being a sage elderwoman who lives fully and warrants respect. McCain’s message is that by incorporating natural principles given us by life itself, the Elderwoman may well be the most significant power in the future we all face. "The point I am trying to make is not that tomorrow’s grandmothers will be Amazons, but that they will be women whose global vision informs their lies in a way that my own grandmother’s never did. "Who knows what miracles may result from the actions of this rising tide of elderwomen which is gathering now?" Remember in the early 70s when everyone was carrying around The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and quoting from it? I would love to see the same phenomenon happen with this book. Look out for the She-Tigers.