The Holy Longing
Connie Zweig, Ph.D.
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 Sentient Publications
ISBN: 1591810175

The Hidden Power of Spiritual Yearning.

What is the urge that drives people to search for God, to join religious movements? Undertake a spiritual practice? & what happens when the search for God goes awry? When we are subjected to disillusionment, abuse... even betrayal?

Holy Longing shows us that many of our feelings of desire & disappointment can be traced back to our yearning to know God. This deep-seated longing makes us susceptible to fanatical religious groups, & even spills over into discontent in our relationships. In her counseling work with clients from every religious yearning, Connie Zweig sees that that secret feeling has many disguises, often lying hidden at the source of our life stories.

Connie Zweig has been there & done that -- devoting herself for years to a spiritual practice as well as surrendering to the worship of a guru. Back in the 1970s when America was visited by a host of gurus from India, I saw that happen often. My friends would find a holy man & become entranced with the spiritual glamor & an intense sense of belonging that set them apart from the usual. These gurus were exotic sources of energy from a different culture. They were usually surrounded by a few male disciples & a cluster of adoring women. Then some incongruous moment would happen & suddenly an adorer would glimpse the tarnish on the pedestal or see through the hallucination in which their “master” dwelt. I remember I was a tad uncompassionate with my friends' agony -- everything was hunky-dory when what I called “the belonging bliss” was upon them... until that inevitable moment: perhaps the guru was setting best friends against each other; or forcing wives & husbands apart, or the one I saw the most of: relegating the children to bothersome chattels, ensuring neglect, & abuse.

I was still in school when I realized I was more interested in the message, than the messenger, the song rather than the singer. One of the reasons I walked away from traditional religions was because I found more inspiration from the stones & glass of the houses of worship than the words & deeds of the worshipers & their leaders. I hated shutting down the ebullience of my spiritual experience & expression to fit in with others'. & I hated how spiritually tired, depressed & robotic everyone seemed to be. So I set out on my own path to discover what raised my spirits, & where my soul felt at home.

Why do we search for someone to guide us to the holy of holies?
Why do we accept there's someone “out there” who has the answers to how to get closer to God?
Why do we believe there's someone who knows better or more than us... about something so intensely individual as our experience of God?
Connie Zweig gently (& firmly!) takes us by the hand & shows us how to look back along our spiritual path, & see the shadows & the loss of spiritual innocence, so we can look into the brightness, so we can step forward into our spiritual maturity.

I have experienced that Holy Longing, so when I discovered Connie Zweig's book, I was not disappointed as I immersed myself in her stories & insights. & looking back along my spiritual path have received so much healing, that I couldn't help grinning as I read.

If you have ever felt that Holy Longing then Connie Zweig's book will feel like a coming home into yourself. Healing, mind-changing, & well written, & simply... outstanding. Great fun too!

More from Connie Zweig:
Nonfiction
To Be a Woman Editor
Meeting the Shadow Editor with Jeremiah Abrams
Romancing the Shadow with Steve Wolf
Fiction
The Moth to the Flame A novel about the moments that shaped the great Farsi poet Rumi's life.
(07/17/05)

Rebecca