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The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk
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An epic tale of freedom and slavery, love and war, and the potential futures of humankind tells of a twenty-first century California clan caught between two clashing worlds, one based on tolerance, the other on repression.
- Sales Rank: #33807 in Books
- Brand: Bantam
- Published on: 1994-06-01
- Released on: 1994-06-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.20" w x 6.10" l, 1.18 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 496 pages
- Bantam
From Publishers Weekly
In her sometimes clumsy but compelling first novel, the author of The Spiral Dance (a central work in the women's spirituality movement) considers two possible futures for America. In ecologically devastated mid-21st-century California, San Francisco is a precariously maintained oasis, its society based on egalitarianism and environmentalism, its deeply spiritual populace possessed of psychic and mystical powers. Drought-plagued southern California suffers under an oppressive, militaristic, technocratic regime that spouts a perverted Christian ideology. After 20 years of uneasy peace, the south's armies mass to invade the north, whose militantly nonviolent denizens must decide how to defend themselves without compromising their pacifism. Starhawk delivers her message with a heavy hand and several cliches: her besieged utopia echoes the liberal politics and ecofeminism of her nonfiction; her dystopia features the overused SF bugbear of Christian fanaticism. However, she creates memorable characters--a young midwife, a broken musician, an old Witch-Woman--and skillfully conveys their emotions in gripping, sometimes harrowing scenes set against vivid backdrops. Though the resolution is somewhat pat--and an obvious plug for Starhawk's philosophy--the story is moving and absorbing.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Known for her works in women's spirituality and ecofeminism, Starhawk has conjured a visionary tale of a multicultural community of witches where poverty, prejudice, hunger, and thirst do not prevail. The surrounding world, set in present-day San Francisco, manifests every 20th-century nightmare: ozone depletion, deadly pollution, a fundamentalist religion-based government, and food and water shortages. The central question haunting a community of well-cast characters is how to resist invading Southern forces without resorting to violence. This strong debut fits well among feminist futuristic, utopic, and dystopic works by the likes of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ursula LeGuin, and Margaret Atwood. Starhawk is the author of The Spiral Dance ( LJ 11/1/79), Dreaming the Dark ( LJ 9/15/82), and Truth or Dare (HarperSanFrancisco, 1989). Recomended for literary collections.
- Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
This first novel from Starhawk (Dreaming the Dark, 1982, etc.) is a big, shaggy, sloppy dog of a fantasy about a great war taking place during the 21st century: A city of eco-feminist witches must stand up to the violence of an army bred on a repressive Christian ideology that justifies the greed of a corporate cabal of rich white men. As the story opens, Maya, a 99-year-old writer of tales about witchcraft, climbs a steep San Francisco hill and surveys a kind of reclaimed paradise: The streets have been torn up, and organic gardens bloom everywhere. Since a great ``uprising'' some years before, the city has become a kind of pagan theocracy, run by guilds and councils of eco-feminist witches who have made it a green spot in the surrounding desert. The rest of the country is ruled by the ``Stewards''--a ruthless corporate power that justifies inhuman exploitation under the banner of the ``Millennialists,'' a fundamentalist sect that is not above breeding whores and soldiers in ``pens.'' Maya is witness to a battle that kills--or tests--many of her loved ones. First, her grandson Bird returns after ten years in a prison in the ``Southland.'' While he was away, the Stewards/Millennialists have sent an engineered virus to San Francisco that killed a good many of the population. Madrone, the grandchild of Maya's woman lover and male compa¤ero (almost every witch is bisexual), is a gifted healer, so she is sent to the dangerous Southland to teach the rebel ``Web'' to heal themselves and to bring back specimens of the virus. Madrone returns after many narrow escapes to find the city occupied by the ruthless army of the Stewards--forcing the witches to put to the ultimate test their commitment to nonviolence. Starhawk deserves points for her idealism, but her vision and characterizations are only half-realized here--and further muddied as she goes on far, far too long. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
This book is amazing in that it was written over 20 years ago ...
By Texas Rose
This was the first novel written by Starhawk; however, I strongly encourage you to FIRST real her prequel to this: Walking to Mercury. That book sets up the characters and story line for this. However, The Fifth Sacred Thing stands on its own if you have not or choose not to read the other. This book is amazing in that it was written over 20 years ago in 1993. At that time, it was viewed almost as a work of science fiction because of the outlandish premise that corporations would rule the world, genetic testing would evolve into human breeding, and water would become so scarce that wars would be fought over it. However, today, this novel is right at the point of totally becoming true.
I warn sensitive readers that in the second half of the book, the graphic details of how humans are treated at the hands of the corporate 1%ers is so awful that you will have trouble sleeping, not because it is so awful, but because it is so current and not just possible be already being done in our world right now. It would only take a little push by the super wealthy for our world to totally devolve into the story Starhawk presents here in The Fifth Sacred Thing.
You will have to read to see how it all ends, and how our current world may soon be. Then, dive right into her third novel - just published - The City of Refuge - where the same characters and story line continues.
But I can say, that even though I have finished reading The Fifth Sacred Thing, I still get nightmares, especially after hearing a news item....
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
New Age Eco-Political Sci-Fi
By Elizabeth K
I am an old Hippie of sorts and also have Native American roots that make me lean toward a Nature Loving Path of Spirituality, So this book fits into much of what I understand of the real world. But the criticism I have on this book is it tries way too hard to incorporate all of the NEW AGE ever imagined, into one story - and a post-apocalypse adventure story at that,
A really fun book to read, hummm,,, for some people. BUT be aware it has a naivety that will make many readers put it down, to never return,
My recommendation? Put on your tie-dyed garb, drink a bit of sweet wine, perhaps indulge in some other mild recreational adult pleasure, and go back to 1960's thinking. It's us against the establishment again. Contradiction? All this is set in the future, after unknowns have dropped the bomb in California. I also read it as an exercise to show the classic culture clash that exists today, between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Creative wisdom for the inner journey and the outer collapse
By Laura Bruno
A local friend suggested I read "The Fifth Sacred Thing," so that some of us could form a book discussion group about the ideas and vision of this novel. Although it took me awhile to get into the characters, I quickly saw why my friend has read this book three times and counting. It's filled with permaculture principles, magick, natural healing, and the tension between totalitarian dystopia and a power-from-within ecotopia based upon respect, not control.
I found Starhawk's text incredibly prophetic, even when I thought it was written in 2005. My admiration tripled when I noticed a publication date of 1993! In 2013, as we face nuclear and toxic poisoning of the Pacific Ocean, a no longer hidden Police State, genetic manipulation, a transhumanist agenda, biological warfare, and increasingly intense weather events -both natural and human-aggravated -- the setting of this novel in 2048 feels rather optimistic.
Once I managed to get a handle on the characters, I found the book difficult to put down. As the narrative continued, I realized that the initial ambiguities and confusion about gender, age and physical markers, actually contribute to and underscore the tale. As readers, we quickly find ourselves overwhelmed in and by a post-collapse world, unsure exactly which collapse triggered which events, but gradually recognizing the effects of long-term trauma and difficult life. Things the 20th and early 21st centuries took for granted have not been available for at least a generation, and the ripple effects of such deprivations reach much further than minor or anticipated inconvenience.
At the same time, we find that some things in this future society function much more harmoniously than in our current one. In the absence of cars, trucks and planes, this culture has compensated for its isolation by cultivating the individual gifts of each member of the community -- art, music, healing, science, cooking, dreaming and psychic defense. Everyone gardens and participates in seasonal rituals, and the society bases itself around the premise that the Four Sacred Things (fire, water, air, earth) are so sacred that they cannot be privately owned. "May you never hunger; may you never thirst" is a phrase used in real-life pagan gatherings, but in "The Fifth Sacred Thing," this concept forms the basis of an entire political system! No one goes hungry, and no one goes without water.
As the plot rolls on, we see just how innovative and special this city's solutions are. Contrast via epic journeys to the Southlands shows us that -- despite the obvious challenges up North in 2048 -- things could be (and are) much worse elsewhere. The characters face horrific trials that force them to question not only their own morals and philosophies, but also the very essence of what it means to be human. Readers with rigid ideas about sexuality, self-defense, magick, religion, medicine, technology, and the occult will likely find themselves extremely challenged as they journey with the characters. Author Starhawk practices the Reclaiming Tradition, which combines one's spirituality with non-violent political activism. Throughout her novel, we witness the effectiveness of non-violent resistance, as well as its limitations. The characters' reactions and struggles force us to evaluate our own fixed ideals, hypocrisy, privilege and irresponsibility. We see on every level how each small action affects the whole of Creation, often in dramatic and unforeseen ways.
I particularly enjoyed all the manifested visualizations, herbal and energetic healing, as well as the key roles played by bees and crystals. Since I have personally made a decision to use magickal self-defense rather than violence should the SHTF, I enjoyed reading about various techniques -- many of which I recognized as real, not fiction. In the acknowledgments, Starhawk confirms how thoroughly she researched this book, including Native teachings, along with actual songs, chants, techniques and rituals.
If you've ever wondered, "What would I do if society collapsed on multiple levels at once? Does it need to be `every man for himself,' or can (must) we find ways to work together in community? Would we really be stronger together than apart? What does magick have to do with a fully functioning human, and how do I access multi-generational healing?" then "The Fifth Sacred Thing" deserves a place on your bookshelf. You will want to read it again and again, tracking your own growth as you face its challenges. If, on the other hand, you prefer to rest in the hazy halls of denial and wish to cling to the patriarchal status quo, then drop this book like a hot potato! You cannot engage "The Fifth Sacred Thing" and remain unchanged.
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