The Rise and Fall of Patriarchy

Have you lived before, in some other place and time, as some other "self"? And if you did, how do the circumstances and choices from that other self affect the circumstances and choices in this life? Perhaps providing explanations for the mysterious roots of conflicts or the power of deeply held visions? If you have ever considered this possibility, this book has been written for you. And if you have not considered this possibility, it is an invitation to do so.

This remarkable historical novel is about Martyna, an 89 year old woman living in Germany who, on the 22nd of April, 2015, has a strange dream during her afternoon nap, then dies from a heart attack. But that is the beginning of the story, not the end. And the story - that she insists on experiencing in order to understand her just-completed life - is a powerful drama of courage and commitment, of love and loss, of longing and hope. It stretches over 4600 years from its beginning in late Neolithic Malta through wars over water in Africa, the persecution of so-called witches in the Middle Ages, and the horrors of Nazi Germany. As the story unfolds for her, Martyna realizes that her own personal journey of lives has been deeply intertwined with another story - the story of the rise and ascendance of patriarchy in all its various forms. And she understands that the search for her own happiness and fulfillment cannot be separated from the search to find a way forward out of patriarchy.