In every culture, in every age, there is a turning point in human life. At this threshold, when you see fewer days ahead than have already passed, you begin the greatest adventure: the second half of your life. In The Second Half of Life, anthropologist and author Angeles Arrien retrieves the world's vital wisdom - teachings that have opened people at midlife to the deeper mysteries of who we really are and why we are truly here.

What lessons can the modern seeker of truth gain from the shaman's way? Join respected anthropologist and folklorist Angeles Arrien as she bridges the past with the present to find powerful methods based on the shamanic tradition for gaining clarity and direction in your life.

Angeles Arrien invites us to "walk the mystical path with practical feet" through the archetype of the Teacher. The Way of the Teacher is to be open to any endeavor's outcome and not to fixate upon results. Openness and nonattachment help us recover our human resources of wisdom and objectivity. We express the Way of the Teacher through our effective communication skills in all relationships.

Angeles Arrien invites us to "walk the mystical path with practical feet" through the archetype of the Visionary. The Way of the Visionary is to tell the truth without blame or judgment. Truthfulness, authenticity, and integrity are keys to developing our vision and intuition. We express the Way of the Visionary through personal creativity, goals, and ability to manifest our dreams and visions into the world.

Angeles Arrien invites us to "walk the mystical path with practical feet" through the archetype of the Warrior. The Way of the Warrior (or Leader) is to show up and choose to be present. Being present allows us to access the human resources of power, presence, and communication. We express the Way of the Leader through the right use of power, appropriate action, good timing, and clear communication.

Drawing from her work as a psychoanalyst and cantadora (keeper of old stories), Dr. Estes uses myths and folktales to illustrate how societies systematically strip away the feminine spirit. Through an exploration into the nature of the wild woman archetype, Dr. Estes helps listeners rediscover and free their own wild nature.

We all long to be free of our discomfort and experience inner peace. However, the attempt to get rid of our discomfort is misguided. We're not broken and don't need to be "healed". Our difficulty is that our deeply suppressed emotional imprints from childhood distract us from an awareness of the present moment. Until this emotional charge from our past is integrated, our attempts to quiet our thoughts and access the peace, joy, and love that are bedrock to our being are of only limited success.

There are enormous gifts in growing older and wiser, and Angeles Arrien is working to help bring that awareness to our culture at large, to those of us who've passed the 50-year milestone - and also to those who are headed in that direction. Arrien identifies the opportunities we have in the second half of our lives to move beyond obligation and say yes to our natural rhythms and deepest desires.

"There is a promise Holy Mother makes to us," explains Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, "that any soul needing comfort, vision, guidance or strength, can cry out to her, flee to her protection, and Blessed Mother will immediately arrive with veils flying. She will place us under her mantle for refuge, and give us the warmth of her most compassionate touch, and strong guidance about how to go by the soul's lights." Untie the Strong Woman is Dr. Estes' invitation to come together under the shelter of The Mother - whether she appears to us as the Madonna, Our Lady of Guadalupe....

Jayson Gaddis is a personal trainer for relationships and one of the world’s leading authorities on interpersonal conflict. For almost two decades, Gaddis has helped individuals, couples, and teams get to the bottom of their deepest conflicts. He helps people see the wisdom in conflict and how to get to zero - how “clean and clear” we feel with others when we have successfully worked through a disagreement. In Getting to Zero, Gaddis shows the listener how to stop running away from uncomfortable conversations and instead learn how to work through them.

Inspiring hope, solace, and courage in living through our losses, author Martín Prechtel, trained in the Tzutujil Maya shamanic tradition, shares profound insights on the relationship between grief and praise in our culture - how the inability that many of us have to grieve and weep properly for the dead is deeply linked with the inability to give praise for living. In modern society, grief is something that we usually experience in private, alone, and without the support of a community.

Tsultrim Allione brings an 11th-century Tibetan woman's practice to the West for the first time with Feeding Your Demons, an accessible and effective approach for dealing with negative emotions, fears, illness, and self-defeating patterns. Allione - one of only a few female Buddhist leaders in this country and comparable in American religious life to Pema Chodron - bridges this ancient Eastern practice with today's Western psyche. She explains that if we fight our demons, they only grow stronger. But if we feed them, nurture them, we can free ourselves from the battle.

A Basque native, Arrien is at the forefront of those who see the common threads that unite us while honoring our differences. She speaks of the importance of myth and symbol in everyday life and combines the two disciplines of anthropology and psychology. Her cross-cultural approach provides both a universal and practical means of addressing health and well-being.

In the context of 9/11, anthropologist, educator and award-winning author Angeles Arrien shares her deep wisdom and invites us to explore the significance of change and how to view it in our lives in creative and practical ways. Arrien suggests that the great journey of life is made up of phases and changes, and that there are always signals and signposts to guide us.

Saints are not unattainable beings of stained glass or carved stone. “Saints are ordinary and human, doing things any person can learn to do,” teaches Lama Rod Owens. “Our era calls for saints who are from this time and place, who speak the language of this moment, and who integrate both social and spiritual liberation. I believe we all can and must become New Saints.” With The New Saints, Lama Rod shares a guidebook for becoming an effective agent of justice, peace, and change.