Review of Her Evolution by Shiloh Sophia McCloud
Reviewer: Vicki Noble

I've always been fond of workbooks. I like the focused exercise of working my way through good guided systems. I've done it with "how to" subjects, such as Demetra George's wonderful Astrology for Yourself, where every page has numerous blanks to fill  with appendices in the back of the book to help you choose from a range of possible answers; you add it all up and, voila—it's astrology! And I remember, in my early thirties, making my joyful way through the more psychological workbook, Women as Winners, writing long thoughtful answers to the provocative questions of the two feminist authors, an experience which I've never really forgotten decades later. I even co-wrote (with my husband at the time) my own workbook to go with the Motherpeace Tarot cards, only we ended up calling it, The Motherpeace Tarot Playbook (to emphasize how much fun it can be). When I came across Shiloh Sophia McCloud's new workbook, Her Evolution: A Woman's Workbook for Personal Transformation, I quickly thought of many women who might benefit from working their way through such an organic but directed system of awakening to oneself. Imagine, a hands-on "how to transform" book!

Shiloh teaches, as I do, in the Women's Spirituality graduate program at New College of California in San Francisco's famous Mission District. New College is an activist school with a transformative mission, and the Women's Spirituality program provides a container for women to go through an awakening process into knowledge of the Divine Feminine, making contact with the female principle in their own lives as well as in the world. This new book is the most recent in a series of workbooks she has created, wherein readers are encouraged to use art materials as well as an ink pen to "journal" about their lives and experiences. Her Evolution is rich with possibilities for opening into an experience of the unknown—the very essence of transformation—but with a smart and loving guide walking you through it. Page by page, you know Shiloh has walked this territory herself, as she shares her own paintings, drawings, sketches, doodles, thoughts, and feelings with you—the reader—the lucky recipient of her largesse.

You can trust Shiloh as a guide on this rigorous and unpredictable path of transformation and awakening into creativity, because she walks her talk. She is a veritable fountain of creativity, absolutely bubbling over with ideas, motivation, helpful suggestions; what's more, she has concretely manifested several books, workshops, internet sites, and artistic products (notably her original paintings, art prints, and note cards with the theme of women awakening and the Divine Feminine). It's clear she is what she says she is: a visionary and dreamer. What's surprising is that she's also got her feet planted firmly on the ground in a life of multi-tasking as a working artist, university professor, gallery owner, and ordained minister—with students and a following who absolutely rave about her powerful, generous, and compassionate ways. She sums it up herself:

"The work of a woman Visionary is to know the past, dream the future and take powerful action in the present." (www.colorofwoman.com)

So I suggest that if you are perched on the edge of a transformation, you order this  book and get down to business! Set aside some quality time for yourself—just a little bit every day for a while—so that you can begin to open into new territory through the use of colored pens or paints, crayons or magic markers, whatever you feel you can manage. It doesn't matter what your level of expertise is, or whether you've made art before or never lifted a crayon to paper—it's the process that counts. The workbook is spacious and inviting, with short but pithy instructions from the Muse herself every few pages, followed by several blank pages where you are encouraged to let yourself go and experiment with the subject at hand. For instance, you begin by investigating the idea of "identity," asking that it be revealed through your musings, celebrating it when you create something that mirrors you back to yourself in a meaningful way. Later in the book (the process is a linear one, while at the same time being very magical), after working with relational or community themes, you open into the concept of setting boundaries, and finally—answering your calling.

All along the way Shiloh's delightful drawings suggest various possibilities, but with a very light touch and through captions like "She considers her possibilities," and, "She transforms her world." Short sections of advice or "coaching" are replete with direct, no-nonsense, "self-help" suggestions, such as: "Let what you are passionate about inform your life choices. Why not?" Or, "Faith is a constant choice," and "We are women warriors, going to war with our limitations." Or how about, "Start something!" Although the format is light, it is never superficial. Shiloh's advice may seem "apparent" or straight-forward to those of us who have read the books and done the work, but it is never clichéd and comes across instead as helpful and caring—just exactly what any of us needs when we feel stuck in old patterns or unable to make the necessary breakthrough. And who doesn't get stuck sometimes? I think using this book is a little bit like calling up a favorite girlfriend, whom you know you can trust to listen and help you remember who you are and what you're doing here—only this time, the girlfriend is inside yourself, just waiting to be asked.