Contemporary Authors

• Ensoulment ( documentary film) Biz & Co./Literal Publishing Co. 2014
• Ensoulment: Exploring the Feminine Principle in Western Culture Chiron Publications (Asheville, NC), 2016

1. Ensoulment : [exploring the feminine principle in Western culture] LCCN 2016025903 Type of material Book Personal name Salum, Lorís Simón, 1988- [author] Main title Ensoulment : [exploring the feminine principle in Western culture] / by Lorís Simón Salum. Published/Produced Asheville, NC : Chiron Publications, [2016] Description 320 pages : illustrations some color ; 23 cm ISBN 9781630513894 (pbk. : alk. paper) 9781630513900 (hardcover : alk. paper) CALL NUMBER HQ1154 .S165 2016 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE

• Amazon -

  Lorís Simón Salum (Mexico City, 1988) graduated from Rice University with a BA in Psychology. Shortly after, she joined Literal Magazine where she wrote, directed and co-produced the documentary feature, Ensoulment: A Diverse Analysis of the Feminine in Western Culture. After numerous awards and worldwide screenings, Lorís opened Literal's first international short film festival, Literally Short Film Festival. In 2016 she earned a Business Certification from Columbia University in New York City. Lorís continues to work as director and programmer at Literally Short; she enjoys chocolate, movies, and deeply believes that dogs are people too. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

• Literal - http://literalmagazine.com/becoming-who-i-was/

  Becoming Who I Was
  Loris Simon Salum

  I try not to miss the Seattle International Film Festival every year, but I’m not always so lucky. This year, I was. I saw Becoming Who I Was (2017), directed and produced by Moon Chang-Yong and Jeon Jin from South Korea. The story, according to Jin, who was in attendance after the film’s screening, was originally going to be about the unconditional love between a Tibetan boy, Angdu Padma, and his guardian, Rigzin Urgyan, who live in the highlands of northern India. When Padma was only 6 years old, he was enthroned as a Rinpoche by a high-ranking lama, which skewed the story in a completely different direction. Inevitably, not only is the film about unconditional love, but also about perseverance, tradition and the political context between China and Tibet.
  The film starts by telling the audience about the 1400 year-old tradition of reincarnation amongst spiritual leaders in Tibetan Buddhism. There are two ways one can be reincarnated: the first is to be born involuntarily (most of us would fall under this category). The second way, which pertains to Rinpoches, is through their own will. Lamas and Rinpoches can choose their place and time of birth through the power of compassion and prayer; they can also choose their parents. “Tulkus” is the process of recognizing the reincarnates. Candidates are asked to identify objects that belonged to them in their previous life, amongst other processes. You may remember the documentary Unmistaken Child (2008) by Nati Baratz, telling the story of Gesge Lama Konchog’s reincarnation; or Martin Scorsese’s film Kundun back in 1997, which told the story of the Dalai Lama. There is a scene in Kundun where the young Dalai Lama points to his old belongings without a fault. In this case, we do not get a preview of Padma’s process, but we do learn he is a Rinpoche reincarnated from Kham, Tibet. Unlike that Scorsese’s film though, Padma is expelled from his local monastery in Ladakh. The reason being, after four years of waiting, none of his disciples from Tibet come to claim him.
  No matter what your beliefs are, to see the disappointment of a nine-year-old child is always disheartening. So much so, that Urgyan ceases his regular practice as the only village doctor and decides to dedicate his full time to search for the appropriate education Padma needs in order to become the Rinpoche he was. When Padma reaches 10 years of age, he and Urgyan embark on a two-month long voyage towards Kham. The journey is on foot. The conditions are mostly unpleasant and rather extreme, in some cases. There is one scene where they have to cross a snowy mountain trail dressed in inappropriate clothing. It was a difficult scene to watch from the comfort of my theater seat. Director Jin mentioned how it is not uncommon for many Tibetans in the area to suffer from frostbite on their faces and other parts of their body. Someone in the audience asked Jin if it was difficult not to intervene, to which the answer was an emphatic “yes.”

  As Urgyan and Padma approach their destination, they bump into a woman selling mittens and other clothing. Padma chooses the most colorful pair to wear on his freezing hands, and the woman invites them in to warm up. After learning of their mission, she advises them not to continue on to Kham as they will be detained by the Chinese police at the border and possibly sentenced to death.
  “Tibet today is one of the most repressed and closed societies in the world,” Senator Robert Menendez, Chair of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, stated in 2012. In 2016, the Freedom in the World report named Tibet as one of the most repressed countries. It has been over 60 years since China occupied Tibet, and since then, one million Tibetans have died. Hundreds of thousands have been tortured and imprisoned. According to the British organization Free Tibet, three of the many actions that will lead to torture include flying a Tibetan national flag, sending an email abroad or speaking the phrase “free Tibet.” Free Tibet also reports that China has closed 99 percent of Tibetan monasteries.
  Spoiler Alert
  To my greatest relief, it was liberating to see Padma reach safety toward the end of the film. He continues to study higher education for Rinpoches in a monastery bordering Tibet. Urgyan is alive and healthy back at his home in India. Even though this particular story had a happy ending, it is exceedingly defeating to think about the thousands of stories that did not end this way. At a time where high political tension is an everyday topic, Becoming Who I Was makes an important contribution to today’s human rights conversations. Moreover, it is a graceful story that will not only educate you on traditions on the other side of the world; it will connect you to the struggles and achievements that bind us together as a human race.
  Lorís Simón Salum is the Creative Director for Literal Magazine. Some of the projects she has worked on include Literally Short Film Festival, Literal’s short film festival, Literally Everything, Literal’s podcast, and Ensoulment: A Diverse Analysis of the Feminine in Western Culture, Literal’s first feature documentary. You can follow her on Twitter at @lorissimonsalum.

  Feminine Vs. Masculine
  Lo femenino vs. lo masculino
  Lorís Simón Salum

  When I was 19 years old, my mother asked me to join her in a women’s retreat from the Marion Woodman Foundation in a magical place called Tepoztlán in Mexico. It sounded mysterious, intriguing and sort of sect-like, which made it all the more attractive. Of course I accepted the offer. At the time I remember being a hot mess, struggling between losing weight, finding a boyfriend, and sadly, there is nothing more I can add to that list.
  We worked from 9 am to 9 pm every day for an entire week. It was exhausting. I will refrain from trying to explain the exercises and conversations we had in fear of losing the power they held within me. I will say, however, it moved me in ways I had never been moved before.
  Years later, I could not let this experience go; I grew passionate about women, gender and feminism. There was a part of me that hoped: if all women could undergo this same change I went through on a regular basis, we would be unstoppable. This hope was what motivated me to create a documentary. If women could take the time to truthfully understand who they were, not only in relation to someone else, but in context of this universe, they would begin taking matters into their own hands.

  They would never ask for permission to be, raise children as balanced human beings, do what they were passionate about, whether it be inside or outside the home. At this point, my thesis began to get a little bit shaky. Everything I was suggesting for women actually applied to men in the exact same way. Then, it struck me- it was not about gender at all; it was about a one-sided lens through which our society has chosen to see the world, as black or white, as male or female, as weak or strong, as either/or.
  Back in the 1920’s, in her book A Room of One’s Own, author Virginia Wolf was one of many to sense two “gendered” powers presiding in each man and woman, where the norm would be when the two “lived in harmony with one another, spiritually cooperating.” Around the same time, renowned psychologist Carl Jung coined the Latin terms for these different perspectives as anima and animus, or in Western terms, feminine and masculine, respectively.
  In Eastern traditions we see them as yin and yang, although other terms have been attached to this concept such as diffuse vs. focused awareness, right vs. left-brain thinking, and so on. As a quick example, a masculine outlook or behavior is related to being structured, creating hierarchies, being rational and forming limits. I believe this masculine approach has become the principal lens through which we see our lives.
  It has become the reference point to what we consider as true and valuable. Just think about what we visualize when we hear the word “success.” If you are thinking of a situation related to high earnings, high degrees, popularity or intellectuality, Ding! Ding! Ding! You have hit the jackpot. In his book A Hero With A Thousand Faces , author Joseph Campbell makes a distinction on how we perceive the truth in our culture.
  This doctrine of incommunicability of the truth, which is beyond names and forms, is basic to the great oriental as well as to the platonic traditions. Whereas the truths of science are communicable, being demonstrable hypothesis founded on observable facts; ritual, mythology and metaphysics are guides to the brink of a transcendent illumination. The final step which must be taken by each in his own silent experience.
  I deeply enjoy that quote because it expresses a feminine viewpoint that we fail to recognize. Feminine qualities relate to ritual, mythology, creativity, the ability to nurture, receptiveness, chaos, and actually, historically speaking, women. When we turn to our feminine side, there are no right or wrong answers; in fact there are no words for answers at all.
  It is about cultivating your every potential without the need to profit from it or judge it in any way. This is where we have come to a fault as a society and mistakenly assigned it to a problem regarding gender. I theorized that as we have devalued feminine qualities in our culture, we have come to devalue women along with them. We see these qualities as “soft,” “weak,” or “useless.” The funny thing is, our basic state of existence is emotional before it is rational. Every use we give to our logic has the goal to fulfill an emotional need. We are not robots.
  Yet, we are so consumed by productivity, economic growth and social status; we have left the rest of our human side to the unconscious. We have forgotten the part of us that does not use language or reason to understand the world. We have trained ourselves to ignore what we sense through our intuition, our body and our hearts. This is the principal part in us that does not see boundaries, or gender, or religious affiliations, and so forth; it is the part that sees humans, and intentions, and empathy.

  I had an “aha” moment when I came to think about the feminine qualities in each of us. Everything I had learned in the retreat in Tepoztlán came flooding in from my memory, making me realize that all this time I was not in search of more knowledge on women, I was actually in search for the feminine. My documentary quickly switched its focus from empowering women, to promoting a journey of truth and self-knowledge in all individuals.
  It is not enough for women to try to become more masculine just because that is the only way our society values success. In the same way, it is not enough for a man to feel he must have more money than a country itself just because that is the only way our culture accepts him as worthy. Just because we cannot monetize our passions, it does not mean they do not have value. In so far as we promote unwholesome behaviors and perspectives, our world will remain divided, ignorant, and fearful of the “other”.
  I named my documentary ‘Ensoulment’ because in religious debates, it is the term used to describe the exact moment when the soul enters an embryo in the early stages of pregnancy. When you place the spotlight on a balanced lifestyle, masculine and feminine in constant collaboration, you create the tools you need to connect different parts of yourself that seemed foreign to one another before. You begin to see yourself as one. As a result, you begin seeing the world as one whole piece as well, a metaphoric ensoulment of your persona.

  In a biblical sense, it is the moment that God, whoever that may be for you, breathes life into your nostrils and you become a living soul. It is nirvana in the Buddhist tradition. It is self-actualization in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. No longer is it about men or women, it is about the animals (us included) on this planet. No longer is it about what job you have, it is about finding meaning in a universe we know so little about. No longer is it about who can test better in school, it is about collectively bringing something forth to this world and make it a better place.
  Towards the end of my project, film and book, what I found to be most important, not only in gender equality, but in our view towards the environment, politics, relationships, our bodies, the workforce, and every aspect of life, is that change comes from the inside out. Like Spiderman’s uncle said, “with great power, comes great responsibility”. The bigger the endeavor, the heavier the responsibility we have to change inwardly towards our true calling. Perhaps, more simply put, I will use Buddha’s words to say, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” and humbly add, “and don’t forget yourself in the process.”
  Lorís Simón Salum is the writer, director and co-producer of Ensoulment: A Diverse Analysis of the Feminine Principle in Western culture (2013), an award-winning documentary. Her newest project, a book, Ensoulment: Exploring the Feminine Principle in Western Culture , was published by Chiron Publications in January 2017. Apart from continuing to shoot short films, Lorís works as Festival Director for Literally Short Film Festival . Her Twitter is @LorisSimonSalum

• Ensoulment Film Website - https://www.ensoulmentfilm.com/crew

  Lorís Simón Salum was born in Mexico City in 1988. She moved to Houston, TX in 1998 where she earned her Psychology degree from Rice University and began working as a filmmaker. She joined the Literal Magazine team in 2005 as a Visual Media Consultant while also interning at Univision and PBS. In 2012, Lorís began Ensoulment as a proposed project for Literal Magazine in which she took the lead as director. Lorís currently resides in Houston and has recently became the Vice President for Women in Film and Television Houston.

• Manhattan Book Review - https://manhattanbookreview.com/interview-with-loris-simon-salum/

  Interview with Loris Simon Salum, author of Ensoulment: Exploring the Feminine Principle in Western Culture
  by editor | Apr 20, 2017 | Written

  By Tina Jasperson

  This project began with a film, and you felt wasn’t finished, which prompted the book. At the end of the book, you say your greatest revelation is accepting that there is no end, just a new path. What’s next on your path?
  After finishing the film, I had spent so much time researching the feminine and exploring how it revealed itself to me in my own experience, I found that I began to naturally start swinging the other way into the masculine realm. Shortly before the book was released, I spent about a year in NYC working on a business certification in Columbia University, and currently, I’ve continued working hard on a film festival I direct called Literally Short Film Festival, playing short films from all over the world. Curiously enough, now that the book has come out, I’ve been drawn to reading more on Joseph Campbell, Marion Woodman, etc., because I’ve been called to reconnect.

  Did anyone say something regarding feminism or their definition during your interview that truly surprised you?
  What surprised me the most was what I was faced with at the beginning of the interviewing process. I thought I was making a film about women in feminism, but I came to realize that I was getting confused with the language and the terms. Feminism is a movement about gender equality. On the other hand, the feminine has to do with a way of being, despite your gender, associated with nurturing, creativity, receptiveness, etc. Culturally, we pair this behavior with a sort of weakness; we see it as less important than being factual and structured. To confuse things further, I found that this “feminine” way of being had been historically associated with the female gender. We end up with a world that not only suppresses women for their sex, but also suppresses a behavior that is fundamentally attached to what makes us human beings. This was the most shocking to me because the first time it hit me, it was as if I could just see the chain reaction of a culture that had moved further and further away from understanding its people as emotional beings.

  While reading the book, as a self-described feminist, the most surprising thing for me was how hard it seemed to be, almost unilaterally, to pin down the definition of the word feminine itself. Did you expect that to be the case?
  Absolutely. Not only was it intentional, but necessary. I recently read this phrase from Joseph Campbell’s book that I absolutely loved. It states, “This doctrine of incommunicability of the truth, which is beyond names and forms, is basic to the great oriental as well as to the platonic traditions. Whereas the truths of science are communicable, being demonstrable hypothesis founded on observable facts; ritual, mythology and metaphysics are guides to the brink of a transcendent illumination. The final step which must be taken by each in his own silent experience.” Returning to defining the feminine, it is a similar matter. The moment you pin down a definition, you take away its transformative power, which is what I am attempting to conserve. I want people who read this book, or who watch the movie, to be able to find their own definition. There are no right or wrong answers.
  Here is an example that may help conceptualize it. Imagine an alien comes down to Earth and asks you, “What exactly is a human being?” Perhaps you could respond scientifically and say it is a Homo Sapien from the animal kingdom. Even though true, that answer is only partial to our essence. Perhaps you could say a human being is a live organism with the capacity to love; but again, it doesn’t quite grasp our true nature. There is no black and white answer to such a question. Human beings live in a world of grays. For the alien to understand what a human being is, it would have to meet more than one person, from more than one culture, from more than one age group, from more than one economic context, and so on.

  There was a definite removal of “the feminine” from “feminist.” Were you expecting that?
  At the beginning, I was not expecting that at all. It took me quite a bit of time to understand what I was actually talking about. I had to ramble for a few months before I began to get my thoughts together. I won’t lie; it can get very abstract. Although, this is why I had to ground it in the topics mentioned in the film: media, body, relationships, men as a gender, professions, and religion. (I think this answer relates to my other answer from question 2!)

  You made it a point to talk about how adding a male presence changed things when your brother was along for interviews. Can you talk a little about how this surprised you or wasn’t something you had anticipated – or if you had considered it, can you talk about that?
  I’ll start by saying I’m extremely close to my brother, and we love getting into theoretical conversations that, most of the time, lead to absolutely nothing in real life. We even get into heated arguments about stupid things that have nothing to do with anything. It’s just an excuse to spend time together. In any case, this dynamic with him became very important throughout the film because, inevitably, my focus was 100 percent directed towards theoretical conversations, and he was my “go-to” man for discussing these matters. Additionally, we weren’t talking about silly topics anymore. It actually had to do with how we both viewed our lives in the real world and how we behaved towards each other, towards other people, and so on. During our conversations with interviewees, the topic of gender was inevitable, and I saw how his mere presence made everyone go that extra mile to remain objective and true. It just balanced the conversations out. Needless to say, the fact that he is extremely articulate helped tremendously. Looking back on it, I had someone close to me that constantly listened and challenged me in every aspect. I have to add my mother as well, she was indispensable to the entire project.

  There are a wealth of experts in each of the categories you chose to focus on: media, relationships, the body, religion, etc. How did you decide exactly who to include in this project?
  This was a mixture between research and luck. I spent quite a bit of time reading and researching people from universities, or public speakers, leaders, and so on, that touched on the subject of the feminine. I reached out to many of them. Some accepted, and others did not. In this search though, I bumped into some people in the strangest scenarios that ended up being an amazing addition to the film and book’s narrative. They are happy accidents that currently make me wonder how I would have done it without them. Lastly, there were individuals that I knew I wanted in my film before I even started anything, such as Paula Reeves, Mary Hamilton, James Hollis, Jerry Ruhl, and Patricia Llosa.

  You mention that it was important for you to make a space for the younger generation, and I agree. Do you think this is something that’s better portrayed in the film?
  I think so. I tried very, very hard to make the film as approachable as possible. In the end, the goal was to bring this theoretical concept down from the world of ideas to real life. Most people don’t think in academic essays on a daily basis, and I wanted to be true to that. I kept using my younger cousins, 14-18 years old at the time, as a point of reference. If I thought they could understand something, I’d go for it. Otherwise, I’d try to simplify it. Even so, there are parts that just couldn’t be filtered any further and I had to accept that as well. In the book, however, I just let go. It was like unleashing everything I held back from the film.

  Following up on that, do you think the book would appeal more widely to an older audience and the film to a younger one, based solely on the way people access media at various ages?
  Yes. There are always surprises, but I think this was something we all expecting from the beginning.

  Who do you most hope reads this book, and what do you hope they take from it?
  Of course I’d love for as many people to read the book, not only because it’s any author’s dream, but personally, because I think there is something in there for everyone that could initiate a change towards a better self. Each one of us is responsible for him/herself in this world. The more we understand and accept our inner life and its complexities–give a voice to it–the more we will project a view of wholeness and integration towards our community and towards the rest of the world. It’s not enough to mindlessly go through all the phases of life and follow a path that’s already been written. Change comes from within, and if we do not take the time to truly understand who we are, we will never evolve on a deeper level. Yes, we will see new technologies that go beyond anything we can imagine now, but we will remain primitive at core. What good will technology do if we cannot master the most basic human emotions? This is what I hope the book will spark in my readers.

  The political climate feels to have shifted from when you started this project – we have a new president in America; new laws and policies are being proposed for women what feels like daily. How does that change the book’s tone or message? Is it, more or less, relevant?
  I believe it’s even more relevant. If you think about the direction this country is moving in, it is starting to rely heavily on fear and ignorance. Fear for the unknown “Other,” whether it be a different sex, nationality, or religious affiliation, and ignorance towards the consequences these actions have towards the people and towards our collective future. I’m personally not a religious person, but I do respect the many truths that religion carries with it. In Christianity, the Bible speaks about how one can only hate something that one does not understand. This couldn’t be more evident in today’s world. Yet how are we to recognize a familiarity in the other, when we have no idea of who we are inside. As humans, we know sadness because we have felt sad before. We know anger because we have been angry before. We know love because we love and are loved. Well, that also stands for the things we do not know. Thus, the more you explore yourself, the greater your vision will become towards others. It’s unfortunate how our culture refuses to see value in what cannot be monetized; and yet, those are the very qualities are what would lead to problems such as gender equality, nurturing our environment, peaceful international relations, public education, and so on.

  READ our review of Ensoulment: Exploring the Feminine Principle in Western Culture.

  Loris Simon Salum is a 20-something award-winning film director and a published author. Her newest work, a book, Ensoulment: Exploring the Feminine Principle in Western Culture, was just released.
  She is an inspiring speaker. In the past year she’s spoken at Jung Center in Chicago; Shell Oil Company in Mexico City; Rice University in Houston; Sam Houston State University in Texas; Claustro Soe Juana University, in Mexica City; and Business and Professional Women’s Group of the Cayman Islands.
  Born in Mexico City, she moved to Houston at age 9. She graduated from Rice University with a BA in psychology. Shortly after school, she joined Literal Magazine, where she wrote, directed and co-produced a documentary feature, Ensoulment: A Diverse Analysis of the Feminine in Western Culture. After receiving numerous awards and participating in several worldwide screenings, she opened Literals’ first international short film festival, Literally Short Film Festival.
  Last year she earned a Business Certification from Columbia University. She continues to work as director and programmer at Literally Short. She also directed a short film, Diarios de un Desplazado, which premiered at Mexican activist Javier Sicilias’ “Caravan for Peace” in the U.S.
  She resides in Houston with her husband. For more information, consult: www.ensoulmentfilm.com.
  Post Views: 556

Salum, Loris Simon: ENSOULMENT

Kirkus Reviews. (July 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Salum, Loris Simon ENSOULMENT Chiron Publications (Indie Nonfiction) $65.00 1, 16 ISBN: 978-1-63051-390-0
This collection of interview transcripts brings 24 experts, mostly psychologists and social scientists, together in a scholarly examination of the feminine. Debut author Salum used Kickstarter to fund her 2014 documentary, also entitled Ensoulment. This women's studies project relied on interviews with experts but created an animated protagonist who was, like the author and director herself, on a journey to understand the feminine. "What I was really after was not the female gender, but a matter of the soul, the impalpable," Salum recalls. Her direct inspiration was a BodySoul Rhythms women's retreat run by the Marion Woodman Foundation, which explores the Jungian idea of the feminine. Indeed, a number of the analysts and academics Salum interviews work within the Jungian framework. Many emphasize that feminine and masculine are not strict categories but interrelated principles, akin to the Eastern notion of yin and yang. "The whole business of opposites does not exist anywhere in the world. Everything is complementary," one psychologist insists. Attempts to define the feminine abound--"the rhythmic...and the intuitive," "both strength and delicacy, both firmness and love," and "the great round...the encircling embrace"--but, crucially, Salum's interlocutors always retain a sense of mystery and lived experience. They explain that the feminine is an archetypal quality to tap into rather than a distinct set of stereotyped behaviors and characteristics. The discussions in this original work center on six themes--the media, the body, men, relationships, work, and religion--but stray widely within those parameters to take in everything from eating disorders and fertility symbols to the goddess role that pop stars play in today's culture. The interviews exhibit impressive depth as well as range, and the fact that one-third of Salum's subjects are male prevents this from turning into a triumphalist, girl-power narrative. Instead, these are nuanced arguments that divorce gender from spirit. Each interview is headed by a photograph or cartoon avatar of the subject, a few biographical paragraphs, and Salum's intriguing reflections on how she knew of and decided to include them. Thought-provoking statements on almost every page; unmissable for women's studies and religion students.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Salum, Loris Simon: ENSOULMENT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497199532/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9b4cf29d. Accessed 16 May 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A497199532

"Salum, Loris Simon: ENSOULMENT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497199532/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9b4cf29d. Accessed 16 May 2018.

• Indie Book Reviews and News
  http://indiebookreleasenews.blogspot.com/2017/03/book-review-ensoulment-by-loris-simon.html
  Word count: 358

  Tuesday, March 28, 2017
  Book Review: "Ensoulment" by Loris Simon-Salum

  Book Description:
  Ensoulment is an encounter with a young filmmaker struggling to explain the feminine, according to psychologist Carl Jung’s theories. She interviews authors and leaders including Dr. James Hollis, Dr. Abigail Disney, Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, Dr. Cynthia Eller and Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, amongst others, to broaden her perspective about what the feminine is and how it takes place in Western culture. What starts out as an attempt to make a film, ends in a search of meaning, belonging and the path back to her true self.

  My Review:
  "Ensoulment" by Loris Simon-Salum gives the reader an in-depth view on femininity in today's Western culture through the compilation of interviews and stories from theorists (particularly Jung) and thought leaders of today. It is a compelling read that is as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. It is one of those unusual books that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after it is finished and set back upon the shelf. There are a lot of new age concepts in this book to address the issue of femininity and the authors own journey of self-discovery and meaning of the concept. The book challenged my own thoughts and beliefs and I found myself talking about this book with friends and discussing what their thoughts were on femininity. This opened up some very intriguing conversions about all of our beliefs and how they were shaped as well. The book is well written and easy to understand, which is exactly what a reader needs in an anthology like this one that is describing the topic from so many unique perspectives. It is a must read for lovers of inspiring and thought provoking literature. They will undoubtedly find the book to be both useful and helpful. I highly recommend!

  Reviewed by Sarah Holloway, Blogger, Indie Book News and Reviews

  More information about "Ensoulment" by Loris Simon-Salum can be found on the author's website www.ensoulmentfilm.com

  "Ensoulment" by Loris Simon-Salum is available at Amazon.com,

• San Francisco Book Review
  https://sanfranciscobookreview.com/product/ensoulment/
  Word count: 453

  Ensoulment
  We rated this book:

  $26.00

  This book is the result of the author’s search for the “feminine principle.” The author interviewed people from diverse areas of life, both men and women, on their understanding of “the feminine.” The interviewees are teachers, writers, clergy, activists, and directors of organizations in such areas as social justice and psychology. All interviewees have different understandings of “the feminine.” This book is the written result of those videotaped interviews, one chapter devoted to each interviewee, with representative photographs or drawings.
  One of the most remarkable things about this book is the enthusiasm the author put into the project. She began exploring the feminine principle while still completing her undergraduate degree. She has since won recognition for the film that was the initial result of the project. The work reads something like a dissertation, in its focus on an academic topic, gathering of data from subjects, and including research on issues such as Jungian theory. Although the interviewees are from diverse walks of life, some common themes emerge on the topic of “the feminine” and its role in Western Culture and how it has been diminished. Some topics are feminism and the oppression of women; distinctions between the “feminine” and the “masculine” and Jungian archetypes. The similarity, and in some places, repetitiveness, of themes may be due to standard questions used to begin a dialogue. Some of the analysis descends into the obvious, such as the feminine being connected to females and the masculine to males. This is just on the surface, however. The author’s further exploration reveals that the “feminine” and “masculine” are not so much about gender, but something deeper, a set of qualities like “yin” and “yang” in Eastern philosophy. “Yin” comprises the more “feminine” and intuitive and yang the more rational and “masculine.” These qualities overlap and can relate to either gender. Because such a diverse group of subjects was interviewed, original themes do emerge, such as physical symptoms being connected to metaphysical hurts. Overall, “ensoulment,” the realization of one’s true soul, is a perfect title for the work—how we reconnect to the feminine principle.

  editor
  Chris Hayden been working at City Book Review since 2012, so that makes him the keeper of knowledge. He manages the office and book reviewers (all 200 of them!), which is no small feat. If you’re looking at the book reviews here, you’re seeing them because he sent the books out for review. Without him, this place would fall apart, because no one else in the office knows how to use the postage machine. Two words: job security.

  Reviewed By: Stacia Levy

• Seattle Book Review
  https://seattlebookreview.com/product/ensoulment/
  Word count: 691

  Ensoulment

  Ensoulment, based on a documentary by Loris Simon Salum, is a series of interviews with gender experts from a range of different disciplines across North America, in an attempt to get at the root of gender disparity in western society. Its focus isn’t simply on men and women, but on a more amorphous topic – the feminine principle. The book spends a while trying to nail down what exactly “the feminine” is. Salum – along with her many sources – makes it clear that it’s more than any biological or psychological difference between men and women. Most simply, it’s an idea forwarded by the psychologist Carl Jung, who proposed that every unconscious mind has a balance of feminine and masculine traits. In the most general sense, “feminine” applies to traits of emotion and spirituality, where “masculine” applies to traits of independence and assertiveness. The terms are interpreted broadly and find many definitions in many voices before the end of the book.

  Throughout the book, Salum’s goals in collecting these interviews evolved over the course of the project’s creation. Its main function is to act as a wide net of information collected from a variety of extremely knowledgeable resources. Some of the sources’ testimony is aligned; others contradict each other. Some of them even contradict things that most would consider to be feminist: in one interview, a successful businesswoman recommended playing into established gender roles for greater success and harmony in business interactions. The interview goes on to explain the why and how and ends up uncovering an alternative line of thinking that would have been unthinkable to me prior to reading this book.

  The role of masculine and feminine traits in the political sphere was referenced by a fair number of sources as an easy example at one of the highest levels of power. Hillary Clinton was referenced often, but because the book was released in 2016 and compiled throughout the course of three years before publication, most references are examples that took place before her 2016 presidential candidacy. Though this was nothing the author or series of experts could have predicted, I imagine that many of them would have had a thing or two to say about the circumstances of the 2016 election, and I’d be curious to hear their impressions.

  One of the most enjoyable qualities of the book was Salum’s own impressions about the process of finding sources and conducting these interviews, which was a family affair. Each chapter begins with a short biography of the interviewee’s accomplishments, followed by a short paragraph explaining how Salum first encountered each expert and her personal impressions. It struck me during reading that this style in itself was a very feminine/masculine balanced practice – beginning with a more “masculine” factual list of accomplishments and ending with a more “feminine” intuition-based personal description. This is exactly the kind of book that would stir oodles of discussion in any women’s studies, gender studies, or communication class. While reading, I became nostalgic for my own gender studies projects, which included a senior research project about how the average reader perceives masculine and feminine language patterns. This book would have been an invaluable resource to me because it covers so many aspects of gender and communication so broadly – including the role of the feminine in religion, the falsification of matriarchal history, the potential harmful effects of male emotional suppression, and everything in between.

  Though I am not sure Ensoulment would be the best introduction to someone exploring these topics for the first time, this is a book I would recommend to anyone with an interest in gender studies or a curiosity about the way gender works at its most basic psychological level. I hope to see Salum drill down even more on some of these topics in her future projects.

  Reviewed By: Jackie Bussjaeger

  Author
  Lorís Simon-Salum
  Star Count
  4/5
  Format
  Trade
  Page Count
  320 pages
  Publisher
  Chiron Publications
  Publish Date
  2017-Jan-16
  ISBN
  9781630513894

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