Savage Breast Reviews

Ottawa Sun, April 13, 2006, by Don Ermen:

Quest for the goddess: Ottawa native sees answer to men's ills in connection with feminine divine.

Men are always on the lookout for the perfect woman.

But Ottawa native and author Tim Ward takes it one step further. He's not looking for the perfect woman. He's looking for the perfect goddess.

In Savage Breast, Ward, the author of four books, embarks on a three-year quest to connect with the lost goddess of his European ancestors. It's an attempt to discover whether being cut off from the feminine divine has played a role in the relationship men have with women.

Ward also explores his own fear of commitment, womanizing, and the draw of pornography. In the end he presents an honest assessment of his previous relationships and how they affected him spiritually.

Ward is one of several authors who will be part of the spring edition of the Ottawa Writers Festival, which kicks off Monday. I hooked up with Ward via e-mail this week.

QUESTION: What does it mean to come back to Ottawa as a professional writer?

ANSWER: Ottawa has always welcomed me back, and in a sense all my books have been letters home. Still, it's a bit of a time warp. Next week I'll stay with my parents, in the same house I lived in when I was in Fisher Park High School 30 years ago. My old English teacher, Larry Peters, is going to come to my book launch, and I'm a little scared he'll hand me a copy of Savage Breast filled with red correction marks.

Q: You used to be a member of Westboro United Church, and your parents are still quite devout -- now you are talking about goddesses. What do your Ottawa friends and family make of this?

A. I must sorely perplex my parents, Peter and Jane. I know that writing in this book about Goddesses, and the sometimes embarrassing personal details of my relationships, makes my mother wince. Yet they are proud of me, and I so appreciate how much they love me. They are throwing a book launch for me for friends and family, and wrote in the invitation: "This book is awesome in its openness. Buy it before his mother staples important pages together!" As for my Ottawa friends -- well, they have heard a lot about my troubles with women through the years, and I'm sure they will be curious about what I have to say about how encountering the Goddess affected my relationships with real women.

Q. This isn't your first book dealing with spirituality and religion. What is the attraction?

A. I had a spiritual awakening at age 18 when I became a "Born Again" believer. Then I studied philosophy at UBC, and on graduating went to Asia and lived in various Buddhist monasteries. I wrote three books about Asia, but Savage Breast was my biggest challenge. The outer journeys to Greece and the ancient world had to be matched by the inner journey: Facing my anger, fear and desire towards the feminine. All my life I had tried to run away from this. Writing about it was like excavating my own soul.

Q. How has what you've learned affected your own beliefs?

A. When I was first a Christian, I embraced my faith so zealously, I forced myself to follow its moral code. I tried to be good, but it was killing me inside. Eventually I quit. For several dark years, I had no real faith. The Goddess was a new way for me to approach the divine. With Her, I discovered a spirituality that's rooted in physical reality: The earth, the body, the present, rather than an other-worldly afterlife. It's connected me to life in a way I never knew.

Q. I know your answer to this in the book so you don't have to give it all away. But what makes an Ottawa guy search for a goddess?

A. When I was in India, I felt the presence of Kali, the Hindu Destroyer/Creator Goddess. When I came home, I wondered what happened that we in the West buried our Goddesses, and what would happen to me as a man if I tried to connect with them again? The journey took six years, and changed me forever. Writing Savage Breast has left me with the conviction that it is in men's own enlightened self-interest to put an end to patriarchy. Only with women as equal partners can we create a future that is different from the past.