Best-selling author and Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen's vivid grasp of the story and the characters in The Ring of the Nibelung brings Richard Wagner's mythic four-opera cycle to life. The Ring Cycle has a hold on our imagination like no other operatic work, because it is archetypal, and has the power of myth as well as music, to reverberate in the psyche. As in her acclaimed Goddesses in Everywoman and Gods in Everyman, Bolen shows how myth illuminates psychology, and more -- Ring of Power goes beyond the psychology of the individual, to examine dysfunctional families and patriarchal institutions.

In "The Rhinegold", "The Valkyrie", "Siegfried", and "Twilight of the Gods", we see how the pursuit of power can be destructive to the personality and relationships. In "Freeing Ourselves from the Ring Cycle", Bolen describes how seeing the truth and acting upon what we know can liberate us, and lead to authenticity and individuation. "Beyond Valhalla: A Post-Patriarchal World?" provides a provocative and hopeful speculation on the possibilities of the return of the repressed feminine into society that is a millennial potential.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst in private practice, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and an internationally known lecturer. She is the author of numerous books including Goddesses in Everywoman, Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women and Save the World, Crones Don't Whine and The Millionth Circle.