siddika1

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Siddika Angle is a former newspaper reporter with a master’s degree in Biblical Studies and a Ph.D in History and Phenomenology of Religion. She has taught courses in World Religions, with a focus on the spirituality of these wisdom traditions, at Bay Area colleges and universities. She has also given classes on the women of the Bible who are revealed in interesting new dimensions when the ancient texts are viewed through a woman’s eyes.

A lifelong Catholic, Siddika has also been affiliated with Sufi, Buddhist and Vedanta spiritual communities. In 1977-78 she spent a year in Konya, Turkey with the Mevlevi Sufi Order that began with the poet and mystic Jelal’uddin Rumi in the 13th century.

In recent years, an important spiritual wellspring for her has been a deep connection with the beauty and wonder of the natural world. That scientists are now recognizing our entire planet consists of webs of relationships resembling the essential Unity of all being experienced by the mystics of many religions has been like discovering new holy scriptures.

Siddika has always been interested in relationships, their intricacies and mysteries. As a child she explored the orchards and creek at her grandparents’ northern California ranch watching insects, aquatic creatures and animals to discover how they lived and interacted.

Her most profound inspiration for relationship has been Jesus who gave his life for love and called the women and men closest to him to love one another as completely as he had loved them. Song of the Turtle explores the challenges of love in the Catholic ethos, a tradition that --from its beginnings-- has had a troubled history with human sexuality.

In her years with a small Catholic community (Communitas Christi) and later through her studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Siddika has known many good priests and sometimes been privy to their joys, pains and struggles. The idea for Song of the Turtle emerged from such friendships.

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