If Longfellow's The Secret Magdalene was any less than it is, then this book would deserve 5 stars. It's a matter of comparison. If this was Hypatia, I love her. If these were her times, and I'm sure they were since Longfellow's research is exhaustive, then hail to Hypatia, my new hero. Where is her statue? ( )

If I was a writer I would write a wonderful review, I love this book so much. I do not understand people now or then. Why go out to hurt someone just because they don't feel or think like you do? It made no difference what you did or did not believe in...someone was out to get you. Why can't we be like little children and love everyone and everything? I don't know the answer. As brilliant as Hypatia was she didn't either. I love the characters and how they seem to intertwine together. To make it short and sweet I LOVE THIS BOOK. ( )

Just finished this since I adored The Secret Magdalene and it's another of her unique portraits of an amazing woman. ( )

Ever since I finished The Secret Magdalene, I've been waiting for the second in this writer's trilogy of the Divine Feminine. The Secret Magdalene stunned me. It took me places few books go. So obviously I was one of the first to get this book and to read it, or at least the first to review it here. {author:Ki Longfellow]'s first book was about Mary Magdalene, but not the Magdalene who's been so abused for so long. Flow Down Like Silver takes place 350 years later in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, the very city Longfellow's Magdalene spent her youth in, practicing the ancient Passion of Osiris. There was no Christianity in her day, but by the time Hypatia lived Christianity existed side by side with the old faiths and ancient mystery teachings. In cities all over the Roman world the struggle was on between them for the human soul. Before Christianity all these teachings tolerated each other. But the new faith tolerated nothing but itself. Hypatia of Alexandria was the last and greatest teacher of philosophy and the mystery schools. She was the last and greatest mathematician. She was and lovely and men sought her out from all over the known world for her learning and her beauty. As a "pagan" (which is a Christian term that is not used as a compliment), she was unashamed of her body and used it as she alone decreed. She valued her own mind, never taking anything on "faith." She was almost modern in her sense of self and her freedom from males. But the time was coming when a woman like Hypatia would no longer be tolerated in the new world fashioned by a new faith. This wonderful book makes us see a world and a woman we should never have forgotten. In the last few pages of this truly gripping book, I admit it, I cried. To think there would be nothing like her until 14 centuries later when Newton took up mathematics where Hypatia so abruptly left off.
I knew I would love the writing. Longfellow writes gorgeous lyrical prose. But I'd never heard of Hypatia. Now that I have, I honor her as much as those who once honored her while she lived. And there is a very strong connection here to Mary Magdalene, one that surprised and delighted me. Highly recommended. Another beautiful book. And I loved the cover! ( )

So far, so great. ( )