Reviews

Thanks to this unabashedly intimate memoir, we finally have answers to the lingering questions and preconceived notions that have swirled around the mythology of The Source Family and its charismatic yet polarizing leader, Father Yod. In this astonishing narrative, Galaxy the Aquarian, birth name Dawn Hurwitz, a sexually, spiritually, and intellectually rebellious Jewish teenager of 16 boldly turns her back on mainstream life in the pursuit of cosmic love and enlightenment, becoming the youngest among thirteen wives to Father Yod, a man in his 50s. A deeply sensual memoir of desire—for sex, transcendence, and eventually, money’s “green energy”—it reveals how Dawn, like so many seekers, pays a high price for daring to step outside the confines that society imposed upon women of that era (and today). As we follow in her determined footsteps, we gain unprecedented and meticulously detailed insights into the inner workings of The Source—a social experiment where daily life was an intricate dance involving the quest for cosmic wisdom, wholesome living, and an ever-evolving, unconventional romantic paradigm. Dawn emerges as an archetypal Icarus in feminine form, single-mindedly focused on one objective—to be as close as possible to her spiritual mentor, and object of her desire, Father Yod. Time and time again, she flies too close to his fire, finally plummeting back to a harsh reality following his untimely death in 1975. As Yod’s exciting, far-out Patriarchy morphs uneasily into a Matriarchy led by his grieving wives, Dawn finds herself at the bottom of a totem pole she no longer desires to climb. Not for the first time in her life, she rebels against a system that is caging her, becoming the first of Yod's wives to leave the family. Re-entering the modern world with nothing but memories and her alluring figure, she finds herself lured into sex work by a former satellite member of the Family, who becomes her pimp and psychological jailor, until she finds the strength within herself to finally break free. Despite the adversity Hurwitz endured as a result of devoting herself to The Source, she has no regrets, making a compelling case for reframing the group as less of a “cult” and more a "cultural reform movement.” Nearly five decades since seeing Father Yod's unearthly blue gaze for the first time, she paints a vivid picture of a genuinely wild psychedelic ride, an adventure in communal living, one where love, trust, and the quest for ineffable truth—and not brainwashing—served as the binding forces that kept these beautiful dreamers together.