Francesca Lia Block & Carmen Staton, Ruby: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 2006) ("'...The sacred feminine is gathering so much force, even in popular culture. But the male energy can't quite handle it. It's all somewhat explosive.'" Id. at 87. "I am Ruby, I told myself, named for the stone that chases away evil spirits. But what demons would be released if I stopped fighting against them, even for a moment?" Id. at 170. "You can change things with your will, your determination, your strength. You can move away, track down your true love, treat your children differently than you have been treated. But how strong do you have to be to fight a ghost?" Id. at 192.).
Kofi Busia, ed., Iyengar: The Yoga Master (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2007) (From Joan White, "A Learner's Journey": "Long ago, I gave up on rigidity: life is fluid, yoga has to be fluid, teaching has to be fluid. One's practice has to depend on one's ability to transform and change--to continue to listen, to remove self-ignorance through knowledge (shravana), to wipe away any doubts with thinking (manana), and to contemplate through a growing abidance in oneself and through removal of habitual error (nididhyasana). Id. at 25-31, 31.).
Kathie Carlson, In Her Image: The Unhealed Daughter's Search for Her Mother (A C. G. Jung Foundation Book) (Boston & London: Shambhala, 1990) ("The primary relationship between women is the relationship of mother and daughter. This relationship is the birth place of a women's ego identity, her sense of security in the world, her feelings about herself, her body, and other women. From her mother, a woman receives her first impression of how to be a woman and what being a women means. She also receives her first access to at least some aspects of the archetypal mother, the Great Mother, and to an experience of the feminine Self. This latter dimension is generally not recognized in our culture." Id. at xi. "In this book, I want to reconnect the very human problems between mothers and daughters with their deeper psychic roots.... The problems, woundings, strengths, and delights of the mother-daughter relationship are also part of a deep spiritual search among women, a search for a more authentic feminine. Sourceground for their lives." Id. at xii. "Ultimately, this book is addressed to the unhealed daughter in us all, to help her better comprehend when she has experienced within its broader and deeper context, and to enable her to seek out more effectively what she hasn't experienced and needs for the fulfillment of her soul." Id. at xiii. "The unhealed daughter is full of yearnings, rage, hurt, and legitimate needs which were not met in her experiences with her mother. She is a 'child place' within us that continues to be present and felt or denied within our adult lives." Id. at 61.).
Linda Johnson, Daughters of the Goddess: The Women Saints of India (St. Paul, MN: Yes International Publishers, 1994) ("Indian women have actually always been the backbone of Hindu religious life. Unlike most Western faiths, which are celebrated communally once each week, Hinduism is usually practiced daily in the home. Morning and evening worship before the family altar is often conducted by the women of the house, and the numerous legends that illustrate Hinduism's highest principles have been passed--in some cases for thousands of years--primarily from mother to child." "It is no accident that in India the deity who governs education, the arts, and religious knowledge is Sarasvati; the deity associated with strength and protection is Durga; the deity who rules wealth and commerce is Lakshmi--all are Goddesses. I am trying to remember a time when I walked into an Indian home or business and did not find the portrait of at least one of these goddesses hanging on the wall; I honestly cannot recall a single instance. While we in Europe and America decorate our homes with pictures of ourselves and or relatives, Indians surround themselves with portraits of divinity, constant reminders of the spiritual dimension of life and the compassionate motherhood of God. Today, as social strictures against women continue to crumble, more than ever Indian women are free not only to worship the goddesses but to imitate them, both in the home and on the world stage." Id. at 21-22. "How can it be that we Westerners, with all our worldly wisdom, have lost the ability to distinguish a saint from a snake oil peddler? I wonder if it was when we lost the Goddess, when we started telling ourselves that we are basically sinful rather than essentially divine, when we accepted that God embodied himself on earth only once rather than that the Goddess is incarnating here continuously, in every age, in every culture, when we lost the sense that to look into the face of God we need look no further than the person sitting next to us. We gave away our spiritual authority, handing the key to heaven to an enclave of priests who seem to have misplaced it. Now we are locked our of our own divine being, And any rascal who comes along insisting he can get us back in looks good to us!" "The women saints I have been privileged to meet are in a very real sense the antithesis of the religious preachers of the West. They don't tell us what to believe but show us how to live. Rather than condemning those whose mores differ from theirs, they serve them. Rather than insisting that one particular party has exclusive claim to saving knowledge while everyone else is eternally condemned, they quietly suggest that a divine light shines in every heart; we have only to remove the bushel basket covering the flame." Id. at 120.).
