While I was working on my recent contemporary fantasy Sarabande, I found a lot of helpful references about the heroine’s journey. The heroine’s journey has fewer Internet links, so perhaps you’ll find some of mine helpful if you are experiencing, reading about or writing about the journey.

There seem to be two schools of thought about the journey. One is that the heroine’s journey is the same as the hero’s journey, potentially with a few modifications.

While that concept approach works for many people, I don’t agree with it because the hero’s journey is a solar journey and the heroine’s journey is a lunar journey. My novel’s research materials tend to reflect the lunar approach.

Dark Moon

1. Goddess Meditations by Barbara Ardinger
2. Dragontime Magic and Mystery of Menstruation by Luisa Francia
3. Moon Phases Calendar
4. Planting by the Moon
5. The Moon Watcher’s Companion by Donna Henes.
6. Moon Watching by Dana Gerhardt
7. Moon Tides, Soul Passages by Maria Kay Simms
8. Moon Mother, Moon Daughter by Janet Lucy

Death and Rebirth

1. Descent to the Goddess by Sylvia Brinton Perea
2. The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image by Anne Baring and Jules Cashford
3. The Pattern of Initiation in the Evolution of Human Consciousness by Peter Dawkins & Sir George Trevelyan
4. Inanna, queen of heaven and earth: Her stories and hymns from Sumer by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer – This book, first published in 1983, presented a long-awaited translation of the original Inanna material from the 2000 BCE cuneiform clay tablets.

Fantasy

• The Mythopoeic Society – The Mythopoeic Society is a national/international organization promoting the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantastic and mythopoeic literature through books and periodicals, annual conferences, discussion groups, awards, and more.

Horses

1. She Flies Without Wings-How Horses Touch a Woman’s Soul by Mary D. Widkiff
2. Horses and the Mystical Path-The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul by Thomas McCormick
3. The Tao of Equus by Linda Kohanov
4. Torden, Hear the Tunder by by C. Kirkham. (This is a well-written young adult novel about a young girl and a Friesian horse.)
5. Horses, Somatics, and Spirit: An Equine-Guided Program in Conscious Living, a workshop presented by Beverley Kane, MD, Ariana Strozzi, MSC. (This is an example of some of the programs available today.)

Heroine’s Journey

1. The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock
2. From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey through Myth and Legend by Valerie Estelle Frankel (See the July 2011 “Mythprint” review of this book here.) Frankel’s website includes a lengthy heroine’s journey reading list.
3. Sarabande contemporary fantasy by Malcolm R. Campbell released by Vanilla Heart Publishing, August 2011.
4. “The Way of Woman: Awakening the Perennial Feminine” by Helen M. Luke
5. Apple Farm Community – The Writings of Helen M. Luke
6. Real Women, Real Wisdom: A Journey into the Feminine Soul by Maureen Hovenkotter  (See a review here.)
7. The Heroine’s Coach, the website for Susanna Liller’s journey-oriented coaching services. The site includes an e-mail newsletter for women following their own paths called “Journey News.”
8. The Heroine’s Journey appears on author Leslie Zehr’s Universal Dancer website and includes a discussion of Sylvia Brinton Perera’s Descent to the Goddess, a book I found essential for my understanding of the journey. Zehr is the author of The Alchemy of Dance: Sacred Dance as a Path to the Universal Dancer.

Light of Nature

1. Light of Nature Website, exploring the science and the philosophy of the concept.
2. “The Female Brain” by Louann Brizendine
3. “The Spell of the Sensuous” by David Abram

Literature

1. The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder by Erin Blakemore
2. Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World by Kathleen Ragan
3. The Heroine in Western Literature: The Archetype and Her Reemergence in Modern Prose by Meredith A. Powers
4. The Art of Fiction: Illustrated from Classic and Modern Texts by David Lodge

Patriarchy

1. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd
2. Unplugging the Patriarchy – A Mystical Journey into the Heart of a New Age by Lucia René
3. Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
4. Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write about Their Search for Self by Sara Shandler
5. Surviving Ophelia: Mothers Share Their Wisdom in Navigating the Tumultuous Teenage Years by Cheryl Dellasega

Story Within

1. And Now The Story Lives Inside You, poems by Elizabeth Reninger
2. The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
3. Alchemical Studies by C. G. Jung
4. Harry Potter – A New World Mythology? By Lynne Milum
5. “Dark Wood to White Rose: Journey and Transformation in Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’” by Helen M. Luke
6. “The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling” by James Hillman

War

1. Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America by Jonathan Shay.
2. Rape: Weapon of Terror by Sharon Frederick
3. Against our Will: Men, Women and Rape by Susan Brownmiller

Weaving, Storytelling, Linen

1. American Textile History Museum
2. All Fiber Arts (weaving in stories and fairytale)
3. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
4. Linen from flax seed to woven cloth by Linda Heinrich
5. The Joy of Handspinning – many details, photographs and demonstration videos
6. The Weaver’s Book: A practical, authoritative step-by-step guide for beginners by an expert weaver by Harriet Tidball
7. Grading, Spinning, Dyeing: an introduction to the traditional wool and flax crafts by Elizabeth Hoppe and Ragnar Edberg
8. Fibers of Being – Judy’s detailed weaving blog
9. Eva Stossel’s weaving blog – In addition to information about weaving, both Judy and Eva include lengthy blogrolls.
10. A History of Irish Linen
11. Flaxland – Growers and Processors in the U. K.

Wolves

1. Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
2. The Company of Wolves by Peter Steinhart
3. The Wolf’s Tooth by Christina Eisenberg

Writer’s Muse

1. The Sister from Below: When the Muse Gets Her Way by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky
2. Marry Your Muse: Making a Lasting Commitment to Your Creativity by Jan Phillips
3. The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write by Mark David Gerson.
4. 20 Master Plots: an How to Build Them, by Ronald Tobias
5. The Hero’s Journey: A Guide to Literature and Life by Reg Harris and Susan Thompson (This is a series of lesson plans for teaching the hero’s journey in a classroom setting.)

Classic TA Resources for the Journey

1. Born to Win: Transactional Analysis with Gestalt Experiments by Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward
2. Your Inner Child of the Past by Hugh Missildine
3. What Do You Say After You Say Hello: The Psychology of Human Destiny by Eric Berne
4. I’m Ok, You’re Ok by Thomas Harris

—Malcolm

Malcolm R Campbell is the author of the heroine’s journey novel “Sarabande” from Thomas-Jacob Publishing.