The heroine becomes the Mistress of Both Worlds; she can navigate the waters of daily life and listen to the teachings of the depths. She is the Mistress of Heaven and Earth and of the Underworld. She has gained wisdom from her experiences: she no longer needs to blame the other; she is the other. She brings that wisdom back to share with the

There is a simple exercise to silence this inner tyrant and to train the heroine in the art of satisfaction. Divide a piece of paper into three columns. In the first column write something that you have done today, for example, “I weeded the garden.” In the next column write “I am satisfied” and in the third column write “And that’s enough!” It may

The descent is a compulsion; we all try to avoid it but at some point in our lives we journey to our depths.

This is not a journey for cowards; it takes enormous courage to plumb one’s depths.

She needs a lamp, a lot of thread, and all of her wits about her to make this journey.

write with trepidation about the descent because I have great respect for the process and do not want to trivialize it. It is a sacred journey. In our culture, however, it is usually categorized as a depression which must be medicated and eliminated as quickly as possible. No one likes to be around someone who is depressed. If we chose, however, to

She had just spoken a truth that every woman who has made the descent knows. Women find their way back to themselves not by moving up and out into the light like men, but by moving down into the depths of the ground of their being.