Beginning with the myth of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld, rendered in breathtaking poetry, Betty de Shong Meador sets forth on a journey of the feminine in five stages—poetry, essay, and prose tying together her study of feminine initiation across time and culture. Her description of a Blessingway Sing reveals the balance of feminine and masculine achieved in the Navajo culture. A critique of Doris Lessing’s novels captures the felt sense of descent and discovery. Research on a Greek women’s ritual—the Thesmophoria—and a survey of recent archeological findings from the ancient goddess cultures add history and substance to the ideas of the feminine. A clinical study of the relationship between female therapist and female client demonstrates one contemporary mode for such exploration. Thus we learn that there are many routes for exploring the lost initiations of women into the progress of their souls and the ways of the Goddess.

Beginning with the myth of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld, rendered in breathtaking poetry, Betty de Shong Meador sets forth on a journey of the feminine in five stages—poetry, essay, and prose tying together her study of feminine initiation across time and culture. Her description of a Blessingway Sing reveals the balance of feminine and masculine achieved in the Navajo culture. A critique of Doris Lessing’s novels captures the felt sense of descent and discovery. Research on a Greek women’s ritual—the Thesmophoria—and a survey of recent archeological findings from the ancient goddess cultures add history and substance to the ideas of the feminine. A clinical study of the relationship between female therapist and female client demonstrates one contemporary mode for such exploration. Thus we learn that there are many routes for exploring the lost initiations of women into the progress of their souls and the ways of the Goddess.