The Returning Women

Guiding Reads

Books we are reading together in The Returning Women circle.

These are the books we are using in The Returning Women circle. Each one was chosen because it speaks directly to the journey we are taking together — back to ourselves, back to what is true, back to the life that is waiting.

You are welcome to read ahead, read alongside, or simply let the books find you when the time feels right. There is no wrong way to come to them.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Women Who Run With the Wolves

A landmark work in women's psychology and mythology, this book explores the Wild Woman archetype — the instinctual, creative, and deeply knowing nature that lives in every woman. Through fairy tales, myths, and stories, Estés illuminates what happens when women lose touch with this inner life and what it takes to reclaim it. It is a book that many women describe as feeling like a homecoming.

Where in your life have you been taming yourself in ways that no longer serve you?

Read on Amazon →

Maureen Murdock

The Heroine's Journey

Written as a response to Joseph Campbell's hero's journey, Murdock's work maps the feminine path — one that moves not outward toward conquest, but inward toward wholeness. She traces the arc of separation from the feminine, the striving to succeed in a masculine world, and the eventual return to reclaim what was left behind. For women who have spent years achieving and still feel something is missing, this book offers a language for that experience.

What parts of yourself did you set aside in order to succeed — and what would it mean to welcome them back?

Read on Amazon →

Sue Monk Kidd

The Dance of the Dissident Daughter

A deeply personal account of one woman's spiritual awakening and her journey from a conventional religious life toward a more embodied, feminine spirituality. Kidd writes with honesty and vulnerability about the discomfort of changing, the grief of leaving behind what no longer fits, and the quiet courage it takes to follow an inner knowing even when it leads somewhere unexpected. It is a book about becoming more fully yourself.

Is there a part of your spiritual or inner life that has been waiting for permission to grow?

Read on Amazon →

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