2026 Celestial Path Book Study
Descent: A Journey for Women by Katrina Messenger
Descent: A Journey for Women provides a map to the territory of descent myths. Using this map, a woman can determine which descent pattern is present within her life and find the support she needs to spiritually awaken. From the Preface: "Throughout human history, a sacred timeless path has called to women over and over again, the path of descent. And unlike the hero's journey where at each juncture the hero attains gifts, tools, or allies, the descent journey asks us to relinquish our hard won trophies, shatter our deeply held convictions, dissolve our ego-supporting illusions, and surrender our very innocence." Katrina Messenger is an apt guide, teacher and translator of these stories. She helps the reader comprehend the intricacies of each story and how each story can affect a woman's life.
In 2026, Reflections has chosen "Descent: A Journey for Women" by Katrina Messenger. We will examine the Abduction pattern of Descent, modeled on the abduction of the young Kore. We will later re-imagine a mythos where our Kores can blossom without first being abducted by Patriarchy.
2025 Celestial Path Book Study
Romancing the Shadow by Connie Zweig & Steve Wolf
According to authors Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf, each of us has shadows that hold forbidden feelings such as shame, jealousy, greed, lust, and rage. Left to their own devices these shadows will become destructive saboteurs--causing us to betray our loved ones as well as ourselves. It is not within our power to choose whether or not to have these shadows; however, Zweig and Wolf believe that it is within our power to take responsibility for our shadows and put them to productive use. Chapter by chapter Zweig and Wolf reveal the shadow side of love, parenthood, siblings, friendships, midlife, and work. Rather than deny or destroy these shadows, the authors show readers how to confront and "romance" them in order to access the energy, vitality, and creativity that usually lie dormant within our dark sides.
Buy Romancing the Shadow from Amazon
2024 Celestial Path Book Study
The Cancer Journals by Audre LordeFirst published over forty years ago, The Cancer Journals is a startling, powerful account of Audre Lorde's experience with breast cancer and mastectomy. Long before narratives explored the silences around illness and women's pain, Lorde questioned the rules of conformity for women's body images and supported the need to confront physical loss not hidden by prosthesis. Living as a "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," Lorde heals and re-envisions herself on her own terms and offers her voice, grief, resistance, and courage to those dealing with their own diagnosis. Poetic and profoundly feminist, Lorde's testament gives visibility and strength to women with cancer to define themselves, and to transform their silence into language and action. ASIN : 084V8F44P
Buy The Cancer Journals on Amazon
2022 & 2023 Celestial Path Book Study
Sisters of the Yam by bell hooks
In Sisters of the Yam, bell hooks reflects on the ways in which the emotional health of black women has been and continues to be impacted by sexism and racism. Desiring to create a context where black females could both work on their individual efforts for self-actualization while remaining connected to a larger world of collective struggle, hooks articulates the link between self-recovery and political resistance. Both an expression of the joy of self-healing and the need to be ever vigilant in the struggle for equality, Sisters of the Yam continues to speak to the experience of black womanhood. ASIN: B0B75G23LH
2021 Celestial Path Book Study
Inner Work: Using Dreams & Active Imagination for Personal Growth by Robert A. Johnson [IW]A noted author and Jungian analyst teaches how to use dreams and inner exercises to achieve personal wholeness and a more satisfying life. ASIN : B002SVQCUG
The Way of the Image: The Orientational Approach to the Psyche by Yoram Kaufmann [WoI]
This revolutionary new book, The Way of the Image, brings us the foundation for an incredibly rich and profound approach to the psyche--one based on objective knowledge of how to translate the meaning of images (dream images, fantasy images, images from film, literature, art, and even the latest newspaper headlines) into language we can all use to understand ourselves and our world. For the fortunate reader who opens up this book now, and discovers the stunning viewpoint brought to us by one of the greatest psychologists of our era, a whole new vista of the human psyche will open up.
The many revolutionary propositions from this book are astounding in their implications:
- There is a way to find truly objective knowledge of the human psyche
- We can regenerate ourselves through the transformative power of images because images are the energy carriers of the psyche
- Each of us has a unique and personal imaginal language, which must be understood if we are to be understood
- Every image has a precise system of coordinates, an innate structure or set of objective guidelines, that tells us how to proceed and how to act—whether in the therapeutic setting, or in life as a whole
Everyone who is interested in knowing about themselves, about their dreams, about how therapy can and should work, about the way the world of our psyche works, will find this fascinating book to be a guide for the rest of their life. ASIN : B09WPZBVJY
2020 Celestial Path Book Study
True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh
In this little treasure, Thich Nhat Hanh, the renowned Zen monk, offers timeless insight into the nature of real love. With simplicity, warmth, and directness, he explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and freedom—explaining how to experience them in our day-to-day lives. He also emphasizes that in order to love in a real way, we must first learn how to be fully present in our lives, and he offers simple techniques from the Buddhist tradition that anyone can use to establish the conditions of love.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, is an internationally known author, poet, scholar, and peace activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr.
2019 Celestial Path Book Study
Four Elements: Reflections on Nature by John O'Donohue
From the beloved author of the bestselling To Bless the Space Between Us and Anam Cara comes a new work that shares his insights on nature and the ancient wisdom of this earth.
John O'Donohue won hundreds of thousands of admirers with his now classic work on Celtic spirituality Anam Cara. Unfortunately he died suddenly at age fifty-two just as his book of blessings, To Bless the Space Between Us, was being published. The loss of his powerfully wise and lyrical voice has been profoundly missed, but his many readers are given a special opportunity to revisit John in a new book based on a series of papers he wrote on the elements of water, stone, air, and fire, now published here for the first time. O'Donohue's readers know him as both a spiritual guide and a poet, and in this work he exhibits both qualities, sharing his Celtic heritage and his love for his native landscape in the west of Ireland. As O'Donohue explores a range of themes relating to the way we live our lives today, he reveals how the energy and rhythm of the natural world—its innocence and creativity, its power and splendor—hold profound lessons for us all. With a foreword written by his beloved brother, Pat, this illuminating book is an inspired reflection on the ancient wisdom of the earth.
2018 Celestial Path Book Study
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer by Diane Wolkstein , Samuel Noah Kramer
"This is an admirable translation, a great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade
"A splendid mutual accomplishment and a great gift ot mythology...."Inanna "is a book to be cherished."--P.L. Travers
"In the myth of Inanna, Wolkstein and Kramer give us back the totality of woman, the ruler-wife-lover-redeemer, whom all worshiped and from whom all life flowed. It is a thrilling rediscovery."--Olivier Bernier
"Wolkstein has been able to convey in English the rich metaphor, the erotic fullness, and the ritual pacing of these ancient stories....Taken together with the illustrations, historical discussions, and textual commentaries, this book is worth a tower of scholarly tomes....Such a feat is remarkable and rare."--Barre Toelken, Director of Folklore and Ethnic Studies, University of Oregon
"I felt shivers of recognition reading these ancient lines that proclaim Inanna's discovery of her prowess....Kramer and Wolkstein make us love their awesome goddess whose stormy complexities have been concealed in cuneiform tablets for thousands of years."--Nor Hall
2017 Celestial Path Book Study
Elemental Psychology: Using Jungian Psychology and the Sacred Elements for Spiritual Development by Katrina Messenger
"...applying the principles of an elementary psychology is not straightforward or simple. Just like its sources within Jungian psychology and the wisdom traditions, we need to remain open to new information, new ideas, and resurfacing truths from living indigenous traditions worldwide. We must take into account not only a person's elemental type but also their real world experiences and their developmental stage. And as always we need to separate what a culture has projected onto a person from what actually calls to their heart.”
- Excerpt from Chapter 11: An Elemental Psychology
