I love to read and I read numerous books of many topics, I don’t have a particular genre I stick to. Right now I am reading a couple of poetry books, a magical realist novel, a book on the chakras, another on Thai Yoga and another about the teenage brain (for my teen yoga teacher training.) Sometimes I want to read a book that has a beautiful fusion of female empowerment, fairytale symbolism and Jungian psychology. These types of books help me reflect on myself, learn more about who I am and I discover a lot of my strengths and weaknesses have been dripped into my psyche via family and societal environments. Reading books about becoming the sacred feminine who sees her beauty and accepts her darkness is extremely medicinal stuff because it unleashes archetypes in me that may have been dormant and encourages me to be proud of traits already being wild and free. Here are five of my favourite Empowering books for women who delight in being wild and for those who feel constrained and wish to be set free and roar with fervor.

Burning Woman

Fiery. Passionate. Honest. Complex. I feel like it made a space to honor and acknowledge women’s anger in a way that is so often overlooked, ignored, minimized, suppressed, or denied (just like women’s voices around the world today and in history). This book is alive with language piercing right through the heart into the womb and is a must read for any woman at any age on any pathway. This is a call to the true Feminine and unconditional love. This is also a great source book if you run a sacred feminine circle or Red Tent because it honours the lost voice of the goddess from within. Lucy’s writing style is very personal, from her heart to the readers: embodied. It feels very different to read from traditional non-fiction and even contemporary narrative non-fiction authors, it is uncultivated, raw and wild and it reads very much like a personal journey.

Burning Women is the Feminine as an archetype (not a prescribed gender) are rising in the form of intersectional feminists, queer activists and angry people of colour. We are the rule breakers and we demand that our voices be heard. And as we get stronger, so the forces which suppressed us wage an ever more fierce war. But they cannot stop us. The tools which have been used to oppress us are being revealed within concepts like rape culture and patriarchy. Burning Woman screams through the flames “enough is enough”! This is  truly powerful book that gets under the skin of what it is to be a strong, powerful female in a man’s world. Brilliant insight and fascinating unique ideas. Exciting writing for a generation of women who want to blaze through life.

Purchase the book here: Burning Woman

Women who Run with the Wolves

I have read this book twice now and it never gets old. It’s dog eared,full of scribbles and I’ve underlined parts I found most important, most relevant to how I feel. Clarissa Pinkola mixes Jungian psychology with folkloric tales and feminist ideas. This is a collection of short stories from around the world interspersed with commentary by the author who discusses how the symbolism is important for women needing to cultivate their wild hearts once again and to be unafraid of her flaws and her darkness and i don’t mean darkness in an evil sense, I mean darkness like the roots of the earth, that primal energy, the dark pelt of a wolf’s coat as she howls at the moon in the dark sky- this book is like Joseph Campbell’s ‘The Hero’s Journey’ for women desiring to venture back to her primordial self in the cimmerian woods. Any woman who is interested in empowering herself, thus setting herself free from the corsets of social expectations will be inspired. It is a Jungian read on the darkest version of popular folk tales and fairy tales. for me, that made it very accessible.

Some chapters resonated deeply, others not so much – I think it would be different for each individual reader, my favourite chapter was ‘Seal Skin, Soul Skin’ which was about a Selkie woman trapped in a 7 year marriage because her husband hid her seal skin. Relating to this to real life- many women feel trapped in relationships, specifically abusive ones and they feel that their soul or their identity has been stolen, Clarissa interprets this story beautifully. Juicy and satisfying, this book is for any woman who feels an urge to connect with wild and ancient concepts of what it means to be female: messy, raw, and full of luminously passionate creative energy. If this book doesn’t make you want to howl out loud, I’m not sure what will!

You can purchase the book here: Women who Run with the Wolves

If Women rose Rooted

If Women Rose Rooted is very similar to Women who Run with the Wolves, so if you enjoyed that then you will love this. This book is all about connecting with the Earth and with the Celtic heritage. It weaves personal stories, Celtic myths, and meetings with other like-minded people together like roots of an ancient wise tree. This is an incredibly deep and thought provoking book for women as it maps out an intensely passionate journey following a woman’s search for her place to be and belong, both physically and mentally. Sharon digs deeply into her Celtic heritage and it’s mythology, finding women’s roles as leaders and protectors, feeling the deep rooted emotions of belonging to land and community. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of my proud Celtic heritage, my Grandmother on my mother’s side is Irish and my Grandfather on my Father’s side is Scottish and our name ‘Ness’ is an ancient Pictish/Norwegian name meaning “Cliff” or “Headland”. I am very in tune with my Celtic blood so reading this book was like coming home to my ancient self.

I found the parts of the book relating to Celtic history and the actual stories compelling, the women introduced by the author fascinating and the prose and poetry just beautiful. I found this book to be both mesmerizing and thought provoking. The combination of genres explores the world we live in and takes us along on the Heroine’s journey to re-explore our own lives and ourselves. Every woman needs to read this book. It will speak to your soul, it will stir up your long forgotten ancestral wisdom. It will have you connecting with instincts you didn’t realize were divine, or it cements the notion that you are on the right path to know the goddess.

You can purchase the book here: If Women Rose Rooted

Woman most Wild

This is a brilliantly wonderful, empowering book. Danielle has a wonderful, poetic writing style that feels rich and velvety while still infused with empowerment and energy. Now more than ever, we all need to embrace our inner feminine power (no matter where you find yourself gender-wise) and this book goes in depth on how to do just that. From start to finish of this book my eyes were glued to the magically empowering words Danielle Dulsky surged through my eyes. It’s pages shared with my soul, a witch I had forgotten was within me. I cried tears of release, had deep belly laughs throughout while finding the key to unlock my inner witchy woman. From reading “Woman most wild,” I realized I had really become isolated from nature’s magick, and I’ve already started wandering back out to the forest to find my Mother tree.  Here is a celebration of the sacred feminine – The definitive word on what it means to embody, become, move, and breathe the goddess within. The author acts as a guide for teaching others how to live with the rhythms of the seasons of Mother Earth. She offers ritual, chants and practices to honor the seasons that serve our beautiful and bountiful bodies, throughout our life span.

This book actually howls as you eat of its delicious powerful medicinal words. It is an enchanting journey into the realm of the sacred divine feminine, It is incredibly diverse and serves as a great tool for awakening and healing the collective wound by channeling your inner power and remembering what we were taught to forget.  A real Gem from an author who delivers like wild thunder and water.This book is life transforming and has awakened a fire inside me that will now never quiet.

You can purchase the book here: Woman most Wild

Goddesses in every Woman

According to Bolen, the stories behind these goddesses (which she recaps in the book) have seeped into the collective unconscious and mold women’s personalities from birth. She’s separated them into three groups- ‘virgin goddesses’ (representing the independent, self-sufficient quality in women), vulnerable goddesses (representing relationship-oriented women), and Alchemical, or transformative. Interestingly, only Aphrodite’s in the last category as she is both virginal (indpendant from men) and vulnerable (loves being in love). It is believed that most women are a blend of the goddesses, or ‘adopt’ different goddesses at different stages of their lives. I discovered I am a blend of Artemis (a free spirit with ambition), Aphrodite (I love all the sensual delights of life) and a little bit of Persephone (connected to mystical things). Bolen describes what typical childhood, adolescence, and adult years are like for each goddess, and lists the strengths and weakness for each archetype, so one can become more self-aware and take steps to remedy what’s not working and strengthen what is.

Archetypes are a powerful tool for self-knowledge because they tap into the universal collective language we all share. Learning to become more aware of your own archetypes can help you see yourself, the bigger picture and is a good place to start creating solutions for yourself and others. Finding out which Goddess sits at the head of your table is also a very good way to balance your own personality so you are able to find a voice for lesser known parts (Goddesses) of your inner self. I high recommend this book in every woman’s collection for insight into strengths and weaknesses and personal empowerment.

You can purchase the book here: Goddesses in every Woman

These books are deliciously jam-packed with empowering goodness that will enrich your soul and fill your heart with fervor. Happy Reading!

If you fancy reading other book reviews by yours truly, click on the links below:

Yogi Approved Book reviews:
Six Soulful books for the summer

Five books for the Winter reading list

Five books for your Fall reading list

Bad Yogi Magazine Book reviews:
8 Poetry books for Yogis

4 Books by Inspiring Yoga Teachers

Book reviews of a similar topic on the blog:
Quotes I like from The Book of Dharma by Simon Haas
Book review of Alchemy of the Heart by Elizabeth Prophet
Book Review of Shamanic way of the Bee by Simon Buxton
Book Review of Love poems from God by Daniel Ladinsky
Book Review of Yoga for Travelers by Jennifer Ellinghaes
Book review on yoga books (miscellaneous)
Book Haul on Art Therapy Books
Book Haul on more Art Therapy Books

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