The Essays

Maybe Artemis

To share or not to share: that seems to be the eternal question, and there’s always a tail-ender attached: Where? We have this site, and I often think of my folio friend, wondering how…

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Mother

In Murdock’s book, separation from the feminine comes in two flavors: rejection of the mother or rejection by the mother. What does that say about mothers and is it really true? Is this something…

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She’s Still Writing for Me

The idea of striving for perfection—and, perhaps, being satisfied with nothing less—has been on my mind lately. I finally feel like I understand the role perfectionism has played in my life: a big one,…

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We All Have a Journey

The take by Joseph Campbell that Murdock recounts on page 2 is interesting: In the the whole mythological tradition the woman is there. All she has to do is to realize that she’s the…

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It Takes Two, Together

Now I turn to Maureen Murdock’s own words at the beginning of the introduction to The Heroine’s Journey. She tells us that she is a therapist who has worked with women, particularly those between the…

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The First Step Out

I wrote the following paragraphs a few days ago and then let them sit. After reading your pieces, I was sore tempted to edit them. To edit myself and my thoughts to align better…

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Re-member Who You Are

Back to that epigraph: “So the female void” gets cured “by a remembering or a putting back together of the mother-daughter body.” Yes. It’s the body. Healing involves the body as much as—if not…

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What Ails Thee?

The epigraph with which Maureen Murdock has begun The Heroine’s Journey deserves a closer look, and what I post here and now may not be all I have to say about it. We’ll see. In the…

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