Books for the Journey Home
 

The title of this page is taken from the exquisite meditative tarot, "Songs for the Journey Home", created by wise women Catherine Cook and Dwariko von Sommaruga, and it certainly seems appropriate, for whether we know it or not, we are all on a journey and we are all on our way home.  It may take several lifetimes for us to arrive there, but we are on our way.

As I move into my eldering years, I find myself remembering a few lines from one of my grandmother's favourite hymns, and the words (slightly amended) form a kind of travelling mantra or sutra for my journey - they are as appropriate for my own spirituual path as they were for my grandmother's Quaker path long ago.  There are wonderous and enlightened spirits to be met on this journey, which is at the same time, both of the earth and not of the earth.

"Because the road was long and rough, and through a dark and lonely land,
She put upon my lips a song and set a lantern in my hand."

Here are many (but certainly not all) of my favourite "journeying books".  There is always at least one of these books close by, on my library table or resting on the small oak table in my reading corner.  Whenever I pick up one of these books, I discover treasures for the spirit, wise words and knowing songs to accompany a traveller on her way home.

 

• The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram
• Hedgewitch, Rae Beth
• The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet, Stephan Beyer, Thomas Beyer
• Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin, John Eaton Calthorpe Blofeld
• Crossing to Avalon, Jean Shinoda Bolen
• Goddesses in Older Women, Jean Shinoda Bolen
• The Millionth Circle, Jean Shinoda Bolen
• Hestia Come Home, Jerrilee Cain
• The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred, Philip Cousineau
• The Book of Shadows, Phyllis Curott
• The Only Dance There Is, Ram Dass
• Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself, Judith Duerk
• Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes
• Kindling the Celtic Spirit, Mara Freeman
• Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna: A Ten Year Journey,
  
China Galland

• White Cloud, Martha Glessing
• One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, Joseph Goldstein
The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh
• The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Sue Monk Kidd
• After the Ecstasy  the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path, Jack Kornfield
• A Year to Live: How to Live This Year As If It Were Your Last, Stephen Levine
• Elderwoman, Marian McCain
• Light Sitting in Light, Sister Elaine McInnes
• The Wonder of Presence: And the Way of Meditative Inquiry, Toni Packer
• Tara: The Supreme Goddess, Kumar Pushpendra,  K. Sharma
• Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, Paul Reps,  Nyogen Senzaki
• The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche
• A Heart as Wide as the World, Sharon Salzberg
• Ordinarily Sacred, Linda Sexson
• The Practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder
• The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine, Margaret Starbird
• A Listening Heart: The Spirituality of Sacred Sensuousness, David Steindl-Rast
• When God Was a Woman, Merlin Stone
• Mirrors of Ancient Womanhood, Merlin Stone
• Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World,,Lama Surya Das
• Awakening to the Sacred: Building a Spiritual Life from Scratch, Lama Surya Das
• Awakening the Buddhist Heart: Integrating Love Meaning and Connection into Every Part of Your Life , Lama Surya Das
• Zen Mind, Beginner Mind,  Shunryo Suzuki
• Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks, Gary Thorp
• Essential Tibetan Buddhism, Robert Thurman
• The Practice of Green Tara, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche
• Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, Stephen Mitchell (translator)
• Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions, Frances Vaughn

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Page updated on April 28, 2004