Pagan, Shinto & Spiritual Book Reviews October 2016

Jane Meredith, Journey to the Dark Goddess: How to Return to Your Soul

(Moon Books, 2012)

Journey to the Dark Goddess has apparently sold over 10,000 copies, which is quite an achievement for a book of this kind. I thought it’d be good to have a read myself and try to uncover the secret of this book’s appeal.

The titular “Dark Goddess” is the archetype of female divinities and mythological figures associated with the Underworld, such as the Mesopotamian Ereshkigal. This book also looks closely at those who have journeyed to the Underworld – Persephone, Psyche and Inanna. Meredith offers her own interpretation of these descent/ascent myths as metaphors for initiation into the truth that the Dark Goddess reveals – that letting go is an inevitable part of existence that cannot be escaped.

Journey to the Dark Goddess is, above all else, a self-help book. It offers readers a way to come to terms with change and loss by making meditative, Shamanic spiritual journeys into the Underworld, meet with the Dark Goddess, and returned a person changed for the better. But be warned: these meditations are not the serene, relaxing affairs you would normally associate with spiritual healing; they are, indeed, dark, aiming to confront difficult and painful memories and issues that might be holding one back from one’s spiritual journey.

Perhaps the biggest appeal of Journey to the Dark Goddess is the beauty of its writing. It is enticingly and poetically written, including retellings of Underworld descent myths from the perspectives of the Goddesses who made the descent. I enjoyed these retellings, and the fascinating analysis of these tales, above all else.

In all honesty, I don’t think the rather strict and heavy spiritual exercises for meeting the Dark Goddess outlined in this book are for me. I don’t feel like I’m in any particular need of healing of this sort right now, so I cannot imagine using any of the rituals in this book any time soon. But if you are someone who has undergone some kind of trauma or loss and feels in need of some kind of spiritual healing involving Shamanic journeying and confronting one’s feelings head-on, you might find Journey to the Dark Goddess useful.