GODDESS: WHEN SHE RULES

 
​ “GODDESS: When She Rules: Expressions by Contemporary Women”, is the award winning fourth anthology to emerge from the Journey of the Heart Poetry Project. Contributors to this volume share moving personal stories, reflections and poetry exploring and defining the role the goddess plays in each of their lives. Through diverse and evolving relationships with archetypal goddesses, mythical goddesses and the inner goddesses they identify with most, women reveal when and how they feel intimately connected with the sacred feminine. Together, their words echo worldwide efforts aimed at ushering in a new paradigm for peace in which the feminine principles of creativity, receptivity, intuition and wisdom--independent of gender--rise to prominence. As we hear the authors reclaim might and magic, the resurgence of the goddess is unmistakable in their impassioned writings.

Edited by Catherine L. Schweig, Sandra M. Alagapen, Julia W. Prentice and Tammy Stone Takahashi, with a Foreword by Sally Kempton. The first edition was released December 12, 2017, and the second edition on January 1, 2018, with Golden Dragonfly Press.

All proceeds from this book will be donated to the Malala Fund. 
"The eternal Goddess of many-splendored history is alive and well.  Her beauty, power, and grace pour through these pages of luminous artistry.  Every woman’s heart reveals her sacred mysteries.  Whether versed in Goddess literature or new to Goddess spirituality, readers will find here a treasury of heart-awakening, enchanting, soul-stirring revelations."

​-Miranda Shaw, author of Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism and Buddhist Goddesses of India

Bhakti Blossoms
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The Vaishnavi Voices Poetry Project emerged as a continuing effort to restore honor to the Divine Feminine and all her representations. Bhakti Blossoms is the first book produced by the project. Featuring the voices of 108 contemporary female practitioners of Bhakti from all over the world, this rare and beautiful anthology illuminates some of the endless treasures that stir in devotional hearts.

​Whether playing a drum, walking through the woods, cooking or absorbed in mantra meditation, these modern Vaishnavi poets prayerfully reflect on the various aspects of their spiritual journeys toward divine love, echoing the spirit of their ancient lineage. Composed by new and experienced practitioners of Bhakti alike, their poems present a wide range sentiments and perspectives divided into eight themes including their individual relationships with themselves, their gurus, and the divine, as Krishna. Although we find the collective feminine voice—that of the divine cowherd maidens called Gopis—at the heart of ancient Bhakti texts, the voices of women on the Bhakti path have typically remained in the background. In solidarity with other efforts that are being made all over the world to restore honor to the feminine divine and her servants, regardless of gender, this book unites women from various sangas, or spiritual communities, to spark a resurgence of the feminine voice in the modern Bhakti movement through poetry.

​Edited by Krishna Kanta Dasi (Catherine L. Schweig) and published with  Golden Dragonfly Press, August, 2017. All proceeds from the book will be donated to nonprofit organizations dedicated to honoring, respecting and empowering the women of the bhakti tradition.  

REVIEWS:
Tammy Takahashi for The Tattooed Buddha

Poetry as a spiritual practice
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In this reflective collection of personal essays, poems and meditations, women writers illuminate the powerful role poetry plays in unleashing their spirits. Juxtaposing the waxing and waning of the moon phases, with cycles of concealing and revealing their own voices, the authors tap into an ancient theme to explore the mystical experience of birthing a poem. 

What is it about the unique nature of poetry that draws fullness of expression from female hearts? How do poems become conduits to what is most sacred within us? This third book to emerge from the Journey of the Heart Poetry Project lifts the veil on these, and other mysterious subjects, surrounding women who spontaneously engage poetry writing as part of their spiritual practice.

​ Edited by Catherine Ghosh and the Journey of the Heart Poets, Poetry as a Spiritual Practice: Embracing the Awakened Woman is to be released on the summer solstice of 2016 (June 20th) by Golden Dragonfly Press. All proceeds from the book will be donated to a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women to express themselves through writing. 

"Some stories and poems make the edges of the paper curl with the heat of their power and passion. Poetry as Spiritual Practice is book filled with words that could start a fire. The kindle and add fuel to your love of life, poetry, and the mystery that is what we are." Oriah "Mountain Dreamer" House, author of The Invitation
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REVIEWS:
Gerry Ellen, for The Tattooed Buddha

where journeys meet

The members of the Journey of the Heart Poetry Project released their second volume of poems on the Blue Moon of July 31st, 2015. Produced by several members of the project, and edited by Catherine Ghosh, Where Journeys Meet: The Voice of Women's Poetry, combines artistic and creative talents to weave together the voices of over seventy women from all over the world. Featuring poems that poured in from countries like India, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom and Iran, just to name a few, this book is a testament to the inspiring bonds of sisterhood that women can create between themselves even across the seas. This new anthology paints a portrait of the sacred spaces women share with each other when their paths intersect. A collaboration of love, impassioned expression and courage, the authors invite you to join them on their moving and heartfelt journey. Published by Golden Dragonfly Press, August 31, 2015.

REVIEWS:
A Haven for Shining Women Sharing Words by Gerry Ellen of The Tattooed Buddha

journey of the heart

Journey of The Heart: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry by Women, edited by Catherine Ghosh and published in July 2014 by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, has woven together the voices of over 70 women of diverse ethnicities, nationalities and traditions. In meditative and insightful poems they offer us revealing glimpses of their sensitive souls engaged in meaningful dialogue with the world, others, themselves and divinity. This spiritual poetry draws from the timeless wisdom, power and beauty residing deeply within the hearts of all women.  Emerging within archetypal themes that deliver valuable messages, the inspiring and uninhibited chorus of voices beckons us to journey along with them into the wild, mysterious and uncharted territory of a woman’s heart. This book emerged from an online project created by Catherine Ghosh, dedicated to encouraging and facilitating women to freely share their hearts, as they learned to express themselves through poetry. It is dedicated to the spirit of really listening to, and honoring, all women’s voices. (Available in paperback and e-book editions at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, i-Tunes and Balboa Press).  

REVIEWS:
New Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry by Be You Media Group
Poetry in Motion: The Seductive Expressions of Soulful Women by Gerry Ellen for Rebelle Society
Three Ways Poetry Shapes Women's Lives by J.Dana Trent , author of the interfaith memoir Saffron Cross