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Maureen Murdock
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The Heroine's Journey Paperback – June 23, 1990

by Maureen Murdock (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 613 ratings
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This book describes contemporary woman's search for wholeness in a society in which she has been defined according to masculine values. Drawing upon cultural myths and fairy tales, ancient symbols and goddesses, and the dreams of contemporary women, Murdock illustrates the need for—and the reality of—feminine values in Western culture today.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    232 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Shambhala
  4. Publication date
    June 23, 1990
  5. Dimensions
    5.46 x 0.65 x 8.42 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0877734852
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0877734857
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Murdock traces her journey from rejection of the feminine in order to "succeed" in a masculine world; through discovery of the inadequacy of "success"; through a dark night of the soul and a killing of masculine divine images; to a discovery of the Goddess and of the feminine (including her own feminine embodiment); to a healing of the separated feminine and of the wounded masculine within herself. She ends with the hope for true conjunction, true union beyond duality. This personal book by a family therapist is especially recommended for public and seminary libraries.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Though the book is rich with examples drawn from myths and Jungian psychology, it is surprisingly easy to read. The journey requires serious, often frightening, wandering before one's true identity and power are known. Like the journey Murdock describes, there are no cheap, easy lessons. There are many rich, rewarding lessons, but these are gained only through integrity, courage, and the willingness to meet challenge with all the resources one can muster."—Creation



"Murdock's personal journey will surely speak to many women, but I hope also to those men willing to hear these newly awakened female voices—and of the feminine in their own souls."—Utne Reader



"Combining personal experience and painstaking erudition, Maureen Murdock's The Heroine's Journey shares with us the essence of the female journey. A fine, warm, and insightful book."—Carol Pearson, author of The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By



"The Heroine's Journey offers a map of the feminine healing process. Murdock writes in a clear and compassionate voice which draws inspiration from her experiences as a mother, artist, and therapist and from the collective wisdom of the community of women on the path of the goddess. This book speaks to each woman who longs for a spiritually alive feminine self, one who is actively engaged in the world, and who embraces the masculine principle as a mirror of herself. The Heroine's Journey guides the reader in reweaving the threads of her life story into a mantle of empowerment for herself, for other women, and for Gaia, the Planet Herself."—Patrice Wynne, author of The Womanspirit Sourcebook and co-founder of the Gaia Bookstore and Catalogue Company



"Maureen Murdock's important book on the heroine's journey contains a wealth of insight that is of great value to contemporary Western women. It explores a rich territory of the feminine psyche and opens an understanding of female development that relates not only to personal transformation but cultural transformation as well."—Joan Halifax, President of the Ojai Foundation



"A great roadmap for the changing landscapes of women's lives. It's assuring, rich in personal stories, and leads us securely to the Goddess."—Z. Budapest, author of The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries and The Grandmother of Time

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Shambhala (June 23, 1990)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 232 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0877734852
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0877734857
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.46 x 0.65 x 8.42 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 613 ratings

About the author

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Maureen Murdock

Maureen Murdock

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Maureen Murdock is the author of The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness, which explores the rich territory of the feminine psyche and delineates the psycho-spiritual journey for women. It was her response to Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces when he said to her, “Women don’t need to make the journey. In the whole mythological tradition the woman is there.” The publication of The Heroine’s Journey touched a nerve in women’s consciousness around the world. It was quickly translated into French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Yugoslavian, Italian and Korean and has recently been published in Farsi. It has been used by screenwriters and novelists alike as a model of the woman’s journey. Jill Soloway recently mentioned its cyclical structure in “Paging Joseph Campbell” in the October 2014 issue of Los Angeles Magazine.

Murdock’s subsequent book, The Hero’s Daughter, emerged out of the response to The Heroine’s Journey by women who wrote to her about their own experiences as “father’s daughters.” It was first published by Ballantine and later issued in paperback as Fathers’ Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind. It has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Hebrew, and Chinese. Murdock is also the author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory; Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children; The Heroine’s Journey Workbook and a short Kindle, The Emergence of Bipolar Disorder. She writes a blog on the criminal justice system and addiction at her website: www.maureenmurdock.com.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
613 global ratings
A powerful set of books
5 Stars
A powerful set of books
What I love about the 30th Anniversary Edition of Maureen Murdock’s The Heroine’s Journey is that the premise and inquiry the author put forth originally, borne of her own desire for the expression of a woman’s quest rich with story and meaning, still bears fruit for us today.Companioned by a workbook which guides the reader through each of the stages of the Heroine’s Journey, the books provide context and a way to work through writing, ritual, and art making, that brings one toward wholeness. But it is not a straight path. It is not a clear road. It is labyrinthine, there are questions posed which could cause the reader to pause for days, for a week. And there are questions which will set our pens on fire.This paired set of books is an able and deeply provocative guide. The voice is that of the Wise Woman, a Crone to urge us on our journey towards what we all crave: wholeness, connection and integration of our inner and outer lives. Many thanks to Shambala Publications for this special edition of Maureen Murdock’s necessary and illuminating work.
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Top reviews from the United States

Jen Grisanti
5.0 out of 5 stars Transformative Read
Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2023
Verified Purchase
I loved the spiritual approach to the writing. I identified with so much of what Maureen Murdock explores. She takes a deep dive into the life process and the masculine and feminine energies that are in all of us.

I would recommend this book to anyone who want to have an in depth look at arc of growth for the heroine. If you are a writer, it will help you to implement the heroine’s worldview. This book will benefit anyone who reads it because we all can identify with the feminine and masculine perspective. It also makes you understand the familial dynamic through a more compassionate lens.

I gave it five stars because of the tremendous insights it offers and the way that it made me feel.
10 people found this helpful
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JL
5.0 out of 5 stars For writing your female protagonist and peering into your own soul.
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2015
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I am currently writing a book with a female protagonist and read "The Heroine's Journey" to aid me with character building. I assumed it would be the female version of Joseph Cambell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and the beautifully structured "The Writer's Journey".... both of which discuss the hero (masculine) journey and I have already aligned my plot and archetypes to these.

Turns out, The Heroine's Journey was written by a therapist and even though it DOES relatively parallel the hero's journey as well as go over how radically different the journey is for a female, it is written more for the modern woman and her journey through her own life. Seriously... I had to hold back tears through the first quarter as I realized how much of my childhood experiences with my mother(s) and father(s) and our culture has shaped me.

Then it went on showing me how my masculine journey to gain my CPA by working full time, going to grad school full time, and have a long distance relationship would inevitably lead to mental and physical burnout (which it did) as I tried to numb my pain with alcohol, anti-depressants, and sleeping pills so I could just get through this s***. Then my next masculine journey that resulted in total physical collapse (my 1.5 year illness that nearly made me kill myself) since I didn't learn my lesson the first time and refused to take care of myself because I had to keep up with everyone!

Now I have been going through cycles of healing and getting a grip on who I am over the past year.

So yeah. That book outlined my life so far. Damn good book. Dragged in places. Was a bit new agey for my tastes... but damn.

Now I need to outline it to my protaganist's life... So, here is a bit of the conclusion if you want to know what the Heroine's journey is:

“Today’s heroine must utilize the sword of discernment to cut away the bonds that hold her to the past and to find out what serves her soul’s purpose. She must release resentment toward the mother, put aside blame and idolization of the father, and find the courage to face her own darkness. Her shadow is hers to name and embrace. Woman illumines these dark, shadowy spaces within her through the practice of meditation, art, poetry, play, ritual, relationship, and digging in the earth."
109 people found this helpful
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C.M.Steinberg
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth the read!
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2024
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As someone who loved Women Who Run with the Wolves and Joseph Campbell’s hero arch theory, this was a great read!
3 people found this helpful
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L D Tanner
5.0 out of 5 stars The Heroine's Journey Fills a Void on the Stages of a Woman's Journey
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2017
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One of the reasons that I read, "The Heroine's Journey," by Maureen Murdock is there is a void on what stages a women must take to reach fulfillment. Based on the rich symbolism of mythology, Joseph Campbell created the hero's journey that many authors have adopted to use as a model in their stories. Although mythology is rich with stories about women, the feminine aspects of intuition, nurturing, and creativity have been downplayed in our modern society. Success is primarily measured in terms of masculine attributes.

Maureen Murdock, working as a therapist, created the steps in a heroine's journey to help women integrate both their masculine and feminine sides. One of the quotes that I love from the book is, "The heroine must become a spiritual warrior." Only when a woman can merge both her masculine and feminine aspects of herself will she reach fulfillment. That is when a woman not only serves the needs of others but can value and be responsive to her own needs as well. This is definitely a book worth reading. It is thought-provoking and can be used by storytellers whose main protagonist is a female.
34 people found this helpful
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Author Serena Jade
5.0 out of 5 stars As a society, we need the hero and heroine for the sexes to truly be equal!
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2015
Verified Purchase
In Patriarchal Relationships, there is always a dominate and submissive.-Excerpt from The Heroine's Journey-Maureen Murdock touches upon the enormous task of going down into the abyss to transform into wholeness.

The hero's journey has been told throughout history that the hero's father is absent from the hero's life. The same sex parent has the most influence in a child's life.

In the heroine's journey, the mother figure is the most important. However, there is not that much written about the heroine's journey. All we have are tales of Cinderella, Snow White and they are dealing with stepmothers and sisters. As a society, we don't want to accept there are mothers and sisters who are just as cruel. In real life, the women who endure such cruelty become the caretakers for their elderly parents and who in society have been labeled; Old Maids. But, we are living in the twenty-first century and the caretakers can overcome their fate by an enormous amount of self-knowledge! Then they can use their positive father role model and be effective in the world...the servant becomes the heroine!

Of course, this process takes years of uncovering shame and doubt. The "Good Person" becomes a whole person. They are free from outside influence.

The Heroine and Hero's Journey is about transforming one's self into a whole person, linking together the personality with the intangible soul, creating; The Self

The message in The Heroine's Journey is NOT dated but so overlooked in our society.
26 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Cliente do Kindle
5.0 out of 5 stars Recomendo!
Reviewed in Brazil on September 9, 2021
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Obra muito interessante que pode ser indicada para os interessados em psicanálise, a construção da mente feminina e inclusive narrativas de ficção e da vida real.
Muitos conhecem a jornada do herói de Campbell e poucos conhecem a jornada da heroína.
3 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in Spain on April 21, 2024
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The book we need in the sixth mass extinction. An important message for all of us women and men love
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Angie Wilkins
5.0 out of 5 stars A deep dive into what it means to be a woman
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2021
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So much is wrote about the heros journey that as woman we a bought up to believe that the only path available to us is up and out into the world. Not only do we have to be prove our mantle in wold of career opportunities created for men to excel in.The pressure is on us to find motherhood both fulfilling and an ultimate success. Anything less is a complete failure on our part. and our daughters look to us break a cycle that has ingrained itself into our society and belief system for thousands of years. A tall order I know! Yet hear we are in the 21st century, struggling to be all things to all people and being constantly made awear of a shortcomings. The Heroines journey has been a game changer in the way I express and value my femininity instead of treating it like an enemy that holds me back from living. I now understand that it has a wisdom of it's own that brings the human condition into a compassion embrace.It doesn't devide and conquer, it incorporates our masculine aspects and enriches our lives. We are the healers, poets, nurtures, intuitives, and the conduits that bring spirit into being through our womb...that kind of strength and magic should never be underestimated. It is time we journeyed to the underworld to face our fears so we may resurface with a greater respect for our inner Goddess. Maureen Murdock uses fairly tails and folk stories in order to give us back our voices so that we can create our own narrative that respects and honours the fierce serenity of our femininity.
4 people found this helpful
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Sean O'Reilly
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on October 18, 2016
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My wife loves it.
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Avantika
5.0 out of 5 stars Power to Heal
Reviewed in India on August 3, 2016
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Very informative and mind-opening. Loved the way Maureen mingles the case studies with the in-depth study of the mythology, history, magic, and mystery. Just reading this book has the power to heal many unacknowledged emotions which tend to hamper our progress in life. It is relevant for every generation which undergoes a sudden shift in their lives; especially in the modern age when the call of the soul seems louder and the luxury of the life fails to dull the senses!

Thank you.
One person found this helpful
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