Follow Your Heroine’s Journey to Reclaim Feminine Power and Wisdom Women face many challenging transitions on the pilgrimage from girlhood through womanhood: menses, love and heartbreak, motherhood, menopause. Devoid of a central narrative, these rites of passage too often happen in shame and secrecy, leaving women doubting their personal power and self-worth. Bestselling author and founder of The Way of the Happy Woman®, Sara Avant Stover saw how women erroneously viewed these initiations as “curses” and sought to present a new model that reflected the power and wisdom unique to the feminine path. The Book of SHE celebrates all that it means to be a woman, from mythological underpinnings to the cycles of our day-to-day lives. Drawing on archetypes including Mary Magdalene, the Dark Goddess, and Green Tara, Stover will guide you on a journey home to psychological wholeness, personal empowerment, and, ultimately, full feminine spiritual Awakening. Brimming with mystery and magic, this provocative book makes ancient wisdom and healing practices accessible to every woman who is ready to revel in her full femininity — the dark and the light — through joyfully becoming the heroine of her own life. “Women’s bodies and minds are different from men’s, and the best way toward a healthy, satisfying life is to embrace that difference. Provocative and thorough, The Book of SHE explores the mystery and alchemy of what it means to be a woman. Sara Avant Stover will guide you toward reclaiming the power and beauty of your own amazing body in this groundbreaking book.” — Sara Gottfried, MD, author of The Hormone Cure “What a truthful, beautifully written guide for women seeking a feminine path to wholeness. Sara Avant Stover offers herself in these pages, and I devoured them!” — Jennifer Louden, author of The Life Organizer “Sara Avant Stover has created the ultimate emotional journey road map for a woman to reclaim what is sacred about her. This book weaves together stories from our feminine spiritual heritage with practical strategies to facilitate healing your feminine spirit. It’s an inner journey that ultimately allows you to live a soul-centered and passionate life!” — Alisa Vitti, author of WomanCode and founder of FLOliving.com “Sara Avant Stover knows that to give form to your dreams, you must recover your feminine field. Instead of tracking linear pathways for success, The Book of SHE calls for embodying your sacredness. Stover has created a priceless map for how to live from the beauty you contain.” — Tami Lynn Kent, author of Wild Feminine, Wild Creative , and Mothering from Your Center Sara Avant Stover , a yoga and meditation instructor, bestselling author, and inspirational speaker, has taught tens of thousands of women worldwide and has been featured in Yoga Journal , the Huffington Post , Newsweek , and Natural Health and on ABC, NBC, and CBS. She lives in Boulder, Colorado. The Book of She Your Heroine's Journey Into the Heart of Feminine Power By Sara Avant Stover New World Library Copyright © 2015 Sara Avant Stover All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60868-289-8 Contents Prelude: Mary Magdalene, Introduction: The Dark Side of The Way of the Happy Woman, Part I: Preparing for the Journey, Mother Mary, Chapter 1: Leaving Your "Normal" Life, Chapter 2: Entering Your Inner House, Chapter 3: Healing the Mother Wound, Chapter 4: Crafting a SHE-Centered Life, Part II: The Descent, Emily Dickinson, Chapter 5: Dancing with the Dark Goddess, Chapter 6: Ending the War Within, Chapter 7: Unlocking the Magic in Your SHE Cycles, Chapter 8: Meditating on Your Mortality, Part III: The Initiation, The Golden Dakini, Chapter 9: Unveiling the Sacred Heart of Real Feminine Power, Part IV: The Ascent, The Temple Priestess, Chapter 10: Turning On Your Brights, Chapter 11: Marrying the Divine Masculine, Chapter 12: Birthing Your Beautiful Life, Part V: The Homecoming, Princess Tara, Chapter 13: Becoming a Whole and Holy Heroine, Acknowledgments, Notes, Index, About the Author, Join The Way of the Happy Woman(r) Community, The Book of SHE Resources and Programs, CHAPTER 1 Leaving Your "Normal" Life If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be. — Maya Angelou, Rainbow in the Cloud I'm going to tell you a story you've never heard before. I'm going to tell you a fairy tale the way it's meant to be told. It's not a story where, in a land far, far away, an evil witch torments you until Prince Charming saves you. It's one that transpires in your own body. One where you perpetually plague yourself, until you wake up to the realization that you're the only one who can liberate yourself through your own true love. In this story, you embrace the best and worst parts of yourself, and in so doing, you transform your obstacles into opportunities to become the woman you know you're born to be. We come to