The Ultimate Reading List for Women Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine
Over 40000 years ago, in the land now known as Iraq, the first recorded author, Enheduanna, High Priestess of Inanna, scribed her poetic invocations to bring herself back from exile and return to her throne in ancient Mesopotamia.
Written on clay tablets, Enheduanna’s poems predate all other written literary works. Not Socrates, not Plato, not Homer. A woman. A middle eastern woman who was in her 30s.
2000 years later, on the island of Lesbos in Greece, a woman named Sappho wrote lyrical prose on the beauty and sweetness of the female body, and of the pain and nectar of falling in love.
She didn’t write about war. She didn’t talk about kings. She mused on women’s bodies and romantic love affairs.
Her work would have been at least as famous as Homer’s in her day, but most of it was burned and desecrated.
Women have always had the power to speak the voices of Nature, to be scribes and poets and muses for humanity through trusting the power of their own channels. (I wrote about this in much more depth in this article: Pythia, The Oracle of Delphi: When Women Were the Oracles of the Womb.)
But through thousands of years of patriarchy, in a time of his-story…. her-story was buried, silenced, hidden, and all but lost.
I consider myself tremendously privileged (and am deeply grateful) to be living in a time when so many fierce feminist artists, thinkers, writers, researchers, and voices revolutionized the way we understand womanhood today. In the midst of many of my own most intense confusing initiations, it was women’s voices that offered me a light in the darkness.
They showed me that I was not alone.
Yes, it was in the stories of Goddesses and ancient Priestesses, but it was also in the bold brave women who dared to bring this work into the world again - long before it was mainstream. Women who paved the way for the work that I offer to even be possible today.
In recent decades, feminism has expanded far beyond just the feminine psyche, spirituality, and autonomy, and more and more women are deeply researching, exploring, and illuminating the power of the feminine spirit inside of the female body.
Because feminism has always truly begun here… in the home of the feminine… the womb, the breast, the yoni, the body.
I consider myself a whole-istic teacher of the Women’s Mysteries. I teach beyond feminine magic and spirituality. I believe the Priestess arts are only as deep and impactful and transformational, as they root into the body.
I also believe that patriarchal de-conditioning must include dismantling women’s oppression through our relationship to our bodies and sexuality. And it absolutely asks us to create ripples of revolution in how we show up in the world.
In this guide, I’ve compiled my personal book recommendations across this whole-istic range of the feminine experience, because women's voices today must cover the whole total full range of body, sex, emotion, relationships, motherhood, service, autonomy, sustainability, and pleasure within the symbology, mythos, and mystery.
Below you’ll find that I’ve covered a wide range of the feminine experience including…
Ancient Goddess Culture
Priestesses & Women’s Herstory
Herstorical Fiction
Feminine Archetypes & Depth Psychology
Feminism & Patriarchal De-Conditioning
Memoir & Women’s Stories
Birth & Motherhood
Conscious Menstruation & Menopause
Embodiment & Sexuality
Herbalism, Witchcraft, & Rituals
This list is extensive, but it’s also curated. I’ve only included the books that I genuinely believe have the power to change your relationship to yourself as a woman, and how you move through the world. (I’ve also intentionally excluded books that I feel carry distortion or were written by authors with questionable ethics.)
If you read just 3 books on this list I most recommend -
Women Who Run With the Wolves
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
One of the most (if not the most) iconic books for women liberating themselves from oppressive paradigms, awakening the inner wild spirit, and navigating the deep feminine psyche in the outer world. Absolutely necessary reading material (in my opinion) for all women who choose to be free.
Wild Feminine
by Tami Lynn Kent
My personal bible for reviving the feminine not just in the soul, but also in the female body. This book is more like a comprehensive manual for understanding the energy of the pelvis, womb, and root, and how to deeply care for yourself to heal trauma, awaken vitality, and shift patterns. Recommended for women dedicated to the path of embodiment, mothers of children, and all women who want to live from their creative source.
Womb Awakening
by Seren and Azra Bertrand
The book that sparked a movement, and a whole wave of womb priestesses across the world. This deeply researched and referenced book creates a new world understanding for all of our global religions since the beginning of time came from the womb. It’s also filled with powerful embodied shamanic practices for reawakening your own womb space.
* DISCLAIMER: The body of work of Womb Awakening by Seren & Azra Bertrand is in part rooted in their immersive studies with Padma Aon Prakasha, co-author of Womb Wisdom with Anaiya Sophia. Padma has been named by many of his former students as a highly dangerous spiritual predator who horrifically abused women. For this reason there IS a question of integrity of whether to engage in the Womb Awakening teachings themselves. Personally, I’ve chosen to include the book because it (along with studying with Seren & Azra) was pivotal in my own path of womb healing, and I do feel it’s filled with profound wisdom that has changed many many women’s lives. Nonetheless it’s important to acknowledge the distorted teacher through which some of the teachings and philosophy may have originated from.
The book Yoni Shakti by Umi Dinsmore Tuli (further down on the list) unpacks on a very deep level the toxic abusive sexual spiritual predators who have infiltrated essentially every spiritual lineage, particularly in yoga and tantra. It’s up to each of us to discern our own truth in what teachings we choose to source wisdom from, and which we choose to disconnect ourselves from entirely on our own path of sovereignty. Above all, it’s important to NAME abuse and abusers to protect one another and prevent it from happening again in the future. *
Of course, there are many many many more books I recommend beyond these three, so to make it easy for you to explore I’ve sectioned them by topic below. Some of these books are very famous, others lesser known. All of them with the potential to profoundly transform your world.
Let’s dive in…
Ancient Goddess Culture
Long before Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and even Hinduism spread across the world, our original religions were based in the wisdom of the land. Goddess culture isn’t a New Age movement. It’s our oldest spiritual tradition, in every culture across the Earth.
For the women longing to remember and resurrect a primordial knowing of the inextricable connection between the human spirit and our Mother Earth, these books are for you…
* TOP PICK * ~ The Great Cosmic Mother
by Barbara Mor & Monica Sjoo
* TOP PICK * ~ Womb Awakening
by Seren & Azra Bertrand
Grail Alchemy
by Mara Freeman
The Spiral Dance
by Starhawk
When God Was a Woman
by Merlin Stone
Priestesses & Women’s Herstory
In my own deep research of women’s herstory, it shocked me to realize that much of what we know about the Priestess Path comes from patriarchal temple times.
Particularly in ancient Greece and Rome, we see that Priestesses had privileges ordinary women were robbed within cultures of oppression.
These books are for the woman who feels the call to come deeper into her own ancient feminine leadership from other lifetimes, from deep in her lineage, and feels the Priestess may hold a key.
As a self studied academic and scholar who is particularly interested in ancient Greek culture, I have a pretty extensive list on ancient Priestess cultures of the Mediterranean below. For those also obsessed with understanding the scholarship behind the Priestess Path, please enjoy this extensive buffet!!
However if you want to start with one step, for those passionate about ancient Greece, absolutely read When the Drummers Were Women by one of my (now deceased) heroes, Layne Redmond, all about ancient feminine power through the rhythms of the frame drum.
The book I most recommend for ALL women to read on the Priestess is The Magdalene Mysteries which deeply unravels the lineage of Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary, directly pointing Jesus to the lineage of womb priestesses. My favorite part of the book is a full excavation on the infamous Flemish work of art The Ghent Altarpiece which is really a secret encoded mystery school into women’s bodies as the land and the land as God.
* TOP PICK * ~ When the Drummers Were Women
by Layne Redmond
* TOP PICK * ~ The Magdalene Mysteries
by Seren and Azra Bertrand
Meeting the Melissae
by Elizabeth Ashley
Portrait of a Priestess
by Joan Breton Connolly
Goddesses, Whores, Wives, & Slaves
by Sarah B. Pomeroy
Women’s Life in Greece and Rome
by Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant
The Sacred Bee
by Hilda M. Ransome
Weavers, Scribes, & Kings
by Amanda H. Podany
The Myth of Sacred Prostitution in Antiquity
by Stephanie Budin
When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt
by Kara Cooney
The Northwomen
by Heather Pringle
Enheduanna
by Enheduanna, Translated by Sophus Helle
Sappho a New Translation
by Sappho, Translated by Mary Barnard
Inanna Queen of Heaven & Earth
by Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer
Herstorical Fiction
Admittedly, I rarely read fiction novels because I can find them a bit psychologically dangerous. When a story is truly well written, it’s easy to get swept up into the story and plunge into a process that isn’t even your own. However, fiction can masterfully help us see layers and dimensions of ourselves and awaken magic from other lifetimes in ways that nonfiction simply cannot.
All of the books I’ve listed come with big trigger warnings, including extreme abuse and violence, because that was also a big part of women’s (and men’s) stories. So if you know you’re particularly sensitive and don’t want to go into catharsis, these books might not be for you right now.
If you read just one of these books, I recommend The Red Tent which is the retelling of the biblical story of Dina through a feminist lens, and explores the ancient Canaanite Goddess culture at the turn of patriarchy.
* TOP PICK * ~ The Red Tent
by Anita Diamant
The Clan of the Cave Bear
by Jean M Auel
The Madonna Secret
by Sophie Strand
Magdalen Manuscript
by Judy Sion and Tom Kenyon
(Note: I’ve intentionally excluded a particularly famous work of herstorical fiction in the Goddess movement, because the author was accused by her daughter of sexual child abuse as part of the writing of the novel. Obviously, I can never recommend a book like this. While the author is now deceased and unable to defend herself in these allegations, she was married to a registered sex offender at the time of writing. It’s genuinely disappointing to me that so many women teaching Goddess work recommend this book without acknowledging this part of the story.)
Feminine Archetypes & Depth Psychology
Years ago on a beach in Mexico, I met a well meaning young man who asked me about the work I do. When I shared he said… “Oh, so you do like Jungian work?” “No, I teach the Women’s Mysteries.” I told him.
Without discrediting the work of Carl Jung, some of which was appropriated from his female lovers, I am of the belief that the basis of depth psychology is not men’s research, but ancient Goddess cultures. Nonetheless, I am enormously grateful for the modern women who are Jungian analysts and or work with archetypal psychology to support the healing of the feminine.
I personally have gleaned enormous benefits through studying feminine archetypes with those with a clinical psychological background and Jungian training, and I absolutely feel it’s an important part of women’s wholeness.
While all of the titles listed here are excellent, my top picks you’ll find below include Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (also one of my top 3) and Awakening Shakti by the late great Sally Kempton who was not a psychotherapist but a radical feminist and devoted yogini and meditation teacher, who brought a spiritual depth of embodied analysis to the Hindu Goddesses in this incredible book especially for women who teach (and are passionate about) yoga.
* TOP PICK * ~ Women Who Run With the Wolves
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
* TOP PICK * ~ Awakening Shakti
by Sally Kempton
In Search of Aphrodite
by Chelsea Wakefield
Hagitude
by Sharon Blackie
Spinning Straw Into Gold
by Joan Gould
The Kore Goddesses
by Safron Rossi
Goddesses in Every Woman
by Jean Shinoda Bolen
Feminism & Patriarchal De-Conditioning
All of the books on this list are powerful catalysts for feminine awakening and patriarchal de-conditioning, but some books really deeply hone in on this topic, and cut right to the issues that may be keeping us trapped in prisons of women’s oppression.
I’ve included as my top picks two books by the same author, another hero of mine, Riane Eisler. Scholar, researcher, herstorian, and social systems scientist. Riane’s first book on the list, The Chalice and the Blade, is a feminist classic, where she uncovers the deeper origins beyond the “dominator culture” of war, and a past of community, connection, and pleasure as our birthright.
But to me, Riane’s work really shines in her sequel Sacred Pleasure, where she returns this remembrance back to the female body. The place where war and violence really began, but also where pleasure, healing, and harmony, will call us home again.
* TOP PICK * ~ The Chalice and The Blade
by Riane Eisler
* TOP PICK * ~ Sacred Pleasure
by Riane Eisler
Ain’t I a Woman
by Gloria Jean Watkins aka bell hooks
Wicked Flesh
by Jessica Marie Johnson
Eruptions of Inanna
by Judy Grahn
The Dance of Anger
by Harriet Lerner
Leaving My Father’s House
by Marion Woodman
Memoir & Women’s Stories
Sometimes it’s not just through the stories of ancient women, but women who have lived and walked in our modern world today and discovered their own red thread home to the truth of their feminine body and soul, that is most deeply moving.
Memoir is a very personal genre, so rather than offer top picks, I encourage you to see which authors you feel guided towards.
Of course I had to put Maya Angelou at the top for her tremendous resilience and stunning writing, and also the highly regarded Braiding Sweetgrass with Indigenous American wisdom. The book that is probably my own personal favorite is Belonging by Toko Pa Turner, in how she weaves her own story with dreamwork and a greater vision for our story as a humanity.
I recommend these memoirs when you’re reaching for inspiration and would love to feel a friend walking beside you in the labyrinth.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Reveal
by Meggan Watterson
Wild Mercy
by Mirabai Starr
Belonging
by Toko Pa Turner
Untie the Strong Woman
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Spirit Weaver
by Seren Bertrand
Birth & Motherhood
While I am not a mother to children yet in this lifetime, and there are undoubtedly enormous aspects of the feminine experience I do not yet understand on an embodied level, I also believe that The Mother is a season in a woman’s life. It’s one we all come into whether we have children or not. And every woman needs a strong intact inner Mother.
Because Motherhood is such a fundamental aspect of womanhood, not only through the archetypal essence but also in the changes in our bodies and responsibilities, even though I do not have children, I have deeply explored conscious parenting and sacred birthwork and have included some of the best books I’ve found below.
Whether you’re mothering children, learning how to better nourish and mother yourself, or are in a season of mothering creations, I hope these books offer the space to redefine mothering on your own terms, beyond the “good mother” patriarchal trappings, as you trust the power of your own center for how you’re here to create in this world.
* TOP PICK * ~ Wild Mothering
by Tami Lynn Kent
The Fourth Trimester
by Kimberly Ann Johnson
The Continuum Concept
by Jean Liedloff
Discovering the Inner Mother
by Bethany Webster
Circle Round
by Starhawk
Motherhood: Facing & Finding Yourself
by Lisa Marchiano
Thriving Post Partum
by Panquetzani
The First 40 Days
by Amely Greeven
Conscious Menstruation & Menopause
We’ve finally arrived at one of my favorite topics, and perhaps the region of the feminine that’s most vital for all women in remembering… our menstruality from menarche through menopause.
Learning about the sacred mysteries of my blood wisdom began in 2012 when I moved to Costa Rica and spent time with women who gave their blood to the Earth.
Eventually, through leaving Costa Rica in 2018 in the midst of a traumatic event, I began to listen to my blood for healing. I realized that my cycle and my blood held encoded within it the very mysteries of REBIRTH. How as women we die without dying every single month.
And that this rebirth is woven into a greater tapestry of menarche (maiden), menstruation (mother), and menopause (matriarch.)
(If you want to go deeper into the menstrual journey with me, come read my article 22 Sacred Rituals for Honoring Your Menstrual Cycle.)
All of the books I’ve listed below are filled with treasures, but my top picks include Wild Power by Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer which brilliantly outlines the entire menstrual map including the vias, inner seasons, and my favorite the five chambers of menstruation. I’ve also put as a top pick Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life by holistic doctor Claudia Welch for understanding your blood mysteries on a deeply physiological level rooted in Ayurvedic wisdom.
* TOP PICK * ~ Wild Power
by Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer
* TOP PICK * ~ Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life
by Claudia Welch
World Within Women
by Jane Catherine Severn
Red Moon
by Miranda Gray
Her Blood is Gold
by Lara Owens
Wise Power
by Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer
Blood, Bread, & Roses
by Judy Grahn
Mysteries of the Dark Moon
by Demetra George
Embodiment & Sexuality
And now, the crown jewel of the feminine experience, the deep juicy luscious root, our embodiment and sexuality. Our life force. The seat of our power. The place that brings us home into the beauty of physicality, sensuality, and our innate relationship with the natural world.
Most women carry various degrees of shame when it comes to our sexuality and our bodies.
If for thousands of years we’ve learned that we have to use our bodies and sexuality to get our needs met, and our bodies and sexuality belong to whomever wants to take them, and that we need to hide our bodies and sexuality to be good in the eyes of God, it’s no wonder we may find ourselves often dissociating and vacating our own flesh.
My connection with embodiment and sexuality began in my 20s when I moved to the jungle of Costa Rica and lived a very sensual life in connection with the Earth, and became a yoga teacher and started studying tantra. But it wasn’t until my early 30s when I had severe PTSD from a home invasion assault in that same jungle, that my connection to my body and sexuality really came online.
So I share these resources with a deep level of sensitivity, reverence, and respect for what coming home to the body can really ask of us as women. I will say, that no matter what we have encountered or experience, the body innately knows how to find her way home to healing again. Sometimes, we really just need the space to listen.
I have a few top picks in this section, because it was really hard honestly to not choose all of them!! But I wanted to offer a range of what I feel cover the most essential territory for women to reclaim and remember.
First, there’s my personal bible… Wild Feminine by Tami Lynn Kent (and one of our top 3 books on the list) for a holistic education and practice in listening to the energy and patterns in the root of your female body. This book is filled with hands on practices to change your relationship with your body and your life.
Then I’ve included the classic Women’s Anatomy of Arousal by Sheri Winston, former midwife and tantra teacher, that is possibly the only comprehensive book on the anatomical and spiritual workings of women’s sexuality (your yoni will thank you!)
And finally, I needed to include Call of the Wild by Kimberly Ann Johnson, sexological bodyworker and Somatic Experiencing therapist, that I feel offers foundational understanding of the female nervous system in connection with birth, sex, and trauma.
* TOP PICK * ~ Wild Feminine
by Tami Lynn Kent
* TOP PICK * ~ Women’s Anatomy of Arousal
by Sheri Winston
* TOP PICK * ~ Call of the Wild
by Kimberly Ann Johnson
Vagina
by Naomi Wolf
Succulent Sexcraft
by Sheri Winston
Women’s Bodies Women’s Wisdom
by Dr Christiane Northrup
Sacred Woman
by Queen Afua
Yoni Shakti
by Uma Dinsmore Tuli
Tantric Sex & Menopause
by Diana Richardson and Janet McGeever
For more on embodiment and sexuality, come receive 11 of my own personal womb healing practices, in this article here.
Herbalism, Witchcraft, & Rituals
Here we are at the end, so I wanted to leave you with a sweet bite of dark chocolate, a little digestive drink, a delicious array of books for creating kitchen, home, and nature magic through the art of rituals.
Of course there are many many many books on witchcraft and ritual, but I’ve included a few of my personal favorites below, covering everything from rituals for the Wheel of the Year to recipes to nourish your body and soul to holistic beauty self care to water Priestess ritual magic to bring your visions into the world.
Wheel of the Year
by Judy Ann Nock
Nourishing Traditions
by Sally Fallon
Witches Herbal Apothecary
by Marysia Miernowska
Way of the Water Priestess
by Annwyn Avalon
Women’s Rites, Women’s Mysteries
by Ruth Barrett
Secrets of Healing
by Maya Tiwari
Whole Beauty
by Shiva Rose
Now, it’s your turn…
Leave a comment below and let me know…
Which books am I missing?
Which books do you feel are vital for women reawakening the sacred feminine?
Which books about womanhood have truly changed your life?
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About the Author
Camille Willemain is a feminine embodiment facilitator, dance meditation teacher, energy healer, medicine woman, and feminine mystic, specializing in feminine spirituality, archetypal psychology, womb wisdom, somatic awareness, and ancient Goddess religions as doorways to women’s pleasure, power, sovereignty, creativity, truth, and love.
She has been facilitating women’s healing work since 2013 and is the founder of Earth Daughters women’s community. In 2019 she birthed Whole Woman Mystery School as a pearl from her own profound death and rebirth journey, and she continues to learn, heal, deepen, expand, and grow as her greatest devotion and contribution to the whole.
Her journey has included living 7 years in the jungle of Costa Rica, writing a lifestyle blog read by millions of people from 2012 to 2018, and trusting her gift of communicating with the spirits of nature through her intuitive travels and self guided pilgrimages in more than 25 countries across the world. It has also included the hugely vital inner journey of healing trauma and learning to feel safe in her own body.
She considers herself above all a Voice for Gaia Sophia and a Keeper of Sacred Space, here to offer transformational doorways and inner sanctuaries of love, safety, and celebration, for women to come home to the truth within, and to trust that truth as medicine for our world.