The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)

I've read this book several times over the years and taken a lot of notes in the margins. It is very deep into Jungian psychology, which can be new/different for people, but I think can still be helpful and interesting for those that don't know a lot about it. It is not a traditional self-help book, for sure. But it has many ideas that can be helpful for those working with healing past wounds and wanting to grow. She uses the metaphor of the caterpillar to butterfly early in the book, and notes that this is a difficult time of growth and transition for the caterpillar. I think for many of us growing into what we want or need to be is difficult and this book can be helpful in asking us to look deep and explore some of the things going on below the surface. I have given it as a gift to several women in my life and think that they found it helpful. It is also a book that does not necessarily need to be read front to back. I go back to certain parts of it and find just working with those sections to be helpful. Overall I think good for those interested in healing and also for therapists, even if you are not Jungian.

I tend to get attracted by a sort of synchronicity or intuitive feeling to certain books that resonate with the current process of what I call my spiritual journey. This book is one of those I would cherish and remember, and refer to, and meditate upon it. It is not only writen by someone deeply in touch with psychological understanding but also by a person inmersed consciously on her spiritual path, or inner journey towards enlightnement or liberation or full awakening of consciousness as you wish to name this subtile and many times confusing path. Marion Woodman had a sort of blockage on her path of writing this book and she finally realized that she was feeling somewhow affraid of not being able to unite her writing with feeling and her writing with psychological knowledge and insight. But she does a wonderful work by not only helping us with her deep understanding of the Psyche and its own language, but also, by opening her own heart and her own wounds to all of us, like she does in poignant chapter 7. This book has helped me find and recognise more subtile layers of aspects of myself that needed to be aknowledged and liberated. Althought we sometimes seem to have accomplished major inner work, there's many times subtilities left that are blocking the way to integrity, wholeness, hapiness. This book came when I was uncovering unconscious aspects of my mother and my father's own wounds and how I had absorbed them as baby and child, integrating them in myself in a confusing mixture that didn't allow me to heal it because I couldnt find their root and thus I didn't understand their effect on me.This whole summer's been an intense trip to the Underworld and books that also helped me where: The Dark Moon Goddess by Demetra George and Clarissa Pinkola Estés,Women Who Run With Wolves. Also, Anatomy of the Psyche by Edward Edinger since it explains the alchemical operations in terms of psychological processes and for some reason or other, I do resonate to this language and inner transformation process...

This book jumped off the table at me while I attended my first Jungian conference. Something forced me to buy it. I was new to Jungian thought, and searching -- from my place of deep woundedness -- for a path to wholeness.On first read, my brain understood nothing the book contained. But my heart and soul were leaping for joy. Marion Woodman was talking directly to me and about me! I had to understand this with my mind!I meditated on this book for three years as I studied Jungian Psychology, and hung on for dear life as my unconscious (dreams) and Marion Woodman lead me through a harrowing journey of pain, rage and wonder toward the wholeness I sought throughout my life.This is not a dry, analytical read. It is vibrant with intuition, imagination, and emotion, and dense with ideas and deep understanding of the psyche and the unconscious.It is informed not only by Woodman's knowledge as a Jungian Analyst, but by her love for and understanding of the poetry she taught for years.This is the most precious book I own, and Marion Woodman is my greatest hero.

I just love this book, and I have been a fan of Marion Woodman for a long time. This is my third time reading the Pregnant Virgin. It provides me a context for the a woman's inner psycho-spiritual journey in a way that resonates deeply. There is reference especially to the parts of us we may have had to 'give away' or deny in order to survive, but essentially that part has the key to not only our healing, but our transformation and blossoming.

This is a required reading material for my English class. This book talks about "the process of metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly." The emergence of the butterfly from the chrysalis was analogous to the birth of the soul from matter, a birth commonly identified with release, hence a symbol of immortality. It explores the presence of the one in the other, suggesting that mortality is a reality contained within mortality and, in this life, dependent upon it. It also looks at ways of restoring the unity of body and soul.

This is a classic treatment of feminine transitions.

A therapist friend encouraged me to read this book. I love Woodman's vision and understanding of the female psyche. It was quite enlightening.

Exceptional! This book explains alot of the issues I see in my psychotherapy practice, and discusses how to address the wounds. A must read!

Just mind blowing. Must read.

Marion Woodman's book has led me through an incomparable journey into myself, at a moment in my life when I needed guidance most. This experience has been a synchronicity to me—my inner events and my outer reading in complete harmony with one another. Woodman writes with an intellectual acuity and a tender depth that I have met nowhere else in such sensuous, loving form. Do order this book and dive into it; if the moment is right, and if your soul requires guidance, you will receive it.

I was so happy to get this book which I thought was out of print. It was brand new. Thanks.

Other reviewers have made the point about the book not being up-to-the-minute, and I would concur with that. However, it doesn't take much to transpose the very relevant background of theory to today's women. If you are looking for a typical self-help how-to type of book, this isn't it. There are plenty of hints and helpful suggestions of how one might put the theories into practice, but it's doesn't dumb down or give easy lists of things to do.I found this an extremely engaging and helpful book and will be looking for more books by the author. .

This is one of my all time favourite and most treasured books. MUST READ!