A Woman Unto Herself
“A Woman Unto Herself is the remarkable story of a remarkable woman’s transformational journey from devastating loss to transcendent love… described in visceral prose with striking images and arresting metaphors. Tina Benson’s emotionally charged words move with a spontaneous, effortless flow that deeply engages the reader. Her book is truly a heroine’s journey for our time, culminating in the sacred marriage of the inner masculine and feminine.”
~ Toby Symington, Executive Director, the Lloyd Symington Foundation
“In A Woman Unto Herself, Tina Benson reveals in intimate and heartrending detail the joys, heartbreaks, and new joys in a life-long search for love. This book inspires readers to open up to a mature, self-sustaining wholeness, creativity, and spiritual enlightenment available to all. Written with compelling honesty, her story will keep you turning page after page to discover what happens next.”
~ Stuart Sovatsky, author of Advanced Spiritual Intimacy and Your Perfect Lips: A Spiritual-Erotic Memoir
“If ever a book could heal the heart’s deepest wounds, this is it! Step by step, Ms. Benson shows us how to move through the depths of the most painful dark nights of the soul to find the kind of profound and powerful love every human being hungers for and rarely ever finds. We readily relate to her raw, honest vulnerability, as she leads us through her own personal unbearable sadness only to discover that the rich, sustaining, spiritual love she yearned for was within her own heart. Many fairy-tale love stories perpetuate the myth that someone out there will “complete” us. Ms. Benson shows us how to respond to the real world. Her hard-earned wisdom serves as a roadmap for us all to find the lasting love and “wholeness” we seek. A Woman Unto Herself is a must-read for anyone longing for inner balance, joy, peace and most of all, true enduring love.”
~ Martha Borst, bestselling author of Your Survival Strategies Are Killing You!
“Tina Benson’s A Woman Unto Herself is a game changer. Through riveting stories of her own harrowing travels through love’s labyrinths, she expertly guides readers directly to the source of love. In these times, when movies and fairy tales lead us down the garden path to disappointment and heartache, A Woman Unto Herself is a must read.”
~ Marcia Wieder, CEO,Dream University, bestselling author, Making Your Dreams Come True
“Tina’s book whispers, cries, and sings a crucial message for modern women and men: Our darkness is as important on the spiritual journey as our light. Our wounds become our flowers. This is not only fine spiritual autobiography, but essential healing.”
~ Alfred K. LaMotte, author of Wounded Bud: Poems for Meditation
“Any man or woman who has suffered in a relationship, lost a sense of self by trying to make a bad one work, or stayed too long because of self-blame, will find a soul-sister in Tina Benson as she recounts her inspiring journey in search of true and divine self-love. From the deepest parts of her soul, she finds pearls of wisdom and shares them in the pages of A Woman Unto Herself showing us that the path to wholeness and a peaceful heart resides, eternally, within oneself.”
~ Lily Kaplan, founder, Resh Foundation; author, Two Rare Birds: A Legacy of Love
“Author and spiritual teacher, Tina Benson’s A Woman Unto Herself does what no other memoir does: she blends 30 years of her own spiritual journey with her training in psychology, and doing so, she tells a very different kind of love story. Her raw, honest, and vulnerable self-revelations document her arduous journey toward the Inner Beloved. The result: a love story that defies the cultural myths of our times, and creates a new myth for anyone looking for real, true, and sustaining love. Anyone on a spiritual journey, or anyone looking for love will find comfort and guidance in these pages, pointing readers toward the greatest love of all. This truly is a tale with a “happy ending.” Let this book surprise you…rip your heart open…challenge you…and guide you home.”
~ Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., Founding Director of Seven Sisters Mystery School; author of The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece, and Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity
“A question often faced by both men and women: How do we deal with betrayal and grief at the loss of a closely held illusion? Tina Benson’s A Woman Unto Herself brings up questions about “spiritual fidelity” as well as “emotional fidelity.” Her description of a “loving divorce ritual” impressed me – if only they were all like that! More so, though, I am impressed with her courage to be so open and vulnerable in this book. We realize: “Here is a woman trained in psychotherapy who is just as human as the rest of us.” She feels and expresses her anger, her love, her denial, and her confusion – all of which lead her (and us) toward wholeness.”
~ Art Noble, author of The Sacred Female, and Unmailed Letters to a Married Woman
Soulwhisperings
5.0 out of 5 stars
By Toby Symington on December 19, 2016Format: PaperbackTina, like Rumi, is a troubadour of love — erotic as well as mystical — her poems eloquently describe the many faces of love — love which can incinerate as well as intoxicate — her finest poems, especially in Part II, are ablaze with the mystic fire — the fire of an impassioned heart broken wide open — she makes a compelling case through these incandescent poems that love is the ground of our soul and the very reason for our being —
This beautifully designed volume is very pleasing to the eye — reading these poems, filled with sensuous imagery, is itself a highly sensuous experience — the vividly colored rosettes and medallions, which the reader will find on every page, are visually stunning — the typeface, with its generous size and fluid lines, flows gracefully across the pages — a superb production in every respect —Highly recommended —
By A. K. L. on September 18, 2016Format: PaperbackIn Tina Benson’s book of ecstatic poems, you will recognize your rainbow heart mirror: the voice of your own soul’s yearning for love, both sensual and divine. The poems can be read as separate songs or as a continuous cyclic that circles round our spirit like a moth whose wings have already been lit by the flame of intimacy.
Her poems resonate the whole body, and the body includes the soul as its central organ. Her spirituality embraces your own “musky earth,” inviting you to “wrap your aching around me / I’ll surrender the place within me / where your hunger finds its home.”
The poems awaken that part of us who is nearer than we are to ourselves. We all have this need in us – to be the source of what we need. But it is veiled, masked behind our fear of rejection, our ancient guilt, our sense of unworthiness. In her long career as a counselor and spiritual guide, this author has shared her own pain and self-acceptance (her first book). Now she gives our hearts the inspiration to melt into who we really are.
By Patricia Britt on September 10, 2016Format: PaperbackI so loved reading Tina Benson’s contemporary devotional poems. I’m not aware of another poet who is writing in this style. She shares her heart with us so deeply. I enjoy reading these poems both to my inner and outer beloved.
By Chinnamasta Stiles on December 22, 2016Format: PaperbackExquisite elevating poetry coming from a direct experience of a deep seeker. An ointment for the Heart and Soul.
By Rick Maddox on October 6, 2016Format: Kindle EditionThis book is a bijou, a delicately worked jewel of poesy. It is one of those rare books that entrance their reader by uniting the joy of the Divine Spirit with the pleasure of the Divine Body. I will make this review brief, in order not to delay your reading of this book, which I highly recommend.
By Christina on February 1, 2017Format: Kindle EditionTranscendent poems accompanied by centering mandalas. Read one or two a day and let them stir your soul.
By Ram Varma on October 25, 2016Format: PaperbackExcellent for a person seeking peace, love, freedom, fullness, meaning and Oneness of life.