Part 2 Summary and Analysis

"Initiation" picks up in winter, shortly after the "catalytic" day in the drugstore. She has a vague sense of entering a new phase, but does not know that women seeking the Sacred Feminine experience must first make the "Great Transition." Attachment to the confining patriarchal world must die so a new mystery can rise inside. Following one's "soul-path" is painful but alluring. Sue knows she belongs on it but does not early in the winter know the intensity to come as the girl-child conceived and birthed in her during awakening grows rambunctious and grows into the woman she will be.

As Sue and Sandy spend New Year's Eve quietly reading, Sue is struck by the image of an unexplored gorge and pictures capturing herself like a unicorn, a symbol of woman's deepest center. Sue coordinates a retreat with a February speaking...