Diana, Herself: An Allegory of Awakening: 1 (Bewilderment Chronicles) - Softcover

"This book is everything. It's a romp, a fable, a myth, an inspiration, a teachable moment, a true hero's journey, a cautionary tale, and a fairy tale for an entirely new (or rather, ANCIENT) species of fairies. It's rare that so much wisdom can be found wrapped up in such comedy, such kindness, such lightness of touch. It's a perfect book. I want every woman I know to read it. This is storytelling at its very best, and also at its most important." -- ELIZABETH GILBERT, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic "What I love about this book is that you think you're reading a grand adventure story, but by the end of the book you realize you've been abducted by the genius Martha Beck who has given you a soul transfusion -you're more awake, more inspired, deepened, broadened, uplifted. I was amazed that a book can be so funny and so enlightening at the same time. Now I have to read it again, because I know that hiding within the book's oddest twists and turns, there is even more spiritual gold to be mined. Martha Beck has written The Wizard of Oz for our times, but this time, the story comes with instructions on how each one of us can find our way home." --ELIZABETH LESSER, Cofounder of Omega Institute, author of the New York Times bestseller, Broken Open and Marrow: A Love Story "Once in a triple blue moon, a book comes along that combines riveting narrative, delightful characters, and timeless spiritual wisdom: In Diana, Herself, Martha Beck has written such a story. Beck takes readers on an unforgettable, magical journey filled with deep truths that resonate, above all, in the heart. Who knew enlightenment could be so much fun?" -- SUSAN CASEY, author of The Wave, The Devil's Teeth, and Voices in the Ocean Even though this book is fiction and not self-help or memoir, Martha does not hold back her clear instructions for living with greater peace. I devoured Diana, Herself in the span of a few days; I daresay it is the most powerful book I've ever read for furthering my own personal and spiritual growth. -- CHRISTINE CARTER, Ph.D., Author of The Sweet Spot: How to find your groove at home and work

Maybe, once or twice in your life, you’ve experienced a surge of destiny so strong it made you believe in miracles.

Such bolts from the blue seem to hit when weariness or ill fortune have plowed through the ground of reason, breaking it up so magic can take root. What follows is so perfect that to call it accidental defies belief. Diana Archer is an absolutely—mathematically!—average woman, living an unremarkable life, when destiny reaches her. Without quite knowing how or why, she finds herself leaving everything familiar and moving into a world where miracles are commonplace, where her supposed flaws become her salvation, and where each person’s story is everyone’s.

In this exuberant allegory, bestselling memoir and self-help author Martha Beck takes readers into the wild parts of the world and the human psyche. The story of Diana, Herself helps every reader chart a course for awakening to greater joy, adventure, and purpose.

It feels almost magical to Diana Archer—out-of-work store clerk, former foster child, and bearer of multiple psychological diagnoses—when she’s pulled into the orbit of world-famous life coach and reality TV star Roy Richards. Together, Diana and Roy embark on the latest in his series of “conquests,” surviving a month in California’s trackless Sierras Oscuras National Forest.

It’s in the forest that their quest devolves into disaster—and the real magic begins. Lost, alone, and dying, Diana is taken under the trotter of a benevolent spirit animal (or is it a projection of her perennially troubled mind?) who promises to take her home. But ”home“ proves to be a place much more mysterious than Los Angeles. Awakening is the goal, Diana learns, and bewilderment is the method.

As the first volume of the three-part “Bewilderment Chronicles” proceeds, Diana will undergo a transformation that will change her irrevocably, and just possibly save the world. Let the enchantment begin.