One of the best things in this book is that as a Jungian psychologist, the author is aware of the shadow self, and she balances the New Age ascension ideas she has with an acknowledgement that people need to face the dark night of the soul. The discussions of clients and therapeutic treatments could help readers with similar experiences. The Jungian archetypal theory influences her spirituality and leads to a very eclectic melange of influences. She believes in the necessity of a return to the Divine Feminine, and this manifests itself in the imagery of an Earth Goddess and Hecate. Her time studying with Mexican curanderos shows in the language she uses to describe heart healing. She is clearly devoted to her guru, Sai Maa. The healing methods have a strong influence from shamanic practice and Jungian therapy. The author excels in the instances where she presents people with trauma and methods to help themselves heal. I believe Mauger is a caring and skilled therapist who finds her own strength in her spiritual pursuits. Readers who are similarly interested in Jungian psychology and open to alternative healing will most likely enjoy this book. FULL REVIEW: https://www.facingnorth.net/books/healing/soul-sea ~ Facing North, Review

The author draws from her own real-life experiences as a therapist and spiritual teacher to illustrate how connection to nature and the spiritual world can be made to heal emotional wounds. It suggests ways of doing this, but it’s not always that simple, and it requires some effort from the reader. Like all therapies, it needs practice, but the end results should make the effort worthwhile. Highly recommended. ~ Phenomena Magazine: November 2023 - Issue 175, Review

Benig has written a profoundly reflective book on healing, weaving together her own life and therapeutic work, where a key insight is that ‘healing lies in the wound itself.’ She characterises herself as an ‘Aphrodite woman’, embodying the goddess of love in terms of beauty and desire, attractive to men and therefore primed for love: ‘Love relationships, being in love and experiencing heartbreak many times would be my path.’ (p. 57) This is a central theme in her earlier book Love in a Time of Broken Heart, and she has also written Songs from the Womb, and Reclaiming Father. Echoes from these previous books here in the new one. Benig works as a Jungian psychotherapist, blending therapy and spirituality to provide tools for emotional and soul healing. She lives on the wild coast of Southwest Ireland – wind and sea pervade the ethos of the book, and it is the place that she has known since childhood when her father became a political exile in Ireland and become a lobster fisherman – very different from his previous career as a civil servant in a city. As it happens, while I was making notes on the book last night, I had in my hand a very good glass of Connemara malt whisky! This landscape invited a deep dive into Benig’s inner calling to connect with the voice of her soul where the sea represents ‘the mother, the vast unconscious and the ever life-giving Feminine.’ (pp. 1, 116) She is also a poet, often returning to great authors such as Rilke, Rumi and Kabir, as well as classic texts of mysticism. A significant influence has been the teaching of Sai Maa on the path of the Sacred Feminine (p. 97), but also that of self-forgiveness and nurturing: ‘Healing is a matter of the heart involving love, acceptance and surrender.’ (p. 11) We need to reconnect with our divine self by going within to join forces with our higher selves while also drawing wisdom from nature. This work is hidden and secret, seeking to unblock energy trapped in past trauma by letting go and moving on. Benig takes the reader into a series of rooms – red, pink, blue rose, green and purple - where she is lyrically bidden to write about different states and corresponding qualities. The anguished soul enters and endures the dark night as a process of expansion and alchemical transformation. Ultimately, as Rumi writes, ‘what you are seeking is also seeking you.’ This is the dissolution, stripping and purging of the ego, leading ultimately to illumination. We need to overcome the fear of speaking our truth, entering fully into life, which also involves heartbreak and suffering as a spiritual opening leading to a greatest sense of wholeness. In this process, we encounter deeper and more archetypal layers of life and soul purpose. Some of our patterns may originate in earlier lives or in ancestors, and many more in early childhood, such as a sense of abandonment and not being loved unconditionally by an emotionally available parent. Benig invites readers to reflect on their own healing processes and to initiate new patterns, using such affirmations as “I construct a new life with new energy.” We also need to pay attention to our dreams, remembering that the psyche is a self- regulating system. The second part takes the reader into three further Healing Rooms – Birth, Life and Death. Here she considers specific case histories and the lessons we can learn from them. Her own premature birth created a deep imprint, which she was finally able to process. She quotes the wise words of Rumi: ‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.’ Sometimes this involves difficult choices, as ‘the complicated bundle of unresolved knots’ will follow us. Death represents the ultimate untying and surrender with inevitable loss, and death can even occur before or during birth – a pending arrival becomes a premature departure. In such circumstances, self-nurturing becomes a key practice in moving beyond self-blame. The final chapter addresses our individual role within the larger evolutionary process involving an awakening to a higher consciousness and vibrational frequency. This is our work and it called to mind a quotation from The Talmud which I read yesterday: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” Benig sees that the demise of the old order ‘of patriarchy and a society dominated by fear, greed and dominance opens the way for the rebirth of the feminine principle and a society based on her values and the cyclical nature of existence.’ This means ‘honouring the sacredness of all life, of love, of compassion and generosity.’ (p. 208) In healing ourselves, we are also healing the world – this inspirational book shows the way and lights up the path in our transitional times where we will be called to draw on deep wells of resilience, resolve and hope. ~ David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer Scientific and Medical Network

Drawing on her experiences as a Jungian therapist and spiritual teacher, and her life in Connemara on Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, Benig Mauger has written a deeply personal memoir about the healing journey of a soul, about learning to live the ‘wisdom of the heart’. Perhaps the essential message of her new book, The Soul & the Sea: Essential healing for everyday life, she says, is to understand that the healing of psychic scars is fundamentally a spiritual process requiring openness and willingness to love. It’s a warm and welcoming read, demonstrating strength and spirit in an author who offers valuable guidance for the transformative soul-work that can elevate consciousness profoundly. Working from both depth psychological and spiritual perspectives, Benig stresses the importance of combining the two when seeking to grow spiritually and to heal. Attaining a middle ground is essential if healing from within is to take place, she says, believing that the Jungian archetypal dimension can also be seen as the spiritual dimension: ‘Jungian psychology is of course a transpersonal soul psychology and blends in well with the spiritual element necessary for healing.’ Written seemingly spontaneously from the heart, and entirely during the ‘dark night’ of the coronavirus crisis, The Soul & the Sea describes with sincerity and candour how her own personal quest for love and soul-healing, through ‘relating to and loving many men’, involved the turmoil of relationship breakdowns and bereavement: ‘I have experienced heartbreak many times and several lost loves.’........ https://geoffjward.medium.com/the-sea-the-soul-and-a-womans-heart-894d8346cb33?sk=d0da33c671e8bb559bff8f7ca3323221 ~ Geoff Ward, Medium.com

The Soul & The Sea by Benig Mauger is an exquisitely written book that invites the reader to contemplate the depths of their own being. Through vivid descriptions of the natural world and the author's own personal experiences, Mauger weaves together a tapestry of poetry and prose that explores the interbeing of soul and sea. The book is divided into several sections, each of which delves into a different aspect of the soul's journey. From the opening section on "Soul Searching" to the final section on "Soulful Awakening," Mauger's words are imbued with a sense of wonder and awe at the majesty of the natural world and the human spirit. Inspired by the sea and land around her home, Mauger draws from her own life experiences as a Jungian therapist and spiritual teacher to illustrate how connection to nature and the spiritual world can heal emotional wounds. In a time of spiritual awakening, emotional healing must move beyond psychology to be effective. As both a guide and a creator of a new portal for healing, The Soul & the Sea reads like a story as it charts the journey to healing through nature and spirit while serving as a tool for emotional healing and soul growth, showing us how to connect to our inner healer. ~ Science and Nonduality, Review

In a time of spiritual awakening, emotional healing must move beyond psychology to be effective. As both a guide and a creator of a new portal for healing, The Soul & the Sea reads like a story as it charts the journey to healing through nature and spirit while serving as a tool for emotional healing and soul growth, showing us how to connect to our inner healer. Mauger also leans into Jungian psychology, and the idea proposes that there is a universal version of the personal unconscious, which is shared with all other members of the human species. These shared ancestral memories, born from evolution, are called archetypes by Jung and are represented by universal themes that appear in various cultures. In closing, and with Carl Jung having identified four main archetypes — the persona, the shadow, the anima or animus and the self - what this book does is open and therein offer pathways to the deeper meanings of life for the reader to walk themselves through. Not one to hold the hand of and steer, no, Mauger instead puts the breadcrumbs of knowledge down and allows the reader to discern their own chosen path forward into becoming a soul journeyed. FULL REVIEW: https://annecarlini.com/ex_books.php?id=483 ~ Exclusive Magazine, Review

The Soul & The Sea is an invitation to reflect upon and explore one´s life patterns, joys, pains and losses. At times, the book took me on a dive into my emotions, at other times I listened to the teachings and observed her passages through life. Benig´s journey although unique to her has reverberations and echoes from all times and offers a doorway to the deeper meanings of a life. Each chapter is a well guided road map for the soul journeyer. Susan Gash, Healer, Director of The Spirit Doctor Practitioner Program, Tutor with the College of Psychic Studies (London). ~ , Susan Gash

The Soul and The Sea is another wonderful book for those looking for more in depth healing. This book settles comfortably into the lineage of Jungian literature that gives poetic language to the healing process. Mauger beautifully interweaves her own experience with the shared archetypal experience of all of us. The Soul and The Sea is both a wonderful introduction into depth work and a unique placed reminder for someone experienced with this work. Mauger is a guide in every sense. She never asks the reader to go anywhere she is not willing to go. ~ Holly Gamroth (Reviewer) , NetGalley

I know the deeply spiritual energy of Connemara, Ireland, and this book manages to capture its magic, providing the background melody for the soul-touching stories that comprise the book. Few story tellers can integrate Benig Mauger’s rich understanding of psyche and spirit. This book will take you on a journey that will enrich you forever. I loved it. Donna Eden Co-Author, The Energies of Love ~ Donna Eden

This is a book – whose chapters are a series of rooms – written by an outstandingly gifted healer and poet, one who is in touch with her heart and her imagination and who is therefore able to address the deep suffering of people living in our dysfunctional, uncaring, soul-banishing culture. As she says, “I write from the star in my heart; that is what guides me and my creativity. It is as though by following the intensity of my feelings, I open and walk through the doorway of the divine.” I would recommend this wise, caring and inspirational book to men and women who seek a deeper connection to Life, to the Earth, and above all, to their Heart and their Soul. ~ Anne Baring, PhD (hons), author of The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul

This fascinating and heartwarming book, written by an intuitive healer, gifted teacher & Jungian psychologist, takes us on a journey of inner healing. Rich with personal experiences and archetypal influences, we're guided through various rooms of our own psyche under the watchful eye of the Divine Mother. Complete with practical advice and exercises, this is a valuable book in times of individual & global transformation. ~ Dr Christine Page, author of the Healing Power of the Sacred Woman

In our soulless, Covid-ravaged world, beautifully written books on Soul like this one are an enormous blessing. Benig is not only a poet, shaman and mystic, but also a healer, analyst and transpersonal visionary, and thus great wisdom flows through every page. Indeed, she takes the reader deep into the psyche to explore universal human experiences such as the dark night of the soul and particularly what is required to live an authentic and whole life in these very precarious times. The second part explores the existence of what Benig calls "healing rooms". One room helps us confront and heal the many wounds in our hearts that prevent our soul life coming into its own, another room, the "birth room" helps women heal traumatic birth experiences, while the 'life room' offers us advice as to how to live with grace and integrity. This important book is not only a must read for all therapists seeking to expand the range of the way they work and see the world, but it is also important for the person in the street in need of guidelines to help them live with greater depth and joy and who wish to make the shift from being part of the problems in the world, to being part of their solution. A tour de force. ~ Serge Beddington-Behrens MA (Oxon.), Ph.D., K.O.M.L, author of Awakening the Global Heart

Benig Mauger has written an interesting book, which will speak not only to the professional audience of Jungian psychology, but also and more significantly to the vast non-professional audience suffering the ever increasing dark night of the soul in our perilous age. Written in the style of a memoir and weaving together her experiences as a birth therapist, Jungian psychotherapist and spiritual healer, she escorts us through various healing rooms as a companion, addressing us with a personal appeal to acknowledge the healing power of conscious suffering. If there is a singular quality that animates this book, it would be its emphasis on remembering the necessity for the grieving process in an age so drawn to the continuous enticement of the new and so benumbed by its displays that it has forgotten how to mourn. ~ Robert D. Romanyshyn, Ph.D., Prof. Emeritus of Clinical Psychology, Author of Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology: The Frankenstein Prophecies

The Soul and the Sea is an inspiring weave of personal narrative with depth psychology and spiritual wisdom traditions. It is also a ‘stitching together’ of the microcosm of the personal with the macrocosm, as the soul of the world. Benig’s work makes for a compelling read, and brings many elusive concepts down to earth, in an accessible and grounded way. It is timeous in that we need such works that can speak to the suffering soul, stripped from the jargon and obfuscations of intellectual and spiritual disciplines, yet grounded in her many years of experience as a healer, writer, activist and educator. In The Soul and the Sea Benig also offers valuable practices such as journaling, dream-work, active imagination, engagement with the natural world, and practical methods in a unique synthesis distilled from her many years as a healing practitioner. ~ Mathew Maher, PhD, Author of The Alchemical Mercurius: Esoteric Symbol of Jung's Life and Works