[close] In beautiful prose, China Galland weaves myths and travel narrative into a powerful chronicle of the spiritual journey, tracing the reemergence of fierce compassion both in the struggles of women around the world and at sacred sites of pilgrimage.

The story is the same all over the world. In Nepal, a woman doctor works tirelessly to rescue children who have been sold to Indian brothels. In Argentina, the mothers of the "disappeared" bear witness against the government that stole the lives of their children. In India, Mother Theresa's Sisters soothe the fears of the dying, and an international women's campaign works to clean the waters of the Ganges River.

Around the world, women are working for justice, for healing, and the lives of these women reveal an unusual source of strength: the fiercemess of comapssion symbolized in ancient icons, images, and archetypes of the wrathful divine feminine. Known in India as Durga and Kali, in Nepal and Tibet as Tara, and in Europe and Latin America as the Black Madonna and Yemaya, it is the fierce divine feminine, which arises when the world is on the brink of destruction. [close]