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The Dark Moon
By Anne Maria Clarke
Editor Hazel Marshall
The impetus behind Desmond Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the knowledge that we can best or only be healed of trauma and abuse by listening to the stories of, understanding and ultimately forgiving the perpetrators of that abuse is the core thread of this powerful book.
The day that Anne Maria and her husband discover that their teenage daughter has been sexually abused; that their best friends have supported their daughter in her grief and distress; that all of them have adhered to the vow of silence she has implored of and imposed on them for at least a year and a half; that they have unwittingly been living a life of secrets and lies for all that time, is the day their world falls apart.
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For an instant in that moment of awakening to the truth, Anne Maria feels the presence of angels, and, fleetingly, an immense empathy with everyone involved. She knows she is being given a choice. For no reason that is apparent to her, simply, perhaps, as a gut reaction, she chooses to take what she calls ‘the hard path’. With that, she feels the angel leaving her and embarks on the longest and most painful journey of their lives.
And what a hard path it is. Feeling the burden of the responsibility of the parent to nurture and protect her daughter, she feels utterly betrayed and is enraged by what her friends have done as they colluded with her daughter in the keeping of this huge and traumatic secret, and in entering into the inevitable web of lies that supported that. Her instinctive initial reaction is to express her very understandable anger, which exacerbates the isolation of her and her husband in their joint misery. The more she rages the more she is abandoned by the very people who could and should have supported her and, inevitably, the more she becomes estranged from herself. This book and its story detail her long journey to understanding, forgiveness and healing. Every reader will recognise and feel the power of that journey. It is the archetypal journey of all women: Demeter’s journey; the loss of the child, their daughter; the wild search for meaning; the plunge into despair and the dark world of the psyche; the overwhelming trials along the way in the seemingly endless search to find a way of reconciling herself with the truths she has discovered, with her daughter, who has locked herself away from her parents, with uncovering the darker aspects of her self and, ultimately, to becoming whole again.
Anne Maria uses poetry, fairy story and myth to support this intimate and brutally honest recording of her initial feelings of helplessness, remorse, and guilt, and to sustain and nurture her epic tale of progress towards her own soul healing in this extraordinarily honest, powerful and beautiful piece of writing. The multiple layers in which she intricately entwines and wraps her story, the way in which she connects and reconnects, weaves these into her emotional progress on the journey, the honesty and lucidity of the expression of her thinking and feeling are emotionally taxing but essential reading for those of us who know that we need to embark – or are already on – our own personal journey toward truth and reconciliation.
Sarah Frossell,
October 2008,
Cheltenham England,
International Coach & Trainer – NLP
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What others are saying about this book
‘With Demeter’s courage and a mother’s tenderness, the author takes the quest that can restore love and forgiveness after the discovery of her daughter’s sexual abuse.’
Caitlin Matthews – author of Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom and Singing the Soul Back Home.
‘Every woman, every Mother should read it. You will weep as I did, but you will feel, as I did, the incredible love, strength and courage that enabled her to write it.
Her grasp of the importance of myth and fairy tale as a medium for healing and understanding is amazing.’
Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki – author of The Shining Paths
‘I found the writing so powerful and healing – such a truthful, unexpected and emotionally moving piece – that I really could not put it down until I had finished it – and then immediately had to read it again. It seemed to speak to the very core of my being.
The strength of the healing in the writing, the reflection that it will bring into so many other’s issues and to their personal healing journeys will, I am sure, afford them huge amounts of succour and the beginnings of inner strength.’
Sarah Frossell – International Coach and Trainer – NLP
'Many poignant thought provoking analogies that resonate with and express the huge pain and loss felt by a mother whose daughter’s innocence has been shattered. Anne Maria captures the complex matrix of feelings and emotions of discovering sexual abuse, so
effectively that I could feel complete empathy for her.
This book will inspire and comfort parents whose children have been abused, describing clearly how intense early feelings become more tempered and bearable with the passing of time. The Dark Moon gives excellent psychological insight into isolating experience.
Denise Hubble – Counselling Coordinator – ‘Mosac’
Supporting non-abusing parents and carers of sexually abused children
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Sir Gawain and The Green Knight
Adapted and Narrated by Caroline Anne Maria Clarke
Caroline has offered this full preview or download via mp3 for Christmas. See here |
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