Dove in the Stone: Finding the Sacred in the Commonplace

A Jungian lecturer and astrologer searches for the sacred in the commonplace on a Celtic pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona, in Scotland. "Iona," the Hebrew word for dove, became home to St. Columba, whose name in Latin means dove, in the year 563 on the Eve of the Pentecost -- the day of the ascent of the Holy Spirit in the Christian calendar, also symbolized by a dove. And so the narrative goes on, finding synchronicities of understanding at every turn.

227 pages

About the author: Alice O. Howell was born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1922 and from the age of 5, lived abroad in hotels and boarding schools, never more than three months in one place. By the age of eighteen she had lived in or traveled to 37 countries and undertaken a lifelong study of comparative religion and mythology. She earned the Deutsch Diploma at the Buser Institut in Switzerland. Returning with her parents to the U.S. during WWII, she studied under renowned astrologer Marc Edmund Jones as his youngest student. She married, had four children, and taught English and history in private schools on Long Island, New York, for eighteen years, progressing to the university level. Howell continued her study of Jung depth psychology and astrology for 30 years. At the advice of Jungian analyst Dr. Edward F. Edinger, she began her serious attempt to prove astrology a useful diagnostic adjunct to Jungian psychology. She then devoted her time successfully with patients sent to her by psychiatrists and analysts. Howell taught at the Jung Foundation in NYC and later at the C.G. Jung Institutes of Chicago and Los Angeles and became a worldwide lecturer—ranging from London to Bombay, Dharmsala to Davos. Today, she is recognized as a pioneer in linking psychology and astrology. Encouraged by her second husband, Walter Andersen, she became the author of seven books, includingJungian Symbolism in Astrology, The Dove in the Stone, The Web in the Sea, andThe Beejum Book, all written in her seventies! Now widowed and a great-grandmother, Howell lives in the Berkshires in Massachusetts and, despite her age and physical handicaps, continues to work actively in her practice and as moderator of an online Jungian group. “Beats those doilies in the rocking chair!” she grins.