Dr. Glenville Ashby’s Finding Mother: Lessons in Spirituality - East and West is a refreshing work that delves into topical issues surrounding spirituality. Reincarnation, fire ceremonies, death meditation, sex, and spiritual healing are just few of the intriguing subjects discussed. Moreover, Dr. Ashby explores the goddess concept in Eastern and Western religious traditions and offers a series of exercises toward self-awareness. Using his background as an analytical therapist, the author examines the role of the subconscious and psychopathologies in our spiritual journey, and views the womb as representative of the goddess to which we all connected on a psychic level.

The Goddess or the Universal Mother, according to the author, is the "sin qua non" for spiritual development. The author, given the name Sri Gyananda by his guru, recaptures his childhood years as a devout Roman Catholic and the ineffaceable bond his mother shared with the Virgin Mary, whom he compares to the Mahavidyas (The Wisdom Goddesses). He draws on his comprehensive spiritual training emphasizing introspection and self-knowledge. He cautions against seeking siddhis (spiritual powers) and self-serving gurus who usurp the individuality and will of their sadhaks (students).

Finding Mother closes with the cursory look at St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises, and two in-depth sadhanas, one for Bhuvaneshwari, and the other for four goddesses: Saraswati, Lakshmi, Kali, and Chamunda. If these are practiced in earnest, Finding Mother offers enlightenment, if not spiritual liberation.