Tears for a Golden Butterfly – A Memoir of Grief and Spiritual Awakening

The author is Professor of Forensic-Clinical Psychology at the Maastricht University and in this capacity has authored over 200 academic publications. This is her first non-academic publication concerning the death of her son and her own process of spiritual awakening, part of which involves studying with Suzanne Giesemann, who aptly describes this moving book as ‘an eloquent elegy to life, loss, and eternal love.’ Only this week, I was speaking on a webinar with Susan Plunket, and one of our topics was soul contracts, whereby key life lessons can be learned, often through the catalyst of suffering and loss. In this respect, I am reminded of Dr Ian Pearce, a Network Member from the 1980s, who lost his daughter to leukaemia when she was 12. She subsequently communicated with him to explain that her departure was part of a soul contract whereby his own spiritual awakening would be intensified by this loss. I see a parallel process in Corine’s story of love and loss, even though she had been on a spiritual path for a long time. Her son Julian developed mental health and substance abuse problems in 2023, subsequently passing from an overdose – an agonising experience for Corine, and indeed for any parent in a similar situation; and part of the intent of this inspiring book of soul-to-soul communication is to help other parents in a similar situation. The book itself emerges from this process, and is vividly written, reminding readers of the importance of honest and open exchange in order to understand the inner world – and private suffering - of the other. The narrative includes real time exchanges of messages and love between mother and son – Earth with its brutality and violence is a very hard place for empaths to exist on (p. 65). Corine’s grief is intense, even if punctuated by periods of inner peace.