A spiritual journey of an Indonesian woman: The evidence through literature from a psychospiritual perspective

Abstract Recently, the study of women has been widely discussed worldwide in various perspectives. One of them is the study of women through a literary perspective. In this regard, this article aims to explore women who seek identity through a psychospiritual perspective using the medium of literature. This study combines psychology and the spiritual dimension as a transpersonal approach. Specifically, this article explores the spiritual journey of an Indonesian woman through fiction, which is depicted in a novel entitled Partikel by Dewi Lestari. This study applied a qualitative method to present the result in a descriptive-interpretative way. A documentative technique was used as an instrument to collect data. Meanwhile, the data analysis technique was conducted through data identification, classification, reduction, and explanation stages. The results of the study revealed the following findings. First, the character Zarah was not brave enough to choose her spiritual path in her childhood stage. Second, in her adolescence stage, Zarah started openly exposing her spiritual path by worshipping mushrooms. Third, Zarah experimented on her spiritual journey by eating the sacred mushroom to carry out a holy pilgrimage in her adulthood stage. This study has implications for psychospiritual studies in the context of women’s literature and for the development of future literary studies.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
This article is an alternative to understanding and exploring women who seek identity through a psychospiritual perspective using the medium of literature.This study combines psychology and the spiritual dimension as a transpersonal approach.Specifically, this article explores the spiritual journey of Indonesian women through fiction, which is depicted in a novel entitled Partikel by Dewi Lestari.The results of the study show the following findings.First, the character Zarah was not brave enough to choose her spiritual path in her childhood stage.Second, in her adolescence stage, Zarah started openly exposing the spiritual path that she worshipped mushrooms.Third, Zarah experimented on her spiritual journey by eating the sacred mushroom to carry out a holy pilgrimage in her adulthood stage.For general readers, the study has implications for psychospiritual studies in the context of women's literature and for the development of future literary studies.
mushroom to carry out a holy pilgrimage in her adulthood stage.This study has implications for psychospiritual studies in the context of women's literature and for the development of future literary studies.

Introduction
Experts often discuss interdisciplinary psychology studies (such as Grose-Fifer et al., 2014;Ritchey & Bott, 2010;Schwartz et al., 2020), one of which is the spiritual journey in psychospiritual studies.The studies on the spiritual journey are included in the fields of philosophy (Steiner & Bamford, 2002), psychology (McNeill, 1998;McQueen, 2019;Yang et al., 2012), and literature (Holden Kirwan, 1999;Neary, 2011).Historically, psychospiritual studies can be traced through the writings of Culpin (1920) and Lohuizen (1932), who discussed the interdisciplinary study of psychology and spiritualism.Psychology focused on human psychology in that era but was rarely related to a spiritual context because psychology and spirituality have different areas of study.Psychology is concerned about the mind and behavior, while spirituality deals with the search for God and worship.However, in the latest psychological studies development, psychospiritual studies have included various studies, including spiritual journeys and women.In the interdisciplinary contexts, the current studies of women (e.g., Kwee & McBride, 2016;Wood, 2012) are mainly carried out to equalize the position of women and men in various contexts, such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, and culture.
Related to developing a spiritual journey, here are some relevant studies.Eckert (2013) examined medieval English literature.The findings indicate that Amis and Amiloun show a profound spiritual journey, loyalty, and maturity.Snyder (2019) studied a woman's spiritual journey on a retreat related to gardening, raising poultry, and being a housemaid.The women's spiritual journey studies are more directed at the general spiritual context.Moreover, studies conducted by Feld (1999), Shutt (2011), Alder (2018), and Khan (2018) are more oriented to the spiritual journey of women in finding religion.The studies are interesting because they provide a new alternative concerning literature associated with a spiritual journey.Literature offers a unique way for the human spiritual journey in search of identity.
Studies about the spiritual journey can be included in the study of literature in a psychospiritual context.In this case, literature is evidence where a person's spiritual journey or an author can be traced.Studies about the spiritual journey in literature must be carried out with the following rationalizations.First, they have been carried out in various studies, but the spiritual journey in the literature has not been widely carried out.Second, the spiritual journey in literature provides an alternative for readers to identify and understand the spiritual journey contained in literature universally.Third, studies about the spiritual journey of women in literature are interesting because the current analyses of women in the context of literature are mainly carried out by researchers, both as the authors (Hiddleston, 2010;Moi, 2008) and as the characters in literature (Davidson, 2021;Reports, 2020).Fourth, referring to Martin's (1993) view, a study of women and the spiritual journey is globally significant to show that not only men undertake a spiritual journey, either in a general context or a religious context.However, women can also take a spiritual journey to seek identity.
Unfortunately, previous studies still have not highlighted psycho-spirituality in literature, especially the journey of women's spirituality in literary works.Psychospiritual studies in the literature provide alternative knowledge for literary critics regarding the integration of psychology, spirituality, and literature.Literature as a creative work can be used as a factual document that accommodates psychospiritual elements.In this case, literature is an alternative medium to understand the psychospiritual aesthetically.Referring to the views of Jung (1958), Kramer (1944), Carruthers andTate (2010), andSterrett (2011), literature can be used as a medium to understand psychology and spiritualism/religion.
Moreover, this study aims to explore the spiritual journey of an Indonesian woman represented in Indonesian literature through the perspective of spiritual psychology.Studies on women's spiritual journey in Indonesia are still limited.Thus, this study is crucial because it explores the psychological and spiritual evidence that is very authentic from Indonesia through literary works.It also discovers the narratives of women's spiritual journeys in Indonesian literature.The spiritual psychology of Indonesian women is expected to be found in Indonesian literature.In addition, the results of this study can be used as an alternative to understanding women's spiritual journey through literary works.

Spiritual journey, psycho-spirituality, women, and literary
The spiritual journey is a human process of finding identity in search of the truth of life (Houghton, 2002;Kreeft, 1996;Moody, 2020) and tends to lead to a religious context (Carr, 1982).In its development, the term spiritual journey does not refer to the context of religion only.Therefore, Park (2022) prefers a "religious journey" rather than a "spiritual journey" to avoid confusion in using the terms.The religious journey is closer to the religious context than the spiritual journey.Along with modernism, people prefer to use the term spiritual journey because it is more flexible and unorthodox (Willis, 2012).Therefore, the spiritual journey is considered an independent entity, not only religion (Penderell & Brazil, 2010).A person's spiritual journey will develop over time, experience, and maturity (Anderson et al., 2020).Thus, one's spiritual journey is not stagnant but depends on one's life journey in dealing with all the problems in life.
Currently, the study of the spiritual journey is also related to women.Borysenko (2000) showed that women had different spiritual journeys during the prophetic period, ranging from spiritual identity and awareness to self-enlightenment.In addition, McNeill (1995) revealed that women's spiritual journey in the modern era could not be separated from lesbian spiritualism in finding identity and life experiences.
Psycho-spirituality is a branch of psychology.It can be historically traced by the emergence of psychospiritual studies, which was initiated by Allport (1950), Jung (1958Jung ( , 1966)), Sabatier (1910), Fromm (1950), Adler and Jahn (1933) who wrote about the relationship between psychology, religion, and spiritualism.The psychologists had not explicitly revealed psycho-spirituality.Nonetheless, the embryo of psycho-spirituality cannot be separated from the influence of psychologists' views.Therefore, psychospiritual studies examine more about religious themes (Henry & Murrell, 1996;Howard, 2006).So far, Western psychology and Eastern psychology have different views on humans, "psychospiritual work integrating Eastern and Western psychology" (Alton, 2020, p. 160).Thus, psychospiritual is holistic psychology because it integrates two major psychology worlds: Western and Eastern psychology.
Psycho-spirituality can be used to heal people who have experienced trauma (Crawford & Mannion, 1989;Harris et al., 2010;Kalsched, 2013); illness (Pargament et al., 2015;Roud, 1989); to enhance and deepen concentration; and encourage people to strengthen the spiritual wisdom and spiritual culture which exist in society (Comas-Díaz, 2008).Psychospiritual purification avoids fear, anger, and jealousy (Vash, 2003, p. 115) in modern human life.Currently, many modern humans are experiencing trauma and mental problems.Psycho-spirituality is expected to cure these mental problems.In this context, psycho-spirituality is sometimes inseparable from religion.Therefore, psycho-spirituality is associated with certain religions.However, the role and interrelationships of religion in psycho-spirituality are not so dominant.In the view of Hufford et al. (2010), psycho-spirituality refers more to the search for the identity of each person who has a uniqueness, purpose, and meaning in life that is different from others.
Currently, studies on women are also included in psychospiritual studies (Arora, 2013;Mulrenin, 1998).The study of women in a psychospiritual context leads to women's mental, psychological, and behavioral processes in the context of a spiritual journey.The focus of women's psychospiritual studies can be related to the spiritual journey, spiritual psychology, spiritual identity, or comparative studies of women's spirituality across religions and/or countries.In addition, women's psychospiritual studies can relate to the unique side of a woman's journey to finding identity.
Literature as a creative work cannot be separated from psychology (Ahmadi et al., 2019;Wellek & Warren, 2019).Literature is the result of the crystallization of ideas by the author to produce literary works which contain psychological elements.The crystallization of the author's ideas in literary works cannot be separated from the author's world.The author's image is literature that the author raises, intentionally or unintentionally.However, it is not true that the literature presented by the author is an overflow of the author's soul.
Psychological studies that have actively influenced literature are psychoanalysis (Champion, 2013;Hogan, 1996;Jackson, 2014;Kidd, 2011;Williams, 1995).In the view of psychoanalysts, such as Freud (1922) and Jung (1967), literature represents the author's unintentionality.Therefore, in literature, there are psychological elements that the author explicitly or implicitly raises.By thoroughly reading, an author will show their characters through their literary work.For example, as with other arts, Freud (1989) observed that a painter could be allegedly gay through his works.
As the author's artwork, literature is an aesthetic reading and has a psychological function.Jung (1987) showed that literature is a soul therapy for the authors or the readers.Jung's views have been followed by many other scholars, such as Dickson (2018), Nussbaum (1990), and Aubry (2011), who showed the function of literature for the readers.In its current development, the study of literary psychology is increasingly extensive and has reached into various other scientific disciplines (interdisciplinary studies).
The data collection technique used in this study was documentative.The documentative technique is carried out by digging up data from the novel Partikel by Dewi Lestari.The data used in this study was literary texts that have psychospiritual relevance taken from the novel Partikel written by Dewi Lestari, published in 2012.The researcher chose this novel because it is dominant in raising the spiritual journey of a woman named Zarah.The data related to dialogues, monologues, or narrations presented by the author is relevant to the spiritual journey in a psycho-spiritual context.In the novel, the character Zarah shows the uniqueness of a spiritual journey in search of authenticity from childhood to adulthood.The character Zarah is under a lot of pressure from her parents, friends, and society regarding her spiritual journey because she worships mushrooms.
The technique of qualitative analysis in this study embraced the views of Miles et al. (2020) and Neuman (2006), which let the researchers (1) identify data related to psycho-spirituality, namely the researcher identified data related to the spiritual journey of Zarah; (2) classify data related to the spiritual journey in psychospiritual context, namely the researcher sorted the data and classified it according to the spiritual journey of Zarah; (3) reduce data related to psychospiritual, namely the researcher selected the primary data used for research and discarded irrelevant data; (4) conduct data presentation, namely, the researcher presented the explanation and exploration of the data following the theory used; and (5) perform data verification as the last stage of the analysis process, namely the researcher did the verification so that the data could be more comprehensive.These five stages are carried out simultaneously so that the researcher can produce more in-depth and comprehensive findings.
To maintain the validity and reliability of the study, the researcher referred to the views of Creswell (2007), Creswell and Creswell (2020) in conducting validity of the study.The study's validity was carried out using two segmentations, such as internal validity and external validity.The researcher carried out internal validity through simultaneous verification techniques.In this stage, the researcher re-checked the theories, methodologies, analyses, and constructions of the findings.Furthermore, the researcher tested the external validity by discussing the study results with literary experts.

Data analysis, result, and discussion
Zarah, the female character who searched for identity in Partikel, had a powerful character.She grew up in an environment of religious people during her childhood stage.In this case, Zarah's family was a staunch holder of Islamic beliefs, from her mother to her grandparents.However, as a girl, Zarah turned out not to show obedience to her mother, grandmother, and grandfather.She did not understand religion comprehensively.She was less enthusiastic about religion lessons at school.This situation is shown in the following quotes.
"You don't even understand about Pancasila Moral Education, let alone the Religion lesson," said Mother fiercely."You're not good at praying, Zarah.I am ashamed of Abah and Umi.None of their grandchildren are right," she said."Starting tomorrow, I will call Mrs. Hasanah to teach you reading Quran.If necessary, I will register you at pesantren (Islamic boarding school)."(Lestari, 2012, p. 34) The quote showed that Zarah, as a girl, was remarkably lacking in religious understanding.First, Zarah did not understand the lesson of Pancasila Moral Education.The Pancasila Moral Education lesson is related to morality and religion in a general context.Second, she did not really like religious studies.This matter caused her parents to be angry and wanted to send Zarah to a pesantren (Islamic boarding school).Pesantren is a place for Muslims to study religion, and they live there for several months or even years to learn about Islam.In pesantren, students are taught to study Islam and the holy book by a kiai (the term for teachers in pesantren).The term pesantren is more commonly known as an Islamic boarding school.It was expected that Zarah would be able to understand Islam at the pesantren deeply.
As a young child, Zarah was a girl who searched for her identity.She sought the spiritual path.Zarah seemed to find authenticity in herself instead of from her parents' teachings or others' influence.This phenomenon is rare because young children tend to adopt the religion their parents believe and teach.In this case, the character Zarah was not interested in following the Islam religion adopted by her mother, grandmother, and grandfather.She tried to find true spiritualism within herself freely.
In adolescence, the character Zarah increasingly showed her differences from her friends regarding religion.When her friends at school did worship activities, she did not do that.She was never seen performing religious rituals at school like her friends.Therefore, Zarah's friends were confused because she seemed to have no religion.This situation can be seen in the following quotes.
What's your religion, anyway, Zarah?Christmas or Eid?How come you never pray but don't take additional religion classes for non-Muslims?Are you Hindu?Buddha?Or other beliefs?I shook my head."I'm with my dad, he's-" I spelled carefully, "atheist."(Lestari, 2012, p. 54) The quote shows that the character Zarah did not perform Islamic, Christian, or Hindu-Buddhist religious rituals.As a girl in her adolescence, she demonstrated that she was an atheist.She did not believe in God.Adopting a religion was a choice for her.Even when she had no faith, it was a choice for her.
Zarah's understanding of atheism was inseparable from the influence of her father.As a role model, her father taught her how to find identity in other contexts.The religion taught in her parents' extended family was not firmly instilled in their children from an early age, so the character Zarah sought her path of spirituality.She did not follow the spiritual path her parents owned and practiced.She became an atheist teenager.
When a person has reached adulthood, her belief gets more vigorous.In this case, faith is related to the context of spirituality in the novel's character.In various spiritualisms in the world, age shows maturity in spirituality.The more mature a person is, the deeper her spirituality is.In this regard, Zarah also revealed that she focused on her spirituality rather than her family's.In this case, it was Islamic spiritualism.The character Zarah chose her spiritual path, which was worshipping mushrooms.She adored mushrooms because it was considered sacred.In her adulthood, Zarah had shown a spiritual identity within herself.Zarah as a woman was free to make choices in spiritual matters.The adulthood phase is a period of children are already free from the influence of their parents on spiritual issues.Likewise, Zarah did not want to follow the spiritual path of her family.She tried to figure out her spiritual path even though she had to bear all the consequences of having different views from the family.The situation can be seen in the following quotes."What do you worship?" "Mushrooms."(Lestari, 2012, p. 55) Based on the quote shows that the character of Zarah explicitly exposed to her friends that she is a spiritualist.She worshipped mushrooms as the highest entity.An entity that was considered to have an element of divinity.Zarah believed that nature was the highest entity in the universe.She was not ashamed to admit that she worshipped mushrooms.Therefore, she preferred natural spiritualism, which honors mushrooms.Although she had different beliefs regarding her parents' beliefs, Zarah believed that her choice was true.Zarah showed that she decided on her spiritual path to finding her true identity as a woman who has self-existence.In the psychospiritual view, the woman's identity on a spiritual journey is the free will of a human.Therefore, a woman can determine herself to be anything in this world.Whether she wants to be a good or bad person depends on herself.
Related to mushrooms in spiritualism, McKenna (1993a) revealed that in ancient societies' traditions, besides having a function as a medicine, mushrooms could also be used as a spiritual function.Thus, mushrooms in pre-modern society have been widely used as Gods by animists.The spiritualists strongly believed that what they worshipped was a "holy mushroom" (Metzner, 1998(Metzner, , 2004) known as the God Mushroom.Ball (2006, p. 34) called it "spirituality without religion" because mushrooms are widely used by people who believe they are the highest entity.Therefore, in the past, the community also used mushrooms as a medium of spiritualistic experimentation.Traditional societies strongly believed in the power of the universe, including plants as a medium between humans and the Divine.It could be seen in the psilocybe and amanita mushroom categories used for spiritual experimentation.
Regarding spiritual mushrooms, Lutkajtis (2020) explained that the Meso-American community in the 16th century already used mushrooms for the "indigenous healing ceremony".Letcher (2008, p. 251) revealed that someone who consumes sacred mushrooms would venture into "hyperspace", a stage where one goes on a spiritual journey.
In this context, the spiritual journey of the character Zarah, who had grown up to be an adult woman, was strengthened when she ate mushrooms, which are considered spiritual elements.When she ate the mushrooms, Zarah felt something different than usual.It happened because of the presence of psychoactive substances in the mushrooms.Regarding the psychoactive substances in mushrooms, McKenna and McKenna (1994) showed that the hallucinations of a spiritual person are different from those of a person with schizophrenia.People with a spiritual journey experience hallucinations as a stage/process, while people with schizophrenia experience extraordinary and unconscious hallucinations they cannot control.Therefore, McKenna (1993b) firmly claimed that the hallucinations experienced by people on a spiritual journey are called "true hallucinations" because their hallucinations are a process toward authenticity.It showed that someone who experiences hallucinations in a spiritual context is a sign that they are heading toward ecstasy, transcendence, and a holy place.Thus, this distinguishes people who experience hallucinations in a spiritual context and people who experience hallucinations in nonspiritual contexts (e.g., for an escape from reality).In this regard, the description of the character Zarah, who had experienced the stages/spiritual process, could be seen in the following quotes.I started to move.I turned my back, facing the sky.And suddenly, I noticed a change in the world around me. (Lestari, 2012, p. 56) I begged in my heart; please let me in.
The voice came from inside me, but it felt like it was not me.He said: quiet up here.(Lestari, 2012, p. 78) The quote showed that the character Zarah had entered the phase of a spiritual journey.She began to feel changes in her soul as well as her body.In the experimentation of her spiritual journey, she thought that she had become a human being who could enter another realm.She could have a dialogue with something that is considered sacred.She believed that this was her spiritual journey to meet the Divine.
In the spiritual journey, the character Zarah reached the highest stage because she had reached the stage of ecstasy.Zarah was able to head to an intangible "cyberspace".She had gained selfenlightenment from the spiritual journey she had been on so far.This phase made Zarah an adult woman who finds her identity through her spiritual journey.
This study is about a woman's spiritual journey in a psychospiritual context using the medium of literature.The results of this study indicate that currently, women have the same thoughts regarding the spiritual journey.Women can choose a spiritual journey to figure out their authenticity in life.Women do not have to adopt the same spiritual journey as their parents because this is about spiritual identity.Everyone has the same freedom in choosing their spiritual path.In this case, literature is an alternative medium to show that women's spiritual journey can be displayed in literature, both symbolically and non-symbolically.The woman in the Novel Partikel showed the stages of a spiritual journey from childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.She had not yet dared to blatantly choose a different spiritual path from her parents during her childhood stage.However, in her adolescence and adulthood phase, she was brave enough to show her choice of spiritual path openly to her family and society.It is in line with Hanretta's (2009) view that the study of women's spiritualism is sometimes controversial in the community.However, this must be done to show that every woman has the freedom to determine her spiritual path in society.Moreover, it is also a therapy for women to decide the spiritual path in their lives.
The results of this study support the research conducted by the following researchers.First, Delgadillo's study (Delgadillo, 2011) showed that spirituality in women is a new alternative vision related to one's freedom to determine the path of one's authenticity and spiritual identity.Second, the study conducted by Däumer (2009) showed that literature written by TS Eliot raises women's spirituality in the form of spiritual transformation, functioning as intercessors, spiritual guides, and stern priestesses.It shows that women have a higher spiritual level, and it is higher than men.From the perspective of gender studies, women's spirituality is a transformation in that women can also find their way and have their own spiritual identity.Therefore, women do not always have to follow the same path as men regarding spirituality.Concerning spiritualism practiced by Zarah, namely worshipping mushrooms, it is unique because Shnyder et al. (2022) also shows that mushrooms are inseparable from spirituality.In this case, it is related to mushrooms called the God Mushroom.
The results of this study support the views of psychologists, for example, Jung (1958) and Wellek and Warren (2019), which show that literature as a creative work can be used as an alternative document to understand psychology.However, one note is that in this context, literature is not the primary document in understanding psychology, especially in the case of psychospiritual characters.The matter is because in writing literary works, the author is inseparable from psychology and the reality in society.Unfortunately, literature does not fully manifest reality.Therefore, literature can only be used as an alternative document for understanding a person's psychospiritual side.Concerning previous research, the spiritual journey of the character Zarah describes the phenomenon of modern humans as they are today.Zarah can carry out a spiritual quest or journey as a modern human.This spiritual journey makes humans better, wiser, and more aware of life.This finding aligns with the view of Fadiman and Frager (1999) that spirituality and religion have apparent differences.Therefore, modern humans have more spirituality which is considered more flexible.
To current research, the study's results on spiritualism in the literature support the latest research conducted by Obidovna (2023) and Watkins (2023) that spiritualism in literature is inseparable from the search for identity, inner conflict, conflict with society, and selftransformation.In a deeper context, this study is in line with Wright (2023) that spirituality in fiction is expected to contribute to saving the world related to protecting the environment and saving human souls who are too greedy in life.The results of this study show the novel side that women's spiritual journey in fiction is a woman's self-transformation.Women become human beings who seek identity.Fiction can be an alternative medium to understand the quest for selfspiritualism, which experiences various obstacles and conflicts with oneself and others.However, at some point, the struggle in the spiritual journey resulted in the attainment of becoming an actual human being.

Conclusion
Through the findings and discussion, it can be concluded as follows.First, in the childhood stage, the character Zarah was a child who chose a different spiritual path from her family.Although her family was influential in embracing Islam, she did not follow it.As a child, she preferred to follow his father's view of believing mushrooms as a sacred entity in the universe.At this stage, she was not brave enough to openly reveal to her family that she preferred to believe in mushrooms.As a young woman, she has dared to show her existence in terms of searching for identity.She went on a spiritual journey according to her conscience, not following her parents.Apart from that, this early stage showed that Zarah as a young woman, already has something unique, namely the courage to choose a different path from her parents.Second, in her adolescence stage, the character Zarah started to bravely say that she believed in mushrooms as her religion rather than the religion that her family embraced.The matter caused conflict in the family because Zarah's family did not want her to be a person who converted from Islam.Third, in the adulthood stage, the character Zarah as an adult woman, learned to understand the spirituality of mushrooms and practiced it to conduct spiritual experimentation.She ate the sacred mushroom to achieve the spiritual journey.Zarah chose her spiritual journey by worshipping mushrooms because she knew it was her choice.As a woman, Zarah was free to choose the spiritual journey in her life.Zarah chose a spiritual identity within herself as a woman who worships mushrooms.
Thus, the spiritual journey of female characters in literature is represented through three phases as follows.First, in the spiritual phase of children, in this context, women still imitate the spirituality of their parents.Second, in the spiritual phase of adolescence, in this phase, women begin to search for identity concerning spirituality.Third, in the adult spirituality phase, at this stage, women have shown their identity concerning spirituality.She has authority and responsibility regarding ideas/thoughts, and actions related to the spirituality she chooses as a way of life.
This study significantly provides a scientific contribution to Indonesian literature, women, and psycho-spirituality.Indonesian literature raises women's spiritual journey by pursuing the struggle and movement of women so that women can be gender-equal.In a universal context, the results of this study show that in various countries, literature as a creative work can be used as an alternative document to understand women's psychospirituality.In this context, Indonesian literature shows that women have the freedom to choose their spiritual path.Women can determine their spiritual identities and journey according to their desires without following the same path as men, their families, or society.Women are independent figures in their spiritual path because they are responsible for their choices.Universally, this study shows that literature as a creative work can lift women's psycho-spirituality in figuring out their identity.Moreover, this study shows that women have a vision and spiritual transformation as part of the gender equality movement.
This study is limited to three things.First, the researcher only focused on one Indonesian literary work.This matter is due to the lack of data on Indonesian literature about the journey of women's spirituality.Therefore, it is hoped that future researchers can use comparative studies between countries related to women's spirituality journey.Second, literary data on women's spiritual journey narratives are limited, so the researcher was less than optimal in exploring, elaborating, and interpreting the data.Third, this study referred more to psycho-spirituality, so the area of study only leads to the psychological context.For this reason, further researchers can conduct research using integrative studies, namely psychology, and socio-culture, so that research results can be more comprehensive.
In a universal context, this study shows that literature is an essential medium for understanding one's spiritual journey, which sometimes does not appear in non-fiction contexts.In terms of implications, this study contributes to spiritual studies in the context of literature that contains not only fictional things but also has a more aesthetic element, namely spiritualism.In this context, spiritualism that appears in fiction is more aesthetic and fluid when compared to spiritualism in scientific studies.Along with that, concerning the spiritual journey, women also have their own "path" which frees them from other people, even their parents.In this case, women have the authority to undertake a spiritual journey as a form of independent human existence.Currently, in Eastern society, women usually follow the spiritualism of their parents.In this case, spirituality is an inheritance from parents passed down from generation to generation.However, the character Zarah in Partikel showed a uniqueness.Zarah can break the shackles of spirituality passed down for generations.She can choose her path by choosing spiritualism which is indeed her choice, without coercion from others.

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Where do you pray, Zarah?" "In the garden.""Do you mean praying in the open nature?"I nodded."Could it be, you are an animist-dynamist, huh?"What is that anyway?I just nodded.