Download or read book The Goddess written by David Leeming and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For as long as we have sought god, we have found the goddess. Ruling over the imaginations of humankind’s earliest agricultural civilizations, she played a critical spiritual role as a keeper of nature’s fertile powers and an assurance of the next sustaining harvest. In The Goddess, David Leeming and Christopher Fee take us all the way back into prehistory, tracing the goddess across vast spans of time to tell the epic story of the transformation of belief and what it says about who we are. Leeming and Fee use the goddess to gaze into the lives and souls of the people who worshipped her. They chart the development of traditional Western gender roles through an understanding of the transformation of concepts of the Goddess from her earliest roots in India and Iran to her more familiar faces in Ireland and Iceland. They examine the subordination of the goddess to the god as human civilizations became mobile and began to look upon masculine deities for assurances of survival in movement and battle. And they show how, despite this history, the goddess has remained alive in our spiritual imaginations, in figures such as the Christian Virgin Mother and, in contemporary times, the new-age resurrection of figures such as Gaia. The Goddess explores this central aspect of ancient spiritual thought as a window into human history and the deepest roots of our beliefs.
Download or read book Encountering the Dark Goddess written by Frances Billinghurst and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-26 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dark Goddess is often associated with the Underworld where she leads the uninitiated through a transformative journey of self-discovery, change and soul renewal. She is connected with the unwanted, the forgotten, the ignored or even ashamed parts of our psyche. However there is more to her than that. Encountering the Dark Goddess: A Journey into the Shadow Realms guides you through what this challenging facet of the Divine Feminine, the Dark Goddess, is truly about, and encourages you to step through the veils into her hidden realm to explore 13 aspects of herself. Whether you seek healing from past trauma, release from fears or acceptance of the “unacceptable” aspects of your self, Encountering the Dark Goddess: A Journey into the Shadow Realms offers ways for you to transform and heal your life through the power of meditation, ritual and inner journeying with the Dark Goddess into her shadowy realms. Use the 13 goddess myths as a guide to discover how to remove the stagnant and unwanted and embrace the ever changing aspects of life that can drag us into the pits of despair. When we connect to the Dark Goddess, we are able to find the light within the darkness and our lives are enriched through the integration of all aspects of our soul as a perfect whole.
Download or read book In Search of God the Mother written by Lynn E. Roller and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999-07-13 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first thorough account of the nature and the spread of the cult of Cybele, the Great Mother, and the first to present her worship soberly as a religion rather than sensationally as an orgiastic celebration of self-castrated priest-attendants.
Download or read book Cybele s Secret written by Juliet Marillier and published by Knopf Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2008-09-09 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FOR PAULA, ACCOMPANYING her merchant father on a trading voyage to Istanbul is a dream come true. They have come to this city of trade on a special mission to purchase a most rare artifact—a gift from the ancient goddess, Cybele, to her followers. It’s the only remnant of a lost, pagan cult. But no sooner have they arrived when it becomes clear they may be playing at a dangerous game. A colleague and friend of Paula’s father is found murdered. There are rumors of Cybele’s cult reviving within the very walls of Istanbul. And most telling of all, signs have begun to appear to Paula, urging her to unlock Cybele’s secret. Meanwhile, Paula doesn’t know who she can trust in Istanbul, and finds herself drawn to two very different men. As time begins to run out, Paula realizes they may all be tied up in the destiny of Cybele’s Gift, and she must solve the puzzle before unknown but deadly enemies catch up to her. . . .
Download or read book Cybele and Attis written by Maarten Jozef Vermaseren and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Cult of the Black Virgin written by Ean Begg and published by Chiron Publications. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book When God Was A Woman written by Merlin Stone and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, archaeologically documented,is the story of the religion of the Goddess. Under her, women’s roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status.
Download or read book Fierce Angels written by Sheri Parks and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The &“Strong Black Woman&” has been a part of mainstream culture for centuries, as a myth, a goddess, a positive role model, a stereotype, and as a burden. In Fierce Angels, Sheri Parks explores the concept of the Strong Black Woman, its influence on people of all races, and the ways in which black women respond to and are affected by this image. Originating in the ancient Sacred Dark Feminine as a nurturing and fierce goddess, the Strong Black Woman can be found in myths from every continent. Slaves and slave owners alike brought the legend to America, where the spiritual icon evolved into the secular Strong Black Woman, with examples ranging from the slave Mammy to the poet Maya Angelou. She continues to appear in popular culture in television and movies, such as Law and Order and The Help, and as an inspirational symbol associated with the dispossessed in political movements, in particular from Africa. The book presents the stories of historical and living black women who embody the role and puts the icon in its historical and evolutionary context, presenting a balanced account of its negative and positive impact on black culture. This new paperback edition has been revised from the hardcover edition to include two new chapters that expand on the transformative Dark Feminine in alchemy and Western literature and a chapter on the political uses and further potential of the Sacred Dark Feminine in social justice movements in the United States and abroad.
Download or read book Dark Mother written by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2001 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing a feminist perspective to contemporary findings of geneticists and archeologists, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, cultural historian, points out that the oldest veneration we know is of a dark mother of central and south Africa, whose signs-ochre red and the pubic V-were taken by african migrants after 50,000 BCE to caves and cliffs of all continents. The oldest sanctuary in the world was created in 40,000 BCE by african migrants in Har Karkom, later called Mt. Sinai, foundation place of judaism, christianity, and islam.Lucia documents the continuing memory of the dark mother and her values in prehistoric images of the dark mother, in historic black madonnas and in other dark women divinities whose sanctuaries are on african paths. She tracks the memory in rituals and stories of her sicilian grandmothers, in persecution of dark others in patriarchal Europe and the United States, in the rise of nonviolent dark others since the 1960s,in the banners of the 1995 world conference of women at Beijing, and in art. She finds the dark mother's values-justice with compassion, equality, and transformation-in everyday and celebratory rituals of the world's subaltern cultures-and suggests that the image and values are in the submerged memories of everyone.
Download or read book Demography and the Graeco Roman World written by Claire Holleran and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a series of case studies this book demonstrates the wide-ranging impact of demographic dynamics on social, economic and political structures in the Graeco-Roman world. The individual case studies focus on fertility, mortality and migration and the roles they played in various aspects of ancient life. These studies - drawn from a range of populations in Athens and Attica, Rome and Italy, and Graeco-Roman Egypt - illustrate how new insights can be gained by applying demographic methods to familiar themes in ancient history. Methodological issues are addressed in a clear, straightforward manner with no assumption of prior technical knowledge, ensuring that the book is accessible to readers with no training in demography. The book marks an important step forward in ancient historical demography, affirming both the centrality of population studies in ancient history and the contribution that antiquity can make to population history in general.
Download or read book Cathedral of the Black Madonna written by Jean Markale and published by Inner Traditions. This book was released on 2004-10-27 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the connection between ancient druidic worship of a virgin at Chartres and the veneration of the Black Madonna • Examines the Virgin Mary’s origins in the pagan worship of the Mother Goddess • Identifies Mary with the dominant solar goddess of matriarchal societies The great cathedral of Chartres is renowned the world over as a masterpiece of High Gothic architecture and for its remarkable stained glass, considered alchemical glass, and its mystical labyrinth. But the sacred foundations of this sanctuary go back to a time long before Christianity when this site was a clearing where druids worshiped a Virgo Paritura: a virgin about to give birth. This ancient meeting place, where all the druids in Gaul gathered once a year, now houses the magnificent Chartres cathedral dedicated both to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and to one of the most venerated Black Madonnas in Europe: Our Lady of the Pillar. Coincidence? Hardly, says Jean Markale, whose exhaustive examination of the site traces Chartres’ roots back to prehistoric times and the appeal of the Black Madonna back to the ancient widespread worship of Mother Goddesses such as Cybele and Isis. Markale contends that the mother and child depicted by the Black Madonna are descended from the image worshipped by the druids of the Virgin forever giving birth. This image is not merely a representation of maternal love--albeit of a spiritual nature. It is a theological notion of great refinement: the Virgin gives birth ceaselessly to a world, a God, and a humanity in perpetual becoming.
Download or read book The Goddess Guide written by Priestess Brandi Auset and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2009 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing the most complete cross-reference ever for the universal worship of the Divine Feminine. The Goddess Guide is indispensable for anyone who's ever wondered which Goddess to invoke for a particular ritual, blessing, prayer, or meditation. Easy to use and comprehensive, this essential book provides instant, at-a-glance info on more than 400 goddesses from diverse cultures, belief systems, and traditions around the world. All goddesses are clearly organized according to: Names Attributes Colors The Four Elements The Sabbats Geographical Regions Feminine Aspects (Maiden, Mother, and Crone) Whether you are a beginner or a long-standing practitioner who seeks a deeper connection with Goddess energy in your life, this guide to the Divine Feminine deserves a special place on your bookshelf.
Download or read book The Social Structure of Islam written by Reuben Levy and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2000 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book Sophia written by Caitlin Matthews and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2013-09-20 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anyone interested in the feminine face of God throughout the ages will find Sophia an illuminating experience. Caitlin Matthews' scholarship connects us to past, present, and future in the very depths of our femininity. ----Marion Woodman, Jungian analyst and author of Bone: Dying into Life. Sophia, or "wisdom" in Greek, has been revered in many forms throughout history--from the Dark Goddess of ancient Anatolia; to her Egyptian, Greek, Celtic, and Cabalistic manifestations; to her current forms as Mary and the orthodox St. Sophia. In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Sophia sits with God until the creation. Then she falls into matter and becomes manifest in every atom, permeating all things "like the sparks that run through charcoal," as Matthews says. While God is "out there," the Goddess is "in here"-- the mother-wit of practical inspiration and compassion at the heart's core. This definitive work comprehensively establishes a realistic Goddess theology for Westerners in the twenty-first century: grounding spirituality in daily life and the natural world; learning to work playfully and play seriously; ending the gender war to enjoy sacred marriage.
Download or read book Dark Goddess Tarot written by and published by . This book was released on 2013-09-23 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 78 card tarot deck with a powerful female figure depicted on each card. In a two-part box with a 28 page booklet.
Download or read book Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna written by Alessandra Belloni and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 574 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An experiential guide to the ancient healing rituals of the Black Madonna • Reveals the practices and rites of the still-living cult of the Black Madonna in the remote villages of Southern Italy, including the healing rites of the tarantella dance • Details shamanic chants, rhythms, and songs and how to use them for self-healing, transformation, and recovery from abuse, trauma, depression, and addiction • Explores the many sacred sites of the Madonnas and connects them to other Great Goddesses, such as Isis, Aphrodite, Cybeles, and the Orisha Yemanja and Ochun • Includes access to 12 audio tracks The mysteries of the Black Madonna can be traced to pre-Christian times, to the ancient devotion to Isis, the Earth Goddess, and the African Mother, to the era when God was not only female but also black. Sacred sites of the Black Madonna are still revered in Italy, and, as Alessandra Belloni reveals, the shamanic healing traditions of the Black Madonna are still alive today and just as powerful as they were millennia ago. Sharing her more than 35 years of research and fieldwork at sacred sites around the world, Belloni takes you on a mystical pilgrimage of empowerment, initiation, and transformation with the Black Madonna. She explains how her love for Italian folk music led her to learn the ancient tammorriata musical tradition of the Earth Goddess Cybele and the Moon Goddess Diana and discover the still-living cult of the Black Madonna in the remote villages of Southern Italy. She vividly describes the sensual shamanic drumming and ecstatic trance dance rituals she experienced there, including the rites of the tammorriata, the transgender rite of Femminielli, and the erotic “spider dance” of the tarantella, which has been used for centuries in the Mediterranean for healing. Sharing chants, rhythms, and sacred songs, she details how she uses these therapeutic musical and trance practices to heal women and men from abuse, trauma, depression, and addiction and shows how these practices can be used for self-healing and transformation, including her personal story of using the tarantella to overcome cervical cancer. Revealing the profound transformative power of the Black Madonna, Belloni shows how She is the womb of the earth, the dark side of the moon, and the Universal Mother to all. Truly alive for all to call upon, She embraces and gives everyone access to Her divine strength and unconditional love.
Download or read book The Book of Goddesses written by and published by ABRAMS. This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One hundred of these goddesses, each with a page of informative text presented in words and art.
