The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe

The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe PDF

Author: Sharon Paice MacLeod

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2013-12-07

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1476613923

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This book is an exploration of the spiritual traditions of ancient Europe, focusing on the numinous presence of the divine feminine in Russia, Central Europe, France, Britain, Ireland and the northern regions. Drawing upon research in archaeology, history, sociology, anthropology and the study of religions to connect the reader with the myths and symbols of the European traditions, the book shows how the power of European goddesses and holy women evolved through the ages, adapting to climate change and social upheaval, but continually reflecting the importance of living in an harmonious relationship with the environment and the spirit world. From the cave painting of southern France to ancient Irish tombs, from shamanic rituals to Arthurian legends, the divine feminine plays an essential role in understanding where we have come from and where we are going. Comparative examples from other native cultures, and quotes from spiritual leaders around the world, set European religions in context with other indigenous cultures.

Goddesses and the Divine Feminine

Goddesses and the Divine Feminine PDF

Author: Rosemary Ruether

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-11-20

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 9780520250055

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"The scholarship in this book is superior, revealing a depth of insight and a scope of knowledge possible only from a scholar who has lived with the concerns of feminist theology for decades. Ruether is a gifted storyteller, and lucidly translates complex ideas and debates. This work is of the highest importance, and Ruether asks the right questions at the right time. The text is groundbreaking."—Nancy Pineda-Madrid, Saint Mary's College of California "Ruether has provided a valuable introduction to an important feminist topic: what can we know about sacred female imagery in Western culture? She guides us through contemporary feminist scholarship, providing engaging narrative, and venturing her own interpretations. Ruether calls for feminists to move beyond divisions created by our different interpretations of prehistory and work together towards our common project of a more peaceful, just, and ecological world."—Carol Hepokoski, Meadville Lombard Theological School

The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece

The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece PDF

Author: Sue Blundell

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-12-05

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1134799853

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In classical Greece women were almost entirely excluded from public life. Yet the feminine was accorded a central place in religious thought and ritual.This volume explores the often paradoxical centrality of the feminine in Greek culture, showing how out of sight was not out of mind. The contributors adopt perspectives from a wide range of disciplines, such as archaeology, art history, psychology and anthropology, in order to investigate various aspects of religion and cult. They include the part played by women in death ritual, the role of heroines, and the fact that goddesses had no childhood, at the same time posing questions about how we know what rituals meant to their participants. The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece is a lively and colourful exploration of the ways in which religion and ritual reveal women's importance in the Greek polis, showing how ideologies about female roles and behaviour were both endorsed and challenged in the realm of the sacred.

Sacred Display

Sacred Display PDF

Author: Miriam Robbins Dexter

Publisher:

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 9781624992360

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This book discusses erotic and magical goddesses and heroines in several ancient cultures, from the Near East and Asia, and throughout ancient Europe; in prehistoric and early historic iconography, their magical qualities are often indicated by a magical dance or stance. It is a look at female display figures both cross-culturally and cross-temporally, through texts and iconography, beginning with figures depicted in very early Neolithic Anatolia, early and middle Neolithic southeast Europe--Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia--continuing through the late Neolithic in East Asia, and into early historic Greece, India, and Ireland, and elsewhere across the world. These very similar female figures were depicted in Anatolia, Europe, Southern Asia, and East Asia, in a broad chronological sweep, beginning with the pre-pottery Neolithic, ca. 9000 BCE, and existing from the beginning of the second millennium of this era up to the present era. This book demonstrates the extraordinary similarities, in a broad geographic range, of depictions and descriptions of magical female figures who give fertility and strength to the peoples of their cultures by means of their magical erotic powers. This book uniquely contains translations of texts which describe these ancient female figures, from a multitude of Indo-European, Near Eastern, and East Asian works, a feat only possible given the authors' formidable combined linguistic expertise in over thirty languages. The book contains many photographs of these geographically different, but functionally and artistically similar, female figures. Many current books (academic and otherwise) explore some of the female figures the authors discuss in their book, but such a wide-ranging cross-cultural and cross-temporal view of this genre of female figures has never been undertaken until now. The "sexual" display of these female figures reflects the huge numinosity of the prehistoric divine feminine, and of her magical genitalia. The functions of fertility and apotropaia, which count among the functions of the early historic display and dancing figures, grow out of this numinosity and reflect the belief in and honoring of the powers of the ancient divine feminine.

Goddesses and the Divine Feminine

Goddesses and the Divine Feminine PDF

Author: Rosemary Ruether

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2006-11-20

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 0520250052

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Presents a portrait of sacred female and goddess imagary in Western culture, from their creation to the present day.

Ancient Goddesses

Ancient Goddesses PDF

Author: Lucy Goodison

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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The nurturing Earth Goddess, the Great Mother worshipped at the dawn of civilization—historical fact or consoling fiction? While Goddess mythologies proliferate and the public devours books by artists, psychotherapists, and enthusiastic amateurs, it is remarkable that those in the field of prehistory have remained largely silent. Did Goddess worship really exist? What actually remains from the earliest cultures, and what can it tell us? What can we learn about the early stages of human religion from the study of prehistoric carvings, pictures, pottery, figurines, and temples? In Ancient Goddesses, historians and archaeologists write accessibly about this intriguing and controversial topic for the first time. Considering a number of significant early civilizations—Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt; “Old Europe;” Early North West Europe; “Celtic” civilization; the Prehistoric Aegean; Malta; the Ancient Near East; Old Testament Israel; Çatalhöyük; and Archaic Greece—these experts review the most recent evidence so that readers can make up their own minds. Contributors include Ruth Tringham and Margaret Conkey, University of California, Berkeley; Lynn Meskell, New College, Oxford; Fekri Hassan, University College, London; Karel van der Toorn, University of Amsterdam; Joan Westenholz, Bible Lands Museum, Jerusalem; Elizabeth Shee Twohig, University College, Cork; Caroline Malone, New Hall, Cambridge; Mary Voyatzis, University of Arizona; and Miranda Green, University of Wales College.

Divine Feminine

Divine Feminine PDF

Author: Joy Dixon

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2003-05-01

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0801875307

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Honorable Mention for the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical AssociationChosen by Choice Magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2003 In 1891, newspapers all over the world carried reports of the death of H. P. Blavatsky, the mysterious Russian woman who was the spiritual founder of the Theosophical Society. With the help of the equally mysterious Mahatmas who were her teachers, Blavatsky claimed to have brought the "ancient wisdom of the East" to the rescue of a materialistic West. In England, Blavatsky's earliest followers were mostly men, but a generation later the Theosophical Society was dominated by women, and theosophy had become a crucial part of feminist political culture. Divine Feminine is the first full-length study of the relationship between alternative or esoteric spirituality and the feminist movement in England. Historian Joy Dixon examines the Theosophical Society's claims that women and the East were the repositories of spiritual forces which English men had forfeited in their scramble for material and imperial power. Theosophists produced arguments that became key tools in many feminist campaigns. Many women of the Theosophical Society became suffragists to promote the spiritualizing of politics, attempting to create a political role for women as a way to "sacralize the public sphere." Dixon also shows that theosophy provides much of the framework and the vocabulary for today's New Age movement. Many of the assumptions about class, race, and gender which marked the emergence of esoteric religions at the end of the nineteenth century continue to shape alternative spiritualities today.

Encyclopedia of the Divine Feminine

Encyclopedia of the Divine Feminine PDF

Author: Tamara Von Forslun

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2021-05-26

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1664105697

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No matter what land, culture, country or faith, the Goddess is alive and well and attracting not only women to Her many paths and Her Mysteries but also men who have realised and awakened the feminine within and without as needed in this time of great uncertainty. It is time not to suppress the feminine, but Empower Her, so the world can see the true beauty in everything that She stands for and represents. She is not separate from the world, She is the world, and everything has a little light of the Goddess within them if they only take off their blinkers and let Her shine forth. Let us all now honour the Great Mother and in this great hour of need for a Mother, let us honour all Mothers throughout women’s forgotten past and listen to Her-story not his-story. It is the Patriarchal religions of the world that have created a world of uncertainty, imbalance, and fear. Let us NOW through the Divine Feminine remove the imbalance of the patriarchal warring world and assist our own community in EMPOWERING women and men to awaken to a world of harmony, peace and equilibrium, The Golden Age of Harmony and Equilibrium is NOW!. Let us as a sisterhood, daughters, nieces, sisters, mothers, grandmothers and all women and men under the Light of the Goddess in all Her cultures, names, and differences awaken Her to our world, and through us let Her shine. In honouring the Great Mother we shall spread Her love and honour all Mothers, all women of every faith, culture, and path. “May The Goddess hold you gently in the palms of Her hands, And always close to Her heart!” Lady Tamara Von Forslun Elder High Priestess of the Clan of Boskednan – Tribe of the Crow

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