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Begg, Ean.
The Cult of the Black Virgin. A curious book fascinated with the
Priory of Sion, the bloodline of Jesus and other ideas recently made
famous by The Da Vinci Code. It also has lots of lore about the
Black Madonna cult and sites all over Europe. If you’re travelling in
Europe you’ll want to take a copy along.
Bird, Stephanie Rose. Sticks, Stones, Roots and Bones. Herbal
healing and magik from Africa, Native America and Europe. (ISBN:
0-7387-0275-7)
Bolen, Jean Shinoda. Goddesses in Everywoman: a New Psychology of
Women. Seven Greek goddesses as psychological types in women today,
helping us to see both positive values and negative tendencies. A Jungian
perspective.
Boucher, Sandy. Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion. Devotion
to Kwan Yin among Asian-American women and American women of European
origin. It also includes meditations, practices, and songs. A book that
nourishes the heart. (ISBN: 0-8070-1341-2)
Cameron, Anne. Daughters of Copper Woman. Myths, legends and lore
from a Native American tribe on Vancouver Island. Here are Goddess images
still alive in spite of the pressures of the dominant culture. Cameron
tells the tales told to her and also writes some powerful poetry. (ISBN:
0-88974-022-4)
Canan, Janine, ed. She Rises Like the Sun: Invocations of the Goddess
by Contemporary American Women Poets. The subtitle says it all. A rich
collection. (ISBN: 0-89594-352-2)
Carnes, Robin Deen & Sally Craig. Sacred Circles. How to
develop women’s spirituality groups. (ISBN: 0-06-251522-5)
Christ, Carol P. Rebirth of the Goddess. What if we try to do/write
thealogy from a Goddess perspective? Christ has made a long journey from
academic Christianity to a Goddess-centered life. In this book she takes
the old theological tools and re-envisions them to write in a personal
voice of the Divine as “intelligent embodied love.” (ISBN:
0-415-92186-4)
Craighead, Meinrad. The Mother’s Songs: Images of God the Mother.
A collection of marvelous, evocative paintings with Craighead’s words
about each. God the Mother has been with the artist since childhood and
has emerged in beauty to be shared with us all. A book to savor. (ISBN:
0-8091-2716-4)
Daly, Mary. Wickedary. A feminist dictionary. (ISBN: 0-8070-6733-4)
Downing, Christine. The Goddess: Mythological Images of the Feminine.
The author’s sense of her relationship with a series of Greek goddesses.
Some seem naturally a part of her; others she struggles with.
Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. Starting
with the work of Gimbutas and other archaeologists, Eisler explores the
concept of equalitarian (her word) societies which are non-hierarchical
and have equal status for women and men. A way out of patriarchy.
Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and
Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. Estes, both a Jungian analyst and
a storyteller, gives us stories that speak to our unconscious, expressing
our weaknesses and our strengths and freeing us to be untamed, to be
ourselves. (ISBN: 0-345-37744-3)
Gallard, China. Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna. A
spiritual journey with physical journeys to India, Nepal and Poland to
find the dark and feminine face of the divine, also reconciling her
Buddhist present and her Roman Catholic past. (ISBN: 0-670-82818-1)
Gimbutas, Marija. The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. Gimbutas
spent decades excavating archaeological sites in the Balkans. This book
focuses on that region between 6500 and 3500 BCE, millenia in which there
is no evidence of warfare or of male heirarchy. There is much
evidence that goddesses were central to these people. This book is
essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what a goddess
culture looks like. (ISBN: 0-520-04655-2)
Hall, Nor. The Moon and the Virgin. Reflections on the archetypal
feminine. Symbols and myths are explored as they relate to female
psychology and spirituality. The Goddesses Psyche, Artemis, Hetaira, Sibyl
and the Wise Old Woman are explored. (ISBN: 0-06-090793-2)
Kidd, Sue Monk. Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Kidd tells her
journey from a southern Evangelical Christian to a woman centered in a
feminine sense of the Divine. She also tells of her minister husband’s
struggle to accept his wife’s changing spirituality.
Kinstler, Clysta. The Moon Under Her Feet. Restores the lost
significances of Priestess and Goddess in the Bible. (ISBN: 0-06-250497-5)
Lauter, Estella & Carol Schreier Rupprecht, eds. Feminist
Archetypal Theory. Feminist interpretation of the archetypes; Jungian
in orientation. (ISBN: 0-87049-447-3)
Leloup, Jean-Yves. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene. The fragmented
remains of this neglected gospel are only a few pages, but the commentary
on the life of the soul gives a picture of early Christian thought that is
heartening for its love and compassion. (ISBN: 0-89281-911-1)
Mahdi, Louise Carus, Steven Foster & Meredith Little, eds. Betwixt
and Between: Patterns of Masculine and Feminine Initiation. Stories
and their analysis about psychological and physical initiations. (ISBN:
0-8126-9048-6)
Monaghan, Patricia. O Mother Sun! Remember all those books in which
the sun is always male? (Jung thought the Japanese were some strange
aberration.) This book brings us the rich mythology of sun goddess from
many cultures. (ISBN: 0-89594-722-6)
Mookorjee, Ajit. Kali: The Feminine Force. Step into a vey
different culture and perspective of the divine. Kali is both a terrible
death-dealing force and the venerated Mother of many Hindu mystics. The
author is a devotee.
Paris, Ginette. Pagan Meditations. Thoughtful and idiosyncratic
meditations on various aspects of Aphrodite, Hestia, and Artemis -- their
relationships with our psyches and our times. (ISBN: 0-88214-330-1)
Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddess. From archeological evidence to
Kabalistic writings, Patai traces a rich history of the Divine Feminine in
Judaism. (ISBN: 0-380-38289-5)
Perera, Sylvia Brinton. Descent to the Goddess. At last, a depth
psychology book using a non-Greek goddess. Here the model is Inanna’s
journey to the underworld to face the negative feminine. This book assumes
some acquaintance with Jungian vocabulary, but is worth the effort,
especially if you have struggled with depression. (Who is Inanna? See
Wolkenstein and Kramer.)
Pollack, Rachel. The Body of the Goddess: Sacred Wisdom in Myth,
Landscape and Culture. A wise and exciting book exploring embodiment,
a central concept of feminist spirituality. She discusses the Goddess as
embodied in landscape, cave paintings, sculpture, temple architecture,
stories, ideas, and ourselves -- all ways of making the Goddess visible.
(ISBN: 1-85230-871-0)
Rush, Anne Kent. Moon, Moon. Moon cycles, mysteries, traditions and
lore celebrated for hundreds of years by people. (ISBN: 394-73230-8)
Rutter, Virginia Beane. Woman Changing Woman. Feminine Psychology
re-conceived through myth and experience. Excellent account of the Navajo
ceremony of young women entering womanhood by going through a days long
ritual where they become Changing Woman. Beane Rutter focuses on
containment, transformation and emergence. (ISBN: 0-06-251071-1)
Shuttle, Penelope & Peter Redgrove. The Wise Wound, The Myths,
Realities and Meanings of Menstruation. In depth study of menstruation
throughout history and many cultures. (ISBN: 0-8021-1136-X)
Starbird, Margaret. The Woman With the Alabaster Jar. Starbird set
out to refute the “heresies” that Jesus had siblings and a wife, but
found the supporting evidence to be overpowering. She weaves a tale that
may have been, and buttresses her conclusions with evidence from early
writings including the Bible, heraldry and medieval art, symbolism and
mythology. (ISBN: 1-879181-03-7)
Starbird, Margaret. Magdalene’s Lost Legacy. Starbird decodes the
symbolic numbers that reveal the presence of the divine feminine in the
New Testament. (ISBN: 1-591-43012-7)
Starhawk. Dreaming the Dark. Excellent study of politics, sex, and
magic. Rituals, chants and songs are included as well as personal stories
from Starhawk. (ISBN: 0-8070-1037-5)
Starhawk. The Earth Path. Reconnecting with the earth and her
cycles for healing of us all. (ISBN: 0-06-000092-9)
Starhawk. The Spiral Dance. An exploration of Wicca (witchcraft) as
a valid religious/spiritual choice for our time. Imagery in this book is
of both Goddess and God. She explores what it’s like to live with this
worldview, including how you approach ethics from a polytheistic
viewpoint. Contains a lot of resources for rituals. (ISBN: 0-06-067535-7)
Stone, Merlin. Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood. A treasury of Goddess
and Heroine lore from around the world. Excellent stories of goddesses and
heroines; very useful for ritual and understanding feminine psychology.
Well researched. (ISBN: 0-8070-6719-9)
Telesco, Patricia. 365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and
inspiration of the goddess. Each one page entry presents one goddess
holiday chosen from cultures around the world. It gives the goddess' name,
her themes, her story and a ritual to celebrate the goddess in one's own
life on each day of the year. Rituals are very simple, brief and easy to
do using common household items. (ISBN: 0-06-251568-3)
Weber, Christin Lore. WomanChrist. Weber has stayed within
Christianity by radically re-interpreting the concept of Christ. This is a
useful book for women who feel the importance of balancing Christian
imagery and Goddess imagery in their lives. (ISBN: 0-06-254830-1)
Wolkstein, Diane & Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna, Queen of Heaven and
Earth. A powerful myth written down 4,500 years ago and unearthed in
pieces 100 years ago. Unlike Persephone, Inanna chooses to go down
to the underworld, where she encounters not a god but a fellow goddess. A
story of death and rebirth that can speak to the deepest part of
ourselves. (ISBN: 0-06-090854-8)
Woolger, Jennifer Barker & Roger J. Woolger. The Goddess Within. Six
Greek Godesses as aspects of a woman’s psyche, including a questionnaire
to help you see which goddess(es) predominate in your life and suggestions
for balancing them within you. (ISBN: 0-449-90287-0)
FICTION
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Forest House; Lady of Avalon; Priestess of
Avalon. These three books are prequels to Bradley’s well-known Mists
of Avalon, and take us through the preceding centuries from the Roman
conquest of Britain in the first century A.D. until the fourth. During
this time the women of Avalon trust in the power of the Goddess to
influence the fate of their land.
Brown, Dan. The DaVinci Code. Just in case you are not one of the
millions of people who have read it. Lots of goddess lore and Mary
Magdalene info in small to medium chunks in between chase episodes. A
page-turner of the page-turniest sort.
Cunningham, Elizabeth. The Return of the Goddess. Excellent novel
about a woman married to a minister who comes to discover the deeper
meanings of earth based spirituality. Humorous and touching.
Diamant, Anita. The Red Tent. Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter, tells
her story as it never appears in the Bible. A dynamic insight into the
world of women in the Age of Genesis, portraying the culture of the time
and the strength of the women who lived it. (ISBN: 0-312-19551-6)
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. A Southern white girl in
her early teens who has a difficult relationship with her father goes
looking for understanding of her dead mother. She finds a house of black
women who nourish her with a sense of the feminine divine.
Tarr, Judith. White Mare’s Daughter. When a warrior tribe enters
the land of Goddess worshippers, cultures clash and two remarkable
individuals, seeing the inevitable, steer their people through turbulent
times. Adventure, passion, love and ideals motivate Sarama, Agni and Danu.
(ISBN: 0-312-87556-8)
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