The Rotting Goddess

Literary Nonfiction.

The first book to seriously study the double goddess that figures prominently in Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures. • Offers an important symbol for modern women seeking to reconnect with their ancient, integral sense of self and wholeness. • Presents an archetype for the sacred potential of female bonding, whether between mother and daughter, teacher and student, friends, or lovers. • Illustrated with 149 examples of double goddess images. Numerous figures depicting two women in intimate relation with one another, or as a single body with two heads, have been discovered in important centers of early civilizations such as Catal Huyuk and Gozo. These have been routinely ignored by scholars or dismissed as mere dolls with no sacred connotations whatsoever. Vicki Noble shows, to the contrary, that this double goddess is an ancient icon that can considerably expand our understanding of female sovereignty, as well as provide contemporary women with a way to reconnect with the integral sense of self and wholeness enjoyed by their ancestors. Ancient Goddess religion was informed by the organic cycles of nature--the dual poles of Life and Death. The double goddess represents phenomena such as the Earth-Moon pair, the Upper-Underworld pair, the Summer and Winter poles of the seasonal year, and the dual poles of the female biological reality of menstruation and ovulation--the dark and the light. The double goddess in all her varied forms also depicts the vast array of potential relationships women can form with themselves and each other. This book is a celebration of an archetype that not only empowers women, but also teaches them how to share that power with each other.

Learn the myths and legends behind this beloved goddess plus practices and suggestions for making Hekate part of your spiritual path. Courtney Weber (author of Brigid and The Morrigan) offers an informed, accessible journey through the lore and history of Hekate, the ancient goddess of crossroads, ghosts, and witchcraft, and reflects on Hekate’s relevance today. Tools and techniques for incorporating this goddess into your personal journey round out the book. Similar to her other works, Weber strikes a balance between the scholarly and the spiritual. Her exploration of Hekate combines solid research with practical, modern applications. The spiritual content is accessible to anyone with an interest in witchcraft, regardless of their faith or background. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of Hekate, exploring original mythology, historical context, and contemporary connotations, concluding with spells and personal rituals. The final chapter is a grimoire full of rituals, offerings, and other practices designed to help readers align themselves with this extraordinary goddess. The book also explores magickal ethics, what it means to be a witch in the twenty-first century, and best practices for successful witchcraft.

More Than 1,000 Goddesses & Heroines from around the World Groundbreaking scholar Patricia Monaghan spent her life researching, writing about, and documenting goddesses and heroines from all religions and all corners of the globe. Her work demonstrated that from the beginning of recorded history, goddesses reigned alongside their male counterparts as figures of inspiration and awe. Drawing on anthropology, folklore, literature, and psychology, Monaghan’s vibrant and accessible encyclopedia covers female deities from Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, Asia and Oceania, Europe, and the Americas, as well as every major religious tradition.

THE DA VINCI CODE tapped a deep fascination for the sacred feminine hidden at the heart of Christianity. Best-selling author Tim Ward digs deeper into this mystery, propelling the reader into the pre-Christian Goddess religions of the Mediterranean. Ward confronts tough questions * Are men threatened by the innate power of the feminine? * Why do men abuse, rape, and dominate women? Shouldnt loving relationships with the opposite sex be natural and easy? * Did we all lose an essential part of ourselves when we turned our back on the feminine divine? * How would opening to the feminine face of God help men resolve their issues with women? * What would it take for men to really let go of patriarchy and genuinely accept women as equals?To answer these questions, Ward decided to seek out the Goddess, with his own demons in tow. Over a period of three years he travelled to the ruined temples and shrines of the Goddess in the cradles of Western Civilization. At each he encountered one aspect of the many faces of the Goddess. He vividly recreates the experience of ancient believers the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter, the sexual rites of the priestesses of Aphrodite, and a human sacrifice on a mountaintop shrine in Crete. And in Turkey he sits at the feet of the many-breasted Artemis of Ephesus, whose rioting followers once threatened to kill the Apostle Paul. Facing the Goddess unleashes turbulent emotions for Ward. With frank honesty he describes the traumas that erupt in his relationship with the woman he loves, who accompanied him on many of his journeys.

Venice and Padua are neighboring cities with a topographical and geopolitical distinction. Venice is a port city in the Venetian Lagoon, which opened up towards Byzantium and the East. Padua on the mainland was founded in Roman times and is a university city, a place of Humanism and research into antiquity. The contributions analyze works of art as aesthetic formulations of their places of origin, which however also have an effect on and expand their surroundings. International experts investigate how these two different concepts stimulated each other in the Early Modern Age, and how the exchange worked.

Female characters assumed increasing prominence in the narratives of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century opera. And for contemporary audiences, many of these characters--and the celebrated women who played them--still define opera at its finest and most searingly affective, even if storylines leave them swooning and faded by the end of the drama. The presence and representation of women in opera has been addressed in a range of recent studies that offer valuable insights into the operatic stage as cultural space, focusing a critical lens at the text and the position and signification of female characters. Moving that lens onto the historical, The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century sheds light on the singers who created and inhabited these roles, the flesh-and-blood women who embodied these fabled "doomed women" onstage before an audience. Editors Rachel Cowgill and Hilary Poriss lead a cast of renowned contributors in an impressive display of current approaches to the lives, careers, and performances of female opera singers. Essential theoretical perspectives reflect several broad themes woven through the volume-cultures of celebrity surrounding the female singer; the emergence of the quasi-mythical figure of the diva; explorations of the intricate and sundry arts associated with the prima donna, and with her representation in other media; and the diversity and complexity of contemporary responses to her. The prima donna influenced compositional practices, determined musical and dramatic interpretation, and affected management decisions about the running of the opera house, content of the season, and employment of other artists--a clear demonstration that her position as "first woman" extended well beyond the boards of the operatic stage itself. The Arts of the Prima Donna in the Long Nineteenth Century is an important addition to the collections of students and researchers in opera studies, nineteenth-century music, performance and gender/sexuality studies, and cultural studies, as well as to the shelves of opera singers and enthusiasts.

Despite the dramatic expansion of modern technology, which defines and dominates many aspects of contemporary life and thought, the Western magical traditions are currently undergoing an international resurgence. In this overview of the modern occult revival, Drury traces the rise of various forms of magical belief and practice.