The subject of Ancient Goddess cultures fascinates me. So when I found the book, The Once & Future Goddess by Elinor Gadon, I was thrilled! This thick book of about 400 pages, covers Goddess culture from the beginning of time, to now, and everything in between. It's chock full of great information about every facet of the Goddess you can think of. I sincerely loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in our Great Goddess.
The first part of this book covers different Ancient Goddess cultures, starting with Paleolithic and Ice Age, and going on to Catal Huyuk, Malta, Avebury, Minoan Crete and many more. The depth of information about each of these cultures is incredible. The stories of their personal worship and how it has evolved over thousands of years is quite inspiring. The time period for these cultures start at around 35,000 years ago, and lead up to a time of the great ancient city of Catal Huyuk at about 7,000 BCE. This great settlement was located in Anatolia, which is now modern day Turkey. Catal Huyuk has captivated me entirely, and I yearn to learn more. Elinor Gadon does a great job painting a picture of this fascinating settlement, as she does for each and every other culture as well. It is very obvious to see, that to these ancient people, this wasnt just a religion, it was most certainly a way of life. That is shown in each and every detail of their day to day life and their ancient rituals.
The second to last half of this book goes over modern day Goddess worship. From modern day practitioners, to female artists and feminists, she doesn't miss a thing when it comes to the divine feminine. There is also many pictures of ancient Goddess figurines, modern day Goddess artwork, and other feminine qualities throughout this entire book. In the beginning of this book, there is a time line of Goddess figurines. In the back of this book, there is another time line, and notes which the author gets from other books on the subject. So not only is this book full of great information, she evens gives ideas for other authors who write on similar subjects!
I just can't rave enough about The Once & Future Goddess by Elinor Gadon! Please check out this book, you'll be happy you did. Thank you Elinor for enlightening the world on our Ancient love of the Goddess!
Blessings )O(
Just to point out that this book was published 20 years ago, and may not be readily available in some parts of the world.
ReplyDeleteFor example, it is not available, new, from Amazon UK.
It is however available through Amazon, second hand, for the price of just one penny.
I was able to read the first few pages on Amazon. The author begins by saying that Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey is a move away from the Goddess. In fact, Joseph Campbell is about the journey TO the Goddess, and unification with the Goddess. 'Atonement', for a woman, means self-identification with the Earth and Nature. It's all explained in Jung.
I'll get a copy. For one penny, I can't go wrong.
Yes Robur, I bought it used for about $2.00. It is an older book, but the information is fantastic. They have this book sold by many different people on amazon used. I think that is your best bet.
ReplyDeleteI'm adding this one onto my list of history books. Right now I'm in the middle of The Golden Bough, but this one might have to be next.
ReplyDeleteI have this book and just started reading it. If the rest of the book is anything like the introduction, this is going to be a great read! Glad you posted about this.
ReplyDelete