* Silver Medal Winner in the prestigious Nautilus Book Award Competition 2016. * Winner of of the 2016 "Best Book" Awards as a Finalist in the 'Spirituality: Inspirational' category. * Finalist in the Spirituality: Inspirational category in the 2016 International Book Awards. This empowering, poetic and magically potent book will entice women of all ages to explore and activate their relationship with the divine, feminine and most sacred part of themselves-their goddess within. In this book, Back to the Goddess founder Ren e Starr takes women on an enchanting, inspiring journey, offering ancient wisdom in a fresh, modern way to help woman reclaim their beauty, grace, and strength. In Part 1, she leads readers back through history to revisit the reverence for women that every ancient culture possessed. From the dawn of pre-history, women were perceived as holy, sacred, and divine incarnations of the Great Mother Goddess. Powerful figures full of strength, wisdom, and leadership, women were the keepers of the human race, from which all life flowed. In Part 2, Starr retells in mesmerizing narrative 7 goddess myths from ancient cultures around the world: Ancient Egypt, Africa, India, Tibet, Ancient Greece, Lakota, and the Judeo-Christian Bible. Each myth presents a quality that modern women can restore into their lives: Lilith (Power), Yemaya (Creativity), Tara (Stillness), Radha (Passion), Kassandra (Voice), White Buffalo Calf Woman (Wisdom), and Eve (Awakening). Accompanying each myth are anointing, bathing and lunar rituals, instructions for altars, invocations, meditations, and more. In Part 3, Starr shows women how to integrate the teachings of The Divine Feminine into everyday life, honoring the sacredness of their body and how to be in energetic, feminine balance. The book offers fresh, new ways for women to embrace their ancient and sacred traditions. It uplifts the spirit of any woman-from young womanhood to her elder, wise-woman years. It honors the Feminine spirit that all women can celebrate in themselves to rebalance the world. Readers will live more fulfilled lives and feel more confident, free and feminine...becoming the goddesses they were meant to be. Beautifully designed; includes a foreword by Raquel Allegra, noted fashion designer.

"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

Endorsements: "A calm, well-balanced, carefully prepared book. . . . Excellent for adult Bible discussion groups, for occasional sermons, for suggesting ways of inclusive language. This book teaches and directs without antagonizing." --The Bible Today "A persuasive book, useful for personal reflection and group discussion, and ideal for gift-giving." --Daughters of Sarah "This is no dry erudite volume. It rubs salve in personal wounds inflicted by centuries of biblical misreading." --Sojourners "The book reflects careful research; it is written in a style that will appeal to those interested in the implications of biblical research but without the time or inclination to follow the involved discussions of biblical scholarship." --National Catholic Reporter

"A variety of Chinese writings-medical texts, religious treatises, fiction, and anecdotes-from the Song period (960-1279) depict women who were considered peculiar because their sexual bodies did not belong to men. These were women who refused to marry, were considered unmarriageable, or were married but denied their husbands sexual access, thereby removing themselves from social constructs of female sexuality defined in relation to men. As elite male authors attempted to make sense of these incomprehensible women whose sexual bodies were unavailable to them, they were forced to contemplate the purpose of women's bodies and lives apart from wifehood and motherhood. This raised troubling new questions about normalcy, desire, sexuality, and identity. In Divine, Demonic, and Disordered Hsiao-wen Cheng considers accounts of "manless women," many of which depict women who suffered from "enchantment disorder" or who engaged in "intercourse with ghosts"-conditions with specific symptoms and behavioral patterns. Through her questioning of conventional binary gender analyses and heteronormative assumptions, she shifts attention away from women's reproductive bodies and familial roles and offers historians of China and readers interested in women, gender, sexuality, medicine, and religion a fresh look at the unstable meanings attached to women's behaviors and lives even in a time of codified patriarchy"--

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.

The twentieth anniversary edition of a transformative blueprint for ancestral healing—featuring new material and gateways, from the renowned herbalist, natural health expert, and healer of women’s bodies and souls “This book was one of the first that helped me start practices as a young woman that focused on my body and spirit as one.”—Jada Pinkett Smith Through extraordinary meditations, affirmations, holistic healing plant-based medicine, KMT temple teachings, and The Rites of Passage guidance, Queen Afua teaches us how to love and rejoice in our bodies by spiritualizing the words we speak, the foods we eat, the relationships we attract, the spaces we live and work in, and the transcendent woman spirit we manifest. With love, wisdom, and passion, Queen Afua guides us to accept our mission and our mantle as Sacred Women—to heal ourselves, the generations of women in our families, our communities, and our world.

For millennia a patriarchal society has ruled to the exclusion of the feminine or the Goddess who was peacefully worshipped before being completely replaced by a warrior Father God. The Goddess and hence women have been relegated to second-class citizens. The concept of woman as defined by traditional patriarchal society has disempowered the female sex and deemed them inferior. This exclusion and denigration of the divine feminine has done serious damage to women and men both individually and collectively, not to mention the damage this masculine mindset has caused to the environment through wars and other aggressive acts. In this dissertation, the history of the Goddess from the Paleolithic to the present is discussed and causes for the rise of patriarchy, such as invasions by warrior cults, the advent of language and the development of the ego are explored. Then the re-emergence of the divine feminine and its psychological, spiritual and evolutionary effects are discussed. This negative perception of the self by women is challenged by re-imaging women after the Greek Goddess archetypes: Athena, Hera, Demeter, Artemis, Aphrodite and Persephone. The Goddess archetypes are discussed in a therapeutical context as well as other therapeutical techniques such as aspecting, visualizations and women's' groups and circles. The author proposes the re-introduction of the "Sacred Marriage," a sacred ritual performed in temples since Neolithic times and in certain sects today, as a technique for therapy. This sexual ritual along with an understanding of the history of the divine feminine will have individual, collective and evolutionary effects with its use.

A Breakthrough in Healing, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Between Men and Women I have been looking a long time to find a way to bring healing and reconciliation between women and men here in South Africa. This work is the answer. We need much more of this work in South Africa. – Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, Deputy Minister of Health and Member of Parliament, South Africa Will Keepin’s pioneering, passionate, deeply thoughtful work has been on the cutting edge for years. Now his book gives us all access to his profound insights and effective methods. This is crucial work. – Andrew Harvey, author of twenty books, including Son of Man and The Direct Path This is the first workshop I have experienced that fully integrates educational and spiritual components in a balanced manner. – Ela Gandhi, founding director of Satyagraha Center, Durban, South Africa; granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi That rarest of books – it challenges and changes your mind, but only after it penetrates your heart. – Peter Rutter, M.D., Jungian psychiatrist, author of Sex in the Forbidden Zone and Understanding and Preventing Sexual Harassment An extraordinary contribution to fostering gender reconciliation ... practical and empowering. – Angeles Arrien, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist, author of The Four-Fold Way and The Second Half of Life [The] profound crisis in relations between men and women in today’s world causes enormous suffering ... Divine Duality is an extraordinary and groundbreaking book ... that holds great promise as a way to its alleviation. – Stanislav Grof, M.D., author of Psychology of the Future and The Ultimate Journey

A GODDESS FOR WOMEN'S PRAYERS Goddesses in ancient religions were particularly significant for women's physical, social and spiritual well-being. Yet, the Divine Woman was discarded by the monotheistic religions. Arguing her importance for women, the author proposes returning the Divine Woman to Judaism. Textual, archeological and historical analysis reveal how the Canaanite Great Goddess Asherah played a major role as Jahweh's consort in the religion of biblical Judah and Israel. The author shows how this goddess has not entirely disappeared from modern Judaism - her analysis of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the story of Tamar and Judah reveals many traces of Asherah's worship and myths still in the Bible. The development of the menorah and the kabbalistic Tree of Life from Asherah's religious symbolism further illustrate the goddess' profound effect on Judaism. These findings are of great relevance for present-day feminist Judaism. Reintroducing the Divine Woman to Judaism may stimulate new ways of approaching biblical texts, religious practice and yearly festivals - ways that preserve their connection with Jewish tradition but also empower women.