The changing of the seasons, phases of the moon, even our personal experiences-all are reflections of the Divine Feminine. Create a stronger connection to the sacred world and your own divinity by welcoming these thirteen powerful Celtic and Nordic goddesses into your life.
As you make your way through a transformative year, know that each goddess has a different energy and a unique lesson to teach you. Starting with the Winter Solstice, the eight seasonal Sabbats and five faces of the moon provide the guideposts along your path. Through ritual, invocation, guided meditations, and magical activities, you'll explore each goddess's unique mythology and discover her message for your life.
Cerridwyn ~ Welsh Goddess of Rebirth and Renewal
Brigid ~ Irish Goddess of Healing, the Forge, and Creative Inspiration
Eostre ~ Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring
Freyja ~ Norse Goddess of Love and War
Aine ~ Irish Goddess of Faeries and Fertility
Danu ~ Irish Mother Goddess of Wisdom
Modron ~ Welsh Mother Goddess of Mystery
Hella ~ Norse Goddess of the Underworld
Branwen ~ Welsh Goddess of Sovereignty
Maeve ~ Irish Goddess of Personal Power
The Valkyries ~ Norse Goddesses of Battle Magic and Soul Journey
Morrighan ~ Irish Goddess of Magic and Death
Rhiannon ~ Welsh Great Queen and Horse Goddess
Goddess Alive!
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Michelle Skye (Massachusetts) is a Pagan Priestess with over ten years' experience following the Path of the Wise. An active member of the Wiccan and Pagan communities, she teaches classes, leads workshops, and has founded Massachusetts Pagan Teens and Sisterhood of the Crescent Moon. Her articles have appeared in Circle Magazine and SageWoman, and she's a regular contributor to Llewellyn annuals and Renaissance Magazine.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
starting on your journey
Hail and welcome! May your path to the Goddess lead you where you need to go. This
book, Goddess Alive!, is a celebration of the many faces of the Goddess, focusing exclusively
on the Irish, Welsh, and Norse cultures. Through ritual, invocation, guided
meditation, and hands -on activities, you will welcome these goddesses into your life,
allowing their lessons to guide you and their energies to transform you. The heart of
your experience with each goddess will be the guided meditation, during which you
will meet, get to know, and talk to her. Guided meditation is a relatively easy activity
that everyone can enjoy. You do not need to have any prior meditation knowledge or
skill in order to experience a wonderful, fulfilling, and magical journey. In fact, I believe
that guided meditation is one of the best ways to introduce the body, mind, and spirit to
meditation as a life practice. All you need to do is sit back (or lie down), relax, and allow
me to guide you through the labyrinthine passages of your mind and heart to the center
of the universe, to the center of the earth, to the divine energy as manifested in the Great
Goddess.
Throughout time, ancient peoples have worshiped the image of the Goddess, as protector,
provider, and creator. She is the grain that feeds our bellies, the midwife who
helps us birth, and the water that sustains our lives. She is the sun, the moon, the earth
beneath our feet. She nurtures animals and babies, giving of her warmth and love. Yet
the Goddess, like us, is not one -dimensional. When provoked or wronged, displays of
her power can be as violent as lightning and as wrathful as a woman scorned. She has
gone to war and returned, covered in mud, the blood of her enemy on her spear tip. She
has rejected society's rules, to live as a woman alone, without husband or fealty, dominant
in her own right. She has learned and excelled at skills considered to be “manly”
or “masculine.” She is herself-caring, powerful, loving, strong, determined, nurturing.
The duality of the Goddess allows us to look into our deeper selves and know that
there is both darkness and light within us. We learn, through her example, that both are
equally important to achieve balance in ourselves, in nature, and in the universe.
In this book, you will meet thirteen different goddesses from the ancient Irish,
Welsh, and Norse pantheons. Some people view these culturally specific goddesses as
facets of the all -powerful Great Goddess, who, along with the Great God, is the energy
of the divine. Others see these goddesses as separate entities, complete and whole unto
themselves. Whatever your beliefs, know that each goddess has a different energy and
has a specific lesson to teach you. Be open to that lesson, to the teaching of the divine
female spirit. This knowledge will lead you closer to your true self and the path you are
supposed to walk. Do not run from it, but embrace it and begin.
in the beginning
In order to truly experience the guided meditations in this book, you must be able to
perform and master a few necessary skills. Just as you cannot run without first learning
to crawl and then to walk, you cannot pathwork without accepting into yourself several
abilities that are indispensable for the journey. So take out your magical, meditative
backpack and prepare for the trip!
The first activity of extreme importance when meditating is grounding. Grounding
focuses your mind, body, and spirit on exactly where you are in the world. It helps you
connect to the energies around you and to the energies of Mother Earth, on whose body
we live and breathe. Grounding helps you tap into her power, allowing it to buoy and
strengthen your own innate energy.
There are many different ways to ground. Perhaps you've grounded without even
knowing it. When your day at work has been awful or you're feeling a little sad or depressed,
have you ever reached for bread, crackers, oatmeal cookies, or something else
made from a grain product? Have you walked outside barefoot (or even with shoes on)
and felt lighter and more focused afterward? These are two of the simplest methods for
grounding, for connecting yourself to the earth and to your place and location in the
world. They help alter your mind, bringing you to a relaxed state, which is extremely
important in order to fully experience a guided meditation.
Although the simple grounding methods work wonders when your everyday life
feels a tad out of control, a more detailed grounding method is necessary when entering
into a journey or guided meditation. Since our goal when grounding is to connect to
the earth's energies, take a few minutes right now to close your eyes and think of a plant.
It can be a flower, an herb, or a tree-anything to which you feel an emotional attachment.
I use a willow tree when I ground, but any green, growing vegetation will work,
even seaweed or grass.
Once you've decided on a plant, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and feel your spine
lengthening, burrowing into the soft, rich soil. It is becoming the stem, the stalk, the
trunk of your chosen plant ally. As you breathe in, envision the energy of the earth filling
your body, and as you breathe out, release any stress, fear, anxiety, and worry, pushing
them into the soil. As your spine lengthens and burrows farther and farther into
the earth, know that any negativity that is released into the earth will be recycled into
positive energy. Continuing to breathe in and out, notice that your spine has branched
out and started to form roots in the earth. The roots grow, drawing more and more of
the earth's energy into your body and releasing more and more of your worries and
fears. When you feel that all your negativity has been released and that your entire body
is filled with the earth's energy, feel the energy inside your body leave through the top of
your head and, like the branches of a tree, the petals of a flower, or the leaves of an herb,
arch back down to the ground, creating a circle of energy. Now, the earth's energy is entering
your body through your spine, mingling with your own energy, and then leaving
through the top of your head, arching back down to the ground, creating a connection
between you and the earth. After several minutes of this, you should feel completely
relaxed and at ease. You are grounded!1
If grounding connects you to where you are in the world, then the next exercise,
centering, connects you to who you are in the world. Centering focuses your mind, body,
and spirit on acknowledging and accepting yourself as an individual, as a divine creation,
and as a conduit for divine energy, knowledge, and will. It helps you see yourself
as a perfect and whole human being, with all your faults, your assets, your weaknesses
1. This grounding technique is a modified form of the Tree of Life exercise explained in the book The Spiral
Dance, written by Starhawk (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), p. 58.
and strengths. In essence, centering allows you to come to terms with the whole you,
stripped of pretense and false fronts. You will get to know and receive yourself in your
entirety, while focusing on the positive traits that you bring to the people around you
and to the world as a whole. As with grounding, there are many different techniques
that can focus your attention on yourself as a manifestation of the divine. The following
technique is the one that I use and have taught to others with great success.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply in and out. Focus your attention on the center of
your body, near your heart, right in the middle of your breastbone. This is the location
of your heart chakra, one of seven energy points in the body that help keep the body's
systems running together efficiently. The heart chakra helps create a balanced emotional
center, allowing you to nurture healthy relationships with others and with yourself. It
is usually visualized as a ball or disc of green or pink light. Once you have the chakra
visualized, feel it spinning in a clockwise direction. If you looked down at your chest, it
would spin from right to left. The clockwise -spinning chakra indicates a healthy, open
chakra that is working at an optimum level. If your chakra is spinning slowly, not spinning
at all, or spinning in the opposite direction (counterclockwise), then you are probably
experiencing some emotional or relationship problems or have experienced them
in the past. Work with the chakra so that it is spinning in the clockwise direction easily,
without a struggle. Do not go on to the next step in the centering process until your
heart chakra has a strong color and is effortlessly spinning in the clockwise direction.
After you have aligned your heart chakra, feel the energy of the chakra spreading
throughout your entire body in the form of either a green or pink color. It flows from
your breastbone down through your belly, out to your ribs, and up to your throat and
shoulders. The energy continues to ebb and flow, down your thighs, down to your elbows,
around to your back, and up to your face. The colored energy maintains its path,
pouring into your fingers, your legs and toes, and your head. Just when you feel that
you can hold no more of your heart chakra's energy, it radiates out of your body in
shining pink or green light and, just as quickly, collapses in up...
Hail and welcome! May your path to the Goddess lead you where you need to go. This
book, Goddess Alive!, is a celebration of the many faces of the Goddess, focusing exclusively
on the Irish, Welsh, and Norse cultures. Through ritual, invocation, guided
meditation, and hands -on activities, you will welcome these goddesses into your life,
allowing their lessons to guide you and their energies to transform you. The heart of
your experience with each goddess will be the guided meditation, during which you
will meet, get to know, and talk to her. Guided meditation is a relatively easy activity
that everyone can enjoy. You do not need to have any prior meditation knowledge or
skill in order to experience a wonderful, fulfilling, and magical journey. In fact, I believe
that guided meditation is one of the best ways to introduce the body, mind, and spirit to
meditation as a life practice. All you need to do is sit back (or lie down), relax, and allow
me to guide you through the labyrinthine passages of your mind and heart to the center
of the universe, to the center of the earth, to the divine energy as manifested in the Great
Goddess.
Throughout time, ancient peoples have worshiped the image of the Goddess, as protector,
provider, and creator. She is the grain that feeds our bellies, the midwife who
helps us birth, and the water that sustains our lives. She is the sun, the moon, the earth
beneath our feet. She nurtures animals and babies, giving of her warmth and love. Yet
the Goddess, like us, is not one -dimensional. When provoked or wronged, displays of
her power can be as violent as lightning and as wrathful as a woman scorned. She has
gone to war and returned, covered in mud, the blood of her enemy on her spear tip. She
has rejected society's rules, to live as a woman alone, without husband or fealty, dominant
in her own right. She has learned and excelled at skills considered to be “manly”
or “masculine.” She is herself-caring, powerful, loving, strong, determined, nurturing.
The duality of the Goddess allows us to look into our deeper selves and know that
there is both darkness and light within us. We learn, through her example, that both are
equally important to achieve balance in ourselves, in nature, and in the universe.
In this book, you will meet thirteen different goddesses from the ancient Irish,
Welsh, and Norse pantheons. Some people view these culturally specific goddesses as
facets of the all -powerful Great Goddess, who, along with the Great God, is the energy
of the divine. Others see these goddesses as separate entities, complete and whole unto
themselves. Whatever your beliefs, know that each goddess has a different energy and
has a specific lesson to teach you. Be open to that lesson, to the teaching of the divine
female spirit. This knowledge will lead you closer to your true self and the path you are
supposed to walk. Do not run from it, but embrace it and begin.
in the beginning
In order to truly experience the guided meditations in this book, you must be able to
perform and master a few necessary skills. Just as you cannot run without first learning
to crawl and then to walk, you cannot pathwork without accepting into yourself several
abilities that are indispensable for the journey. So take out your magical, meditative
backpack and prepare for the trip!
The first activity of extreme importance when meditating is grounding. Grounding
focuses your mind, body, and spirit on exactly where you are in the world. It helps you
connect to the energies around you and to the energies of Mother Earth, on whose body
we live and breathe. Grounding helps you tap into her power, allowing it to buoy and
strengthen your own innate energy.
There are many different ways to ground. Perhaps you've grounded without even
knowing it. When your day at work has been awful or you're feeling a little sad or depressed,
have you ever reached for bread, crackers, oatmeal cookies, or something else
made from a grain product? Have you walked outside barefoot (or even with shoes on)
and felt lighter and more focused afterward? These are two of the simplest methods for
grounding, for connecting yourself to the earth and to your place and location in the
world. They help alter your mind, bringing you to a relaxed state, which is extremely
important in order to fully experience a guided meditation.
Although the simple grounding methods work wonders when your everyday life
feels a tad out of control, a more detailed grounding method is necessary when entering
into a journey or guided meditation. Since our goal when grounding is to connect to
the earth's energies, take a few minutes right now to close your eyes and think of a plant.
It can be a flower, an herb, or a tree-anything to which you feel an emotional attachment.
I use a willow tree when I ground, but any green, growing vegetation will work,
even seaweed or grass.
Once you've decided on a plant, close your eyes, breathe deeply, and feel your spine
lengthening, burrowing into the soft, rich soil. It is becoming the stem, the stalk, the
trunk of your chosen plant ally. As you breathe in, envision the energy of the earth filling
your body, and as you breathe out, release any stress, fear, anxiety, and worry, pushing
them into the soil. As your spine lengthens and burrows farther and farther into
the earth, know that any negativity that is released into the earth will be recycled into
positive energy. Continuing to breathe in and out, notice that your spine has branched
out and started to form roots in the earth. The roots grow, drawing more and more of
the earth's energy into your body and releasing more and more of your worries and
fears. When you feel that all your negativity has been released and that your entire body
is filled with the earth's energy, feel the energy inside your body leave through the top of
your head and, like the branches of a tree, the petals of a flower, or the leaves of an herb,
arch back down to the ground, creating a circle of energy. Now, the earth's energy is entering
your body through your spine, mingling with your own energy, and then leaving
through the top of your head, arching back down to the ground, creating a connection
between you and the earth. After several minutes of this, you should feel completely
relaxed and at ease. You are grounded!1
If grounding connects you to where you are in the world, then the next exercise,
centering, connects you to who you are in the world. Centering focuses your mind, body,
and spirit on acknowledging and accepting yourself as an individual, as a divine creation,
and as a conduit for divine energy, knowledge, and will. It helps you see yourself
as a perfect and whole human being, with all your faults, your assets, your weaknesses
1. This grounding technique is a modified form of the Tree of Life exercise explained in the book The Spiral
Dance, written by Starhawk (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), p. 58.
and strengths. In essence, centering allows you to come to terms with the whole you,
stripped of pretense and false fronts. You will get to know and receive yourself in your
entirety, while focusing on the positive traits that you bring to the people around you
and to the world as a whole. As with grounding, there are many different techniques
that can focus your attention on yourself as a manifestation of the divine. The following
technique is the one that I use and have taught to others with great success.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply in and out. Focus your attention on the center of
your body, near your heart, right in the middle of your breastbone. This is the location
of your heart chakra, one of seven energy points in the body that help keep the body's
systems running together efficiently. The heart chakra helps create a balanced emotional
center, allowing you to nurture healthy relationships with others and with yourself. It
is usually visualized as a ball or disc of green or pink light. Once you have the chakra
visualized, feel it spinning in a clockwise direction. If you looked down at your chest, it
would spin from right to left. The clockwise -spinning chakra indicates a healthy, open
chakra that is working at an optimum level. If your chakra is spinning slowly, not spinning
at all, or spinning in the opposite direction (counterclockwise), then you are probably
experiencing some emotional or relationship problems or have experienced them
in the past. Work with the chakra so that it is spinning in the clockwise direction easily,
without a struggle. Do not go on to the next step in the centering process until your
heart chakra has a strong color and is effortlessly spinning in the clockwise direction.
After you have aligned your heart chakra, feel the energy of the chakra spreading
throughout your entire body in the form of either a green or pink color. It flows from
your breastbone down through your belly, out to your ribs, and up to your throat and
shoulders. The energy continues to ebb and flow, down your thighs, down to your elbows,
around to your back, and up to your face. The colored energy maintains its path,
pouring into your fingers, your legs and toes, and your head. Just when you feel that
you can hold no more of your heart chakra's energy, it radiates out of your body in
shining pink or green light and, just as quickly, collapses in up...
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Goddess Alive for him,
By
This review is from: Goddess Alive!: Inviting Celtic & Norse Goddesses into Your Life (Paperback)
Being a male in the Pagan community is sometimes difficult. Many Pagan books are geared to the female (and rightly so) but they are also mostly written FOR the female to read. NOT so with this book!! Michelle Skye has a wonderfull writing style that is extremely informative as well as 'Multi-genedered'. We men also worship our Goddeses, and it's a refreshing change to read such a WONDERFUL book that is writen for ANY person to read.
WELL DONE!!
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alive and Well,
By
This review is from: Goddess Alive!: Inviting Celtic & Norse Goddesses into Your Life (Paperback)
As a folklore writer, I am always interested in acquiring new research materials for my library. As I already have a pretty extensive library, when I first saw "Goddess Alive!" by Michelle Skye I wondered if it could possibly offer me any information I didn't already have access to.
I was pleasantly surprised. The first section I turned to was the chapter on the Valkyries. I was so pleased to find that this chapter not only contained information about the Norse Goddesses who escort the slain battle heroes to Valhalla, and the Norse Goddess Freyja, but it also had some information on Brunhildr (sometimes spelled Brynhilde) that I'd never seen before. The names of the Valkyries are also given. Goddess Alive! features 13 goddesses from Norse and Celtic folklore. They are connected to either seasonal dates or moon phases. The first part of the book is titled "The Turning of the Year" and features the following goddesses: The Winter Solstice: Cerridwyn, Welsh Goddess of Rebirth and Renewal Imbolc: Brigid, Irish Goddess of Fire The Spring Equinox: Eostre, Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring Beltane: Freyja, Norse Goddess of Love and War The Summer Solstice: Aine, Irish Goddess of Faeries and Fertility Lammas/Lughnasadh: Danu, Irish Mother Goddess of Wisdom The Autumn Equinox: Modron, Welsh Mother Goddess of Mystery Samhain: Hella, Norse Goddess of the Underworld The second part of the book is titled "The Faces of the Moon" and features the following goddesses: Waxing Moon: Branwen, Welsh Goddess of Sovereignty Full Moon: Maeve, Irish Goddess of Personal Power Waning Moon: The Valkyries, Norse Goddesses of Battle Magic and Soul Journey Dark Moon: Morrighan, Irish Goddess of Magic and Death New Moon: Rhiannon, Welsh Great Queen and Horse Goddess Each chapter is laid out into sections which include information on that particular goddess, the holiday or moon that they represent, a guide to a pathworking for that particular goddess, a guided meditation, an invocation to that goddess, an activity, and then a ritual. The guided meditation is visually appealing, and rather complex, so you'd either want to record it or have someone read it to you. In the chapter on the Valkyries I chose to read the meditation several times over, then I just did the meditation on my own. I didn't enjoy this quite as much as recording it myself first, but it can definitely be done. The information on the different goddesses is extensive and well-researched, and the details on the holidays and moon times are very informative. For the spiritual soul, the pathworking, activity and rituals are beautifully done and are sure to please. Much more than a simple guide to ancient goddess mythology, I found "Goddess Alive!" to be not only informative, but beautifully laid out and rich in tradition and legend. I thoroughly enjoyed Michelle Skye's easy to read (and understand) writing style, and the illustrations by Kris Waldherr were beautifully done. I would highly recommend it to not only the folklore buff, but to all those interested in furthering their own spiritual practice.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Perspective and historical female power,
By
This review is from: Goddess Alive!: Inviting Celtic & Norse Goddesses into Your Life (Paperback)
I have to be honest, this isn't a book I'd typically pick up. The search tags include terms like "witchcraft", "Pagan rituals" and other terms, when really women, historical power, goddesses and learning from one's surroundings should be included. It's like a meditation or relaxation; a way to take a step back for a few minutes and re-examine oneself. The connections Michelle Skye makes to historical goddesses and their sources of power/ links to mother nature etc. are fascinating. I read a few lines, and despite my typical fantasy/literature/classical reading tendencies, found myself fascinated with the background and author's approach. I now own a copy : ) I love the way traditional ceremonies are examined in a new light. In today's world people are often too concerned with moving forward, quickly, rather than looking back and making connections. This book urges readers to ground themselves in the tradition of the past, while using that basis to move forward intelligently and in an informed way. The language is beautiful, painting a picture with every syllable, and the goddesses are beautifully illustrated. These images and female figures are strong, once again urging readers to examine (wo)mankind's role and goals in life and the potential outcomes.
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dark goddess, solstice night, rowan tree, tension leave your fingers, body touching every nerve, move your head from side, circle this day, most magical night, move your shoulders, battle magic, wiggle your fingers, libation bowl, blessing this day, remaining fear Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tuatha De Danann, Irish Goddess of Fire, Irish Goddess of Personal Power, The Mabinogion, Norse Goddess of the Underworld, Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring, Things You Will Need, Midsummer Eve, Welsh Mother Goddess of Mystery, Irish Mother Goddess of Wisdom, Florida Water, Welsh Goddess of Sovereignty, New York, Everyman's Library, Saint Brigid, Dea Matrona, Poetic Edda, Well of Segais, Spirits of the West, Joseph Dunn, Queen Maeve, Spirits of the South, Spirits of the East, Cnoc Aine, David Nutt Publishers Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
dark goddess, solstice night, rowan tree, tension leave your fingers, body touching every nerve, move your head from side, circle this day, most magical night, move your shoulders, battle magic, wiggle your fingers, libation bowl, blessing this day, remaining fear Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Tuatha De Danann, Irish Goddess of Fire, Irish Goddess of Personal Power, The Mabinogion, Norse Goddess of the Underworld, Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring, Things You Will Need, Midsummer Eve, Welsh Mother Goddess of Mystery, Irish Mother Goddess of Wisdom, Florida Water, Welsh Goddess of Sovereignty, New York, Everyman's Library, Saint Brigid, Dea Matrona, Poetic Edda, Well of Segais, Spirits of the West, Joseph Dunn, Queen Maeve, Spirits of the South, Spirits of the East, Cnoc Aine, David Nutt Publishers Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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