The Goddess (Living Wisdom Series) [Paperback]

Shahrukh Husain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997 | Series: Living Wisdom Series

With authoritative texts and hundreds of full-color illustrations, these two latest volumes continue Living Wisdom's tradition of excellence.

The Goddess taps into Americans' growing interest in female deities and ancient rites. As New York Newsday noted, "Goddess worship, no longer thought of as esoteric, if not blasphemous, is going mainstream". This provocative book brings to life the rituals, symbolism, and significance of the Goddess from ancient to modern times, touching on fertility, motherhood, feminism, Wicca, and much more.

Sacred Architecture explores humankind's quest for spiritual retreats and gateways to the divine. From Egyptian pyramids to Baroque cathedrals, this beautiful book stops off at a wide range of sacred sites while exploring such subjects as feng shui, celestial alignments, temple design and construction, and activities of worship and sacrifice.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (P); 1 edition (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316380059
• ISBN-13: 978-0316380058
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,895,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous! A Must-Have for Any Collection!, July 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Goddess (Living Wisdom Series) (Paperback)

If you love the Goddess or are interested in global Goddess traditions, this is the book for you. "The Goddess" is a lush book full of gorgeous pictues and well-researched and organized text. The material is presented in an organized layout that leaves you wanting more. This book is a must-have for anyone's Goddess book collection!

3.0 out of 5 stars Good information poorly presented..., March 8, 2001

By 

Laura Haggarty (Northern KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Goddess (Living Wisdom Series) (Paperback)

I would really like to like this book. It has a whole lot of interesting and compelling information. It's full of great illustrations; photos of icons, pottery, paintings and so on. It has history of goddess figures from all over the world. But it's laid out so poorly that it's really hard to read, and discourages the reader from doing research.

The book covers a variety of goddess myths and worship histories, from places as varied as India, Australia, Egypt, Britain, Rome, Greece, and more. It speaks to the various faces of the goddess, from warrior to healer, from creator to destroyer. It has a nice glossary and a thorough index. But sadly, whoever typeset this book did such a poor job that I was put off from reading it. The main topics are constantly interrupted by sidebars about this or that. The type is often placed on colored backgrounds, making it difficult to read. The topics aren't organized well, so here's no comfortable way to sit and read the whole book through.

All is all this could be a great book if it were re-edited so as to make it much more readable than it is now. The information it contains is good; it's just too hard to squeeze out of the mess made when the book was put together.