Customer Reviews

The Once and Future Goddess: A Sweeping Visual Chronicle of the Sacred Female and Her Reemergence in the Cult

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Beautiful history of goddess worship as it existed throughout prehistoric times, focused mostly on european. After describing artifacts and architecture in context, Gadon then shows how artistic and spriritual worship continues today in the same fashion. Chapter on the great earth goddess figures (mounds and excavations) is moving and materiel was entirely new to me. Profoundly touches on the issue of woman's body as goddess -- to simply take it for given, for over 400 pages, was enough to move me to another level of acceptance.

Packed with beautiful images revering and honoring the bodies and spirits of women as deities... a powerful, timely and necessary resource for women seeking to reclaim their own divinity in a world built around the assumption of women as the "root of all evil" and other assorted nonsense!

"The Once and Future Goddess" by Elinor Gadon is one of the most fascinating books on the goddess written. It is not only one of the best references, but one on the best art history books available. It is different from other goddess texts as it uses many historical artworks for reference. "The Once and Future Goddess" is set up similar to a college art history course as it starts with Paleolithic cave art and one of the oldest sculptures known, the "Venus of Willendorf." It continues to take the reader on journey through time as it examines goddess art from old Europe, Malea, and Minoan Crete. It explains the ancient Far East, the male warlike uprisings, the birth of Christ until it reaches the current religions of today.

I myself am an artist and am familiar with many of the artworks documented in this book as I have learned them in other art history courses. None of the courses focused solely on explaining the images of the goddess. Learning how these images related to the feminine was fascinating. I was especially captivated when I reached the chapter on Christianity and learned how the book of Genesis is set up to slander goddess worship and its symbols such as the fruit, snake, tree of life, and most importantly, procreation. It is truly an eye opening book.

"The Once and Future Goddess" is an intriguing read and many would benefit from what Elinor Gadon has documented. It is thoroughly researched and organized and would be the perfect book of reference for an art history course or goddess study.

Reviewed by Julie Harvey

The author does a great job in showing how the Goddess has always been worshipped through the ages even in the religons of Christianty and Judaism. She makes you rethink about your bielf system and opens your eyes to a bigger world. She gives women back their Divine spark and ownership of their spirituality!

This one of my favorite Goddess books because it comes not only from a feminist view point, but a cultural anthropology point of view too. It describes and documents, with words and a good amount of black and white as well as several color photos, the 30,000 YEAR reign of the Goddess and her consort, and Her many forms throughout all of humanity - until Her people's agricultural lifestyle was destroyed by warrior societies looking for more to conquer and add to their wealth. "The Once & Future Goddess" tells the story of how women came to be oppressed in just the last 3,000 to 4,000 years by the dogma of the nomadic Jewish tribes, the political control of the Romans, and the re-interpretation of the teaching of the man commonly called Jesus by his disciple Paul, leading to the creation of Christianity and Judaism as we know them today in their myriad flavors. All of them calling the first woman a sinner and traitor. This book gives a woman, or women, the sense that history is also her story...for 30,000 years of archaelogical evidence doesn't lie! Women were once not percieved as evil or disgusting in any way, and were treated as equal or superior to men. The women of the fertile crescent area created fine art, mathematics, weavings, food, agriculture, theatre, music, and more, all the while sustaining a generally peaceful lifestyle with their neighbors. A definite must have book for anyone committed to the search for Truth.

I am enjoying this book. It gives a lot of info on the Goddess that you wont find in any Wicca books.

This is a complete and thorough depiction of the beginnings of Goddess Culture and where the world has gone since: through patriarchy and now the feminist movement. Great pictures !