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Walking An Ancient Path: Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth

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Walking An Ancient Path might have a subtitle of "into the modern world".Karen Tate's book reads like an entertaining novel which is hard to put down. "Just one more chapter" you'll think to yourself. As an experienced travel guide on sacred sites tours, Karen is adept at describing all the interesting small details of foreign places; the sights, sounds, fragrances, and people of a place. I'm not a traveler so I was quite captivated to be taken on an intimate journey to (for instance)the Goddess Brigid's sacred well of healing water in Liscanor, Ireland and to "see" both Pagan and Christian offerings left there by spiritual pilgrims. She also describes the "spirit trees" that you might otherwise just drive by, trees that are even today covered with "clooties", which are strips of cloth representing individual prayers, and which show us that Goddess recognition is alive and well in Celtic lands.

We also travel to Goddess temples in Anatolia(Turkey), Egypt, and Rome to understand the psychology of those long ago who worshiped the feminine Source of Life, and to feel their spirituality as our own. On these journeys Karen is not one to just describe the outer pathway, she also shares her personal journey of faith along the way, and like all of us, she has her moments of doubt. The doubt is always answered by the magic of synchronistic happenings, the way it is for all of us when we are open to receive divinity as a normal part of life. Don't forget to read her story of her ring's disappearance on a trip and its reappearance in a very startling place.(page 227)

I learned something useful for my own area of work, which is the stories of Mary Magdalene and the Sacred Union, from the trip to the Anatolian city dedicated to Aphrodite, called Aphrodiasias.There is a statue of Aphrodite with a crown/headdress made of a wall and column, honoring her role as protectoress of the city. One of Mary Magdalene's titles is "Watchtower" and "Stronghold of the Flock", as protector of the people. Same idea, same symbolism.

"The Divinine Feminine or Goddess Spirituality Movement is probably one of the most important grassroots movements on the planet today. With this impetus, it is the hope of the movement's advocates, the world can be transformed and the future of many improved across the globe." I noticed that Amazon has paired Karen's book with Jean Shinoda Bolen's Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, another book on the same subject of the urgent need for feminine values to gain prominance in the world. It's our only way forward into the New Creation and Karen Tate is one of the ones who is showing the way.

Ms. Tate's first book, "Sacred Places of Goddess", was a travel log like no other: a compendium of 108 sacred sites around the world, which culled from her vast experience as a world traveler/guide and as a goddess scholar/worshipper.

In this book the author again invites us to walk along side as she (and we) tread "the everything old is new" path of goddess spirituality, consciousness and advocacy. However, this time the fascinating sacred sites take a back seat to personal anecdote and experience. The result is an insightful and engaging read. One gets a sense of the woman behind the movement, or perhaps: every woman (or man) who finds themselves drawn to goddess religion.

I especially liked how the chapters were broken into "elemental" theme sections. The Spirit section introduces us to the author and sets the stage for her spiritual quest. The Earth section is a little bit like the first book, as it revisits select sacred sites, but here the approach is less fact filled and more personal. This perspective makes for an easier read. The elements that drew me in were Water and Fire as these chapters are filled with rituals and practices (or descriptions there of) and practical advice and suggestions. One might even use them as a workbook of sorts or inspiration for your own practice. Other practical aspects are the resource section and glossaries. Not enough books nowadays (or publishers) allow for appendices that are useful.

The Air chapter discusses creativity, and is a nice balance of what one can do out in the community or on their own to honor the goddess and/or advance goddess consciousness. There are several chapters that focus on group/community work or mainstreaming the goddess message. It was refreshing to read about the down sides and pitfalls of her personal journey, as well of her triumphs. It is clear that the author is an advocate and has an agenda, something like: the return of goddess consciousness will bring the world back into balance and act as a force for positive change. Although, I am pretty a-politico, her beliefs didn't come off as heavy-handed or necessarily preachy to me. Thank god/dess! The author tries to present a balanced view via posing questions and is not afraid to question her own beliefs and the views of the community that she is part of. There is much here that encourages discussion and provokes thought, as well as, all that fun stuff--like how to make your own sistrum.

I think this one will appeal to both the newbie, and the seasoned goddess worshipper. There is a lot of rudimentary stuff, no doubt intended for the mainstream, but those who have walked similar paths will see a lot of there own experiences and discoveries in Ms. Tate's special journey.

Walking an Ancient Path is a moving, insightful and inspiring book, filled to overflowing with experiences, anecdotes, thought-provoking ideas and practical suggestions for making Goddess a transformative living

power in our lives and in the world. From Karen's extensive travels

to Goddess sites around the globe, to meaningful rituals here at

home, there is something for everyone in this heart-felt book. The book includes many b/w photos from worldwide Goddess temples as well as contemporary imagery and altars to the Sacred Feminine by 21st Century devotees.

As a Goddess-centered, Isis-focused person, I found Karen's book to

be a healing balm for the Goddess-soul in us all - women and men alike. If you haven't yet read it, move "Walking an Ancient Path" to the top of your reading list!

Thank you Karen!

Ever since reading Dance of the Dissident Daughter several years ago, I've been on my own journey seeking knowledge and understanding of the feminine Divine. Most books about Goddess, Sacred Feminine, paganism, and even Wicca, usually focus on ritual and lore that is very much focused on day-to-day practice. I haven't found a Goddess-related book with the perfect balance of practicum and memoir. Until now.

Karen Tate takes us along her own journey of awakening, learning, and becoming, ultimately guiding us to a place where we can adopt those lessons for our own lives and philosophies. This book is a wonderful mixture of personal narrative, travel essay, spiritual guidance, and how-to rituals and meditation. As you might guess from the subtitle, "Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth," Tate's focus is on illustrating how she and other Goddess advocates believe that our world would benefit from a return to a societal structure based on Goddess principles. Core to Goddess beliefs is a pervasive and prevailing compassion for all beings on Earth: "It is the hope of Goddess Advocates that global issues...will no longer be talking points manipulated by political factions, but instead sincere concerns of humans everywhere working together to uplift and solve problems of our human family." (p. 10) If that aspiration calls to you, this is the book for you.

Tate structures the book as a reflection of the energies or elements of the universe: spirit, earth, fire, water, and air. In this book, the spirit section serves to provide the foundation, inspiration, and personal journey of the author. The earth section is about the author's earthly and physical journey, a recollection of how certain travels have enlightened her. Fire is a transformative and passionate element, so the fire section encourages us to shed the old for the new and embracing change and leadership. The water section offers rituals that help a seeker being their inner journey in search of Goddess. Finally, in the air section, Tate offers guidance on how to apply your newfound knowledge and wisdom to different aspects of your life. A welcome bonus is the extensive bibliography and resources sections Tate provides at book's end.

As Tate mentions in her introduction, no one cosmic element acts separately; they mingle for a beautiful diversity and complexity. That magical metaphor carries through the entire book and left me looking for more, not because the book is lacking in any way, but because Tate's stories and experience inspires me to always actively navigate this beautiful and complex world.

by Becca Taylor

for Story Circle Book Reviews

reviewing books by, for, and about women

Some books open our minds. Others open our hearts. Still others open our spiritual intuition. Walking an Ancient Path by author and High Priestess Karen Tate does all three as we companion her on her lifelong journey to re-discover and re-birth the healing presence of the Sacred Feminine on the earth.

Karen's journey spirals out into the world of form and place and history, and then back into the inner sanctuaries of heart and mystery and spirit. Reading her story is like walking a labyrinth or entering a crop circle: her book becomes a matrix through which the Sacred Feminine flows.

Karen's story really begins 30,000 years before she is born, in the time when the Great Mother was worshipped as Goddess - creatrix of that all is, and called by her many names, including Isis. The story continues when Karen, born in New Orleans, is tutored, unbeknownst to her, by the hidden presence of the Sacred Feminine.

Years later after she leaves her New Orleans home, books open Karen's mind to the Goddess. Then Karen senses and unveils memories of the Goddess Isis from her early childhood years.

She finds Isis in the warmth and affection of the nuns who taught her. She finds Isis in the Catholic holidays she celebrated like the Epiphany, which kicks off Mardi Gras and has its roots in the rituals of the priests of Isis.

She discovers Isis hidden beneath the names and visages of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. She uncovers her in the celebration of Mardi Gras, which has its spiritual ancestry in a festival that asks Isis for her blessings on those who must journey upon the sea. She experiences Isis as the embodiment of life's earthly pleasures in the "Big Easy attitude" of New Orleans and in her early love of ancient places.

Karen's physical journey takes her to California, and her love of ancient landscapes and archaeology guides her to combine her knowledge as a travel agent with her love of the Sacred Feminine. She begins to lead pilgrimages to other lands where remnants of the temples to the Goddess remain.

Her lovely descriptions of these holy places and her inner expectations that she will encounter the presence of the goddess create suspense for the reader, and the Sacred Feminine delivers on those expectations!

Karen brings her love of Isis as the Sacred Feminine home with her. For decades, she works with earth, air, fire, and water and creates rituals, builds "iseums" (temples), and inspires others to awaken to the Goddess and incorporate her life-saving and life-giving qualities - qualities like partnership instead of domination, wisdom to temper knowledge, intuition to balance logic, benevolence instead of violence, hope instead of fear, abundance instead of scarcity, transformation instead of destruction, and love instead of anger.

Karen's mission to bring the Goddess back into daily life is urgent, for she knows that the return of the Sacred Feminine will rebalance a world that, under the rule of the masculine alone, is no longer sacred and about to destroy itself.

As we travel on this journey with Karen, certainly we learn and experience and are inspired by the ways she brings Goddess back, and that is helpful. But through the temporary temple that this subtly powerful book is, we can also experience the presence of the Sacred Feminine herself, and Her mission can become our mission, too. That's what makes Walking an Ancient Path so compelling.

Growing Up Without the Goddess: A Journey through Sexual Abuse to the Sacred Embrace of Mary Magdalene

http://www.GrowingUpWithoutTheGoddess.com

Walking An Ancient Path by, Karen Tate, is an easy read. It is an incredibly well researched, well organized, and well presented extravaganza of information. Thoughtfully written as well as thought provoking, the pages are packed with words that paint mind pictures. The intuitively selected images help to transport us back along time lines long forgotten.

A "must read" for anyone wondering how we got here from there, and what we left behind.

This book is so valuable for our current chaotic times!! Not only did I find Karen's book wonderfully written, lucid, easy to understand, with terrific photos -- but I have the good fortune to be one of her good friends as well. We have known each other about 9 years and I have attended her Isis Navigatums and some of her rituals. We are connected through several Egyptian goddesses -- Isis, Hathor and Sekhmet. Karen has literally lived her 2 books WALKING AN ANCIENT PATH and her first one, SACRED PLACES OF GODDESS, transformed her life through sacred rituals, immersed herself in sacred sites, created personal relationships with goddesses, lives in her own Temple, etc. She walks her talk!! Through her books one can begin (or continue) a path of Right Action, healing oneself and the planet, and living in the Heart of the Goddess. I cannot recommend her book more highly!!

This is a book about modern Goddess spirituality told through the prism of the personal experiences of one of the Goddess community's most active advocates: priestess, author, radio-show hostess, sacred-tour leader and filmmaker, the Reverend Karen Tate of Venice, California. Tate's purpose in writing Walking an Ancient Path was to help the earth begin to focus again on the Sacred Feminine (i.e., the Goddess).

After a short introduction on spirit, Tate breaks her book down into four major parts: earth (the physical body, etc.), air (the mind, etc.), fire (transformation, etc.) and water (emotions, etc.).

In the first part of the book Tate takes the reader on some of her more memorable trips to international Goddess sites in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Jordan. I don't know how she does it, but Tate is a master at making me feel as if I'm right there at her side in, for example, the inner workings of an ancient Egyptian pyramid, experiencing what she's feeling inside this ancient piece of architecture -- and what she experienced is fairly surprising (but I won't spoil it for you -- buy the book and find out for yourself!). Once I started Walking an Ancient Path, I found myself reading all afternoon, carried along by Tate's writing, like a boat bobbing pleasantly down the River Nile on a breezy, balmy summer afternoon.

In part two, "Water," Tate graces us with a series of chapters on the emotional aspects of Goddess worship, including chapters on "calling love into your life" and "attracting healthy relationships," which I have to admit I read first, skipping right over Part one to dive into these two provocative chapters.

Tate also describes an elaborate and exciting seaside ritual developed with her Goddess community and based on ancient rites connected with the Goddess Isis. She also describes a guided meditation ritual; three tools designed to help us cope with "death, divorce, or disconnect"; and an ordination ritual.

In part three (Fire ~ transformation) Tate describes her ordination as a priestess of Isis at the Clonegal Castle in Ireland. She also includes two interesting chapters on "The Power of Prayer" and "Trusting in Prophecy." There's a section on group dynamics, and how to participate in Goddess (or other) groups in healthy ways, both as leader and non-leader. Tate reminds us that we in the Goddess community have important work to do, and that sometimes looking at the big picture -- for example our aims for changing the world -- can help us move beyond our individual and sometimes not-so-important momentary personal frustrations.

Tate also describes her founding of the Isis Ancient Cultures & Religion Society and her response to years of working in and with dysfunctional groups. The IACRS was built squarely on the Partnership Model outlined by Riane Eisler in her The Chalice and the Blade, in an attempt to move away from group dysfunctionality.

In Part 4, Air, Tate describes a multitude of activities for your Goddess-centered group (if you should decide to start one). She also discusses following Goddess in a solitary way; the debate over whether or not we need more brick-and-mortar Goddess temples in the Western world; and the history of the Sacred Feminine (or Goddess).

NOTE: Every once in a while you'll notice in Walking an Ancient Path a few typographical and other errors -- a "to" where there should be a "too," or a "what" instead of a "which." The author confided in me that somehow the last round of text revisions did not get included before the book went to press. Although that's unfortunate, the book has so much to offer that I would hope readers would be able to ignore these errors, concentrating on all the loving and valuable information the book has to offer.

In my opinion the Goddess world is tremendously lucky to have Tate Tate as one of its leaders and leading priestesses. Her dedication to Goddess, and to bringing the world back to Goddess, is a tremendous inspiration. What's more, Tate is probably the world expert in ancient Goddess sites. She's not only visited, studied, and participated in ritual at most of the world's well-known Goddess temples and archaeological sites, she's also scouted out many lesser known sites around the world, and has lead tour groups to these more esoteric locations (see Tate's first book, Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations).

If I were asked to choose the most powerful aspect of this book I would have to pinpoint the complete openness and emotional honesty Tate offers the reader throughout the entire text. Tate relates not only the good times but the bad, the times when she felt like quitting, when she felt alone, lost and abandoned: "While I dreamed of a supportive community valuing sisterhood and brotherhood, all embracing ideals of Goddess Spirituality, in reality I have at times felt lost like Dorothy and her cohorts from the film The Wizard of Oz, maneuvering through that forest of ghoulish trees and flying monkeys...." (p. 246).

But Tate doesn't leave the reader dangling in the darkness. For every negative experience she also describes her journey up to level ground again. She offers us a wealth of positive responses to all the hurt, anger, frustration and trials she's experienced. Her book is limitlessly and refreshingly positive, uplifting, honest, and straightforward from start to finish.

In sum, this is a soothing and healing book. Read it if you want to be soothed and healed -- and if you want to feel hopeful too about our world getting the soothing and healing it so desperately needs.

As a seeker of women's and Goddess history I was moved by Karen

Tate's book, Walking An Ancient Path. Even knowing something of

Tate's work prior to this read, I was awed by the breadth and

boundless energy of her life story.

Whether we are traveling with her to discover a growing number of

worldwide ancient Goddess sites, or using her guidance in working

with rediscovered or new rituals to explore our inner landscape,

Karen shares her journey with personal honesty and analytical insight.

Transformation, Belonging, Balance, Dedication - these are themes

richly woven throughout the book.

Readers familiar to the Goddess community as well as newbies to the

subject will find this book welcoming and informative.

Karen, thank you for your brave footsteps.

"Walking an Ancient Path" takes the reader personally, gently and intelligently through a spectrum of knowledge to aid one in coming to know "She of Many Names" without the hocus pocus of potions or pricking of a finger. The intimate relationship Karen Tate has with the Goddess and the good ways of the Goddess community are evident in her knowledge and the inclusion of thoughts and practices of others within her community. Karen Tate's writing style respects her readers by allowing that they are intelligent, and are already divinely feminine souls. This book is indeed a pathway of recognition, not only of the Goddess and practices of her followers but also the recognition of the Goddess within each of us.