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Rachel Pollack

The Body of the Goddess: Sacred Wisdom in Myth, Landscape and Culture Paperback – October 1, 2003

by Rachel Pollack (Author)

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Embark on a literal and spiritual journey of discovery and rediscovery as you explore the ancient world of women-centered culture and the reemergence of goddess consciousness in modern women's lives. Part celebration, part travelogue, and part historical research, this compelling work takes you on a tour of places of historical significance, offering explanations and discussions of artifacts and drawings and their relationship to the goddess of earth and cosmos. Visit Greek temples, prehistoric caves, stone circles, giant passage mounds, and other monuments. At each site, the author draws upon her own experiences and adeptly combines them with ancient traditions, archaeology, and mythology to beautifully conjure landscapes imprinted with the symbolic form of women.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vega
Publication date

October 1, 2003
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1843331268
ISBN-13

978-1843331261
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vega (October 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1843331268
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1843331261
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #370,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,071 in Spiritualism

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Rachel Pollack

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Rachel Pollack is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the modern interpretation of the tarot. She is a member of the American Tarot Association, the International Tarot Society, and the Tarot Guild of Australia, and has taught at the famed Omega Institute for the past 15 years. She is an award-winning fiction writer and has also written 12 books on the tarot. She lives in New York.

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3.7 out of 5

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Cynthia Roses-Thema, Ph.D.

Important Insights on Physicality and the Goddess

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2008

Pollack's main idea is that the body of the Goddesss is present to us when we honor the physical body and see relationships of our physicality to nature. By respecting how we construct knowledge through our interactions with nature, the goddess reveals her body implicitly in the myths and symbols and explicitly in humanity's sexed bodies, hills and caves of archeological sites, animals such as bees, snakes, birds, and cows.
Pollack provides a wide source of sites to visit both in America and abroad citing Crete as the island where the Goddess religion lived 4.500 years ago. Theading together archeological research, other writers about goddess civilizations especially Gimbutas and her own personal interactions with various archeological sites she discusses the Megalithic and Neolithic eras as goddess cultures of non-violence and enormous invention. Pollack is adamant that the Goddess only comes into play through our physical engagement of her. She demonstrates how patriarchal societies weaved into the myths a distortion of the goddess tainting her so as to gain power over woman. She uses feminist writings to provide alternative interpretations that put a twist on myths and symbols as they are more traditionally interpreted. Pollack argues knowledge grows out of the situation and cites the importance of visiting these cites yourself to develop your own understanding. Both art and dance are important to the Goddess culture. Pollack writes, "When the conscious mind struggles to make sense of powerful images, to make symbols out of them, then art takes on culturally specific meaning." Dance, for Pollack, is movement that unites us to ourselves. She states, "Through dance we experience our bodies as alive, and we experience the life that flows rhythmically through all creation." The Persephone myth Pollack unites to the Gaia theory augmenting a biological meaning to her historical and psychological explanation of the story. A wonderful read with important insights on the Goddess and physicality.

4 people found this helpful

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Zoe A. Grubbs

Awesome Book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 22, 2013

Verified Purchase

Pollack brings into perspective the impact that the male dominated anthropologists and archaeologists have had on the interpretations of findings at various sites around the world. She shows how that influence has obscured many things in order to promote the development of a patriarchal society. Its not bashing anything but provides a unique view thorough the lens of Goddess based religions. It clearly points out the distinction between the disconnected, other worldly, and judgmental God-based religions and the highly connected, earth bound, and compassionate Goddess based religions. While asking the readers to make a few leaps of faith in the interpretation of archaeological and anthropological research, her arguments are well supported and documented and demonstrate that the Goddess is indeed here, now, evident, visible, and accessible. All one has to do is open the eyes and see.

4 people found this helpful

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JS Blackwell

Sexism At It's Greatest

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 29, 2004

Okay I wanted to share my opinion which although biased (I'm a man afterall) has it merrit. First off when I read this book I tried to approach it with an open mind but it that just didn't work out. Her viewpoints that she trys to state as being 'biological fact' are merely reflections of her inner most hatred towards males as a species. The whole thing about the oldest recorded micro orgasisms as being female is totally false, A-Sexual doesn't equal feminine.

Much of her research is extremely flawed and filled with her own perceptions about women being all peaceful blah blah. Most of her fictions are mixed with her facts. Infact I doubt that this author actually has any actual degree in science or biology much less know the basics. Since organisms have gotten more complex they did eventually split off into two distinct genders not, "The XX mutated and their you got males." How insulting can you get and down right ignorance at its very best.

The author got most of her crap from bogus materials such as Scum Manifesto. Which is an interesting ignorant unscientific but trys very hard to make herself appear as intelligent much like this author.

To read about the feminine mysteries I diffently would stay away from this one and go into Freya Aswyns books which who is not actually afraid of saying that women can indeed be just as violent as men. At no point in our history did man or woman for that matter live in total peace, nature is always about conflict and survival of the fittest no matter how you paint it or how you depict it. No matter who ruled man or woman there were wars and their was death and pestilance. Trying to paint one gender as the center of the worlds evils is stupid and trying to put some twist that everyone worshiped a goddess is laughable.

Most pagan tribes hardly think how this fool thinks they 'believed' and indeed many women had a lot to say in making decisions some even had the direct ability to stop blood shed but unlike what these feminists who believe that women are just so peace loving actually were in full support of battle. Why is it that every book I've read on this subject trys to always place the fact that woman came first men are a 'weaker' sex which for such a weaker sex how did they manage to repress them so effectively? Oh yeah because women are supposed to feel deeper, and oppose war.

Get real Rachel and if you hate men so much go live in a hole where you belong.

5 people found this helpful

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Jill M Jackson

Excellent!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

Super fast shipping, the book was in beautiful shape, with a personal note. Thank you!!!

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Ms. Theresa Brewer

The Goddess Is Alive and Magic Is Afoot

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 23, 2005

Rachel Pollack is the world's foremost expert of the tarot. Her book THE BODY OF THE GODDESS is my personal favorite of all of her many works. This book documents her travels in Malta and other places to visit sacred Goddess sites. It is a personal book that makes you feel that Rachel is actually telling you these adventures in person. Rachel Pollack believes that Goddess spirituality is what all beings on this planet need. I completely agree with her ideas. Patriarchal medicine, religon and politics are destroying our earth. The Bush administration seems to be determined to wage war against vulnerable people who get in his way. Goddess spirituality and tarot can make us change our thinking to a way of thinking in tune with the earth and it's inhabitants including nonhuman animal life and nonhuman plant life. Thank you Ms. Pollack for your incredable, healing writing. I hope Ms. Pollack and Anne Ogborn do a book together sometime. That would be so COOL!

10 people found this helpful

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The Body of the Goddess: Sacred Wisdom in Myth, Landscape and Culture Paperback – October 1, 2003

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