Table Of ContentCONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: THE GODDESS LIVES WITHIN YOU
RECLAIMING THE GREAT GODDESS
1
LIFE AMONG THE GODDESS PEOPLE
THE RISE OF PATRIARCHY
GODDESS POWER NOW!
THE GREAT GODDESS AND THE VIRGIN MARY
A GODDESS EXERCISE: THINKING ABOUT WOMEN AND SOCIETY
ENVISIONING THE GODDESS: THE POWER OF ARCHETYPE, MYTH, AND SYMBOL
2
THE ARCHETYPE OF THE GREAT GODDESS
A GODDESS GAME: IMAGINING YOUR GODDESS ARCHETYPE
THE POWER OF MYTH
CHOOSE YOUR MYTH AND CHOOSE IT WELL
WHAT IS A SYMBOL?
A GODDESS GAME: MAKING YOUR OWN GODDESS SYMBOLS
THE GODDESS AND HER SACRED SERPENT
THE DREAM OF THE JEWELED SERPENT
DREAM HEALING
THE SERPENT AND THE MOON
A GODDESS GAME: MEET YOUR PERSONAL SERPENT
THE HEALING MOON THROUGH THE SIGNS
THE WAY OF SHAMANISM
RETURNING TO WHOLENESS
ADAM AND EVIL
A GODDESS EXERCISE: EVE AND ADAM
ONE GODDESS—MANY NAMES
3
SHE OF THE TEN THOUSAND NAMES
A GODDESS GAME: TRYING YOUR HAND AT BEING CATTY
A GODDESS EXERCISE: WRITING HYMNS TO THE GODDESS
THE WOMEN BEHIND THE GODDESS
A GODDESS GAME: CREATE A GODDESS POT
YOU ARE THE KEY TO THE RETURN OF THE GODDESS
A GODDESS EXERCISE: HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR FEMININE SELF?
DISCOVERING YOUR INNER GODDESS
A GODDESS EXERCISE: HOW MANY GODDESSES CAN YOU NAME?
OPENING TO THE GODDESS WITHIN
4
COMING INTO SILENCE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: BALANCING SOUND AND SILENCE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: CREATING SILENCE
SEEKING SOLITUDE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: CREATING INNER SOLITUDE
BREATH AS SPIRIT
A GODDESS EXERCISE: BREATHING WITH COLOR
A GODDESS EXERCISE: RHYTHMIC BREATHING
THE POWER OF RELAXATION
A GODDESS EXERCISE: SEQUENTIAL RELAXATION TECHNIQUE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: TENSE-AND-RELAX TECHNIQUE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: INSTANT MINI-RELAXATION
OPENING TO THE GODDESS WITHIN
A GODDESS EXERCISE: LOTUS MEDITATION
GODDESS MYTHS
5
VIRGIN, MOTHER, AND CRONE
INDIVIDUAL GODDESS MYTHS
LET THE GODDESS BE YOUR ROLE MODEL
THE MOON—SYMBOL OF THE TRIPLE GODDESS
A GODDESS EXERCISE: THE PHASES OF THE MOON
A GODDESS EXERCISE: GODDESSES IN THE ZODIAC
ARIES
ARTEMIS GODDESS GAME
TAURUS
HATHOR GODDESS GAME
GEMINI
IRIS GODDESS GAME
CANCER
DEMETER GODDESS GAME
LEO
BAST GODDESS GAME
VIRGO
HESTIA GODDESS GAME
LIBRA
JUNO GODDESS GAME
SCORPIO
HECATE GODDESS GAME
SAGITTARIUS
ATHENA GODDESS GAME
CAPRICORN
ISIS GODDESS GAME
AQUARIUS
MAAT GODDESS GAME
PISCES
OSHUN GODDESS GAME
INTERPRETING YOUR GODDESS PANTHEON
A GODDESS EXERCISE: SUN/MOON IN-TUNE-MENT
A JOURNEY TO YOUR GODDESS CENTER
6
A GODDESS EXERCISE: PREPARATION FOR JOURNEYING TO THE GODDESS WITHIN
THE GODDESS ADVENTURE TRIP
INTERPRETING YOUR INNER SYMBOLS
A GODDESS EXERCISE: MAKING INNER IMAGE CHANGES
A GODDESS EXERCISE: ACCEPTANCE MEDITATION
RECORDING YOUR OWN INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SYMBOLIC JOURNEY
A GODDESS EXERCISE: FINDING YOUR AUTHENTIC GODDESS SELF
YOUR GODDESS BODY
7
HONORING YOUR SACRED BODY
THE MAGIC OF LOVING TOUCH
A GODDESS EXERCISE: SELF-TOUCH MEDITATION
TAKING CARE OF YOUR GODDESS BODY
CARING FOR YOUR ANIMAL SELF
A GODDESS EXERCISE: TEST YOUR ANIMAL QUOTIENT
A GODDESS EXERCISE: HONORING YOUR ANIMAL SELF
LEARNING TO LOVE YOUR MANY-SPLENDORED BODY
A GODDESS EXERCISE: BODY AFFIRMATIONS
A GODDESS EXERCISE: YOUR BODY SPEAKS
A GODDESS EXERCISE: GETTING TO KNOW YOUR BODY
THE GODDESS IN YOUR MOON
WHAT ABOUT SEX?
A GODDESS GAME: A GODDESS SEXUALITY GAME
KEEPING A GODDESS JOURNAL
8
DIGGING FOR TREASURE AT THE CENTER OF YOURSELF
GETTING STARTED AT JOURNAL WRITING
A GODDESS EXERCISE: THE MONITORING TECHNIQUE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: PRIMING THE PUMP—SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR GETTING STARTED
A GODDESS EXERCISE: MAKE A COVENANT WITH YOUR GODDESS JOURNAL`
EXPLORE YOUR FEMALE FAMILY HISTORY
A GODDESS EXERCISE: WRITE A FEMALE FAMILY HISTORY
GODDESS RITUALS
9
RITUALS ANCIENT AND MODERN
A GODDESS EXERCISE: CONNECTING WITH RITUAL
A GODDESS EXERCISE: CREATING RITUALS
SACRED SPACE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: PREPARING SACRED SPACE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: GETTING READY TO ENTER YOUR SACRED SPACE
A GODDESS EXERCISE: THE GODDESS AS YOUR GUIDE
GODDESS GIRL ACTIVITIES
APPENDICES
PLANETARY TABLES
FURTHER READING
To all the teenage Goddess Girls
who want to follow Her way.
And to Laura Schlivek,
my Goddess-loving editor.
The Goddess Lives!
Despite persistent attempts to stamp Her into nonexistence, the
Goddess lives in every girl and woman. Just look around you.
The ancient Goddess is everywhere, within and without. She is
Earth and the Heavens. We experience Her presence through
dreams and creative experiences. She lives in painting and art,
literature and drama, poetry and song. Yes, men have tried to
banish Her, but they have not succeeded. She has endured. She
will always endure. She gives us the power to challenge our
society’s stereotypical images of girls and women. Her images
reveal our true essence—who we are and who we can become.
Just look within your heart—look closely—and you will find
Her there.
INTRODUCTION
THE GODDESS LIVES WITHIN YOU
To be a girl today is awesome. For the first time in recorded history,
you, as a teenage girl, have the difficult task—and the glorious
opportunity—of defining for yourself the woman you will one day
become.
For thousands of years women in our culture have been defined
according to their roles in relationship to men—not by who they
themselves were as individuals. For example, here’s a popular little
poem from the 1950s:
Mother, daughter, sister, wife;
You’ll always be known
By the men in your life.
The name for this system of basing a woman’s identity on the men in
her life is patriarchy. In a patriarchal system the balance of power
between men and women is skewed; men—and in our dominant
religions, a single male deity—hold virtually all the power. As a teen
girl you’ve no doubt already experienced many aspects of our male-
dominated, patriarchal culture—in school, on the sports field, even at
home. Since the feminist movement began in the 1970s, women have
gained some ground—some have become senators and corporate heads,
and more careers have opened up to women. But the underlying
assumption that men have a right to more of the power hasn’t really
gone away. If a woman ran for president right now, she’d only stand an
outside chance of winning, simply because she wasn’t a man. See what
I mean?
The world hasn’t always been this way, though. Some thirty
thousand years ago the Goddess reigned supreme over all of Earth’s
peoples. In that “once-upon-a-time” era, people who were genetically
similar to those of us living today celebrated the Great Goddess as their
all-encompassing deity. There was nothing supernatural about Her. She
was simply Nature and All There Is—giver of life, protector, wisdom
teacher, and renewer of life through death.
The Goddess-worshiping cultures had a female-centered way of life—
women held prominent positions in these societies, owned property in
their own right, and were in charge of social relationships. Because of
their power to give birth, women were associated with the Goddess—
giver of all life—and were accorded the utmost respect. At the same
time, there was a good balance of power between men and women.
Though these early societies were mother-centered, they were not
mother- ruled. Men were considered equally important and given their
due. Unlike the patriarchal cultures that have dominated recent history,
the Goddess cultures were egalitarian.
Now, as teen girls, you stand on the brink of an uncertain tomorrow.
Even though we are making mind-boggling technological progress, our
world is in trouble. A lack of respect for the balance of nature, and for
an equal balance of power between men and women, has brought us to
the brink of disaster. The good news is that you have the power to make
changes in this unbalanced system that cheats women and hurts our
Earth.
Today’s girls are approaching a new Golden Age, which they alone
can create. And how is this to be achieved? By a return to the Goddess
in every girl. One by one, as each of you understands and
acknowledges your uniquely feminine Self as your rightful heritage, a
great power shift will occur all over the world.
Goddess Terminology
The Great Goddess: This term is used to indicate the One Goddess who, at the dawn of
civilization, was the supreme deity in an essentially feminine Universe that She created.
Essentially nameless, She was the single progenitor of “All There Is.” She bestowed gifts such
as agriculture, knowledge of herbs for healing, the arts and architecture, fire and its use and
preservation, the making of pottery, tools, and jewelry, among many other blessings to
humankind.
The Goddess: This is a short form of The Great Goddess.
The Great Mother: This is the Goddess in her aspect as Mother of all things, as bringer of life
and receiver of the dead. She is the maternal aspect of the Great Goddess and is especially
known as Mother Earth, or the Earth Mother, and as such She has been given many different
names by different cultures.
The Goddess is ready to return. She is waiting for you to open the
door that was locked against her centuries ago. The time is now. It is
your time. And it won’t come again. You must act as if your life
depended on it—for in truth, all our lives depend on each and every girl
recognizing the Goddess in herself.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you live, what you look like,
how much you weigh, what your parents do, whether you are rich or
poor, popular or not—you have the power of the Goddess within you.
You only have to let it free!
We learn to live consciously through becoming aware of inner and outer events as they are
happening. Building a conscious self means becoming increasingly aware of inner events,
bodily events, and interpersonal events. A conscious self is able to experience in full awareness
all the distinctly different components of the self, including feelings, needs, drives, and values. A
conscious self lives consciously.
Gershen Kaufman
and Lev Raphael,
The Dynamics of Power
