[PDF] Goddesses In Context eBook

Author : Julia M. Asher-Greve
Publisher : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 25,98 MB
Release : 2013
Category : Akkadians
ISBN : 9783525543825

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The authors examine from different perspectives some of the most challenging themes in Mesopotamian religion such as gender switch of deities and changes of the status, roles and functions of goddesses. Julia M. Asher-Greve and Goodnick Westenholz incorporate recent scholarship from various disciplines into their analysis of textual and visual sources, representations in diverse media, theological strategies, typologies, and the place of image in religion and cult over a span of three millennia. Different types of syncretism (fusion, fission, mutation) resulted in transformation and homogenization of goddesses' roles and functions. The processes of syncretism (a useful heuristic tool for studying the evolution of religions and the attendant political and social changes) and gender switch were facilitated by the fluidity of personality due to multiple or similar divine roles and functions. Few goddesses kept their identity throughout the millennia. Individuality is rare in the iconography of goddesses while visual emphasis is on repetition of generic divine figures (hieros typos) in order to retain recognizability of divinity, where femininity is of secondary significance. This richly illustrated book demonstrates that goddesses were never marginalized or extrinsic and that their continuous presence in texts, cult images, rituals, and worship throughout Mesopotamian history is testimony to their powerful numinous impact. This richly illustrated book is the first in-depth analysis of goddesses and the changes they underwent from the earliest visual and textual evidence around 3000 BCE to the end of ancient Mesopotamian civilization in the Seleucid period. Goddesses in Context is a compelling contribution to Mesopotamian religion and history as well as to history, art history, history of religion and gender studies.

Author : Sue Jennings
Publisher : Hay House, Inc
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 45,24 MB
Release : 2005-01-01
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 1401930646

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Goddesses explores the ancient wisdom of the goddesses to help you reconnect with the old ways in a modern context. The goddesses are presented in their elements, in their heavenly bodies, or as symbols of the journey of life to give support, provoke us to explore new ideas and challenges, and to bring balance to our lives. The folklore, myth, and traditional associations of the goddesses will inspire you on your journey. · Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano, demonstrates that volatile fire energy is life-giving and creative but needs to have focus. · Water goddesses such as Isis, Sedna, and Yemaya offer us wisdom in times of stress and grief. They help us flow in the right direction and remind us that water supports us. · The sun goddesses lead us through our feelings as well as our intellect to our divine spark—the sun within us. If our lives are stormy, we can take comfort from the story of the sun goddess, Ama-terasu-o-mi-kami, and find peace within ourselves. · Cerridwen, the Celtic goddess of poetry, is a source of wisdom, inspiration, and creativity. The reflections, meditations, rituals, chants, and exercises in this book will help you bring about the changes you wish for in your life. Some of the exercises are for you to undertake alone; others you can share with friends, family, and children. Let the goddesses guide and inspire you!

Author : David Kinsley
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 348 pages
File Size : 41,38 MB
Release : 1989-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780887068362

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Discusses the cultural background and meaning of ten goddesses, including Aphrodite, Isis, Athena, Durga, Laksmi, and Sita

Author : Michael Jordan
Publisher : Infobase Publishing
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 16,59 MB
Release : 2014-05-14
Category : Goddesses
ISBN : 1438109857

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Presents brief entries describing the gods and goddesses from the mythology and religion of a wide variety of cultures throughout history.

Author : Shelley A. Kaehr
Publisher : Llewellyn Worldwide
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 28,52 MB
Release : 2023-12-08
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 0738771848

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Your Complete Guide to Hundreds of Goddesses Around the World Meet the many incarnations of the divine feminine, past and present, with this comprehensive reference guide by bestselling author Shelley A. Kaehr, PhD. Featuring more than five hundred goddesses, over forty exercises and journal prompts, and guided journeys for understanding yourself at the soul level, this book connects you with ancestral energy and can bring peace and balance to your life. Shelley first introduces you to goddesses of the ancient world, exploring Egyptian, Celtic, Greek, Norse, and Mesoamerican pantheons. She then shares the living goddesses of modern world religions—African, East Asian, Hindu, and Indigenous peoples. Each goddess entry features her keywords, categories, history, and lore. In discovering these deities, you can enliven goddess energy within you and even uncover past lives.

Author : David Leeming
Publisher : Reaktion Books
Page : 178 pages
File Size : 16,16 MB
Release : 2016-03-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 1780235380

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For as long as we have sought god, we have found the goddess. Ruling over the imaginations of humankind’s earliest agricultural civilizations, she played a critical spiritual role as a keeper of nature’s fertile powers and an assurance of the next sustaining harvest. In The Goddess, David Leeming and Christopher Fee take us all the way back into prehistory, tracing the goddess across vast spans of time to tell the epic story of the transformation of belief and what it says about who we are. Leeming and Fee use the goddess to gaze into the lives and souls of the people who worshipped her. They chart the development of traditional Western gender roles through an understanding of the transformation of concepts of the Goddess from her earliest roots in India and Iran to her more familiar faces in Ireland and Iceland. They examine the subordination of the goddess to the god as human civilizations became mobile and began to look upon masculine deities for assurances of survival in movement and battle. And they show how, despite this history, the goddess has remained alive in our spiritual imaginations, in figures such as the Christian Virgin Mother and, in contemporary times, the new-age resurrection of figures such as Gaia. The Goddess explores this central aspect of ancient spiritual thought as a window into human history and the deepest roots of our beliefs.

Author : Trevor Greenfield
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
Page : 188 pages
File Size : 16,65 MB
Release : 2016-10-28
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 1782799249

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An anthology with contributions from nineteen writers, The Goddess in America is a book that identifies the enduring experience of Goddess Spirituality through a four-part discussion focused on the Native Goddess, the Migrant Goddess, the Goddess in relation to other aspects of American culture (Feminism, Christianity, Witchcraft etc.) and the Goddess in contemporary America.

Author : Michael Slouber
Publisher : University of California Press
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 20,74 MB
Release : 2020-12-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0520375750

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Imagining the divine as female is rare—even controversial—in most religions. Hinduism, by contrast, preserves a rich and continuous tradition of goddess worship. A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses conveys the diversity of this tradition by bringing together a fresh array of captivating and largely overlooked Hindu goddess tales from different regions. As the first such anthology of goddess narratives in translation, this collection highlights a range of sources from ancient myths to modern lore. The goddesses featured here battle demons, perform miracles, and grant rare Tantric visions to their devotees. Each translation is paired with a short essay that explains the goddess’s historical and social context, elucidating the ways religion adapts to changing times.

Author : Edward Bispham
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 179 pages
File Size : 10,23 MB
Release : 2019-12-06
Category : History
ISBN : 1315521350

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This collection explores the multifaceted nature of the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Italy. It examines Italic, Etruscan, and Latin deities in context and in the material remains, and also in the Greco-Roman written record and later scholarship which drew on these texts. Many deities were worshipped in ancient Italy by different individuals and communities, using different languages, at different sanctuaries, and for very different reasons. This multiplicity creates challenges for modern historians of antiquity at different levels. How do we cope with it? Can we reduce it to the conceptual unity necessary to provide a meaningful historical interpretation? To what extent can deities named in different languages be considered the equivalent of one another (e.g. Artemis and Diana)? How can we interpret the visual representations of deities that are not accompanied by written text? Can we reconstruct what these deities meant to their local worshippers although the overwhelming majority of our sources were written by Romans and Greeks? The contributors of this book, a group of ten scholars from the UK, Italy, France, and Poland, offer different perspectives on these problems, each concentrating on a particular god or goddess. Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Italy offers an invaluable resource for anyone working on ancient Roman and Italian religion.

Author : P. K. Agrawala
Publisher : Abhinav Publications
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 30,74 MB
Release : 1983
Category :
ISBN : 8170171849

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Dr. Agrawala S Present Work Largely Represents His Ph.D. Thesis (Approved By The Banaras Hindu University) In A Revised Up-To-Date Form. He Has Brought Out A Most Comprehensive And Thorough Analysis Of The Material On The Worship Of Goddesses In The Proto-Historic And Vedic Periods Of India. A Vast Amount Of Archaeological Evidence Is Carefully Sifted And Analysed By Him In A Truer Cultic Perspective As Throwing New Light On The Role Of Mother-Goddesses In The Protohistoric Cultures Ranging From Small Agricultural Communities Of Baluchistan Foothills To The Highly Developed Harappans. Dr. Agrawala Has Also Identified And Discussed In A Systematic Manner Varied Motifs And Concepts Of Fertility Cultus In The Rgveda And Later Vedic Texts Which Were Subsequently Formulated Into Definite Images, Personifications And Attributes. He Has Marshalled In A Fully Objective Treatment All Those References In The Vedic Literature That Go Now To Reveal Numerous Fresh Aspects Of This Hitherto Unexplored Subject. One Is Able Indeed To See Through The Present Work How The Rgvedic Goddesses,Mostly Abstractions, Later On Assumed Mythical Definitions In The Pantheon And How The Folk Culture Of India Exercised Its Far-Reaching Influences On Higher Priestly Religion Not Only By Contributing Its Own Share Of Goddesses But Also Through Their More Concrete Identification With The Already Existing Ones In Myths And Cult Rituals.