The Great Cosmic Mother

by Sjoo, Monica

• ISBN13: 9780062507914
• ISBN10: 0062507915
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

This classic exploration of the Goddess through time and throughout the world draws on religious, cultural, and archaeological sources to recreate the Goddess religion that is humanity's heritage. Now, with a new introduction and full-colour artwork, t

Author Biography

Monica Sjoo is well known in Europe as the foremost artist and theoretician of the reemerging Goddess religion Barbara Mor is an American poet and former poetry consultant for WomanSpirit magazine

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xviii
Women's Early Culture: Beginnings	p. 1
The First Sex "In the Beginning, We Were All Created Female"	p. 2
Marx and the Matriarchy	p. 13
The Original Black Mother	p. 21
Women as Culture Creators	p. 33
The First Speech	p. 39
Women's Early Religion	p. 45
The First Mother	p. 46
The Organic Religion of Early Women	p. 50
Female Cosmology: The Creation of the Universe	p. 55
The Cosmic Serpent	p. 57
The World Egg: Yin/Yang	p. 63
The Gynandrous Great Mother	p. 66
Mysteries of the Throne, the Cave, and the Labyrinth	p. 71
The Cult of the Dead	p. 77
The Mother of Wild Animals and the Dance	p. 79
Women's Culture and Religion in Neolithic Times	p. 87
The First Settled Villages	p. 88
Southeast Europe: The-Bird-and-Snake Goddess	p. 91
The Megalithic Tomb: The Moon and the Stone	p. 96
The Earth Mound as Cosmic Womb of the Pregnant Goddess	p. 104
The Islands of Malta and Gozo	p. 110
Twelve Circling Dancers	p. 116
Earth Spirit, Serpent Spirals, and Blind Springs	p. 124
Underground Caverns and Alchemic Mysteries	p. 131
The Goddess at Avebury in Britain	p. 133
Moon Time: The Great Intellectual Triumph of Women's Culture	p. 139
Lunar Calendars	p. 144
Moon Minds	p. 150
Moon Mother	p. 155
The Cow Goddess and New Foods	p. 161
Mother and Daughter, and Rebirth	p. 165
The Moon Tree	p. 171
The Dark of the Moon and Moon Blood	p. 176
Moon and Womb	p. 189
Menstrual Rites: Rights and Taboos	p. 191
The Original Woman: Witch, Rebel, Midwife, and Healer	p. 200
Goddess of the Witches	p. 208
Crete and the Bronze Age	p. 212
Tantra and the World Spine	p. 219
Patriarchal Culture and Religion	p. 229
God as Father	p. 230
The Olympian Male	p. 235
Sun's Victory over the Dark Mother	p. 244
The Sun God	p. 253
The Jealous God	p. 264
Split in the Garden	p. 276
Life as a Mistake	p. 288
The Witch-Hunts	p. 298
Denial of the Mother: Denial of the People	p. 315
The American Split	p. 330
"The Divine Homosexual Family"	p. 346
The Machine	p. 358
Beyond the Male God and His Machine...	p. 391
...The Magic Flight Home	p. 410
Respell the World	p. 425
Notes	p. 433
Bibliography	p. 477
Photograph and Illustration Credits	p. 492
Index	p. 493
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