pagan women in fiction and nonfiction
Explore powerful pagan women in fiction and nonfiction with this curated list of books. Discover witches, goddesses, and spiritual leaders in captivating stories and insightful biographies.
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Flight of the Goose
by Lesley Thomas
"Flight of the Goose" is an award-winning novel set in a remote village of the Alaskan Arctic, in a time of great cultural and ecological change. "The story took my breath away. I wept my way through it, identifying profoundly with both protagonists. (Thomas) has a fine grasp of the complexity of human relations and culture in such a village. She also writes beautifully. A remarkable book altogether." Jean L. Briggs, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and author of "Never in Anger" "Memorable...One of the best novels of Alaska that I have read. With the author's unerring knowledge of anthropology and social and environmental issues, it could fit any rural Alaskan village." Dorothy Jean Ray, author of "A Legacy of Arctic Art," and "The Eskimos of Bering Strait 1650-1898" 1971, the Alaskan Arctic. "It was a time when much was hidden, before outsiders came on bended knee to learn from the elders. Outsiders came, but it was not to learn from us; it was to change us. There was a war and a university, an oil company and a small village, all run by men. There was a young man who hunted geese to feed his family and another who studied geese to save them. And there was a young woman who flew into the world of spirits to save herself..." So relates Kayuqtuq Ugungoraseok, "the red fox." An orphan traumatized by her past, she seeks respect in her traditional Inupiat village through the outlawed path of shamanism. Her plan leads to tragedy when she interferes with scientist Leif Trygvesen, who has come to research the effects of oil spills on salt marshes - and evade the draft. Told from both Kayuqtuq's and Leif's perspectives, "Flight of the Goose"is a tale of cultural conflict, spiritual awakening, redemption and love in a time when things were - to use the phrase of an old arctic shaman - "no longer familiar." "Flight of the Goose" is recommended in Cultural Survival Quarterly, Shaman's Drum Journal, First Alaskans Magazine, Tundra Drums, Seattle Post Intelligencer and Sacred Hoop Magazine. It has been studied at North Slope School District, University of Washington, University of Alaska, Boston University, Sterling College, by Sandra Ingerman at Medicine for the Earth - and is read by book clubs worldwide. "Flight of the Goose" won first place in several literary contests. See more at www.lesleythomas.com
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The Mists of Avalon
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The magical saga of the women behind King Arthur's throne. “A monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legends . . . reading it is a deeply moving and at times uncanny experience. . . . An impressive achievement.”—The New York Times Book Review In Marion Zimmer Bradley's masterpiece, we see the tumult and adventures of Camelot's court through the eyes of the women who bolstered the king's rise and schemed for his fall. From their childhoods through the ultimate fulfillment of their destinies, we follow these women and the diverse cast of characters that surrounds them as the great Arthurian epic unfolds stunningly before us. As Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar struggle for control over the fate of Arthur's kingdom, as the Knights of the Round Table take on their infamous quest, as Merlin and Viviane wield their magics for the future of Old Britain, the Isle of Avalon slips further into the impenetrable mists of memory, until the fissure between old and new worlds' and old and new religions' claims its most famous victim.
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The Woman in the Shaman's Body
by Barbara Tedlock, Ph.D.
A distinguished anthropologist–who is also an initiated shaman–reveals the long-hidden female roots of the world’s oldest form of religion and medicine. Here is a fascinating expedition into this ancient tradition, from its prehistoric beginnings to the work of women shamans across the globe today. Shamanism was not only humankind’s first spiritual and healing practice, it was originally the domain of women. This is the claim of Barbara Tedlock’s provocative and myth-shattering book. Reinterpreting generations of scholarship, Tedlock–herself an expert in dreamwork, divination, and healing–explains how and why the role of women in shamanism was misinterpreted and suppressed, and offers a dazzling array of evidence, from prehistoric African rock art to modern Mongolian ceremonies, for women’s shamanic powers. Tedlock combines firsthand accounts of her own training among the Maya of Guatemala with the rich record of women warriors and hunters, spiritual guides, and prophets from many cultures and times. Probing the practices that distinguish female shamanism from the much better known male traditions, she reveals: • The key role of body wisdom and women’s eroticism in shamanic trance and ecstasy • The female forms of dream witnessing, vision questing, and use of hallucinogenic drugs • Shamanic midwifery and the spiritual powers released in childbirth and monthly female cycles • Shamanic symbolism in weaving and other feminine arts • Gender shifting and male-female partnership in shamanic practice Filled with illuminating stories and illustrations, The Woman in the Shaman’s Body restores women to their essential place in the history of spirituality and celebrates their continuing role in the worldwide resurgence of shamanism today.
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Webs of Power
by Starhawk
As well as reporting the actions on the street, it includes a privileged glimpse behind the scenes, too, at the fierce discussion of the issues, strategies, and tactics of an always-evolving social movement. The book is also a personal vision of what an alternative future might look and feel like beyond the version offered up to us by the promoters of corporate globalization. Webs of Power is a unique contribution to our understanding of one of the most pivotal struggles of our time."--BOOK JACKET.
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The Twelve Wild Swans
by Starhawk
The long-awaited continuation of the bestselling classic The Spiral Dance
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East of the Sun and West of the Moon
by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Includes six traditional Norwegian tales.
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The Harmless People
by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
“A study of primitive people which, for beauty of . . . style and concept, would be hard to match.” —The New York Times Book Review In the 1950s Elizabeth Marshall Thomas became one of the first Westerners to live with the Bushmen of the Kalahari desert in Botswana and South-West Africa. Her account of these nomadic hunter-gatherers, whose way of life had remained unchanged for thousands of years, is a ground-breaking work of anthropology, remarkable not only for its scholarship but for its novelistic grasp of character. On the basis of field trips in the 1980s, Thomas has now updated her book to show what happened to the Bushmen as the tide of industrial civilization—with its flotsam of property rights, wage labor, and alcohol—swept over them. The result is a powerful, elegiac look at an endangered culture as well as a provocative critique of our own. "The charm of this book is that the author can so truly convey the strangeness of the desert life in which we perceive human traits as familiar as our own. . . . The Harmless People is a model of exposition: the style very simple and precise, perfectly suited to the neat, even fastidious activities of a people who must make their world out of next to nothing." —The Atlantic
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Reindeer Moon
by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
This novel talks about the ice-age, where a handful of human creations struggle to stay alive, and it is the power and wonder of this story that their struggle is our own.
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The Painted Drum
by Louise Erdrich
When a woman named Faye Travers is called upon to appraise the estate of a family in her small New Hampshire town, she isn't surprised to discover a forgotten cache of valuable Native American artifacts. After all, the family descends from an Indian agent who worked on the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation that is home to her mother's family. However, she stops dead in her tracks when she finds in the collection a rare drum -- a powerful yet delicate object, made from a massive moose skin stretched across a hollow of cedar, ornamented with symbols she doesn't recognize and dressed in red tassels and a beaded belt and skirt -- especially since, without touching the instrument, she hears it sound. From Faye's discovery, we trace the drum's passage both backward and forward in time, from the reservation on the northern plains to New Hampshire and back. Through the voice of Bernard Shaawano, an Ojibwe, we hear how his grandfather fashioned the drum after years of mourning his young daughter's death, and how it changes the lives of those whose paths its crosses. And through Faye we hear of her anguished relationship with a local sculptor, who himself mourns the loss of a daughter, and of the life she has made alone with her mother, in the shadow of the death of Faye's sister. Through these compelling voices, The Painted Drum explores the strange power that lost children exert on the memories of those they leave behind, and as the novel unfolds, its elegantly crafted narrative comes to embody the intricate, transformative rhythms of human grief. One finds throughout the grace and wit, the captivating prose and surprising beauty, that characterize Louise Erdrich's finest work.
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The Thrall's Tale
by Judith Lindbergh
Set in Viking Greenland in 895 AD, this dramatic novel focuses on the intertwined lives of three women straddling the pagan past and Christian future: Katla, an Irish, Christian slave or thrall; Bibrau, her daughter from a violent rape; and Thorbjorg, the prophetess of the pagan god Odin who raises Bibrau.
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The Hollow Hills
by Mary Stewart
Keeping watch over the young Arthur Pendragon, the prince and prophet Merlin Ambrosius is haunted by dreams of the magical sword Caliburn, which has been hidden for centuries. When Uther Pendragon is killed in battle, the time of destiny is at hand, and Arthur must claim the fabled sword to become the true High King of Britain.
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Within the Hollow Hills
by John Matthews
As legend has it, the Hollow Hills are the hidden abode of the gods -- they withdrew to them when people began to no longer believe in the gods. Within these Hills the gods still live, delighting in the joys of companionship and riches of song and story. And sometimes the song of the Lordly Ones can still be heard by travelers on the road. Some people even enter the faery halls and learn new songs and stories to reenchant the world. In this book, a sequel to the popular From Isles of Dream, John Matthews has collected the best imaginative writings by contemporary Celtic writers. Included are tales and songs by such as Robin Williamson, R.J. Stewart, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Caitlin Matthews, David Spangler, and Margaret Elphinstone. This is a unique collection that will become a perennial favorite of all lovers of fantasy, imagination, and Celtic lore.
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Confessions of a Pagan Nun
by Kate Horsley
A druid-turned-nun writes of faith, love, and loss in this “beautifully written and thought-provoking book” set at the dawn of Ireland’s Christian era (Library Journal) Cloistered in a stone cell at the monastery of Saint Brigit, a sixth-century Irish nun secretly records the memories of her Pagan youth, interrupting her assigned task of transcribing Augustine and Patrick. She revisits her past, piece by piece—her fiercely independent mother, whose skill with healing plants and inner strength she inherited; her druid teacher, the brusque and magnetic Giannon, who introduced her to the mysteries of the written language. But disturbing events at the cloister keep intervening. As the monastery is rent by vague and fantastic accusations, Gwynneve's words become the one force that can save her from annihilation. “As a slant of sunlight illuminates jewels long buried, Kate Horsley's novel brings words to an ancient silence and a living, vivid presence to people who lived in that time of great changes and estrangements we call the Dark Ages.” —Ursula K. Le Guin
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Gudrun's Tapestry
by Joan Schweighardt
Gudrun?s Tapestry is a powerful, enchanting and vivid tale of one woman?s quest to eliminate Fifth Century Europe?s greatest threat: Attila and his Huns. Along the way Gudrun unexpectedly discovers the capacity to love a man who may be a mortal enemy. In finally confronting her true self, she finds that she must embark on an inner journey to cope with adversity in the outer world. Grounded in history and loosely based on the Poetic Edda, Gudrun?s Tapestry takes the reader on a quest of self-discovery in a tale of magic and courage that resonates through the centuries to touch the reader?s heart and soul.
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The Path of the Mother
by Savitri L. Bess
"What are the greatest qualities of a Mother? Love, forgiveness, and patience." Much has been written about the feminine faces of God. Now The Path of the Mother introduces us to a divinity more whole than any we have yet encountered--her arms open to men and women of any persuasion or practice. She is at once masculine and feminine, creator and transformer, joy and anguish, the all-loving Mother and the true, realized human Self. Drawing on her most vibrant expression, this inspiring book traces her myriad faces--compassionate, fierce, enchanting, challenging, passionate--in male and female deities of many religions. "As far as Mother is concerned, everyone is her child. . . . Children, did not Mother come when you called? Thus did she not obey you?" The Path of the Mother is a six-stage journey to union with the Great Mother, framed by Savitri Bess's own years of devotion to one of her most famous incarnations--the Hindu mystic Ammachi. Interweaving Hindu myths with her own quest and those of others, Bess reveals this journey as an exodus from aloneness to the wondrous integration of love, worship, and service into life's daily tasks. Practical exercises, meditations, yoga, and prayers will help both novice and veteran seekers to rediscover their innocence, balance their inner masculine and feminine energies, resolve their buried wounds, desires, and talents, and open their hearts to the nurturing guidance of the Mother-God within us all. "Love is Amma's nature. She cannot be otherwise. . . . Amma cannot return our anger, hatred, or abuse. Amma can only bestow boundless compassion and love."