Practicing the Presence of the Goddess
   Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D.
  2000 New World Library, Novato, CA USA
   ISBN: 1577311736


Everyday Rituals to Transform Your World. Making the Goddess present in our daily rituals & ceremonial circles in graceful, humorous & wise ways.

This lovely little book that fits perfectly into your pocket is filled with prayers & mantras, history & information for the reclamation of that ancient & mysterious worship of The Goddess.

With few exceptions, most religions we practice today around the globe pronounce, at one time or another, that their religion is the one true one, revealed through a prophet of one cloth or another. The thread that binds all those religions together is they are thought up & professed by men. Some religions go so far as to assert that their ideas come directly from the lips of their god. Some others dwell long & energetically on the gender of their god & how important that gender is; more important than the other.

For all those millions of humans who are wandering through their lives in the wrong gender, there is no surcease from the pain of exile, the aspersions of foulness nor the implications of the anecdotal stories these religions relate. There has been, until that last few decades, only one way for women to express their religious experiences & that has been through the minds of men. Which everyone knows, are different from women.

There are now many books available for women to explore their religious experiences & Barbara Ardinger's Practicing the Presence of the Goddess is a delightful, informative & creative addition to this library.

For those of us who are stirred by memories as old as time this is a gentle & thought-provoking book of exploration about Our Many-Splendored Goddess: Serenissima, Goddess of Taking Care of Yourself; of Theadonna, Goddess of Gratitude & Sancta Chrona, Goddess of Living in the Now.

Part 2 is A Very Brief History of Modern Feminist Spirituality - all about the Parliament of the World's Religions that gathered in 1893 & again in 1993. In that hundred years a dozen more religions had been included among which was that of the Witches and Pagans and Druids. We are treated, here, to a handful of delightful ceremonies, one of which is due any day now with the Solstice.

Part 3 is Practicing Her Presence Today - thoughts on Deep Thought, Good Works, Experiential Play, Devotion, Traditions & An Eclectic Full Moon Ritual among others - prayers that sing & ideas that make sense.

Part 4 is all about Transforming Your World with the magic of altars & rituals of personal power. With explanations of the Four Elements, Altar Etiquette, Magical Tools & how to make them, Ritual Dress & How to Talk to a Deity we are treated to an awesome & hopeful exploration of our spirituality.

I have known for most of my life that the smorgasbord of religions available to us in this day & age have met my needs only so far & then they all fall short because their vision does not see what I see. Glimpses are caught around the celebrations of the birth of children; around the coping with the death of a child yet; around our coming of age yet all of them, because they are expressed from a male perspective, cannot & do not include the cherishing of the feminine, the female, the Goddess.

So it is with great pleasure, that I delve into the writings of these brave & wise women who help women find their way in the bizarre bazaar of male-based religions & ceremonial worship.

Practicing the Presence of the Goddess - Everyday Rituals to Transform Your World is as good as it gets - simple, evocative & deeply engaging.

A wonder-filled gift for the women in your life.

More from Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D.: A Woman's Book of Rituals & Celebrations & Goddess Meditations.
(12/17/00)

Rebecca