A Woman's Book of Rituals and Celebrations
A Woman's Book of Rituals and Celebrations

Author: Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D.

Publisher: New World Library

Published: 2011-12-11

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1608681386

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is a handbook on how to perform sacred ceremonies in the tradition of Goddess spirituality in one's own home with ordinary household items. An annual cycle of celebrations is included, as is advice on how to set up an altar and use simple tools. The author, a practitioner of Wicca (witchcraft), expounds the life-affirming, eco-feminist values of that tradition. Suggestions for rituals and ideas for inventing one's own are given. Poetry and blessings blend in a title which supports celebration of the Goddess image in daily life. These rituals are personal, moving rites which celebrate love and peace, and which act as meditations for considering new rituals, old traditions, and the course of women's lives.

A Woman's Ritual
A Woman's Ritual

Author: Sudha Murthy

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2017-01-19

Total Pages: 15

ISBN-13: 9351180689

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Shraddha is a ritual where once a year, three generations of elders who have passed away are venerated by their loved ones. When Sudha Murthy went to perform the shraddha for her father, she was turned away, because she was a woman. "No woman has ever performed this ritual," the pandit said. Sudha Murty questions the importance of meaningless ritual while still being devoted to tradition - what does it mean to be a religious woman in the 21st century? A searching and powerful piece on reaching a balance between old and the new as a woman.

Casting the Circle
Casting the Circle

Author: Diane Stein

Publisher: Crossing Press

Published: 2012-10-17

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 0307827887

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Learn how to create a sacred space and use ritual for empowerment in everyday life, with this classic from Diane Stein.

Women, Ritual, and Power
Women, Ritual, and Power

Author: Elizabeth Ursic

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2014-09-30

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1438452861

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many Christians do not know the Bible contains female images of God because they have never heard nor seen them in church. In Women, Ritual, and Power, Elizabeth Ursic gives the reader insight into four Christian communities that worship God with female imagery, both as a worship focus and a community identity. These Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Catholic congregations operate within their established church denominations and are led by either ordained Protestant ministers or vowed Catholic sisters. Because expressing God-as-She can expose strident claims for maintaining God-as-He, this book shows not only how patriarchy continues to operate in churches today, but also how it is being successfully challenged through liturgy.

Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women
Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women

Author: Isaac Jack Lévy

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780252026973

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Winner of the Ellii Kongas-Maranda Prize from the Women's Section of the American Folklore Society, 2003. Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women preserves the precious remnants of a rich culture on the verge of extinction while affirming women's pivotal role in the health of their communities. Centered around extensive interviews with elders of the Sephardic communities of the former Ottoman Empire, this volume illuminates a fascinating complex of preventive and curative rituals conducted by women at home--rituals that ensured the physical and spiritual well-being of the community and functioned as a vital counterpart to the public rites conducted by men in the synagogues. Isaac Jack Lévy and Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt take us into the homes and families of Sephardim in Turkey, Israel, Greece, the former Yugoslavia, and the United States to unravel the ancient practices of domestic healing: the network of blessings and curses tailored to every occasion of daily life; the beliefs and customs surrounding mal ojo (evil eye), espanto (fright), and echizo (witchcraft); and cures involving everything from herbs, oil, and sugar to the powerful mumia (mummy) made from dried bones of corpses. For the Sephardim, curing an illness required discovering its spiritual cause, which might be unintentional thought or speech, accident, or magical incantation. The healing rituals of domesticated medicine provided a way of making sense of illness and a way of shaping behavior to fit the narrow constraints of a tightly structured community. Tapping a rich and irreplaceable vein of oral testimony, Ritual Medical Lore of Sephardic Women offers fascinating insight into a culture where profound spirituality permeated every aspect of daily life.

Women's Rites of Passage
Women's Rites of Passage

Author: Abigail Brenner

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 9780742547483

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Women's Rites of Passage grew out of Abigail Brenner s desire to answer some fundamental questions about the role of rites of passage in contemporary women s lives. Relying on a research study involving over 50 women, Brenner shows how women today understand the need to take responsibility for their lives and for directing their own paths, and are beginning to do so by creating their own very personal rites of passage.

Worshiping Women
Worshiping Women

Author: Nikos E. Kaltsas

Publisher: Onassis Foundation USA

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This exhibition catalogue, divided into three main sections, is an essential collection of images and descriptions of each of the 155 artifacts of the exhibition, containing also scrutinizing essays on the important role women played in Classical Athens. The first section, "Goddesses and Heroines", introduces the principal female deities of Athens and Attica, in whose cults and festivals women were most actively engaged: Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Demeter and her daughter Persephone. The second section, "Women and Ritual," explores the practice of ritual acts such as dances, libations, sacrifices, processions and festivals in which women were active in classical antiquity. Here the critical role of the priestess comes to light, specifically in her function as key-bearer for the temples of the gods. The final section, "Women and the Cycle of Life," looks at how religious rituals defined moments of transition. This section focuses on nuptial rites and wedding banquets but also death, another occasion on which Athenian women took on major responsibilities, such as preparing the deceased for burial and tending the graves of family members. Contributors include, in addition to the editors, Professor Mary Lefkowitz of Wellesley College; Professor Olga Palagia of the University of Athens; Dr. Angelos Delivorrias, director of the Benaki Museum; Professor Michalis Tiverios of the Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki; Professor Joan Breton Connelly of New York University; Professor Jenifer Neils of Case Western Reserve University; and Professor John Oakley of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, among others.

Ritual Making Women
Ritual Making Women

Author: Jan Berry

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1351550756

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Ritual Making Women looks at the way in which women's making of ritual has emerged from the rapidly developing field of women's spirituality and theology. The author uses ethnographic material to explore how the construction of ritual uses story-making and embodied action to empower women. Ritual, far from being a timeless and universal practice, is shown to be a contextual and gendered performance in which women subvert conventional distinctions of private and public. The book combines narrative and case study material and draws on feminist theology and theory, social anthropology and gender studies.

The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries
The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries

Author: Zsuzsanna Budapest

Publisher: Weiser Books

Published: 2007-10-01

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9781578634132

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A women's spirituality classic now back in print! The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries is essential for Pagans, feminists, and women seeking to learn more about the spiritual path as it relates to the feminine and the Goddess aspects of witchcraft and Wicca. This book is not about reinstating a matriarchy or tearing down patriarchy; it is about women's spirituality and its relationship with politics and lifestyle. Z. Budapest is one of the founding mothers of modern women's witchcraft, beginning with the establishment of Susan B. Anthony Coven in Los Angeles in 1971. She catapulted herself into the media spotlight when she was tried as a witch and found guilty in 1975 after being arrested on Venice Beach for reading tarot cards. She fought the charges and, after a nine year battle, won the right for every tarot reader to do so legally. The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries is a seminal text that contains invaluable information on Dianic witchcraft and spells, including everyday magick, sabbat rituals, and divination methods; a section on how vegetarian theories and politics relate to witchcraft and the feminine aspect; and a good deal of information on goddesses and how the patriarchal religions distorted old myths to serve their own needs. There are several unique and beautiful Rites of Passage for women and men that you don't often find, and Budapest's personal life stories are an equally valuable read, from her escape across the mountains from Communist Hungary to her fight for women's religious freedom upon moving to America. * This reprint features a new introduction by Z. Budapest, in addition to essays by luminaries such as Starhawk and Merlin Stone.

Women's Ritual in Formative Oaxaca
Women's Ritual in Formative Oaxaca

Author: Joyce Marcus

Publisher: U OF M MUSEUM ANTHRO ARCHAEOLOGY

Published: 1998-01-01

Total Pages: 360

ISBN-13: 0915703483

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book covers divination, figurine-making, and women’s ritual treatment of ancestors in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, from 1600 to 500 BC.