Pagan Portals – The Divine Feminine
Deity, Archetype and Ideal
by Janet Morris
Genre: Goddess Worship, Paganism & Neo-paganism, Personal Growth
The Divine Feminine is the missing puzzle piece answering life’s big questions.
Divine Feminine; Deity, Archetype and Ideal, tracks the evolution of Goddess as the First Thought and Creatrix of the World, into her descent and erasure, then comes back full circle, to her ascent and return to heal humanity. From history to heresy, everything is fair game as Tate defines the Divine Feminine, her relevance, as aspirations and solutions. Spiritual ideas that shaped culture are examined, as are worship practices, including sex and intentional travel, to explore the depths of the Divine Feminine in the cradle of civilization and beyond. At this time when humanity is seeking answers, Divine Feminine delivers. Tate weaves multiple interdisciplinary threads, providing the missing puzzle pieces that answer life’s big questions in a concise and understandable way. Explore the sacred trident of the Divine Feminine – deity, archetype and ideal – in this tour de force by prolific author and interfaith minister, Karen Tate. In this, her eighth book, she promises revelations and epiphanies for women and men and offers a vision for a shared future of dignity, equality and unity.
5 out of 5
If, like me, you started off with a Catholic (or any other Abrahamic religion) as your basis for spirituality and then later branched out, I think you’ll greatly appreciate this brief dip into the divine feminine, written by someone who herself had her start with Catholicism. The preface was clearly deeply personal, and shares some things that are important for understanding Tate’s relationship with the divine feminine as a whole. The book itself, while touched with personal things, is also quite well researched. Out of all the broader sections, I think the ones about goddesses in the Holy Land were the most interesting, given my childhood years spent learning so much about the Bible. The final chapter on the divine feminine as an ideal was also quite interesting. Although you don’t need to read this cover-to-cover, I highly recommend doing so to get the most out of it, then diving into further research on your own using the bibliography.
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Rev. Dr. Karen Tate is an eight-times published author, speaker, workshop presenter, sacred tour leader and social justice activist. She’s been named one of the 13 Most Influential Women in Goddess Spirituality and a Wisdom Keeper of the Women’s Spirituality Movement. She can be seen in the film Femme: Women Healing the World produced by Wonderland Entertainment. Karen is the host of the long-running podcast, Voices of the Sacred Feminine, airing since 2009.
Her books include Goddess Calling: Inspirational Messages of Sacred Feminine Liberation Thealogy, the award winning Walking An Ancient Path: Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth, Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations, Normalizing Abuse: A Commentary on the Culture of Pervasive Abuse and Divine Feminine: Deity, Archetype and Ideal. She’s curated the Manifesting A New Normal Trilogy which includes the anthologies Voices of the Sacred Feminine: Conversations to ReShape Our World, Goddess 2.0: Advancing a New Path Forward and Awaken the Feminine: Dismantling Domination to Restore Balance on Mother Earth. She’s contributed to numerous anthologies and academic journals.
Karen is a Certified Caring Economy Conversation Leader and Power of Partnership Practitioner from Riane Eisler’s Center for Partnership Studies. She’s also received a certification in Psychology of Political Activism: Women Changing the World from Smith College and from the Compassionate Integrity Institute. Most recently she’s become a member of the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality and the Association for Spiritual Integrity. Karen is a legally ordained “non-denominational” minister, and she received an honorary Doctorate of Ministry for her many years of service to the community. She teaches the Unitarian Universalist curriculums Cakes for the Queen of Heaven and Rise Up and Call Her Name and is an associate of the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
Karen is often called upon to lead spiritual services, give talks to media and public and private groups such as the Spiritual Unity Movement, Council for the Parliament of World Religions, American Academy of Religion, Joseph Campbell RoundTables, Unitarian Universalist churches and colleges such as the California Institute for Integral Studies. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with Roy, her husband of more than three decades and their three feline daughters Lilly, Luna and Freya.
