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Finding New Goddesses
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I approached this book a bit skeptically, as these days everyone and their brother is inventing new Deities. But this book is different. The approach to Deity is lighthearted, whimsical and yet practical. Barbara Ardinger is an author I am acquainted with from her book “Goddess Meditations” and I know her to be respectful of Deity. She approaches Deity in this book with the same respect, yet ads to the scope of the Deities we are already familiar with. While remaining reverent of the Goddesses of old, she weaves the new needs the modern woman has for Goddesses to help in today’s day to day existence and gives us some very powerful and yet approachable new Goddesses. While most of her Deities are Goddesses, and I could have asked for more balance in the addition of a few Gods, we do see the need for modern women to find an association they can relate to. While many of us may be familiar with the modern “Asphalta”, Ms. Ardinger elaborates even further. How about “Acme” the Goddess of High Tech or “Agenda” the Goddess of meetings. These are obvious. I found “Buffy” the Goddess of the Gym to be a poor choice of names, as many of us are familiar with the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and would have preferred “Svelta” or something along that line, but many other names are almost “tongue in cheek”. How about “Chocolata and Vibrata, the Goddesses of Ecstasy. And while Ms. Ardinger does introduce us to some of the consorts, like “Mr. Buzz- All-Night”, consort to Vibrata, again, I find myself being a more balanced type and looking to see what other consorts would fit in with these new Goddesses. I enjoyed this look at the new needs of women today and how modern Deity can be worked into our daily lives. We sometimes stretch the abilities of the old Deities to try to associate them with our every day chores and sometimes we do feel a need for a Goddess who fits more in place with what we need at the moment. And as Ms. Ardinger points out in the beginning of her book “A note on Playfulness in Spiritual Writings” “The Charge of the Goddess tells us “All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals. Let there be … mirth and reverence within you.” We’ve found the love and we’ve found the reverence. I think it’s time to find the pleasure and the mirth. It’s time to lighten up. It’s time to play with our Goddesses.” |
