Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine

Joseph Campbell,

Safron Rossi (Editor)

4.23 · Rating details · 1,196 ratings · 89 reviews

The first Joseph Campbell work to focus on the Goddess, edited and introduced by Safron Rossi, PhD, Curator of Collections at Opus Archives and Research Center, home to the archival collections of Joseph Campbell, Marija Gimbutas, James Hillman, and other scholars of mythology, Jungian and archetypal psychology, and the humanities.

Joseph Campbell brought mythology to a mas

...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 1st edition Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, 303 pages

Published December 10th 2013 by New World Library

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Goddesses, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Goddesses

Lists with This Book

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Best Books About Mythology

1,226 books — 2,280 voters

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

COMPARATIVE MYTHOLOGY/FOLKLORE

202 books — 11 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.23 ·

Rating details

· 1,196 ratings · 89 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine

Nov 05, 2013 Mark rated it it was amazing

Gender conflict has deep, historical roots.

Goddesses: Mysteries of the Divine Feminine, is a book based on lectures and notes by the late Joseph Campbell. It is produced by the Joseph Campbell Foundation and edited by Dr. Safron Rossi. The book traces the Goddess in history from ancient times and peoples to around the time of the European Renaissance (around the 15th century).

It is a fascinating work and an in-depth look into an aspect of mythology that is frequently overlooked. Many works featu ...more

flag 18 likes · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2020 Cynthia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: want-to-own, nonfiction, spirituality-religion, temp-want, temp-want-2, wishlist-holibday

I don't know how to put into words how great this book is. ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2015 Steve Cran rated it it was amazing

Joseph Campbell is a well known scholar of mythology who has taught a number if years at the University level and has authored numerous books. His material is gold as far as I am concerned . AT the same time as being scholarly his style is also highly readable and enjoyable. Read this and you will get lots of information. Beware though because this book may well change your perspective on things.

Change it did. Many scholars such as Margaret Murray and Marija Gambutas have stated that in man kin Joseph Campbell is a well known scholar of mythology who has taught a number if years at the University level and has authored numerous books. His material is gold as far as I am concerned . AT the same time as being scholarly his style is also highly readable and enjoyable. Read this and you will get lots of information. Beware though because this book may well change your perspective on things.

Change it did. Many scholars such as Margaret Murray and Marija Gambutas have stated that in man kinds beginning there was a whorl wide religion that revered the Goddess. Now perhaps that was an overstatement but there were places that venerated the Goddess. Three such areas were identified South Eastern Europe plus Greece and Mesopatamia, South East Asia and part of Central AMerica. THese three areas had mastered agriculture and planting. THe societies tended to be settled into communities and there was at the time no threat of invasion or violence. THe Goddesses reign lasted from the Paleolithic to Neolithic times.

The Earth was seen as the mother. From her came all life and at the end all life returned to her. You did not have to be awesome to pick some fruit. Women were cultivators, admired for their beauty. Men were idolized based on how they performed their tasks. In the houses one would find figurines or Venus statues, These could be goddess statues or fertility votives. Men had their rituals in underground caves which were highly representative of the Goddesses womb. The sun was a feminine sign as was the lion and the cat and the snake. The sun radiated on the earth and represented freedom from time and space. Lions were royalty and serpents represented wisdom and life force.

For the male representation it was the bull. The bull was lunar. It's horns represented the crescent of the moon. The male figure was the child of the goddess who grew into her lover and then dies only tobe born again much like the moon.

During the Iron age when the feminine world was being invaded by Indo Europeans in the north and Bedouin tribes from the south things began to change. The Indo- Europeans were semit nomadic warrior who cultivated livestock mostly cows. THe Bedouin cultivated sheep and goats. As was tendency once these warrior tribes took over the feminine lands they did not eradicate the goddess but rather had there moveable gods move and and marry them. Of course this would change the whole mythology

Joseph Campbell covers these ideas and their evolution by going over Hindu Culture, heavy emphasis on Greco=Roman myth and Middle Eastern Mythology. Carefully showing how three once powerful Goddess was reduced to a subordinate undeeer the ancient paganism to how she was merely venerated under monotheism. But you cannot keep a good woman down. SHe rises up during the romantic period of courtly love and she is making her voice heard again. This book is a must read ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2014 Billie Hinton rated it it was amazing

This book is a collection of Joseph Campbell's lectures and workshops on goddesses that explore the symbols and themes of the feminine divine. Edited by Safron Rossi, this book is a treasure chest and overview of Campbell's perspective on goddess mythology. A terrific read for anyone interested in the goddess tradition but as a writer and psychotherapist, I feel this book is an important source for writers, therapists, particularly Jungian and sandplay therapists, and adds an important piece to ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 10, 2016 Lina Slavova rated it really liked it

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Joseph Campbell, know that he was a renowned mythologist endowed with the ability to make myth accessible and appealing to all. It is a true pleasure to read his works and to receive his knowledge of the spiritual principles ingrained in all legends.

This book is a compilation of lectures given by Joseph Campbell on the subject of the feminine divine. Campbell traces the evolution of the concept of the Great Goddess from Neolithic Old Europe to the Renaiss For those of you who are unfamiliar with Joseph Campbell, know that he was a renowned mythologist endowed with the ability to make myth accessible and appealing to all. It is a true pleasure to read his works and to receive his knowledge of the spiritual principles ingrained in all legends.

This book is a compilation of lectures given by Joseph Campbell on the subject of the feminine divine. Campbell traces the evolution of the concept of the Great Goddess from Neolithic Old Europe to the Renaissance. I very much enjoyed reading it and I recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in the subject.

The following quote, at the very beginning of the volume, touched an inner sensitive cord. It is both surprising and amazing to me that he had such deep understanding of our feminine energies.

“Many of the difficulties that women face today follow from the fact that they are moving into a field of action in the world that was formerly reserved for the male and for which there are no female mythological models. The woman finds herself, consequently, in a competitive relationship with the male, and in this may lose the sense of her own nature. She is something in her own right, and traditionally (for some four million years) the relationship of that something to the male has been experienced and represented, not as directly competitive, but as cooperative in the shared ordeal of continuing and supporting life. Her biologically assigned role was to give birth to and to rear children. The male role was to support and protect. Both roles are biologically and psychologically archetypical. But what has happened now—as a result of the masculine invention of the vacuum cleaner—is that women have been relieved, in some measure, of their traditional bondage to the household. They are moving into the field and jungle of individual quest, achievement, and self-realization, for which there are no female models. Moreover, in pursuing their distinct careers they are emerging progressively as differentiated personalities, leaving behind the old archetypal accent on the biological role—to which, however, their psyches are still constitutionally bound. The grim prayer of Lady Macbeth before her deed, “unsex me here!” must be the unspoken, deeply felt cry of many a new contender in this masculine jungle.

There is no such need, however. The challenge of the moment—and there are many who are meeting it, accepting it, and responding to it, in the way not of men but of women—the challenge is to flower as individuals, neither as biological archetypes nor as personalities imitative of the male. And, to repeat, there are no models in our mythology for an individual woman’s quest. Nor is there any model for the male in marriage to an individuated female. We are in this thing together and have to work it out together, not with passion (which is always archetypal) but with compassion, in patient fostering of each other’s growth.”

If only he was still alive…. I would have loved to read his thoughts on “The Hunger Games” and “Fifty Shades of Gray”.
...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2019 Kent Winward rated it really liked it

The title is a little misleading, because there isn't as much about the Goddess as there is about the Goddesses' place in ancient myth telling. (Hint: It is often tangential to the main story.)

When reading Campbell, you can usually count on at least one instance where you get an insight into an old story you didn't have before, like Paris choosing between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera, was a choice between three archetypal female characters, love/lust, wisdom/career, and home/hearth. The obvious r The title is a little misleading, because there isn't as much about the Goddess as there is about the Goddesses' place in ancient myth telling. (Hint: It is often tangential to the main story.)

When reading Campbell, you can usually count on at least one instance where you get an insight into an old story you didn't have before, like Paris choosing between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera, was a choice between three archetypal female characters, love/lust, wisdom/career, and home/hearth. The obvious representations of the Goddesses were more about Paris choosing a life path. I know that seems obvious, but the shift and viewing the myth as metaphor for life choices struck me.

Another story I enjoyed was Campbell's take on Chrétien's poem, Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart. . Here is Campbell's take on the Perilous Bed:

A number of knights had to experience the perilous bed before getting access to a lady, and it works like this; You come into a room that’s absolutely empty, except in the middle of it is a bed on rollers. You are to come in dressed in your full armour – sword, spear, shield, all that heavy stuff- and get into bed. Well, as the knight approaches the bed, it shears away to one side. So he comes again, and it goes the other way. The knight finally thinks, “I’ve got to jump.” So with his full gear, he jumps into the bed, and as soon as he hits the bed, it starts bucking like a bronco all over the room, banging against the walls and all of that kind of thing, and then it stops. Then he’s told, ‘It’s not finished yet. Keep your armour on and keep your shield over yourself. ” And then arrows and crossbow bolts pummel him- bang, bang, bang, bang. Then a lion appears and attacks the knight, but he cuts off the lion’s feet, and the two of them end up lying there in a pool of blood. Only then do the ladies of the castle come in and see their knight, their saviour, lying there looking dead. One of the ladies takes a bit of ‘fur’ from her garment and puts it in front of his nose and it moves ever so slightly – he’s breathing, he’s alive. So they nurse him back to health.” The knight is then off to his next adventure.

Per Campbell, the myth is the metaphor for the male experience of the female temperament. You have to love myths. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 03, 2015 Heather rated it liked it

Shelves: own-it, non-fiction, religious, mythology

Joseph Campbell worked off of outdated theories and lacked a detailed knowledge of many of the cultures about which he theorizes. For example, he says that Egypt's geographical location protects it from stronger cultures in every direction except the north. Meroe in general, and The 25th Dynasty in particular, would like a word.

He is still an acknowledged giant in the study of mythology and folklore. Many of his ideas are still worth digging into, despite his frequent casual racism and sexism. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2017 Sharon Miller rated it it was amazing

A little dated and a little disjointed, and as ever I always want him to finish his thoughts. His mercurial mind jumps to the next thing before wrapping up a subject. But that aside the only other criticism is how short this was. I want more! Miraculously accessible for being presented in a flurry of connections and texts and stories. Always enlightening and edifying. A rare treat.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2014 Alicia Anderson rated it it was amazing

This exceedingly well-edited collection of essays, lectures and notes by Joseph Campbell was useful in seeing his overall opinion of goddesses in mythology and the goddess as she appears in various mythologies.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2022 Ranjani rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2022

This book gave me so many ‘aha’ moments. I’ve always wondered why some religions have a feminine focus of spirituality, while others are fully focused on the masculine version of the spiritual realm, with no feminine presence. Campbell looks back to the formation of earth’s earliest religions and how they evolved, why they integrated certain invading tribal spiritual concepts and dismissed others.

I thought he would delve deeply only into western anthropological/religious history, but it quickly ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 15, 2018 Joanne LaFleur rated it it was amazing

I came across Joseph Campbell's lectures on the goddesses at a time when I was in a faith crisis precipitated by the realization that my participation in a religious organization with an all-male priesthood had caused me to internalize misogyny that I had not previously been aware of. My journey to understand that led me, first, to ask why a benevolent god who regards me as having as much worth as any of his other children would ordain a social order that diminishes women (short answer: he would I came across Joseph Campbell's lectures on the goddesses at a time when I was in a faith crisis precipitated by the realization that my participation in a religious organization with an all-male priesthood had caused me to internalize misogyny that I had not previously been aware of. My journey to understand that led me, first, to ask why a benevolent god who regards me as having as much worth as any of his other children would ordain a social order that diminishes women (short answer: he wouldn't) and, second, if god were a goddess, what would that look like?

Joseph Campbell's lectures were very helpful to me in answering the second question. At first I was a little put off by the idea that the only thing that seems to be divine about women is their life-giving capacity, but then Campbell pointed out that the 'masculine' and 'feminine' constructs are man-made, and the gods and goddesses are ways that we make sense of powers that are in ourselves and in the world. Women are not meant to be wholly defined by our understanding of the goddess.

I very much appreciated Campbell's descriptions of the ways that our cultural myths, particularly the Judeo-Christian myths, were built upon prior myths. For example, he points out that the story of Cain and Abel is about the tension between the agricultural and herding societies, which were encountering each other in the historical era during which the bible was written. He says that Cain, a farmer, represents the agricultural society and Abel, a herder, represents the herding society. They each bring their offering to a male god, and that god prefers the meat to the grains. Cain then kills Abel out of jealousy. Campbell points out that there was an older myth in which the two offerings are presented to the goddess, and she chooses the grains over meat. Campbell points out that this biblical rewrite of the older myth is about setting supreme the male god of the herding society and erasing the goddess altogether. There are many more examples of the ways that the bible erases, demotes, or evilizes the goddess.
...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2017 Ivy rated it really liked it

Shelves: european_history, mythology

Read the chapters I needed (up to the Gods and Goddess of Ancient Greece). Its been a while since I read anything even close to scholarly, and I really enjoyed Campbell's cross-cultural approach to understanding both the power of the Goddess and how that power was eventually stripped away as Creator Father figures took over. My only complaint is that the illustrations were small and in black and white. Some of the works he refers to as evidence for his theories are difficult to see, and you have ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2014 Jules rated it liked it

Shelves: owned, mysteries-of-femininity, mythology-of-the-divine-feminine

Pagan religions and goddess worship are the subjects of Campbell's work. He explores how the goddess is linked to both life and death, agriculture and spirituality. I expected him to delve more into the goddess cults of history but he does spend a lot of time providing a synopsis of myths too. This I feel detracts from the focus, as a lot of attention is given to Zeus and Odysseus, Atlas and other heroes. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2014 David Melbie rated it it was amazing

This is a wonderful editing job, of putting together in a very cohesive way, all of Campbell's writings on the Goddesses. I am already a big fan, but this is by far the best compilation that this publisher has done to date. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2014 Tim rated it liked it

Campbell's estate is taking all his old lectures and editing/converting them into books, and this reads like that. But I still liked a lot of the material, some of it new and some of it from other works of Campbell. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 26, 2020 Pontus Alexander rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, mythology-and-folklore

These lectures are investigations of the symbolic, mythological, and archetypal themes of the feminine divine in and of herself, and for Campbell her main themes are initiation into the mysteries of immanence experienced through time and space and the eternal; transformation of life and death; and the energy consciousness that informs and enlivens all life. – Foreword, Safron Rossi

. . .

In the older view of the goddess Universe was alive, herself organically the Earth, the horizon, and the he ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 16, 2021 Cindy Costa rated it it was amazing

"Everything is changing, even the law of the masculine jungle. It is a period of free fall into the future, and each has to make his or her own way. The old models are not working; the new have not yet appeared. In fact, it is we who are even now shaping the new in the shaping of our interesting lives. And that is the whole sense (in mythological terms) of the present challenge: we are the 'ancestors' of an age to come, the unwitting generators of its supporting myths, the mythic models that wil ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2021 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Joseph Campbell is one of the best authorities on mythology and early religion. This book has gathered together a lot of his speeches and writings on the Goddess, and he discovered the threads of the innate religion that was in various parts of the world thousands of years ago - a worship of the Mother Goddess. This tome threads together the rituals, the histories and shows how ancient civilizations worshipped the same gods and the same Goddess just by different names. What I found most fascinat ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 19, 2017 Maan Kawas rated it it was amazing

An excellent book about the Goddesses & female deity vs. male deity related mythology in the ancient history. I particularly loved reading about Demeter & Persephone and the mystery traditions, the Male and female deities in Homer's "Iliad" & "Odyssey", and, of course, about the Great Mother. I found the information about the characteristics and deity of both the hunter & Planting societies so informative and interesting. I do highly recommend this book. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 19, 2021 Hande Allen rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

4.5/5

So informative. If you are not familiar with some cultures, it might be a bit challenging for you to understand some points. You may need to search while reading.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2018 Ryan Denson rated it really liked it

Shelves: folklore, ancient-history, humanism, psychology

This book aims to survey Joseph Campbell’s ideas on the depiction of women as divine in western mythology/religion. A couple of caveats are in order for anyone reading this book. First, one should remember that this is a patchwork of Campbell’s lectures that was compiled posthumously. As such, there is some repetition of ideas and themes as well as disjunctions between sections and chapters. Campbell’s characteristically mercurial style may also prove daunting for some readers. The editor has do This book aims to survey Joseph Campbell’s ideas on the depiction of women as divine in western mythology/religion. A couple of caveats are in order for anyone reading this book. First, one should remember that this is a patchwork of Campbell’s lectures that was compiled posthumously. As such, there is some repetition of ideas and themes as well as disjunctions between sections and chapters. Campbell’s characteristically mercurial style may also prove daunting for some readers. The editor has done a remarkable job of assembling Campbell’s thoughts on goddesses, but, even still, one should be conscious that this was not originally compiled as a single text. Second, it’s worth noting that although this is a fairly recent volume (2013), these lectures are from the 1970s and 1980s. Therefore, there is a lot of scholarly theories and assumptions presented here that have since been disproven or heavily revised, such as the notion of a Dorian “invasion.” For anyone examining this topic in detail, they should look through the more recent sources listed in the appendix.

Nevertheless, Campbell does an excellent job with the information he had to work with. His central thesis is essentially that the portrayal of women as divine gradually declined from prehistory to the medieval period. In the earliest human societies, goddesses were fertility figures, but also seen as protectors and guides for society. Significantly, these earliest goddesses may have been viewed equally with their male counterparts. Some aspects of that were retained in Greek mythology (as we see prominently in the Odyssey), though in a reduced role under a patriarchal system dominated by male figures like Zeus and Apollo. Goddesses like Artemis and Aphrodite still retained their own unique domains. The rise of Christianity, however, meant the decline of the goddess figure entirely. That monotheistic religion, with its traditionally male deity, simply had left no room for the divine female. The closest figure to a goddess would be the Virgin Mary, but she is explicitly a human figure. Mary’s role as an intermediary to God/Christ is also quite different from earlier female figures. She does not have her own role, as Artemis did. Campbell sees this as a sign of the dominating patriarchal aspect of Christianity.

Much of the finer details that Campbell discusses are hindered by now antiquated scholarship and dubious out of context references. However, the macro perspective of his ideas on the goddesses, which I have outlined above, is quite good. Campbell’s theories on the large-scale aspects of society were often his best. The depiction of women in mythology, religion, and any type of storytelling can help us understand how a society views and threats them. Campbell saw the changes being made by feminism in the 70s and 80s. He was certainly elated to see that society was now swinging back towards equality for all and I think he’d be quite happy to see the movements going on today. Therefore, I’ll just add this inspirational quote in Campbell’s own words on the feminist movements of his day:

“In the past, women have been bound simply to biological, social tasks; they were pregnant most of the time and they had to take care of the children. They also had the enormous social tasks of supporting the household and preparing the food, and the clothing, and everything. That’s no longer what women have to deal with. They are released to develop individually, personally, as men had been released for centuries, and its that release of the personality that had put men in the dominant position – not the muscles or anything of that kind. I taught at a women’s college for nearly four decades, and as I said to my students, all I can tell you about mythology is what men have said and have experienced, and now women have to tell us from their point of view what the possibilities of the feminine future are.”
...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Apr 21, 2016 Daniel Swanger rated it really liked it

As important as St Jerome's fellow Latin church Father St Augustine for its contemporary post-Constantinian toleration, post-Byzantine Comparative Theology! As a participant in the local Joseph Campbell Mythological Round Table, and a presentation giver on myth and art there in my published book of verse and essays, I was interested in reading this book on goddesses, being a scholar of myth and art history and having it recommended by others in our group. I had overestimated Campbell. His Histor As important as St Jerome's fellow Latin church Father St Augustine for its contemporary post-Constantinian toleration, post-Byzantine Comparative Theology! As a participant in the local Joseph Campbell Mythological Round Table, and a presentation giver on myth and art there in my published book of verse and essays, I was interested in reading this book on goddesses, being a scholar of myth and art history and having it recommended by others in our group. I had overestimated Campbell. His Historical Atlas of World Mythology must have led to this book. But he is not a semiologist, only writing of comparisons not structure, and makes a few historic/mythic errors (Hathor/Isis), with compositional writing errors including clarity, connectives, and prepositions. Dr Dmitri Liakos, my well-known university professor of ancient art, was much more informed and accurate on ancient myth. The illustrations here are not all the best and source provenences are not listed. (For example, Pompeiian murals are shown as Roman art, in derivative line drawings and some important photos are blurry). Certain details of Eleusis may interest but falsities such as Masonic Hermes Trismegistes and Io as saints in a Vatican mural, along with the ultimate assumptions of this author, that Redemption is also mythic, led me to skim this volume in two days and see that I'd learned nothing to add to my legitimate knowledge of art and myth. The non-intellectual TV populariser Bill Moyers brought this author to public attention. Despite what I've said about this book, it's valuable as knowledge about God and gods in nature, since before Jesus on this earth, with comparative religion and the meaning of life answered best by faith: where do I come from? (I come from God). Why am I here? (to serve God). Where am I going? (You go to God). Theology answers philosophy's questions. So-called mythology from art still worships one God, creator, many names, as in St Ignatius' counter-reformation theology of the Holy Name, by which God reveals himself telescopingly as theology according to newest Church Doctor St John Newman (no more animal sacrifices and no more Jewish stone altars; no human child sacrifices as of heathen Baal on Carmel's smitten height) with the 12 pagan Olympians, 12 tribes, 12 disciples, 12 apostles, and all personally important especially when prayer seems fruitless or the world seems lost; Augustine's quandary of the conversion and fall of Rome of the other eternal City of God: don't let religion change, or does it?
Not religion but the so-called Great Leap of Faith may mean that Faith means simply accepting all that the universal Church teaches, our duty to Creator worshipped (we did not create ourselves), also invoked for thanks and for our needs, not our religious opinion, perhaps partly as in Islamic practice as well. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 23, 2019 Arthur Gailes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fantastic. Campbell goes through the history of goddess worship dating back to 4000 BC, and details the types of societies and environments that lead to goddess worship.

That discussion leads to an overview of the broad history of European religion, from the polytheistic "indo-europeans" (who would become Greek and Hindu), and the monotheistic Semites. The discussion of Christianity as a hybrid of those two groups (Christ being a Greek-style hero in a Hebrew tradition) is thrilling, as is the ide ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2017 Lisa rated it it was amazing

A very well curated collection of Campbell's lectures on The Goddess. One of Campbell's best. Especially the chapters on the Greek Goddesses, including an enlightened approach to The Judgement of Paris and The Illiad/Odyssey. So many thought-provoking insights on Patriarchy/Matriarchy, Monotheism/Polytheism, and the intentional absence of a Goddess/female consort, in the development of early Judeo-Christian theology. A study of agricultural v/s herding or tribal systems, and how the addition or ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2018 George Viana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

The author pulls back the curtain and reveals to me secrets that connect practically all of human history into one narrative. Delightful poetry writes how the pendulum of religion leans at one time to one direction and in the next era in contrapposto to the opposite. Beautiful themes reflect each other back and forth throughout and repeatedly, by Campbell's artful arrangement. This evolution of religion reveals the motivations of dozens or hundreds of civilizations, casting our history in a diff ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 04, 2015 Marcia rated it it was amazing

Joseph Campbell never wrote a book on Goddesses so this is a compilation of talks and articles that he did on the subject during his life time. There is some repetition of ideas and information. The book as it stands though is very interesting and information.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2014 Claire rated it really liked it

This was good. It linked the histories together in a clear way and explained the Greek mythology, particularly, in a way I haven't seen before. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 12, 2014 Jerry James rated it it was amazing

Very enjoyable. It's helpful to know these are mostly transcribed lectures in order to understand the odd prose at times. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2015 Chrysoula rated it it was amazing

Love this book. Inspiring.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2015 Baxter Trautman rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, spiritual, psychology

The facts were a little repetitive as it is a compilation of his lectures, but because these were lectures they are written as he spoke them, hence delightful as Campbell was a master storyteller.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fantasy > Mythology

76 users

Nonfiction

58 users

History

26 users

Feminism

25 users

Spirituality

21 users

Philosophy

15 users

Psychology

13 users

Religion

11 users

Womens

11 users

Religion > Goddess

11 users

See top shelves…

About Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell

4,888 followers

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of tote Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles.

Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.  

After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey. 

Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people. 
...more

Books by Joseph Campbell

Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation

A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

The Masks of God, Volume 2: Oriental Mythology

More…

News & Interviews

Cuddle Up with 2022's Winter Holiday Romances

The winter holiday season tends to be a busy one in the romance aisle. To assist you in finding your next hot read to warm up a cold night,...

Quotes from Goddesses: Myster...

“In the older view the goddess Universe was alive, herself organically the Earth, the horizon, and the heavens. Now she is dead, and the universe is not an organism, but a building, with gods at rest in it in luxury: not as personifications of the energies in their manners of operation, but as luxury tenants, requiring service. And Man, accordingly, is not as a child born to flower in the knowledge of his own eternal portion but as a robot fashioned to serve.” — 11 likes

“Artemis, along with Selene and Hekate, was one of the Greek triads representing the Old European three-bodied or triune aspect of the Goddess. We can see this represented in this figurine (Fig. 72) of Artemis as part of three-fold Hekate. First you have the pillar—the goddess mother is the axis of the universe herself. Round about are three representations of the Goddess, including Artemis, and Hekate, who represents the chthonic underworld—the magic aspect of the Goddess—and then dancing in a relaxed, fluent manner around about we see the three Graces. Artemis is the giver of abundance: Our Lady of the Wild Things, and the All-Mother of the many breasts, who bears the totality of the entities of the natural world. This is something very, very different from the image of the virgin goddess and the mere huntress that we have normally associated with her.” — 2 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — Goddesses by Joseph Campbell

Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Joseph Campbell

Books by Joseph Campbell

News & Interviews

Quotes from Goddesses: Myster...

See a Problem?

Preview — Goddesses by Joseph Campbell

Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Joseph Campbell

Books by Joseph Campbell

News & Interviews

Quotes from Goddesses: Myster...

new topic
Discuss This Book