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Goddess Companion: Daily Meditations on the Feminine Spirit
Now you can turn every day into a day dedicated to the goddess and your own personal spiritual evolution, when you get The Goddess Companion by Patricia Monaghan.
Turn to The Goddess Companion each day for a clearer insight into how the divine flows through your life. This spirit-nourishing collection of 366 authentic goddess prayers, invocations, chants, and songs was culled from dozens of diverse eras and cultures. Each ancient prayer rings out in clear language that maintains the sacred spirit of the originals.
-A different traditional prayer, invocation, or chant to the goddess for each day of the year
-Each is illuminated by readings about the ancient quote that offer rich material for reflection, inspiration, and bliss
-Multiple indices allow you to find information by goddess name, subject, or cultural origin
-Explore the goddess as envisioned by 68 different cultures throughout the ages--including the Americas, classical Greece and Rome, Asia, ancient Sumeria and Babylonia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
-Find prayers that encompass nearly 130 aspects of the goddess, from Aida Weydo and Amaterasu to White Buffalo Calf Woman and Zemyna
-Use the perpetual calendar to meditate upon one goddess prayer each day
The Goddess Companion does far more than simply give you meditations and prayers. The readings associated with each will give you incredible insights into a wide variety of cultures and, just as importantly, into your very nature. Written by one of the leaders of the contemporary goddess movement, The Goddess Companion will help you on your spiritual path to self-understanding.
Turn to The Goddess Companion each day for a clearer insight into how the divine flows through your life. This spirit-nourishing collection of 366 authentic goddess prayers, invocations, chants, and songs was culled from dozens of diverse eras and cultures. Each ancient prayer rings out in clear language that maintains the sacred spirit of the originals.
-A different traditional prayer, invocation, or chant to the goddess for each day of the year
-Each is illuminated by readings about the ancient quote that offer rich material for reflection, inspiration, and bliss
-Multiple indices allow you to find information by goddess name, subject, or cultural origin
-Explore the goddess as envisioned by 68 different cultures throughout the ages--including the Americas, classical Greece and Rome, Asia, ancient Sumeria and Babylonia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
-Find prayers that encompass nearly 130 aspects of the goddess, from Aida Weydo and Amaterasu to White Buffalo Calf Woman and Zemyna
-Use the perpetual calendar to meditate upon one goddess prayer each day
The Goddess Companion does far more than simply give you meditations and prayers. The readings associated with each will give you incredible insights into a wide variety of cultures and, just as importantly, into your very nature. Written by one of the leaders of the contemporary goddess movement, The Goddess Companion will help you on your spiritual path to self-understanding.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
24 people are currently reading
569 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Monaghan
50 books57 followersPatricia Monaghan was a poet, a writer, a spiritual activist, and an influential figure in the contemporary women's spirituality movement.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 29, 2013
This is one of the first pagan books I bought myself, and I absolutely love it. It has an entry for every day of the year, so you can read it daily as a meditation, or open it when you feel you need guidance.
An example of a day:
February 16
The flood receded, leaving swamps
where life emerged anew like seeds
sprouting in a mother's womb.
It was just like spring, when peasants
overturn the soil to find a world
of creatures there, as though the earth
itself crept and wriggled and was alive.
Life begins in heat and water,
those apparent opposites that stir
creation. Thus the sun, rising on
the flooded earth, brought forth new life.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses
In the myths of many cultures, the earth is destroyed - often by a flood - and then reborn, re-made. So it was in Greek and Roman mythology, which told of a great flood that only the woman Pyrrha and her mate Deucalion survived. Told by an oracle that she would bear children from "the bones of her mother," Pyrrha figured out that her mother being the earth, the bones would mean the rock skeleton of the planet. Throwing stones behind herself, Pyrrha produced an entire new race of humans to repopulate the earth.
After the destructive flood, the earth replenished itself anew. Such myths capture the special freshness of spring, when all seems reborn. In our own lives, too, we will find times when an order is overturned - a job or love lost, a home transformed - but new order emerges from the ruin. Trusting in such rebirth is difficult, but every spring reminds us that renewal is an inevitable part of life.
Each day in the book brings a quote from ancient poetry or song or religious text about some aspect of the goddess. Some days it's Horace or Homer, some days it's a Lithuanian Folk song, or an Indian prayer to Kali. I love how it draws from such widely different traditions to show different faces of the goddess.
It's quite seasonal; it doesn't have days of the week, but it does go by dates, so you'll find things about spring in February, March, and April; entries about depression and the dark of winter in December and January; entries about death and ancestors in October.
I highly recommend this book; it is well-written, insightful, and well-researched. This is a book I crack open not-quite-daily, but at least once a week, and whenever I need a goddess fix. I used to have quotes from this book written out on paper and posted all over my house. I did not realize the author had written so many other books - she has about 20 listed on her Wikipedia page! I only own The Goddess Companion and The Goddess Path, but I think I'll be looking up more of her work. Sadly, she died about a year ago, but she left behind a wonderful body of work. If you're interested in reading about the divine feminine, this book is a great place to start.
An example of a day:
February 16
The flood receded, leaving swamps
where life emerged anew like seeds
sprouting in a mother's womb.
It was just like spring, when peasants
overturn the soil to find a world
of creatures there, as though the earth
itself crept and wriggled and was alive.
Life begins in heat and water,
those apparent opposites that stir
creation. Thus the sun, rising on
the flooded earth, brought forth new life.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses
In the myths of many cultures, the earth is destroyed - often by a flood - and then reborn, re-made. So it was in Greek and Roman mythology, which told of a great flood that only the woman Pyrrha and her mate Deucalion survived. Told by an oracle that she would bear children from "the bones of her mother," Pyrrha figured out that her mother being the earth, the bones would mean the rock skeleton of the planet. Throwing stones behind herself, Pyrrha produced an entire new race of humans to repopulate the earth.
After the destructive flood, the earth replenished itself anew. Such myths capture the special freshness of spring, when all seems reborn. In our own lives, too, we will find times when an order is overturned - a job or love lost, a home transformed - but new order emerges from the ruin. Trusting in such rebirth is difficult, but every spring reminds us that renewal is an inevitable part of life.
Each day in the book brings a quote from ancient poetry or song or religious text about some aspect of the goddess. Some days it's Horace or Homer, some days it's a Lithuanian Folk song, or an Indian prayer to Kali. I love how it draws from such widely different traditions to show different faces of the goddess.
It's quite seasonal; it doesn't have days of the week, but it does go by dates, so you'll find things about spring in February, March, and April; entries about depression and the dark of winter in December and January; entries about death and ancestors in October.
I highly recommend this book; it is well-written, insightful, and well-researched. This is a book I crack open not-quite-daily, but at least once a week, and whenever I need a goddess fix. I used to have quotes from this book written out on paper and posted all over my house. I did not realize the author had written so many other books - she has about 20 listed on her Wikipedia page! I only own The Goddess Companion and The Goddess Path, but I think I'll be looking up more of her work. Sadly, she died about a year ago, but she left behind a wonderful body of work. If you're interested in reading about the divine feminine, this book is a great place to start.
January 29, 2010
This book never ceases to amaze me. It's designed with an entry to be read once a day, and I'm currently one month into my second year of reading it every morning as the first thing I do when I wake up.
I love how much multicultural mythology, poetry, religion, history and openness is expressed throughout the entries. Another must for many.
I love how much multicultural mythology, poetry, religion, history and openness is expressed throughout the entries. Another must for many.
May 26, 2012
I bought this books years ago, when I took up the path of being myself, a born Strega & the search for the Goddess. This book has a daily meditation for the Goddess, under Her many titles. For the beginner that I was, it was perfect. Putting my former Roman Catholic eyes in a book about a Loving Goddess was a exchange between me & Her.
I recommend this book especially for those taking their first steps into the world of a Loving Mother, that waits for us to hear Her call once again.
I recommend this book especially for those taking their first steps into the world of a Loving Mother, that waits for us to hear Her call once again.
January 5, 2024
Wonderful book full of daily wisdoms, nice poetry and insights. It took me one year to read it because it had a poem for each day and I didn't want to rush through it. It's a book I will probably read again and again and still learn new things from it.
December 13, 2019
Love this book
September 21, 2020
Lovely meditations. Great way to start any day, and as spiritual writing prompts.
October 12, 2009
I am going through this daily
July 5, 2014
Love the daily inspiration found with in the pages of this book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews