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Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation
How can women turn birthday parties, baby showers, and other rites of passage into empowering celebrations brimming with meaning and fiery feminine spirit?
Emphasizing the Dianic Wiccan tradition, Barrett shows women how they can create empowering, transformative rituals that strengthen their profound connection to the Goddess. Instead of providing shortcuts, scripts, or rote rituals, she teaches women how to think like a ritualist. Step by step, readers learn the ritual-making process: developing a purpose and theme, building an altar, preparing emotionally and mentally (energetics), spellcasting, and more. For beginners or experienced ritualists, solitaries or groups, this thorough, engaging guide to the art of ritual-making can help women commemorate every sacred milestone-from menstruation to marriage to menopause-that touches their lives.
Praise: "Ruth Barrett brings her many years of experience in teaching and priestessing in the Dianic tradition to this book. Her thoughtfulness, intelligence and depth of understanding make it a valuable resource and will open a new perspective for many Pagans."—Starhawk, best-selling author of The Spiral Dance and The Fifth Sacred Thing
Emphasizing the Dianic Wiccan tradition, Barrett shows women how they can create empowering, transformative rituals that strengthen their profound connection to the Goddess. Instead of providing shortcuts, scripts, or rote rituals, she teaches women how to think like a ritualist. Step by step, readers learn the ritual-making process: developing a purpose and theme, building an altar, preparing emotionally and mentally (energetics), spellcasting, and more. For beginners or experienced ritualists, solitaries or groups, this thorough, engaging guide to the art of ritual-making can help women commemorate every sacred milestone-from menstruation to marriage to menopause-that touches their lives.
Praise: "Ruth Barrett brings her many years of experience in teaching and priestessing in the Dianic tradition to this book. Her thoughtfulness, intelligence and depth of understanding make it a valuable resource and will open a new perspective for many Pagans."—Starhawk, best-selling author of The Spiral Dance and The Fifth Sacred Thing
360 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
39 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Barrett
12 books28 followersRuth Barrett is an award winning fretted dulcimer recording artist, singer, and songwriter with numerous releases to her credit. She is also an author of Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creations (Llewllyn, 2007) and co-founder of the Temple of Diana, a national Dianic Wiccan tax-exempt religious organization.
Ruth's compositions are counted among the pioneering musical works in the Goddess Spirituality Movement. For almost three decades she has shared traditional folk music and her original and traditional Goddess songs with audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain.
From 1981-2000, with musical collaborator Cyntia Smith, Ruth co-produced five critically acclaimed recordings: Aeolus, Music of the Rolling World, Deepening, A Dulcimer Harvest, and The Heart is the Only Nation. As a solo artist, Ruth's 1990 release, Parthenogenesis won an INDIE award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors in the category of Women's Music. In 2002, Ruth's original composition, "Romp of the Canyon Kitties," was released as the opening track on Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer, Volume Two. In 2003, Ruth released a two-volume CD set The Year is a Dancing Woman: Goddess Chants, Songs and Invocations for the Wheel of the Year. Her song, "Every Woman Born," is included in the popular CD compilation, The Best of Pagan Music (Serpentine Music, 2004).
Ruth Barrett has performed at numerous venues and festivals nationally and internationally including the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, the National Women's Music Festival, Winter Festival of Acoustic Music, the Harvest Festival of Dulcimers, The Glastonbury Goddess Festival, and Pagan Spirit Gathering. Ruth has directed the Candlelight Concert, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's closing spirituality concert since 1993.
Other credits include Ruth's transcriptions of Joni Mitchel's dulcimer arrangements for the songbooks, Hits and Misses (Warner Brothers) with Joellen Lapidus.
Ruth is also an ordained Dianic High Priestess, ritualist, and author of Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation (Llewellyn 2007). Her writings on women and ritual are included in Daughters of the Goddess, (Wendy Griffin, editor), Lesbian Rites: Symbolic Acts and the Power of Community (Ramona Faith Oswald, editor), and Creating Circles and Ceremonies (Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart).
Since inheriting Z Budapest's Los Angeles ministry in 1980, Ruth has taught magic and ritual arts at women's festivals and conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. She served the Los Angeles Goddess community of Circle of Aradia for two decades before relocating to Wisconsin in 2000 where she co-founded Temple of Diana, a national and federally recognized Dianic religious organization.
With her partner Falcon River, Ruth co-facilitates The Spiral Door Women's Mystery School of Magick and Ritual Arts, a national Dianic clergy training program.
In 1997 Ruth was honored as recipient of the L.A.C.E. award for outstanding contributions in the area of Spirituality from the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles.
Ruth's compositions are counted among the pioneering musical works in the Goddess Spirituality Movement. For almost three decades she has shared traditional folk music and her original and traditional Goddess songs with audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain.
From 1981-2000, with musical collaborator Cyntia Smith, Ruth co-produced five critically acclaimed recordings: Aeolus, Music of the Rolling World, Deepening, A Dulcimer Harvest, and The Heart is the Only Nation. As a solo artist, Ruth's 1990 release, Parthenogenesis won an INDIE award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors in the category of Women's Music. In 2002, Ruth's original composition, "Romp of the Canyon Kitties," was released as the opening track on Masters of the Mountain Dulcimer, Volume Two. In 2003, Ruth released a two-volume CD set The Year is a Dancing Woman: Goddess Chants, Songs and Invocations for the Wheel of the Year. Her song, "Every Woman Born," is included in the popular CD compilation, The Best of Pagan Music (Serpentine Music, 2004).
Ruth Barrett has performed at numerous venues and festivals nationally and internationally including the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, the National Women's Music Festival, Winter Festival of Acoustic Music, the Harvest Festival of Dulcimers, The Glastonbury Goddess Festival, and Pagan Spirit Gathering. Ruth has directed the Candlelight Concert, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's closing spirituality concert since 1993.
Other credits include Ruth's transcriptions of Joni Mitchel's dulcimer arrangements for the songbooks, Hits and Misses (Warner Brothers) with Joellen Lapidus.
Ruth is also an ordained Dianic High Priestess, ritualist, and author of Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation (Llewellyn 2007). Her writings on women and ritual are included in Daughters of the Goddess, (Wendy Griffin, editor), Lesbian Rites: Symbolic Acts and the Power of Community (Ramona Faith Oswald, editor), and Creating Circles and Ceremonies (Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart).
Since inheriting Z Budapest's Los Angeles ministry in 1980, Ruth has taught magic and ritual arts at women's festivals and conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain. She served the Los Angeles Goddess community of Circle of Aradia for two decades before relocating to Wisconsin in 2000 where she co-founded Temple of Diana, a national and federally recognized Dianic religious organization.
With her partner Falcon River, Ruth co-facilitates The Spiral Door Women's Mystery School of Magick and Ritual Arts, a national Dianic clergy training program.
In 1997 Ruth was honored as recipient of the L.A.C.E. award for outstanding contributions in the area of Spirituality from the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 27, 2015
Hm, let me begin by saying that this easily could have been a 5 star book. The ideas about creating your own meaningful rituals were excellent and I'll probably incorporate them into my own life. What fucks it all up is the transphobia in the Dianic tradition. It's so awful that it tainted the entire experience. The author even describes transwomen as "hormonally and surgically altered men" as well as "transgender men who self-define as women" because using the proper, inoffensive terms is somehow apart of the patriarchy. Yeah, disappointing to say the least.
April 9, 2009
Part of my work in life is creating meditations and rituals for people; the group I work with meets a few times a month. I have guided meditations for as few as two people and as many as 80. It's highly satisfying work, and Ruth Barrett has a wealth of information presented in this book, which is a culmination of her nearly 30 years as an HP.
September 2, 2010
Amazing book, even for those not dianically minded, but interested in ritual with other women.
January 20, 2025
Genuinely restructured my brain. This was a fascinating look at the beliefs of a female centric religion. It's heartening to know there are women out there creating their own spirituality and healing from patriarchy.
While I'm not Dianic or Wiccan myself, this book inspired me to start practicing goddess focused paganism. The idea that "making up" your own spirituality is not only acceptable but preferable to performing empty gestures, has been very empowering. I've been able to set up an altar, do prayers etc with confidence. I found the chapter on Invocations particularly powerful - the idea of "inviting" a god as an equal rather than ordering them (or conversely, having to submit and self flagellate out of devotion as in many male centric religions) is really eye opening. It helped me narrow down which hymns to use. I also plan to do rituals for celebrating menstruation and releasing traumatic experiences in the future. Thank you Ms. Barrett for this fantastic book!
While I'm not Dianic or Wiccan myself, this book inspired me to start practicing goddess focused paganism. The idea that "making up" your own spirituality is not only acceptable but preferable to performing empty gestures, has been very empowering. I've been able to set up an altar, do prayers etc with confidence. I found the chapter on Invocations particularly powerful - the idea of "inviting" a god as an equal rather than ordering them (or conversely, having to submit and self flagellate out of devotion as in many male centric religions) is really eye opening. It helped me narrow down which hymns to use. I also plan to do rituals for celebrating menstruation and releasing traumatic experiences in the future. Thank you Ms. Barrett for this fantastic book!
Read
August 11, 2007The rites of passage that go unattended in our man driven culture! And how to heal.
March 14, 2009
Women have longed gathered together to celebrate the mysteries of the divine feminine. This book guides women through the conception and facilitation of rituals geared towards female rites of passage in true Dianic fashion. Ritual is the heart of Wicca and this book teaches you to think like a ritualist. Ruth shows us how to gain true insight from our own rituals rather than just reciting a ritual written by someone else in the same book everyone else uses as well.
The book serves valuable not only for women but also for men as well.
The book serves valuable not only for women but also for men as well.
July 10, 2020
Inspiring & Valuable book! I am a Dianic Priestess who founded & leads a Women's Moon Circle here in Seattle. I always urge any new member to read Ruth's book first before joining our Circle of Luna. This wonderful book sets the foundation for understanding the ideas & concepts behind creating a Women's circle ritual which is very important to know before actually participating in a Dianic Wiccan Ritual. I read it over 16 years ago but I always keep it handy on my book shelf. Thank you Ruth!
October 8, 2019
Super eye-opening as a facilitator! There is, obviously, a Dianic leaning to Ruth's writing, but I didn't find it inherently off-putting or distancing.
August 18, 2023
This is a book best for beginners and cisgendered women seeking a introduction to paganism. It gets stuck in 101 territory and sometimes runs on rants about patriarchy that undermine itself.
December 28, 2024
Hands down the best book on creating meaningful and effective ritual out there.
February 4, 2012
This book is part Wicca 101, part Dianic Wicca 101, and mostly a guidebook for ritual planning, writing and facilitation.
The instruction on the last part - the ritual writing and facilitation - is amazing. Five stars to this. The author lays out exactly how to plan a successful ritual either as a solitary or as a group, from the initial planning to the execution to looking back and critiquing. Many of the exercises are extremely helpful and she points out many aspects of planning that may slip through the fingers.
I give the book as a whole four stars because I do not agree with all of her philosophy. There are many passages in the book that make it seem like the purpose of most, if not all, Dianic Wiccan rituals is to heal from the wounds caused by patriarchy. While this is often true, she unnecessarily frames almost all rituals in this context. She presents a snobbish look at typical women's rites as they exist in our society, such as baby showers and wedding showers - while many of her observations are true, the way she makes them seems a bit much, almost to insult the women themselves who take part in them.
I also do not agree that women can never use Goddesses outside of their own culture in their rites. She says it is insulting and racist for a white woman to invoke a Hindu Goddess, something that I simply do not agree with. Her arguments of white privileged have ground and are convincing, but, in my opinion, intent speaks very loudly.
Disagreements with philosophy aside, this book can play an integral part in ritual planning and perfection.
The instruction on the last part - the ritual writing and facilitation - is amazing. Five stars to this. The author lays out exactly how to plan a successful ritual either as a solitary or as a group, from the initial planning to the execution to looking back and critiquing. Many of the exercises are extremely helpful and she points out many aspects of planning that may slip through the fingers.
I give the book as a whole four stars because I do not agree with all of her philosophy. There are many passages in the book that make it seem like the purpose of most, if not all, Dianic Wiccan rituals is to heal from the wounds caused by patriarchy. While this is often true, she unnecessarily frames almost all rituals in this context. She presents a snobbish look at typical women's rites as they exist in our society, such as baby showers and wedding showers - while many of her observations are true, the way she makes them seems a bit much, almost to insult the women themselves who take part in them.
I also do not agree that women can never use Goddesses outside of their own culture in their rites. She says it is insulting and racist for a white woman to invoke a Hindu Goddess, something that I simply do not agree with. Her arguments of white privileged have ground and are convincing, but, in my opinion, intent speaks very loudly.
Disagreements with philosophy aside, this book can play an integral part in ritual planning and perfection.
May 4, 2025
I thought this was a book on ritual creation for women. Alas, on page 1, I discover it is a Trojan horse for transphobic garbage. Apropos of nothing, she claims cisgender women are being victimised/invaded by trans people.
Returned this for a refund as soon as I could, and now will summarise the contents so you don't have to pay a transphobe for dead-ass obvious advice.
Essentially: Design your rituals with symbols/images/materials/etc.. that YOU PERSONALLY think ar powerful, that trigger your subconscious.
Returned this for a refund as soon as I could, and now will summarise the contents so you don't have to pay a transphobe for dead-ass obvious advice.
Essentially: Design your rituals with symbols/images/materials/etc.. that YOU PERSONALLY think ar powerful, that trigger your subconscious.
February 2, 2015
There are a lot of wonderful things about this book, but the transmisogyny (focusing on "women's biology" so much) was disappointing to say the least.
June 9, 2012
Useful
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews