Willendorf's Legacy: The Sacred Body

by Trista Hendren, Tamara Albanna (Translator), Max Dashu (Contributor)

Travel through time and discover a world where the fullness of women was both admired and deified. Reclaim your beautiful Goddess body through the rich pages of this powerful collection of art, poetry and essays celebrating our divine inheritance as daughters of Willendorf. Praise for Willendorf's Legacy “This is an anthology of personal, deep-felt reflections written by women who at long last are seeing themselves as beautiful and in the image of the Goddess.” -Miriam Robbins Dexter, Author of Whence the Goddesses, A Source Book and Sacred Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia “Women are rising and will continue to rise—coming out of the shadows of the underworld with the powers of transformation. This book offers a treasure trove of short articles written by a variety of contributors. It is a feast of the feminine and I highly recommend this book.” -Dr. Sharon Mijares. Author of The Power of the Facing Shadow Evoking Light with Aliaa Rafea, Tenzin Dhardon Sharling, Joshua Amponsem, & Mary Rogers. “A surprisingly small statue was discovered near Willendorf and I have loved her since I first saw her. Mysteriously unfaced, deliciously round, solid, ultimate female. I used her image in my book, Embracing a Witch's Way of Loving Your Body to Health and Fitness and I used her to learn to love my voluptuous body when the culture told me it was ugly and wrong. This new book continues that work in a fresh and exciting way and I whole-heartedly recommend it. Well organized and well written, Willendorf's The Sacred Body , is a careful compilation of writings about the history of women's bodies, both sacred and defiled. This book should be read by women, young and old and in-between, and discussed in groups and workshops and conferences. The time is now to smash through the barriers that keep women from full participation in the world and this book lays the foundation for women's strength and self-confidence. Physical power begins with loving our bodies and treating them (and therefore ourselves) with respect and the deepest love. Get it. Read it. Live it. The time is now.” -H. Byron Ballard, priestess, witch, author

235 pages, Paperback

Published January 27, 2021

About the author

Trista Hendren founded Girl God Books in 2011 to support a necessary unraveling of the patriarchal world view of divinity. Her first book—The Girl God, a children's picture book—was a response to her own daughter's inability to see herself reflected in God. Since then, she has published more than 40 books by a dozen women from across the globe. You can read more about her projects at www.thegirlgod.com.

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I worked through this one slowly over the course of six months with a small group as we worked on writing a companion study guide/circle guide for the book. While we enjoyed focusing on the Goddess of Willendorf and her legacy and our own sacred bodies, we did find that the thread of body shame/hatred/dissatisfaction that ran through the essays in the book sometimes felt like the most pervasive element and it could be emotionally heavy going at times. So, while the book had a lot to offer in terms of discussion and contemplation, we also found ourselves looking for more “fire,” empowerment, and joy/celebration. We enjoyed many of the poems in the book and read them out loud together—and we found the poems to be the best part. The essays were inconsistent in writing quality and didn’t necessarily all seem to connect to the theme in the way we hoped they would. Full disclosure: I wrote two of the pieces in this book.