Ariadne's Thread Quotes

“If the life source is female, then we as women partake of Her divinity. When that divinity is named and envisaged only in male terms, where does that leave women? On the outside, looking in. We women need our own expressions of deity, our own female explanations for the way of things.”
― Shekhinah Mountainwater, Ariadne's Thread: A Workbook of Goddess Magic

“Cultures are always built by the telling of stories. Within them are contained symbols and values that can be passed easily through the generations. Thousands of goddess tales are being unearthed and retold, and many new ones are being created. These tales are like threads with which we can weave our magic. In many stories the goddess is described in three phases—the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. This is a wonderful female trinity with infinite correspondences in life and nature. Cycles Three, Four, and Five will deal with each of these goddess-phases in turn.


Some of the old goddess tales were twisted to suit the takeover of male powers, in order to win converts to their new gods. For example, Pandora (All-Gifts) was originally a Great Mother Goddess, whose box (womb, cauldron, cave, cup) was a reservoir of beauty and life-sustaining gifts. Patriarchal myth tells us that Her box contained all manner of destructive demons, which once unleashed upon the world, brought evil and suffering to all. Eve was also a Mother Goddess, whose tree was the Tree of Life. The serpent was her own sensual wisdom, and the apple was her sacred fruit. Athene, whom we are told was born fully grown out of the head of Zeus, dressed in armor and ready for war, was originally the daughter of the matriarchal goddess Metis. (Meter, method, measure, matter, mother…) Both mother and daughter were worshipped by the Amazons at Lake Triton, and were born parthenogenetically—without sperm. The examples of mythic misogyny are endless. Medusa is another; the patriarchs would have us believe that one look upon her face would turn the viewer to stone, because they did not wish us to know her true nature. One source reveals that the Medusae were a tribe of Amazon women; another that their snaky-haired masks were used over temple doorways to protect the Mysteries from irreverent intruders. Whenever we hear about a serpent in myth or fairy-tale, we can usually be sure that it hails back to an ancient Goddess and Her powers. The serpent, before the heyday of Freud and phallic symbols, meant transformation and kundalini energy.”
― Shekhinah Mountainwater, Ariadne's Thread: A Workbook of Goddess Magic

“The Minotaur is really the old matriarchal moon bull, beloved of the Goddess, and sacrificed each year for the fertility of the earth. This tale of the dying and reviving gods...is the Perennial Theme of all true poetry and myth, and the basis of much religious belief today... We come to see that Ariadne is the Goddess Herself, “Most Holy” and “High Fruitful Mother of the Barley” are the original meanings of her beautiful name. Worshipped primarily by women, her rites seem peaceful, and concerned with the womanly cycles of body, mind, and spirit... the labyrinth is her own body, the place of her mysteries, the cave/womb of initiation. We find this spiraling labyrinth in pre-patriarchal cultures around the world, such as that of the Hopis in the American Southwest, or the ancient Celtic peoples of Britain...The monster is not a monster, but only the still heart of woman, that men have so long suppressed and feared... the labyrinth unfolds and folds again upon itself...into our deepest Selves. And if we can keep our hold upon the thread, it will lead us back and out again… ‘til we have found spiritual rebirth, and escaped at last the tangled web of patriarchy.”
― Shekhinah Mountainwater, Ariadne's Thread: A Workbook of Goddess Magic