Since I wrote “Claiming the Power to Choose to Our Lovers” and “Choosing to End Love” in the spring, my beloved and I came back together and parted again, not once, but twice. At the end of the summer, believing… Read More ›
Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete
Learning Gratitude for the Gifts of Life on the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete by Carol P. Christ
In Crete we are always being given gifts—fresh cherries, ice cold bottles of raki, yogurt swimming in honey, and so much more. Over the years it finally hit me that this spirit of great generosity is a living remnant of… Read More ›
Honey: A Thousand Flowers by Mary Beth Moser
Today I am finishing the last bit of the honey I hand-carried home from my most recent trip to Trentino. Sun yellow in color, it is made from the nectar of mountain flowers. Its label tells its origin—di montagna, of… Read More ›
Woman and Nature: Our Bodies Are Ourselves by Carol P. Christ
This earth is my sister; I love her daily grace, her silent daring, and how loved I am how we admire the strength in each other, all that we have suffered, all that we have lost, all that we know…. Read More ›
FAR Press Publishes A Serpentine Path: Mysteries of the Goddess by Carol P. Christ
This is a great day for me as I announce the publication of A Serpentine Path: Mysteries of the Goddess. It is the first —but certainly not the last—book from the new FAR Press, directed by Gina Messina and Xochitl… Read More ›
Announcing A Serpentine Path: Mysteries of the Goddess by Carol P. Christ
“The serpentine path is the path of life, a snakelike, meandering path, winding in and out, up and down, with no beginning and no end, into the darkness and into the light.” As the year draws to a close, I… Read More ›
No Longer Moved … by Symbols that Once Moved Me Profoundly by Carol P. Christ
This week Judith Plaskow and I submitted the final version of our new book Goddess and God in the World to our publisher at Fortress Press. Just before completion, I added a shorter version of the following passage to my… Read More ›
Who Is Gender Queer? by Carol P. Christ
“It seems to me that calling oneself queer can be a way of affirming the parts (or all) of oneself that do not fit into the heteronormative paradigm. In my case, though I am white and straight, I am too… Read More ›
The Spirit of Capitalism vs. the Spirit of Traditional Rural Life by Carol P. Christ
In this picture, Marika from Skoteino Crete toasts our group and downs a glass of her homemade raki. Marika, who is best friends with Christina who makes lunch for us, has just returned from her home next door with her… Read More ›
A Message from the Ancestors by Carol P. Christ
In recent weeks and even months I have not been my usual cheerful self. After returning from sharing companionship and spiritual vision with a group of wonderful women on the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete, I have been feeling lonely. This… Read More ›
Dance of the Bees: Reading the Language of the Goddess by Carol P. Christ
The image from an ancient Cretan bowl (c.1700 BCE) from the Sacred Center of Phaistos pictured here has often been interpreted as an early depiction of Persephone’s descent or rising. But are clues from later Greek mythology pointing in the… Read More ›
BARBARA LEE SPEAKS FOR ME by Carol P. Christ
While I was in Crete on the Goddess Pilgrimage teaching about and experiencing a Society of Peace where violence and domination were neither celebrated nor encouraged, another war broke out in Iraq, breaking my heart, breaking all of our hearts—yet… Read More ›
Inner and Outer Darkness in the Skoteino Cave by Coleen Clare
Last fall I undertook the Ariadne Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete and saw many wonders. Foremost for me was our descent into the Skoteino Cave, following in the footsteps of ancient Cretans who understood the cave to be the Source of… Read More ›
GIVING BACK TO THE MOTHER by Carol P. Christ
One of the inspirations for the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete was the spiritual power and energy I felt at the monastery of Paliani with its Sacred Myrtle Tree. The Panagia, She Who Is All Holy, is said to live in the tree,… Read More ›
IS THE SPIRIT OF GREAT GENEROSITY IN CRETE A SURVIVAL OF ANCIENT MATRIARCHAL VALUES? by Carol P. Christ
At a coffee shop in Agios Thomas, Crete last month a perfect stranger offered to pay for the coffees and sodas of the 16 women on the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete. This spirit of great generosity is rarely experienced in… Read More ›
She Who Has Faith in the Unknown by Jassy Watson
I am sharing the following story, that with a few recent alterations, I wrote as a university paper last year in a course on Ancient Religions. It is significant for me presently because it is a year almost to the… Read More ›
THE LABRYS: A RIVER OF BIRDS IN MIGRATION by Carol P. Christ
“There’s a river of birds in migration, a nation of women with wings.” —Goddess chant, Libana On the Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete, I explain that many of the names given to “Minoan” (c. 3000-1450 BCE) Cretan artifacts and architecture are… Read More ›
A Gift Economy: Could It Be Better To Give Than To Receive? by Carol P. Christ
In a gift economy inequalities are balanced out by the cultural practice of gift-giving. If you have more, then you give more, if you have little, you still feel it is better to give than to receive. A person who… Read More ›
What Is Love? by Jassy Watson
I asked this question at the family dinner table, on facebook, and by e-mail. Many heartfelt responses were offered, all insightful. Some spoke of romantic love, sexual love (eros), self-love, spiritual love, the love a parent has for a child,… Read More ›
Gratitude and Sharing: Two Fundamental Principles of Goddess Spirituality by Carol P. Christ
The more I practice the spirituality of the Goddess, the more I understand that earth-based spiritualities are rooted in two fundamental principles: gratitude and sharing. We give thanks to the earth for the gift of life. As we recognize our… Read More ›
Miracles Of The Great Mother by Jassy Watson
I was brought up in a household where attitudes to God and church were quite negative. My Nanna, however, was deeply religious, and I can still remember sitting in her dining room as a very young child staring up in awe… Read More ›
The Turtle Goddess from Myrtos in Ancient Crete by Carol P. Christ
“As we bless the Source of Life, so we are blessed.” Song by Faith Rogow. The strange and cheerful figure portrayed in this ancient Cretan vessel comes from the site known as Fournou Korifi near Myrtos, in Crete. Dated before 2000… Read More ›
“The Language of the Goddess” In Minoan Crete by Carol P. Christ
While the “war against Marija Gimbutas,” rooted in what my friend Mara Keller calls “theaphobia,” is being waged in the academy, her theories continue to unlock the meaning of hundreds of thousands of artifacts from the culture she named “Old Europe.”… Read More ›
“AS WE BLESS THE SOURCE OF LIFE, SO WE ARE BLESSED” by Carol P. Christ
Blessing the Source of Life harks back to the time when shrines were built near springs, the very literal sources of life for plants, animals, and humans. The prayer “As we bless the Source of Life, so we are blessed,” based… Read More ›
