This anthology calls Pagan and Goddess mothering into focus by highlighting philosophies and experiences of mothers in these spiritual movements and traditions. Pagan and Goddess spirituality are distinct, yet overlapping and diverse communities, with much to say about deity as mother, and about human mothers in relationship to deity. Authors share creative voices, stories, and scholarship from the forefront of Pagan- and Goddess- centred home, in which divine mothers, Goddesses, diverse female embodiments, and generative life cycles are honoured as sacred. Authors inquire into how their spirituality impacts the perceived value and experiences of mothers themselves, while generating new ways of imagining and enacting motherhood in spiritual and daily life. Pagan, Goddess, Mother opens spaces for dialogue in areas such as how Pagan- and Goddess- centred mothers engage in, and are impacted by, their spiritual leadership through practices of ceremony, ritual, magic, and priestessing. Authors consider mothers’ lived connections with their children, family life, and themselves, through nature, the Earth, and mothering as a spiritual practice. Chapters reflect upon the ways that Pagan- and Goddess- identified mothers creatively navigate daily interactions with dominant religions, the public sphere, community leadership and activism—facing the challenges of such while forging new pathways for spirited wellbeing in mothering and family life. Reviews and Endorsements: Pagan, Goddess, Mother was a joy to read. It is moving, heartfelt, experiential, and reflective! It beautifully conveys the potential of pagan/goddess mothering, is accessible to a wide audience, and contributes to empowering mothering practices well into the future. -Mary Condren PhD is director of Woman Spirit Ireland, author of The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland and teaches at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity College Dublin. While there are many guidebooks on how to be a mother, and many works on the experience of mothering, no other book specifically addresses the challenges to mothering presented to someone who self identifies as a Pagan and a Goddess devotee. Most Pagans tend to feel somewhat isolated as their path is not a mainstream one. Therefore, most mothers who are also Pagans are considerably isolated. This anthology presents compelling personal accounts of being a Pagan, a Goddess devotee and also a mother, and how those roles both compete with each other, and also blend and support each other. The book speaks to those experiences and provides the connection and knowledge that lets women in this situation know that they are not alone, that the path they are traveling has been traveled before, and that there are others that share their experience. - Candace C. Kant, Ph.D. Academic Dean Cherry Hill Seminary This anthology brought forth by Jordan and Alexandre emerges during an unprecedented time of timeliness when our world has paused en masse to collectively overcome a global pandemic, searching for new models of living, connecting, thriving, Being. Through the voices of mothers and whispers of mother lineages, this rich polyphony of Pagan and Goddess-centered stories and scholarship is like the deep, primordial sigh of our EarthMother – She bleeds as She births forth a new matristic paradigm. It is in Her image where we must now rethink, renegotiate, re-heal, and ultimately rebirth ourselves, our planet, and our sense of the sacred. - Wennifer Lin-Haver, PhD Table of Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Nané Jordan & Chandra Alexandre PRIESTESS, WITCH, ARTIST, MIDWIFE: LIFE-MAKING MOTHER STORIES 1. Mamapriestess Molly Remer 2. Finding my Footing as a Witch and Mother Sarah Rosehill 3. Remothering and the Goddess Asia Morgenthaler 4. Minks Elizabeth Cunningham 5. ‘Call Unto Thy Soul’: A Reflexive Auto-Ethnography of a Pagan, Priestess, Goddess-Worshipper, and Mother Alys Einion SCHOLARSHIP FROM THE MOTHERLINES 6. Pagan Mothering, Body Sovereignty, and Consent Culture Christine Hoff Kraemer 7. I Don’t Want to Be a Goddess Kusumita Muhkerjee 8. The Path of the Cold Hearth-Stone: Reflections on Sex, Saturn, and Solitary Working Georgia van Raalte EMPOWERING SPIRITED MOTHER-DAUGHTER LINEAGES 9. The Spiritual Dimension of Mother-Daughter Groups: Healing with Artemis, Demeter, and Persephone Laura Zegel 10. My Persephone Jennifer Lawrence 11. The Thread: From Mother to Daughter to Grandmother, Mothers talk to their daughters, from mythical times to the birth of History Arabella von Arx 12. Goddess is Mother Love Nané Jordan & Chandra Alexandre 13. Death and the Mother: Integrating Death into a Pagan Family Life Cory Ellen Gatrall About the Editors: Nané Jordan, PhD, is a birthkeeper, artist-scholar, community worker and mother of two daughters. Nané has been active in mother-centred birth for over 30 years, and is devoted to women’s spirituality, the divine feminine/female, Mother Earth, and goddess scholarship. She completed her MA in Women’s Spirituality (New College of California), a PhD in Education (UBC), and was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Paris 8, France. Nané currently works in Indigenous family services, and was a lecturer in art education at UBC. She pursues narrative, arts-based, life writing research, collaborative artistic practices (see: http://www.gestareartcollective.com), and publishes widely, including the anthology, Placenta Wit: Mother Stories, Rituals, and Research (Demeter Press, 2017). Chandra Alexandre, PhD, is a Tantric Bhairavi who has served as a spiritual leader for the past 20 years in the San Francisco Bay Area through SHARANYA (www.sharanya.org), a federally-recognized goddess temple she founded after receiving direction from her teacher in India to, “Go and spread Mother Worship!” Dedicated to Her mysteries as pathways to personal transformation and social justice, Chandra works both in community and in the nonprofit sector for change. She received diksha (initiation) into Tantra in India, her PhD in Asian & Comparative Studies from CIIS (with an MA in Women’s Spirituality), and her DMin in Creation Spirituality. She also holds an MBA in sustainable management and is a certified fundraising professional specializing in internationally-focused causes and grassroots women-led change. |