The Goddesses Mirror Visions Of The Divine From East And West David R Kinsley
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The Goddesses' Mirror
Discusses the cultural background and meaning of ten goddesses, including Aphrodite, Isis, Athena, Durga, Laksmi, and Sita
The Goddesses' Mirror
Author: David Kinsley
language: en
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Release Date: 1988-11-28
In this book, you can see how the divine has been perceived in feminine form. Here are ten of the best known goddesses from a variety of cultures -- East and West, past and present. A wide range is presented, from the fierce Durga, to the gentle, but firm, Sita; from the erotic goddeses Inanna and Aphrodite, to the chaste figures of Mary and Athena; from goddesses closely associated with material wealth such as Laksmi, to ethereal goddesses such as Kuan-yin. Each goddess is treated separately in considerable detail to provide a distinct and clear portrait of her special "personality" and meaning within her own cultural context. At the same time, each chapter has a similar structure and style to enhance comparisons among the goddesses. An attempt is made in each case to draw upon both elite and popular sources of information. The Introduction and Conclusion consider important central questions closely connected with goddess scholarship, for example, the possibility of a prepatriarchal culture in which goddess worship was central, the difficulty of recovering female religious experience in goddess traditions that exist in male-dominated cultures, and the extent to which an overarching goddess theology can be implied in the goddess traditions that remain known to us.
In Praise of the Goddess
About 16 centuries ago, an unknown Indian author or authors gathered together the diverse threads of already ancient traditions and wove them into a verbal tapestry that today is still the central text for worshippers of the Hindu Devi, the Divine Mother. This spiritual classic, the Devimahatmya, addresses the perennial questions of the nature of the universe, humankind, and divinity. How are they related, how do we live in a world torn between good and evil, and how do we find lasting satisfaction and inner peace? These questions and their answers form the substance of the Devimahatmya. Its narrative of a dispossessed king, a merchant betrayed by the family he loves, and a seer whose teaching leads beyond existential suffering sets the stage for a trilogy of myths concerning the all-powerful Divine Mother, Durga, and the fierce battles she wages against throngs of demonic foes. In these allegories, her adversaries represent our all-too-human impulses toward power, possessions, and pleasure. The battlefields symbolize the field of human consciousness on which our lives' dramas play out in joy and sorrow, in wisdom and folly. The Devimahatmya speaks to us across the ages of the experiences and beliefs of our ancient ancestors. We sense their enchantment at nature's bounty and their terror before its destructive fury, their recognition of the good and evil in the human heart, and their understanding that everything in our experience is the expression of a greater reality, personified as the Divine Mother.