Greenfield melded essays from 18 contributors into a book outlining the seven ages of goddess worship to include ancient, Jewish, mystery, Christian, hidden, reawakened, and tomorrow. Contributors discuss different periods and which female characters were prominently worshiped.
The writing among the different essays is smooth with an overall "voice" and tone that is easy to read and informative. At the back of the book the reader can read a short biography of each of the contributors. Each article gives a taste of a topic which can be explored. For instance, the Eleusinian mysteries, Delphic oracles and many more are discussed.
In ancient goddess, there are a lot of suppositions with little concrete evidence. For instance in Scott Irvine's article he states ". . . between Britain and the rest of Europe was a rich fertile Oasis called Doggerland . . ." but there are no written records from that time so how did he come by this name? Another contributor places the rise of patriarchy in Babylon around 1500 BCE but again there isn't actual proof. The lack of a bibliography diminished the essays in this book. Instead of having an informative fact based book, it is one of opinions and beliefs.
The concept of this book is interesting. The outline and the articles within the book are easy to read and understand. The miss comes in when the essays offer no references or bibliographic information. This takes the book from an alternative interpretation of archaeological interpretation to opinions. While the book does cover from prehistoric origins forward, it is difficult to put credence in their suppositions with no credible references.
~review by Eileen Troemel
Editor: Trevor Greenfield
Moon Books, 2018
p. 200
