Goddess 2.0 : Advancing a New Path Forward

Goddess 2.0: Advancing a New Path Forward is a series of essays on the feminine divine and spirituality curated by Rev. Dr. Karen Tate. Inside are 27 works that reflect on different aspects of the feminine divine and in some cases their effects on modern day events. The authors range from writers and academics to psychologists, social scientists, artists, and members of the clergy, among others. The entries are generally well-sourced, and this work may be worth it just for the wealth of literary resources alone.

Of note is one particular author: Starhawk, whose works have graced the shelves of many like myself who follow a Pagan path. She was the author of the seminal work Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess.  One of her entries in this work, “Goddess Based Morality of Women’s Health: Abortion and Healthcare,” had a powerful, positive message about abortion. In her view, honoring our sacred sexuality is allowing women the sacred right to choose to have a child or have an abortion. While terminating a pregnancy is not a decision to be made lightly, she asserts that no government official should usurp that right, saying that abortion “is the death of a possibility.” I had never heard it put quite that way, and it gave me a new perspective.

Another clear standout for me was the entry from Cristina Biaggi, “The Dark Goddess in the 21st Century: Rebooting the Sacred Feminine for the 21st Century.” Using an intensely personal example, her partner’s death from ovarian cancer, she uses it as a launching point for her viewpoint that we need to incorporate the idea of death into our lives. In this way, Biaggi says, we can liberate ourselves from the fear that surrounds us as our mortal lives come to an end.

One of the most positive things I can say about this book is that in many of the works there is a concerted effort to show a relationship to the modern day. Goddess worship has been going on for thousands of years, but in many of these works the authors relate their message to present-day events. To me, it helped make the message less esoteric and more relevant.

I was excited to see several male authors contribute to this work. It would be very easy to have ignored a masculine perspective on the feminine divine with a title like “Goddess 2.0”, but I was very glad to see men expressing their opinions about the feminine spirituality as a whole.

If you are at all interested in the feminine divine or goddess worship, you will find something to like in this document. You will start to see the influence of the Goddess more often in your everyday life than you might have before. This book really made me consider how I see the Goddess and how I choose to welcome her into my own life.

~review by John Marani

Curator: Rev. Dr. Karen Tate
Megalithica Books, 2016
pp. 215, $16.99