With The Goddess Companion, Patricia Monaghan has delivered a daybook
of ancient celebration, a touchstone of daily inspiration, and a bountiful
reference book.
Monaghan, one of the premier authors of goddess-focussed resources, has
compiled hundreds of prayers, chants, and folk songs from such diverse
sources as Lithuania to Japan to the Christian bible to native Alaska. Each
is a potent invocation to the goddess in her mother, lover, warrior, and
other aspects and lends itself well to public or private ritual recitation.
Monaghan’s own text instructs the reader on the history of a particular
piece, a celebration commemorated, or a new way of embracing goddess energy
and blessings into our lives.
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Other books by Patricia Monaghan |
Serious students of cultural history may find fault with some of the
liberties Monaghan takes with the prayers. But this is clearly a work of
inspiration, intended to engage the mind, please the ear, and uplift the
heart. The reader can excuse Monaghan’s choices to reword a passage to
emphasize the feminine or impose a rhyme to improve the rhythm of the piece.
And Monaghan makes no attempt to hide her decision to make changes in the
translations.
Readers can take their time savoring a morsel of goddess lore every day or
can jump to an appropriate passage with the help of three indexes, by
culture, subject and goddess. While Monaghan refrains from giving
suggestions on a particular regimine for using the prayers as devotionals,
she does provide hints on easing ritual into daily life in small ways. Not
only can the reader learn about hundreds of goddess aspects and the ways in
which various cultures celebrated them, but she can gain insight on the
turning wheel of the year. Move from a blossoming Homeric hymn to Demeter
March 4,
Imagine this: the maiden goddess playing in a flowery
meadow, together with the full-bodied daughters of the
ocean. They were gathering flowers: just-open roses,
crocuses, and dark violets from the soft grass, and lilies
and hyacinths.
to a Pima rain-making song June 8,
The light dawns and finds us singing,
singing as the corn waves tassels at us.
The dark falls and finds us singing,
singing while the squash waves leaves at us.
to a medieval Irish death chant October 31,
Go home now, to the mother of winter.
Go home now, to your sprintime home.
Go home now, to the mother of summer.
Go home now, to your autumn home.
to a Pueblo dawn call to winter feast December 11,
Draw clouds forth from the sky’s quarters.
Draw clouds full of snow to us here!
Snow falling now means water in summer.
Come ice, cover my fields!
The Goddess Companion offers a well-paced journey into self-discovery
and personal transformation through feminine appreciation. It is a
cornucopian addition to any magickal or mundane bookshelf.