Review - The Witches' Goddess

I don't usually write book reviews, but this is one interesting book that I always have nearby.

The Witches' Goddess
by Janet and Stewart Ferrar
ISBN-10: 0709058446

The Witches’ Goddess, by Janet and Stewart Farrar is by far the most complex and detailed book on the history of the Goddess I have ever come across. It is the companion book of The Witches’ God, also written by Janet and Stewart Farrar. It is written in three parts - the first contains the presence of the Goddess throughout history, her earth and moon symbolism, her Madonna and Magdalene disguises, her revelation within the psyche, her relationship with men and women, and her influence on Pagan faiths today.

The second part of The Witches’ Goddess contains ritual invocations of the Goddess through 13 guises, including: Demeter and Persephone, Brighid, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Hecate, Lilith and Eve, Epona, Ma’at, Arianrhod, Aradia, and Isis. Each Goddess section contains a brief history of the subject Goddess-form, and then an elaborate ritual to invoke the Goddess in each of those forms.

The third part of the book is an extremely detailed list of the goddesses of various cultures of the world, both past and present. Of course, there’s no possible way they could include every single Goddess form throughout history from every single culture, but they’ve made a darn good effort. All major goddesses are present, from patheons including Babylonian, to Japanese, to Celtic, to Norse. These all contain short histories of the goddess. There is also an extensive list of minor goddesses and heroines of many mythologies - the reason behind this is best explained in the Farrar’s own words:

“No single Goddess-form which mankind has worshipped (with the possible exception of Isis) expresses more than one aspect, or a group of aspects, of the Goddess principle as a whole. But by studying her in all her forms, we can come near to grasping that overall nature.”

All in all, the book is very detailed, and a good read for either people interested in general mythology, or the aspects of the Goddess, or even religious history as a whole. There's also a companion book in much the same vain called 'The Witches' God'.