"Goddess Meditations" by Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D

[TobaccoFlower]

A friend gave me this book. I had a feeling of how this review was gonna go once I saw the cover, and I was mostly right. I read through most of it, and thumbed through the rest of it. Here's my review:

 

Pros:

Fairly original, haven't seen anything quite like it in format and concept.

Laid out well, sort of walking through life. Covers things like birth, death, trust, love, happiness, etc.

Includes many cultures

 

Cons:

The lady does not know the gravity of the goddesses she is talking about. In one section, the Baba Yaga is a good meditation fro your root chakra. W...what?

The cultures clash a lot, it it common to see a working mixing an Egyptian goddess with a Greek goddess, for no real reason

The meditations don't actually seem usuable. Who reads when they meditate?

 

 

Anyone else read this book? I will probably be throwing it away. The meditations don't take the goddesses seriously enough to be safe, I think.

[Eave]

 

A friend gave me this book. I had a feeling of how this review was gonna go once I saw the cover, and I was mostly right. I read through most of it, and thumbed through the rest of it. Here's my review:

 

Pros:

Fairly original, haven't seen anything quite like it in format and concept.

Laid out well, sort of walking through life. Covers things like birth, death, trust, love, happiness, etc.

Includes many cultures

 

Cons:

The lady does not know the gravity of the goddesses she is talking about. In one section, the Baba Yaga is a good meditation fro your root chakra. W...what?

The cultures clash a lot, it it common to see a working mixing an Egyptian goddess with a Greek goddess, for no real reason

The meditations don't actually seem usuable. Who reads when they meditate?

 

 

Anyone else read this book? I will probably be throwing it away. The meditations don't take the goddesses seriously enough to be safe, I think.

 

Wait what?! Baba Yaga and chakras....

 

I can SORT of understand the mix of Egyptian and greek goddesses as some believe that they are representations of the same entity with cultural influences making up the difference (Im puzzled by the need to mix when there are plenty of corresponding gods and goddesses in a single tradition to not warrant the need to mix but ok...), does the author reference this or is it just thrown out there?

 

I'm still stuck on Baba Yaga and chakras... This is beyond new age.....

Edited July 25, 2015 by Eave

[Michele]

I have not read it, although I do happen to be into divinities. I find I do a lot of "meditation" while doing yard work (such a multi-tasker, lol) as my hands are busy and my mind is free.

 

I have also been working with guides. I know that a lot of goddesses are "earth" personifications and I had asked why, since the whole universe is soooo large, don't we just concentrate on the "All" divinity and I was told because we live on earth, so we can relate to it, are dependent on it, and it is in the same physical plane that we are. Not to worry about relating to other dieties until I'm their realm and not on the earth plane. That one day the earth will claim my body, and once that debt is paid and I move on to the spiritual realms then other things will come into play. It was interesting.

 

M

[TobaccoFlower]

 

Wait what?! Baba Yaga and chakras....

 

I can SORT of understand the mix of Egyptian and greek goddesses as some believe that they are representations of the same entity with cultural influences making up the difference (Im puzzled by the need to mix when there are plenty of corresponding gods and goddesses in a single tradition to not warrant the need to mix but ok...), does the author reference this or is it just thrown out there?

 

I'm still stuck on Baba Yaga and chakras... This is beyond new age.....

 

 

Right?! If Baba Yaga is your root chakra.....you got bigger problems than your chakras.

[TobaccoFlower]

 

I have not read it, although I do happen to be into divinities. I find I do a lot of "meditation" while doing yard work (such a multi-tasker, lol) as my hands are busy and my mind is free.

 

I have also been working with guides. I know that a lot of goddesses are "earth" personifications and I had asked why, since the whole universe is soooo large, don't we just concentrate on the "All" divinity and I was told because we live on earth, so we can relate to it, are dependent on it, and it is in the same physical plane that we are. Not to worry about relating to other dieties until I'm their realm and not on the earth plane. That one day the earth will claim my body, and once that debt is paid and I move on to the spiritual realms then other things will come into play. It was interesting.

 

M

 

 

I like this thinking, Michele, and I find myself sort of going in a similar route of belief as the years go by. By embracing the unseen in such a way, I've come to find that there are more divine entities than people realize as well, not always given names by a culture or practice. Some things are not meant for living human eyes, perhaps? And more than that, I wonder how the ideals of gods and goddesses will expand as humans begin to do more space travel, and feel energies from other non-Earth things more closely?

[Eave]

 

 

I like this thinking, Michele, and I find myself sort of going in a similar route of belief as the years go by. By embracing the unseen in such a way, I've come to find that there are more divine entities than people realize as well, not always given names by a culture or practice. Some things are not meant for living human eyes, perhaps? And more than that, I wonder how the ideals of gods and goddesses will expand as humans begin to do more space travel, and feel energies from other non-Earth things more closely?

 

I very much agree and respect this line of thinking. Although I do rarely (have never is a better way of putting things) referenced deities when I weave I do respect those that find it important to do so, especially when these same people "look" at the greater picture and actually reference a being and not a name.

 

Baba Yaga and chakras however is still seriously putting me off... That right there is a major disaster of misinformation and some seriously trippy practice LOL

[RoseRed]

I think the best combo I ever ran across was Kali and the Green Man. Poor thing couldn't figure out why everything in her life was burning.

 

I'm Russian and I love the Baba Yaga stories. While I don't do the 'chakra' thing - I call them energy centers. Why do these two things need to be mutually exclusive? One is a faery tale and the other is a way of describing the energy flows through the body.

[Michele]

Makes sense to me RR, and B. Y. is very earth-related, which I believe is also related to the base chaka/energy center.... (Why can't I use "quote" with Windows 8 ?????)

 

M

[Hariasa]

 

I can SORT of understand the mix of Egyptian and greek goddesses as some believe that they are representations of the same entity with cultural influences making up the difference

 

 

 

Good point, a number of writers think that the Greeks were influenced by Egyptian gods.

[Eave]

 

 

I can SORT of understand the mix of Egyptian and greek goddesses as some believe that they are representations of the same entity with cultural influences making up the difference

 

 

 

Good point, a number of writers think that the Greeks were influenced by Egyptian gods.

 

Exactly :smile: Some go further (anthropologists) and state that the creation of such dieties was based on human experience and emotion/necessities rather than based solely on previous believe systems, a fact which transcends cultures and eras apparently and ended up creating similar like entities. Basically humans all feel "love", "Hatred", "Greed", "compassion" etc etc, this served as a basis for each deity created an may very well explain the similarities between systems which are totally unrelated

 

Regarding the usage of Baba Yaga as well as the mix of cultures and oddities present in the book referenced in this topic, I'm pushed into thinking this is extremely new agey in nature and very fluffy wiccan like... I would not take much of what he/she says in his/her work seriously... Ofc you can always try and correlate and make use of the references he gives but is it effective? My philosophy is simple, since there is literally mega tons of published works we can give ourselves the luxury of choosing what we follow instead of trying to fix and rationalize what other's write. What can be learnt should be assimilated, what is doubtful (and there is a mega ton of stuff) should be discarded.

Edited July 28, 2015 by Eave