Barbara Walker, 95, has passed away. The New York Times memoralized her here as a great knitter and way down buried in the article, they mention that “at various times, she probed feminism, religion (she was a perfervid atheist), the occult and spirituality, writing widely on some of those topics.”
She worked 25 years on the Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
Time for the other side of history … herstory.
In Karen Tate’s 2009 interview meet Barbara Walker, Foremother of the Goddess Spirituality Movement, author of Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Feminist Fairy Tales, The Crone, Secrets of the Tarot – just to name a few. Discussing the Movement, her new book, how she rejected patriarchal religion, the warlike nature of patriarchal societies and Western civilization. She is in good company being listed in the prestigious publication, “Who’s Who in Hell” for exposing the lies and sexism behind patriarchal religions. – from Karen Tate’s November 18, 2009 interview with Barbara Walker, Sacred Feminine Network
Fairly certain Barbara did more than ‘occasionally probing’ …
In Barbara Walker’s The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets find the other side of the story of items such as the well known Hexagram. “The familiar design of two interlocked triangles is generally supposed to have represented the Jewish faith since the time of David, or Sølomon; therefore this hexagram is known as Magen David (Shield “Daid), or the Star of David, or Solomon’s Seal.
Actually, the hexagram had nothing to do with either David or Solomon. It was not mentioned in Jewish literature until the 12th century A.D., and was not adopted as a Jewish emblem until the 17th century!
The real history of the hexagram began with Tantric Hinduism, where it represented union of the sexes. The downward-pointing triangle was the Female Primordial Image or Yoni Ỵantra, existing before the universe. In the course of infinite time, Goddess conceived a spark of life within her triangle, the bindu, which was eventually born and developed into a male, symbolized by the upward-pointing triangle.
… A personification of the Great Yantra was Bindumati, “Mother of the Bindu” described in myth as a divine harlot. She ruled the forces of nature. She could command storms by the power of her magic and halt rivers in their tracks, a miracle copied by several holy men in Egyptian myth, and later by Moses.
From the Tantric image of the sexual hexagram arose a Jewish system of sex worship connected with the medieval Cabala …
…the Cabala was developed by the Jews of Moorish Spain after the crusades brought eastern Goddess worship into their ken. Cabalists used the hexagram as Tantric yogas used it, to represent the union of God with his Female Power, Shekina, the Jewish form of Shakti-Kali.” – Hexagram as found in The Woman’s Enyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
“Holy Spirit deep inside of me
I feel your loving presence setting me free” Mother Goddess by Windsong
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3 Comments
All hail the Traveller! Such a blessing to humankind she was. Her legacy lives on.