Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

Rating:
Summary: More personally illuminating than the bible
Review: As a recently-published author, I would like to express my admiration for the work of Barbara G. Walker. Of all the sources that I quoted from my bibliography, Walker was by far the most significant. The Woman's Encyclopedia is the most valuable book in my collection, and it represents a superhuman piece of research. The suppression of the Feminine and the patriarchal re-writing of history can be traced through innumerable references - from Christianity's assimilation of pagan rituals and festivals to the creation of the mythology of feminine evil. Walker, like Jungian analyst June Singer, believes that patriarchal religion is the basis for the suppression of women. The case she builds is frankly unassailable. After reading this classic study, one cannot fail to see the transforming power of the Mother Goddess in everything from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Finnegans Wake to Mary Poppins and The Matrix. Barbara Walker is a modern-day Wisewoman, and we can never have enough of those. In a sterile, left-brain, hunter-killer psytocracy, Walker's books shine like a beacon for those who still have the strength to dream.

Steven Cain (Author of Sirius Moonlight: The Origins Of The Suppression Of The Feminine.)

Rating:
Summary: More personally illuminating than the bible
Review: Read this book and be utterly amazed at how very much you thought you knew. Actually, you've been fed a lot of disinformation for most of your life, and every page of this book brings new truths to light. Only those who fear their neat little belief system will be compromised by any ray of reality need worry. Should be required reading for every woman, and amazingly entertaining as well.

Rating:
Summary: An insult to the intelligence of feminists everywhere
Review: The real title of this book should be something like "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Fabrications and Misinformation." Show a true expert in any field a section of this book related to her or his field, and STAND BACK before the screaming starts. History is falsified, mythology is distorted, and long-discredited theories are treated as fact. The section where she relates the Arthurian legend of Tristan to Tantra is something like a party joke!

Walker, the author of books on knitting, should, according to scholars who also knit, have stuck with knitting, because apparently, THOSE books are good.

I highly recommend Patricia Monaghan and Cynthia Eller as feminist scholars who actually know what they're talking about.

Rating:
Summary: An insult to the intelligence of feminists everywhere
Review: The real title of this book should be something like "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Fabrications and Misinformation." Show a true expert in any field a section of this book related to her or his field, and STAND BACK before the screaming starts. History is falsified, mythology is distorted, and long-discredited theories are treated as fact. The section where she relates the Arthurian legend of Tristan to Tantra is something like a party joke!

Walker, the author of books on knitting, should, according to scholars who also knit, have stuck with knitting, because apparently, THOSE books are good.

I highly recommend Patricia Monaghan and Cynthia Eller as feminist scholars who actually know what they're talking about.

Rating:
Summary: Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets.
Review: This book made me feel dirty as a womyn. I found it insensitive, uninspired, and inaccurate. Anyone who wants true scholarship should look elsewhere for truth. There were, of course, many Goddesses in herstory, however to deny them their individual importance with a pseudo-intellectual monotheistic interpretation makes us no better than the men we must educate. It is time for synchronism, not separatism.

Rating:
Summary: Essential Feminist Resource
Review: This book should be in everyone's personal library. As a writer, a feminist and Wiccan High Priestess, I have consulted this book so many times over the years that it literally fell apart. It's comprehensive, insightful, and unique in its scope and format. The information here is available through many sources, but its dictionary format makes it the first book to consult when you need a quick reference to kick start your own research. It can be hard to find, so get one while you can. Herstory books are notorious for going out of print because of deliberate campaigns by right wing fanatics, a few of whom appear to have written reviews here.

Rating:
Summary: Chariots of the Goddess
Review: This encyclopedia documents the subversion of global matriarchal cultures. It is immaculately well-referenced, much more so than the contrived versions of history that have been force-fed to us. There are relatively few works of scholarship that have the power to elicit such emotional reactions and defensiveness from the most privileged among us. You'll never look at fingers, menstrual blood, or religion the same way again.