Faces of the Goddess

These thirteen interviews attempt to show that there is a spiritual tradition available to us rooted in the land and the seasons. This tradition is connected to the ancient Celtic cycle of the year and seasonal rituals including the solstices and the equinoxes. While most of the interviews have a focus on women’s rituals, the Celtic tradition included women and men.

Interviewees include Juliet Batten, an artist, psychotherapist and writer about spirituality grounded in the seasons and associated rituals and Lea Holford a psychologist and a teacher of archetypes of ancient gods and goddesses and of ritual. Also included are Hinewirangi Kohu, of Ngati Kahungunu and Rongomai Wahine, who speaks of her experience as a wahine Maori, sculptor Helen Pollock whose sculpture ‘Altar’ features on the front cover, and Barabara Stanley, who was involved with community mental health, later supporting an older women’s festival.

Each of the thirteen interviews is as fresh and relevant today for anyone who wants to find a way towards a balance with the natural world and a spirituality that nourishes that balance. Other interviewees include Noreen Penny; Janet Melbourne, Cathie Dunsford, Audrey Sharpe, Ruth Gardner, and Ruth Tai whose extended families are from Tuhoe, Whakatohea, Ngai ti Rangi and Tuwharetoa ki Kawerau.