Artistic representations depicting two women in intimate relations with each other, or as a single body with two heads, have been discovered in important centers of early civilization from locations as widespread as the Mediterranean and Aegean regions to Central Asia, India, Tibet, Mexico, and Peru. The archaeologists who first discovered these figures dubbed them Double Goddesses and linked them to ancient cults of the Great Mother. Vicki Noble validates this Great Goddess connection and asserts that the icon of the Double Goddess expands our understanding of ancient female autonomy and sovereignty. Illustrated with more than 150 representations of this ancient icon, The Double Goddess offers contemporary women an archetype for the sacred potential of female bonding--whether between mother and daughter, teacher and student, friends, or lovers. VICKI NOBLE is a healer, teacher, artist, and cocreator (with Karen Vogel) of the bestselling Motherpeace Tarot deck. Her other books include Shakti Woman; Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess Through Myth, Art, and Tarot; and Rituals and Practices with the Motherpeace Tarot. She lives in the mountains near Santa Cruz, California.
The first book to seriously study the double goddess that figures prominently in Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures.
- Offers an important symbol for modern women seeking to reconnect with their ancient, integral sense of self and wholeness.
- Presents an archetype for the sacred potential of female bonding, whether between mother and daughter, teacher and student, friends, or lovers.
- Illustrated with 149 examples of double goddess images.
Numerous figures depicting two women in intimate relation with one another, or as a single body with two heads, have been discovered in important centers of early civilizations such as Catal Huyuk and Gozo. These have been routinely ignored by scholars or dismissed as mere dolls with no sacred connotations whatsoever. Vicki Noble shows, to the contrary, that this double goddess is an ancient icon that can considerably expand our understanding of female sovereignty, as well as provide contemporary women with a way to reconnect with the integral sense of self and wholeness enjoyed by their ancestors.
Ancient Goddess religion was informed by the organic cycles of nature--the dual poles of Life and Death. The double goddess represents phenomena such as the Earth-Moon pair, the Upper-Underworld pair, the Summer and Winter poles of the seasonal year, and the dual poles of the female biological reality of menstruation and ovulation--the dark and the light. The double goddess in all her varied forms also depicts the vast array of potential relationships women can form with themselves and each other. This book is a celebration of an archetype that not only empowers women, but also teaches them how to share that power with each other.
