Singing the Goddess into Place

Singing the Goddess into Place
Author: Caleb Simmons
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2022-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 143848867X

Singing the Goddess into Place examines Chamundi of the Hill, a collection of songs that tells the stories of the gods and goddesses of the region around the city of Mysore in southern Karnataka. The ballad actively transforms the region into a land where gods and goddesses live, embedding these deities within the social worlds of their devotees and remapping southern Karnataka into sacred geography connected through networks of devotion and pilgrimage. In this in-depth study of the songs and their context, Caleb Simmons not only provides the first English-language translation of these songs but brings to light the unstudied folk perspectives on the foundational myth of Mysore and its urban history. Singing the Goddess into Place demonstrates how folk narratives reflect local context while also actively working to upend social inequities based on caste and ritual/devotional practices. By delving into this world, the book helps us understand how a landscape is transformed through people's relationship with it and how this relationship helps build meaning for the communities that call it home.

Everyday Creativity

Everyday Creativity
Author: Kirin Narayan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2016-11-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 022640773X

Kirin Narayan’s imagination was captured the very first time that, as a girl visiting the Himalayas, she heard Kangra women join their voices together in song. Returning as an anthropologist, she became fascinated by how they spoke of singing as a form of enrichment, bringing feelings of accomplishment, companionship, happiness, and even good health—all benefits of the “everyday creativity” she explores in this book. Part ethnography, part musical discovery, part poetry, part memoir, and part unforgettable portraits of creative individuals, this unique work brings this remote region in North India alive in sight and sound while celebrating the incredible powers of music in our lives. With rare and captivating eloquence, Narayan portrays Kangra songs about difficulties on the lives of goddesses and female saints as a path to well-being. Like the intricate geometries of mandalu patterns drawn in courtyards or the subtle balance of flavors in a meal, well-crafted songs offer a variety of deeply meaningful benefits: as a way of making something of value, as a means of establishing a community of shared pleasure and skill, as a path through hardships and limitations, and as an arena of renewed possibility. Everyday Creativity makes big the small world of Kangra song and opens up new ways of thinking about what creativity is to us and why we are so compelled to engage it.

Singing to the Goddess

Singing to the Goddess
Author: Rachel Fell McDermott
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2001
Genre: Devotional poetry, Bengali
ISBN: 0195134338

This collection presents 145 brief Bengali lyric poems dedicated to the Hindu goddesses Kali and Uma. These poems were written from the early-18th century up to the contemporary period. They represent the Bengali tradition of goddess worship (Saktism).

Practicing the Presence of the Goddess

Practicing the Presence of the Goddess
Author: Barbara Ardinger
Publisher: New World Library
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2000
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1577311736

This practical approach to a growing movement offers suggestions for honouring the feminine spirit and communing with the Goddess. It includes chapters on the Goddess of the spheres, pagans and witches, re-creating the sacred dimension, altar etiquiette and invoking deities. The author shows how how to build a meaningful altar, use rituals and meditations to enrich awareness and invent new rituals to celebrate personal events. Her suggestions run from the mundane, to the exotic, to the extraordinary.

Nine Nights of the Goddess

Nine Nights of the Goddess
Author: Caleb Simmons
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2018-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 143847069X

Explores the contemporary nature and the diverse narratives, rituals, and performances of the Navar?tri festival. Nine Nights of the Goddess explores the festival of Navarātri—alternatively called Navarātra, Mahānavamī, Durgā Pūjā, Dasarā, and/or Dassain—which lasts for nine nights and ends with a celebration called Vijayadaśamī, or "the tenth (day) of victory." Celebrated in both massive public venues and in small, private domestic spaces, Navarātri is one of the most important and ubiquitous festivals in South Asia and wherever South Asians have settled. These festivals share many elements, including the goddess, royal power, the killing of demons, and the worship of young girls and married women, but their interpretation and performance vary widely. This interdisciplinary collection of essays investigates Navarātri in its many manifestations and across historical periods, including celebrations in West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal. Collectively, the essays consider the role of the festival's contextual specificity and continental ubiquity as a central component for understanding South Asian religious life, as well as how it shapes and is shaped by political patronage, economic development, and social status.

Purifying the Earthly Body of God

Purifying the Earthly Body of God
Author: Lance E. Nelson
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780791439234

An interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between religion and environment in Hinduism.

Making Virtuous Daughters and Wives

Making Virtuous Daughters and Wives
Author: June McDaniel
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791487652

Exploring the folk religion of India and the role of girls and women within it, author June McDaniel focuses on the brata (vrata) ritual in which moral lessons are taught and goddesses are revealed. Bratas are performed to gain such goals as a healthy family, a good husband, and a happy life. They are also performed so that the performers (bratinis) develop such virtues as devotion, humility, and compassion.This book presents data from fieldwork, along with brata stories, songs, poems, and ritual activities. It discusses Bengali folk religion, offers an example of ritual worship in folk Hinduism, and surveys a variety of bratas. The author analyzes the similarities and differences among these rituals in low-caste village life and in high-caste Hindu tradition, and notes that the development of these rituals involves a form of continuing divine revelation with women as the primary transmitters. Bratas act to maintain traditional Hindu values, but also emphasize the power of women, whose virtues can save their husbands from hell worlds and their families from disasters.

F*ck Like a Goddess

F*ck Like a Goddess
Author: Alexandra Roxo
Publisher: Sounds True
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2020-07-21
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 168364395X

“I felt as if I had had a cathartic emotional experience not by talking but by following Ms. Roxo’s coaching to tune into my energy and desire.” —New York Times What if your deepest fears and wounds were the KEY to living a turned on, passionate life, sharing your gifts with the world, and having mind-blowing orgasms along the way? And what if you could embrace all of you—all of your messy, wild, raw, sensual self—exactly as you are right now AND still feel good? This is what it means to f*ck like a goddess—literally and metaphorically. To let life make love to you and enjoy every bit, even the parts that hurt, and to find the magic in all of it. And this is your birthright. So why is it so damn hard for women to simply feel comfortable in their own skin, let alone feel strong and secure enough to freely share their gifts with the world? “Because each of us has been conditioned, programmed, and literally brainwashed into thinking we are not enough,” writes Alexandra Roxo,” and it is up to us to rewrite that story.” A prominent voice in transformational healing and the divine feminine, Roxo shares tried-and-true methods that have led to both her own healing and that of hundreds of her coaching clients over the years. “We are in need of an uprising of bold, wild women who have reclaimed their bodies and stand in their sacred sexuality for them,” she writes. “As women, we need to liberate our voices, step into total security within ourselves, and fully own our raw, sensual power, finally letting go of the shame, guilt, denial, and repression that’s been put upon us.” The methods in this book will inspire you, challenge you, bring up your resistance, and unleash your gifts. It won’t always be easy, but if you do the work, you’ll discover what it really feels like to f*ck like a goddess.

Singing Woman

Singing Woman
Author: Elizabeth S. Eiler
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2018-09-22
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9781977201706

Reconnect with feminine divinity through an expressive chorus of Sacred Feminine voices! Find your soul mission and step into joyous empowerment as a woman! The author joins forces with a sweeping pantheon of divine energies, launching a modern Sacred Feminism to usher in the Aquarian Age of human equality. -Explore the expansive spiritual hearts of women with guidance for relationships, finances, career, and wellness. -Learn the beautiful, balancing functions of the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine in concert. -Discover how the soul wisdom and spiritual calling of women is redefining gender roles, fostering healing and reconciliation, and changing the face of corporate culture. -Hear the boldly singing voices of goddesses, Angels, and Ascended Masters, channeled with love and devotion for the women of our time and in support for the challenges we face. -Lay the foundations for a feminine business model which is inclusive, sustainable, and life-affirming. -Discover and refine female leadership styles while blazing new trails for women. Blending spiritual traditions with the exigencies of modern life, Dr. Elizabeth Eiler engages the goddess energies on tough issues including gun violence, suicide, body image, aging, and animal rights. Combined with new messages of encouragement for creativity, joy, building community, and living in right relationship with the Earth, Singing Woman is a harmonious, empowering volume. A book to help women find the sacred in their own likeness and in their sisters, Singing Woman gives voice to an array of deific feminine beings. Many, like Mawu or Sedna, will be new to readers while others, such as Mother Mary or Kwan Yin, are comfortingly familiar. Exquisite diversity sounds through the pages of Singing Woman, inspiring women of all ages to find their voices and sing to the music in their souls.

Goddess Alive!

Goddess Alive!
Author: Michelle Skye
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2007
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0738710806

Meet Danu, the Irish mother goddess of wisdom; Freya, the Norse goddess of love and war; and eleven other Celtic and Norse goddesses very much alive in today's world. Explore each deity's unique mythology and see how she relates to Sabbats and moon rites. Goddess Alive, also includes crafts, invocation rituals, and other magical activities to help you connect with each goddess.