Finding New Goddesses: Reclaiming Playfulness in Our Spiritual Lives

I approached this book a bit skeptically, as these days everyone and their brother is inventing new Deities. But this book is different. The approach to Deity is lighthearted, whimsical and yet practical. Barbara Ardinger is an author I am acquainted with from her book "Goddess Meditations" and I know her to be respectful of Deity. She approaches Deity in this book with the same respect, yet ads to the scope of the Deities we are already familiar with. While remaining reverent of the Goddesses of old, she weaves the new needs the modern woman has for Goddess' to help in today's day to day existence and gives us some very powerful and yet approachable new Goddesses. While most of her Deities are Goddesses, and I could have asked for more balance in the addition of a few Gods, we do see the need for modern women to find an association they can relate to. While many of us may be familiar with the modern "Asphalta", Ms. Ardinger elaborates even further. How about "Acme" the Goddess of High Tech or "Agenda" the Goddess of meetings. These are obvious. I found "Buffy" the Goddess of the Gym to be a poor choice of names, as many of us are familiar with the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and would have preferred "Svelta" or something along that line, but many other names are almost "tongue in cheek". How about "Chocolata and Vibrata, the Goddesses of Ecstasy." And while Ms. Ardinger does introduce us to some of the consorts, like "Mr. Buzz- All-Night", consort to Vibrata, again, I find myself being a more balanced type and looking to see what other consorts would fit in with these new Goddesses. I enjoyed this look at the new needs of women today and how modern Deity can be worked into our daily lives. We stretch sometimes the abilities of the old Deities to try to associate them with our every day chores and sometimes we do feel a need for a Goddess who fits more in place with what we need at the moment. And as Ms. Ardinger points out in the beginning of her book "A note on Playfulness in Spiritual Writings" "The Charge of the Goddess tells us "All acts of love and pleasure are My rituals. Let there be ... mirth and reverence within you." We've found the love and we've found the reverence. I think it's time to find the pleasure and the mirth. It's time to lighten up. It's time to play with our Goddesses."

It's not that worshipping the old ones is boring (can't say that working with powerful Pele, or with trickster enegy such as that of Loki doesn't have its moments), but can they help you find the perfect shopping mall? Spendifera, Goddess of the Mall can. Who do you invoke while worshipping at the altar of your favorite fast food restaurant feasting on guilty pleasures? How about McVitual, Goddess of Fast Food? Who do you invoke while at the gym toning that perfect Pagan body? Buffy, Goddess of the Gym, of course! Do we always have to take ourselves so seriously? The answer here clearly is no! Finding New Goddesses puts the fun back into the fundamentals of Goddess Spirituality.Ardinger, has written some wonderful, serious books, such as Goddess Meditations, Practicing the Presence of the Goddess and a Women's Book of Rituals & Celebrations. With Finding New Goddesses, Ardinger lets loose and provides Goddess worshippers a clever, humorous A-Z encyclopedia of Goddesses for 21st century life. The Gods and Goddesses of old can help us deal with the bigger pictures in our lives, such as wealth, health, and love. But this book is chock full of new Goddesses invented to help us through the day-to-day struggles of modern life, such as finding parking spaces, finding/coping with temp jobs, dealing with technological issues, shopping, daycare, credit cards, etc."Hail Trivia, keen of mind, I forget again what I must find. Refresh my memory, help me focus, in you do all things have their locus." Along with Trivia, Goddess of Details, there's Agenda, Goddess of Meetings, Daymentia, the Goddess of Temp Jobs, Kickapoo, Goddess of Professional Wrestling, Queuemulus, Goddess of Standing in Line, Roadesia, Goddess of Freeways, Country Roads and City Streets. Not many stones are left unturned as you will see, Dot Compost, Goddess of Spam, Fixorrhea, Goddess of Duct Tape, and this librarian's personal favorite, Litterata, Goddess of books (who I worship in excess!). These are some of the many ideas for modern deities one can invent. There's plenty of wit and humor mixed into the Goddess backgrounds, chants, ritual ideas, meditations and visualizations that Ardinger provides. She also shares some thoughts with us on playfulness in spiritual writing, playing with words, Found Goddesses and finding new Goddesses every day. More than providing a little levity to our spiritual lives, this book is a great tool to spark the imagination. Bring some fun into solitary, group or community celebrations. Use it as a tool to encourage outside the box thinking. For spiritual writers, writing groups and writing coaches or teachers, some great writing exercises could be fashioned around this book. See how you can expand on the Goddesses in these pages. Or, challenge yourself or others to create their own imaginary deities, or new totem animals. Name and describe them, write their lore, create poems, affirmations or chants in their honor, and fashion rituals or other magickal w

I loved this book ... a lighthearted, funny and sometimes-zingingly-right on point look at some goddesses you may never have heard of ... but who you will invoke frequently in the future!!!Definitely a must-read for all goddess women!

With great wit and delightful commentary, Barbara Ardinger brings us a wonderful treat via her new book, "Finding New Goddesses." What fun! The Goddess-Pagan genre needs new books like this one, they helps us to lighten our spirits.This book leads us down a path of laughter and joy. At the same time, why not name Goddesses of various modern realities? Perfectly logical; we need them. A few of my favorite Divine Ladies from her book are: "Auntie Gravity, An Antic Cronish Goddess," "Roadesia; Goddess of Freeways, Country Roads, and City Streets," (a particularly useful Goddess), and let us not forget "Fixorrhea; Goddess of Duct Tape," (I'm smiling, just typing in her name!) Next book you buy, don't miss this one. It will keep your spirits up, not to mention helping you find the perfect parking space! Add this one to your collection; its a keeper.

Ms. Ardinger has done a great service by infusing the traditional goddess listing with new more applicable goddesses we can work with in everyday life. The traditional deities can be adapted for modern day life, i.e., cellphones (Athena for communication, perhaps), but a goddess specific to cellphones seems much more logical and effective. There is a lot of humor but each goddess is in the now, rather than the museum. I started reading the book and could not lay it down. Read right through, and chuckled (sometimes even roaring with laughter) all the way to the end. Barbara, thank you for the great work. I can only say to all those who work with goddess energies, please buy this book for reference and enjoyment. Attractive and informative, there is a goddess for every aspect of modern day life.