New Edition of She Lives!

I am happy to share with you news of the publication of the Combined Third Edition of my book She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother, which explores the return of the divine personified as female through myth-like stories, rituals for both personal and seasonal celebrations with songs and dances, and a variety of meditations.

This Combined Third Edition has all material from the first edition published by Crossing Press in 1989, including 30 songs with notated music for 26 of them. (The four songs for which notation is not included in this edition have well-known melodies. The 1999 second [10th Anniversary]edition had notation for only 11 of the songs.) This new edition also includes material added in the 10th Anniversary edition, such as guided meditations for each of the seasonal rituals and a section, “Reflections on Seasonal Rituals,” with information on holidays of a number of different traditions. There are also some changes and additions found only in this Combined Third Edition.

My approach in She Lives! might be considered unusual among Goddess spirituality books. Its material doesn’t fit neatly into any one category, such as Pagan. Rather, especially in its myth-like stories, it describes how female divinity might return to people on diverse paths, and addresses a variety of issues in a number of different religions and in secular settings. Its seasonal rituals contain aspects of Pagan, Jewish, Christian and other traditions. What is commonly called belly dance, as well as other folk dance forms, are included the rituals and there is one individual meditation devoted to belly dance, which I call the "Dance of the Womb." The personal rituals for women and for men focus on sex-related life milestones.

I am grateful that Lydia Ruyle allowed me to use on the cover of the Combined Third Edition one of the Goddess icon banners from among the more than 150 she has created. You may have seen them flying at conferences, libraries, museums and elsewhere.

The book is available in the US, UK, EU, and elsewhere. For more complete information about She Lives! The Return of Our Great Mother, including reviews, table of contents with links to excerpts, and also links to booksellers, please visit judithlaura.com/slgm.html

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