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The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

Front Cover
46 Reviews
HarperCollins, Nov 30, 1983 - Social Science - 1136 pages
Do You Know...

  • where the legend of a cat's nine lives comes from?

  • why "mama" is a word understood in nearly all languages?

  • how the custom of kissing began?

  • whether there really was a female pope?

  • why Cinderella's glass slipper was so important to the Prince?

The answers to these and countless other intriguing questions are given in this compulsively readable, feminist encyclopedia. Twenty-five years in preparation, this unique, comprehensive sourcebook focuses on mythology anthropology, religion, and sexuality to uncover precisely what other encyclopedias leave out or misrepresent. The Woman's Encyclopedia presents the fascinating stories behind word origins, legends, superstitions, and customs. A browser's delight and an indispensable resource, it offers 1,350 entries on magic, witchcraft, fairies, elves, giants, goddesses, gods, and psychological anomalies such as demonic possession; the mystical meanings of sun, moon, earth, sea, time, and space; ideas of the soul, reincarnation, creation and doomsday; ancient and modern attitudes toward sex, prostitution, romance, rape, warfare, death and sin, and more.

Tracing these concepts to their prepatriarchal origins, Barbara G. Walker explores a "thousand hidden pockets of history and custom in addition to the valuable material recovered by archaeologists, orientalists, and other scholars."

Not only a compendium of fascinating lore and scholarship, The Woman's Encyclopedia is a revolutionary book that offers a rare opportunity for both women and men to see our cultural heritage in a fresh light, and draw upon the past for a more humane future.

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Very interesting and fun reference book. - Goodreads
Bad scholarship is bad enough... - Goodreads
Very well researched. - Goodreads
A wonderful reference book for anyone. - Goodreads
mandatory for research - Goodreads
on my reference shelf - Goodreads

Review: The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

User Review  - Mia - Goodreads

Useful information, good notes and wonderfully organized appendixes. This is a great book to have on one's shelf! Read full review

Review: The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

User Review  - Cecilia Beltran - Goodreads

Invaluable for the student of mythology! Read full review

All 45 reviews »

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Other editions - View all

The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
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Barbara G. Walker
No preview available - 1983
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
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No preview available - 1983
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
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No preview available - 1995
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References to this book

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References from web pages

Barbara G. Walker: The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1983. {p. 973} Tantrism. The system ot yoni-worship, ...
users.cyberone.com.au/ myers/ walker.html

Linera Lucas: The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Barbara G. Walker is the editor. This is a must-have, for those of us interested in mythology. ...
lineralucas.blogspot.com/ 2006/ 08/ womans-encyclopedia-of-myths-and.html

Goddess Book (Reference):Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets ...
Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (harpercollins, 1983) is an extremely valuable reference, based on the author's wide reading ...
www.goddessgift.com/ goddess-myths/ womens-myths.htm

Google Groups: soc.history.ancient
15 The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, by Barbara Walker, p. 471. Rev. Taylor, in The Diegesis, reports a slightly ...
groups.google.co.uk/ group/ soc.history.ancient/ browse_thread/ thread/ 3622b067d74d7151/ 07f984fd0ecf6926?lnk=st& q=pearse...

Lilith, Woman's Encyclopedia
In response to your request for information on Lilith, I looked her up in "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" by Barbara Walker and published by ...
www.holysmoke.org/ sdhok/ lilith02.htm

vagina dentata
from The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara Walker. "Toothed vagina," the classic symbol of men's fear of sex, expressing the unconscious ...
www.goddesscafe.com/ yoni/ dentata.html

Barbara G. Walker (author) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Her most important book is The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (1983). She also is an influential knitting expert and the author of several ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Barbara_G._Walker_(author)

Vagina Dentata
(from The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets). "Toothed vagina," the classic symbol of men's fear of sex, expressing the unconscious belief that a ...
www.antropologiacritica.net/ articulos/ Walker-vagina_dent.htm

Adam & Eve Myth
THE WOMAN'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYTHS AND SECRETS Barbara G. Walker qualifies the info in her book with many ancient illustrations. ...
www.astradome.com/ adam& eve_myth.htm

Wicca: For the Rest of Us -
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets At first glance this book appears to be a work of academia, which is where part of the ...
wicca.timerift.net/ books_avoid.shtml

About the author (1983)

Barbara G. Walker, author of The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, and many other books, is a member of the Morris Museum Mineralogical Society and the Trailside Mineral Club of the New Jersey Earth Science Association.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
TitleThe Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
AuthorBarbara G. Walker
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherHarperCollins, 1983
ISBN006250925X, 9780062509253
Length1136 pages
Subjects › 

Reference / Encyclopedias
Social Science / Women's Studies
  
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