Penguin Random HouseIn this introduction to the Goddess across time and cultures, and Her many expressions of myth and magick, Gabriela Herstik guides us toward connecting to the Goddess in ourselves and establishing a relationship with Her that is personal, empowering, and transformative. Goddess Energy covers topics including:
- the history of the Goddess, Her role in modern society, and why it’s imperative that we begin to work with and honor Her
- how Goddess energy is for everyone, of any gender expression or sexual orientation
- connecting to the elemental power of the Goddess of the Earth
- calling on the Goddess of Protection and Healing in moments of need
- transforming your life into a ritual for the Goddess of Love
- the potent mysteries of the Dark Goddess and how to embrace the shadow self
- honoring the Goddess through glamour, astrology, and sex magick
- working with ritual, tarot, journal questions, and affirmations to attune to Goddess Energy
- and much more
The Goddess path is one of alignment with the heart, with the universe, with nature—and with ourselves. To honor the Goddess, we don’t have to go through anyone else but only remember the divine within. This is your power. This is Goddess energy.
The Goddess is calling…Are you listening?
I’m so excited to share a beautiful new book from Gabriela Herstik, my favourite love goddess worshipping sacred slut!
Before I get started, let’s do a little housekeeping. I’ve decided to forego my crystal ball rating system. The main reason is that it seems a bit arbitrary. I don’t really share books I dislike here on the blog, or anywhere. Unless a book is truly offensive and could cause harm if someone were to take it seriously I tend to keep the books I don’t really like to myself. That’s why every review I post is 3 crystal balls or up! I only recommend books that I… well… recommend. So I’m going to keep reviewing them the way I always have, noting who might get the most out of the book, and share what I liked, loved, and didn’t really need from each of them. On sites like Amazon or Goodreads I’ll still use the star system, since this genuinely helps authors with algorithms and what not, and because I will absolutely badly review a book there haha. Ok! Let’s get on with the review!
I have become more curious about working with deities and crafting your own practice with a goddess in recent years. I still think I lean more to the secular side, but I’ve become very attached to a particular goddess (Voluptas!) and because I’ve never been one to worship a deity, I’ve been kind of struggling to find ways to just connect with this goddess and her energy and how to work that into my practice. Naturally, as I was thinking about that very topic and looking at other books on individual goddesses, I got an email from Gabriela offering me a copy of Goddess Energy! (Witchy as fuck.) This book answered so many of my questions and never made me feel like I was faking belief, or that I needed to imagine the goddess as a living breathing human standing in front of me. At the same time, this type of practice was not presented as purely symbolic. The goddess may not live and breathe, but the practice certainly does.
From Instagram:
🔮TWO WEEKS UNTIL “GODDESS ENERGY”🔮
I cannot believe the book baby I’ve been working on since 2020 is almost out into the world!
I have been devoted to the Goddess since 2006. I remember studying Her different faces at a Jewish sleep away camp the summer before my bat mitzvah, and I realized at the young age of 12 I was born a witch and a pagan, who honored the different faces of the Divine Mother.
The Goddess has held me again and again, weaving Herself even more deeply into my heart and path since I became an adult.
This book is an offering to the Goddess in all Her faces, to the Goddess within, and to the spiritual and magickal practices we can make our own to know Her.
If you preorder the book, don’t forget you get an EXCLUSIVE illustrated PDF with affirmations, journal questions and a tarot spread- all created to support you on the path to the Goddess.
You can order the book and get the PDF at the ⛓️LINK IN MY BIO⛓️
📸: @alexyael at @thepinkpalace_, wearing a slip from @ivoryxwoods and @pleasershoes boots🎀
The book begins with information about the goddess in history and mythology, and religious and spiritual paths that have always been inspired by the goddess in some way. She delves into how truly ancient goddess worship is all over the world without falling into the same old traps as some older books on the subject that went full Margaret Murray. While this book does feature some specific goddesses throughout, it isn’t an encyclopedia of every goddess from every culture and religion all over the world. This isn’t that kind of book. Gabriela repeats throughout the book that while every one of these goddesses are their own entity, shaped by the people who believe in them, “the goddess” is really an energy. All goddesses are expressions of this energy, explored and created and destroyed and loved by very different people. So when you read THE GODDESS, whichever one you picture is the right one. I loved this because it felt so open and inclusive of everyone and everything. It made it clear that however you practice is individual to you, created by you, and therefore perfect. The various deities aren’t the only expressions of goddess energy, we are too. We are all expressions of the goddess, which means we are also perfect in our own very creative, individual ways. That is a vibe I can certainly get behind.
Right near the beginning of the book is a little sidebar titled APPRECIATION, NOT APPROPRIATION that I absolutely have to draw attention to. This was fabulous. Not only does it explain the difference between appreciation and appropriating elements from other cultures, but she takes accountability for times she has crossed this line in the past, in previous books. She specifically mentions that one of her first books mentioned working with Oshun and Yemaya and called them goddesses of love, which is not technically correct, and that Santaeria or Lucumi is not a practice you can simply dip your toes into but one that requires initiation, which she does not have. We have all crossed this line at times. I know that I, as someone who thinks all African Traditional Religions are incredibly beautiful and cool, have been guilty of similar infractions without really knowing. This sidebar in the book takes responsibility for past mistakes, highlights the importance of being aware of this invisible line and taking accountability yourself when you cross it, and is not judgemental. It’s informative. It also makes it clear that including the goddesses of other cultures and religions is not necessarily appropriation, and in addition to appreciating those goddesses for who they are and the culture they come from, including them allows the witches with those cultural connections to see themselves represented in the energy of the goddess. That is very important, and I commend Gabriela for taking the time to explain all of this.
From here, Gabriela provides specific ways to work with any goddess and ways to ritualize this experience like explaining how to make offerings, create an altar, make a dedicated grimoire, conduct rituals and spells, and different smaller ways to begin to deepen your relationship with the goddess. Like, there is literally a big point-form list of ideas. This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I have been looking for. There are meditations, affirmations, tarot spreads, and journal questions – and we haven’t even gotten to chapters dedicated to individual deities or expressions of the goddess. Like. Even if you stopped after this point, you would have everything you needed to create a goddess-centered practice with any deity who calls to you. But I highly recommend continuing through.
The following chapters go through different types of goddesses – The Goddess of the Earth (which is broken down into the elements), of Protection and Healing, of Love, and The Dark Goddess. Every chapter was great, and the goddesses featured were varied and so interesting. For each you get their mythology, the history of their worship, and then rituals and journal questions to connect with them specifically. Every chapter also explores this particular way the goddess expresses herself in the world and in our lives. No surprise, the Dark Goddess chapter spoke to me in the most profound way. I kept writing down quotes I found inspirational, until I realized I was basically copying out the entire chapter by hand.
“When you see your darkest moments, your most difficult experiences, your bitchiest attitudes, and your most unforgiving thoughts reflected in the deity you work with and honor, then it’s like you’re being granted cosmic permission to exist in your fullest state without shame.”
I had so many deep realizations about myself and my life and my recent experiences that all changed me in a profound way. It was empowering but more so it brought me… relief? Yeah. Relief. Like a heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders. Shame, and regret, and guilt began to melt away. It was such an experience. It still is. I’ve re-read the chapter like 4 times!
Gabriela will be joining me on The Fat Feminist Witch to talk about Goddess Energy and her loving, kinky practice on Friday, March 15th!
The book certainly did help me find ways to build a practice dedicated to Voluptas that honours me and my relationship with her and this energy. It also gave me new ways to connect with myself on a lot of different levels. It told me beautiful stories from all around the world that made me laugh and cry and scream. It transformed the way I see witchcraft with this element of deity worship, it made it accessible and explained it in a way that made so much more sense to me. It taught me that I am an expression of the goddess, and if she is beautiful and bitchy, and powerful, and cruel, and magical, and wonderful and perfect, then so am I.
Goddess Energy comes out on March 19th, 2024- yes! the Spring Equinox! If you pre-order the book before that date you can get a free PDF full of exclusive tarot spreads, affirmations, journal questions and other content you won’t find in the book!
Pre-Order Goddess Energy from:
Penguin Random House: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670275/goddess-energy-by-gabriela-herstik/
Amazon.ca: https://amzn.to/3P9Xsij
Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/3wLVCxT
Then head to the following link to claim your free gift: https://woobox.com/mkthgg
(affiliate links above)
Gabriela Herstik is an author, columnist, podcaster, and witch based in Los Angeles, California. Goddess Energy is her 5th book, and she’s also released a tarot deck, a podcast called Love, Lust, and Magick, and is the Priestess and co-creator of Kink Cove, a monthly full moon ritual play party that casts a spell of protection on sex workers, and raises funds for mutual aid groups and organizations supporting them. Find her at any of the following links:
https://www.gabrielaherstik.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GabrielaHerstik/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabyherstik
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabyherstik
Kink Coven: https://www.kinkcoven.love/about
Paige Vanderbeck, The Fat Feminist Witch 
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