The first part of Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics, compares concepts of emerging Goddess religions to concepts of Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity and Judaism. These concepts include immanence and transcendence and nature of deity. The book then moves on to a conceptual history of both Jewish forms of Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah (also sometimes spelled Kabbalah, and itself a combination of Christian, Jewish, and earlier ideas from the Ancient Near East), and is the first book to give a feminist analysis of all of these and go on to propose a more egalitarian, balanced and Earth-friendly version, based partly on Ancient Near East Tree of Life concepts. The final section compares the comfort (or discomfort) with which most forms of Abrahamic religions and Goddess religions can assimilate new scientific knowledge, focusing especially on "new physics." With meditations and rituals.
Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: from Kabbalah to Quantum Physics, second enlarged edition
by Judith Laura
Judith gives an overview of the book:
The first part of Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century: From Kabbalah to Quantum Physics, compares concepts of emerging Goddess religions to concepts of Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity and Judaism. These concepts include immanence and transcendence and nature of deity. The book then moves on to a conceptual history of both Jewish forms of Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah (also sometimes spelled Kabbalah, and itself a combination of Christian, Jewish, and earlier ideas from the Ancient Near East), and is the first book to give a feminist analysis of all of these and go on to propose a more egalitarian, balanced and Earth-friendly version, based partly on Ancient Near East Tree of Life concepts. The final section compares the comfort (or discomfort) with which most forms of Abrahamic religions and Goddess religions can assimilate new scientific knowledge...
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From Rachel Pollack's FOREWORD
to Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century by Judith Laura
[Deleted material is indicated by ellipses (dots). The length of the actual Foreword is at least 3 times the length of this excerpt]
This remarkable book manages to say more than many works on these subjects four or five times its size. What’s more, what it says is not just clear and lucid, and stocked with information, it also is valuable for women and men living their lives today. . . .
. . . .Because Qabalah includes Goddess imagery, and Kabbalah seems to address the idea of re-uniting male and female, they have both attracted many people who seek a traditional base for Goddess work. And yet, as Judith Laura demonstrates so precisely and eloquently, the Kabbalist traditions are not somehow magically free of patriarchal bias. They are not an absolute truth outside of culture. On the contrary, they, like all other religious traditions, are the work of humans—humans at a very intense state of consciousness, but still humans formed, at least in part, by their culture and its assumptions. . . .Laura has read vast amounts of material, and then has outlined the ideas and information in clear and concise language. The wealth of information alone would make this book of great value. But she goes further, for she shows us that these ideas did not emerge from instant revelations but grew over time, and in historical settings. <And then she goes further still, for she suggests ways we can rework, perhaps even restore, a genuine balance of male and female. . . ..she then goes on to apply those same remarkable abilities to a field at least as dense and difficult as Kabbalah—quantum physics. . . . As with Kabbalah, Laura manages to absorb vast amounts of information…and then give it out in precise details and large ideas. . . .
Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century is a rare book, a kind of sacred quest of ideas. We can all give thanks that Judith Laura has undertaken it, and fulfilled it with such dedication.
Rachel Pollack is author of The Kabbalah Tree, The Body of the Goddess, and many other books on metaphysical subjects, including Tarot.
About Judith
I'm author of four books, including two novels.
I began writing creatively as soon as I could string words into sentences, when I was about seven years old. My debut pieces were plays for my dolls. I recall moving the dolls about on my bed as I read their parts aloud...
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