Description
Book SynopsisRe-riting Woman is an ethnographic study of Dianic Wicca, a modern Pagan religion in which the divine is solely feminine. Kristy S. Coleman explores Dianic Witchcraft, what it really means to practice Wicca today, and how our understanding of womanhood can change with the experience of a divine feminine.
Trade ReviewThis is a fascinating book. Kristy Coleman's work brings a scholarly and critical eye to the contemporary goddess movement in America. Her research is thorough, well organized, and well written. Grounded in critical theory, she provides exactly what is most needed in the field of goddess studies while demonstrating the relevance of goddess studies to the study of religion. -- Margaret R. Miles, The Graduate Theological Union
Re-riting Woman persuasively argues that changing language and ideas is not enough. Kristy Coleman evocatively describes the rituals of a women's religious movement and provides an accessible discussion of the philosophy of Luce Irigaray. She shows the reader that the active celebration of women's lives as sacred, valuable, and good in regular and transformative rites is both revolutionary and liberating. -- Graham Harvey, The Open University
Scholars in gender studies, anthropology, religious studies, and other fields will gain valuable insight from Kristy Coleman’s detailed analysis of the Circle of Aradia Dianic Wiccans, its complex dynamics, and its beliefs. Her careful ethnography clearly explains Luce Irigaray’s challenging concept of the feminine divine. She reveals not only the woman-empowering, anti-patriarchal process of rituals such as Beltane, but the tension and transformation in the organization itself. -- Dorothy D. Wills, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
In this detailed and nuanced ethnographic study, Kristy S. Coleman guides her readers through French feminist theory to the lived experience of seasonal rituals in Dianic Witchcraft, exploring along the way both the potential and the constraints of a religion that has cast the divine as female. -- Sarah Pike, California State University, Chico
An intriguing study of the convergence of American feminist Goddess spirituality and French feminist theory. -- Carol P. Christ, author of Rebirth of the Goddess and She Who Changes
With Re-riting Woman, Kristy Coleman applies an Irigarayan lens to her study of a long-standing Dianic Wicca group, and the results are insightful. -- Charlene Spretnak, editor, The Politics of Women's Spirituality
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: The Circle of Aradia Dianic Witches: Organization and Herstory Chapter 2: The Dianic Religion: Philosophy, Thealogy, Ethics, and Practice Chapter 3: In Their Own Words: Circle of Aradia and the Goddess Chapter 4: The Dianic Seasonal Rituals Chapter 5: Luce Irigaray's Le Féminin Chapter 6: Ritual Efficacy and Symbolic Alternatives Chapter 7: Problems and Potentials: Circle of Aradia Dianic Rites Chapter 8: Power: Dianic Theory and Practice Conclusion Glossary Bibliography Index About the Author
