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Gimbutas, Marija, and the Goddess

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The work of Marija Gimbutas has been crucial to the growth of feminist spirituality, feminist religious scholarship, feminist psychology, and the liberating implications that the existence of a goddess tradition can bring to women everywhere. Whatever the reactions to Gimbutas’ theories, it is important to acknowledge the larger implications of the idea of an embodied sacred feminine that preceded patriarchy (Fig. 1). As Charlene Spretnak writes:

Fig. 1
figure 1

Owl, Fig. 300, Language of the Goddess illustration materials (boxes 252, 253) (Marija Gimbutas collection, copyright OPUS Archives and Research Center, Santa Barbara, CA)

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Correspondence to Maureen Murdock .

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Murdock, M. (2015). Gimbutas, Marija, and the Goddess. In: Leeming, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_9329-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_9329-3

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