Why Women Need a God Who Looks Like Us –– and How It Benefits Men, Too: What’s all this business about the Goddess? Woman and men all over the world are exploring the feminine face of the divine as central to their personal well-being, spiritual growth, and political activism. In this talk, women’s spirituality author and practitioner Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., talks about what a female reflection of the divine offers us, and how we may cultivate a relationship with the Sacred Feminine. She uncovers the roots of goddess worship in religions worldwide, and has us ponder how our lives and our culture might transform if we saw ourselves as embraced in the arms of a Great Mother. She also offers insights on how an opening to the Goddess can help improve relations among the genders.
Models for Peace and Sustainability: Matriarchal (Yes, Matriarchal!) Cultures: A “matriarchy” is not a social structure in which women benefit at the expense of men. Rather, matriarchal cultures demonstrate shared leadership between men and women that results in political harmony, social balance, and emotional well-being. In matriarchal societies, the mother is the central figure, nurturing is a primary value, and the earth is seen as sacred. In this talk, Dr. Marguerite Rigoglioso, an expert at the forefront of modern matriarchal studies, shares how little-explored contemporary matriarchies may serve as models for creating a more peaceful and environmentally friendly world. She discusses fascinating ins and outs of various contemporary matriarchies in countries all over the globe.
Restorative Feminism: A New Era of Women’s Empowerment: First wave: the vote. Second wave: the liberation. Third wave: the revision. Fourth wave: the spirit. Throughout the decades, women have surfed, avoided, or crashed on the shores of feminist movements. Now many of us are wondering where we are and where we’re going. In this provocative talk, author Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., proposes a new stream she calls “restorative feminism,” which aims at a fuller empowerment of women through personal healing, gender reconciliation, and attention to the spiritual forces at play in the inner and outer worlds. Restorative feminism involves applying heart and wisdom, taking personal responsibility for one’s reality, and relinquishing victimhood through an understanding of the great cycles of cause and effect. Come participate in this edgy exploration.
Unveiling the Mystery of Divine Birth: Women’s Greatest Shamanic Practice: In this presentation, sacred historian Marguerite Rigoglioso will discuss key nuggets from her pioneering book The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece, exploring the ”rape by gods” and supernatural conception stories from Greek history and myth in a startling new way that places virgin priestesses at the core of Western civilization. Her careful research makes the case that divine birth was something deliberately attempted by holy women –– an elevated form of spiritual practice considered the only means of bringing avatars and true leaders to incarnation. This serious study has tremendous implications for world religions with divine birth claims, including Christianity. It also helps reframe and reclaim the Virgin Mary as a deliberate agent in the conception of Jesus.
Mystical Secrets and the Journey to the Underworld: Join sacred historian Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., for an in-depth talk on her pioneering interpretation of the Eleusinian Mysteries and Thesmophoria, those famous secret rites celebrating the goddesses Demeter and Persephone that forever transformed the lives of initiates and made them unafraid of death. Scholars have puzzled for more than a century over “what really happened” in these rituals, which participants were sworn not to discuss. In this fascinating talk, Dr. Rigoglioso makes sense of them at long last, exposing surprising yet well-grounded findings: • Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries experienced the abduction (rape) of Persephone into the underworld • Medicines and implements that shocked the Christian fathers were used to facilitate the experience • Men had to “become” women to enter into the sacred knowledge of Demeter and Persephone • The ritual culminated in a priestess having sexual relations “with a god” and becoming impregnated with the new king. [NOTE: Talk includes frank discussion of the intersection of sexuality and violence in these rites, and contains some sexually explicit imagery. Not appropriate for those in acute recovery from sexual trauma or anyone under 17.]
What Are the Bees Saying to Us? Honey Bees, Priestesses, and Prophecy: Our bees are disappearing, causing a crisis that could escalate into a world food shortage. While scientists debate why, Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., author of The Cult of Divine Birth in Ancient Greece and Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity reveals what the bees meant in Western antiquity, and how they are particularly connected with women’s oracular ability, use of sacred medicines to induce trance, and virgin birth. It’s a story of female wisdom that may well offer directions for addressing today’s ecological crisis.
The Oracles of Delphi and Dodona:
Ancient Sites of Women’s Wisdom and Gods’ Prophecy: In ancient times, priestesses delivered the wisdom of the deities to guide individuals, kings, and countries in their personal and political affairs. In this intriguing talk, author Marguerite Rigoglioso reveals the operations of the oracles at Delphi and Dodona in ancient Greece, exploring how women functioned as the most famous psychics and channelers of all times. Her talk will cover: • priestesses’ use of sacred medicines to induce trance • the mystical connections of their activity with sound vibrations and light • why such women were related symbolically to the honeybee –– and what the demise of the bee might be prophesying today • the importance of the snake as a force for healing and prediction at oracular sites • how these oracular practices were related to an entire cult dedicated to divine birth • the link among oracles, virgin birth, and the Pleiades, stars deeply revered by the Greeks.
Reclaiming Mary’s Mystery of Virgin Birth: Join author Marguerite Rigoglioso for an exploration of her groundbreaking work –– a comprehensive study that is awakening women and men all over the world to a new understanding of virgin birth and its meaning for our past, present, and future. Dr. Rigoglioso will draw on material from both of her recent books, showing us that miraculous conception was a real shamanic practice of women in antiquity. Exploring how women could use these “light conceptions” to incarnate high holy beings –– avatars –– for the benefit of humanity, she will situate the Virgin Mary in a lineage of sophisticated shamanic/esoteric practitioners whose work in this regard was deliberate, not passive or accidental.
Reconnecting with the Starry Pleiades: In this presentation, scholar and author Marguerite Rigoglioso will illuminate the ancient spiritual meaning of the Pleiades, the famous smudgy asterism to which Orion’s belt points, where many peoples of the world feel they originated. To the Greeks and many others, these highly important stars were the Seven Sisters, virgin mothers of deities and kings. In the West, their stories bespeak of an astral history of female leadership and empowerment related to planet earth that was usurped. They were also called the “Atlantides” –– a name suggesting a connection with Atlantis –– and the Greeks believed they were associated with the founding of Troy. The Pleiades bear lovely female names –– but who exactly were they? Why are people today so attracted to them –– some claiming to channel their wisdom or feeling they are “from there”? What is the untapped sacred female aspect of their story?
Meeting Lord Dionsysus: God of Women’s Healing and Ecstasy: Dionysus is a special god for women, but little-accessed in the contemporary West. The son of Zeus, he represents the masculine that has been alchemically transformed through birth via the body of Persephone. Unlike his raping, violent father, Dionysus is a friend to women, helping them heal from the wounds of the masculine, release the strictures of their times, and feel unconditionally sexually loved. In this presentation, author Marguerite Rigoglioso will help us discover something about who Dionysus was to the Greeks, and what he offers today. We will learn about his history and his gifts to humanity, particularly to women.