How have the goddesses of ancient myth survived, prevalent even now as literary and cultural icons? How do allegory, symbolic interpretation, and political context transform the goddess from her regional and individual identity into a goddess of philosophy and literature? Emilie Kutash explores these questions, beginning from the premise that cultural memory, a collective cultural and social phenomenon, can last thousands of years. Kutash demonstrates a continuing practice of interpreting and allegorizing ancient myths, tracing these goddesses of archaic origin through history. Chapters follow the goddesses from their ancient near eastern prototypes, to their place in the epic poetry, drama and hymns of classical Greece, to their appearance in Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophy, Medieval allegory, and their association with Christendom. Finally, Kutash considers how goddesses were made into Jungian archetypes, and how some contemporary feminists made them a counterfoil to male divinity, thereby addressing the continued role of goddesses in perpetuating gender binaries.

"Living With Honour" is a provocative and uncompromising exploration of how Paganism can provide the philosophical guidance to live honourably in a twenty-first Western society. Part One explores the history of Paganism, its undercurrents of anarchy, heresy, environmentalism and animism, finding its place within the history of Western philosophy. Questioning the morality of some reaches of modern Paganism, it presents a context of nature-based animistic Paganism, and proffers a contemporary understanding of honour.Part Two addresses key moral issues from that animistic perspective, beginning with the foundation of human relationships and attitudes towards the Other. It considers how these play out in our practical relationships with friends, colleagues, children and those with whom we have an intimate bond, including the love affair, commitment and polyamory. Exploring how we value life, it looks first at human life, dying, suicide and euthanasia, birth, abortion and IVF. It then examines the human abuse of nonhuman animals, discussing sentience, personhood and inherent value. Considering the environment, it explores the worldview of nature as a resource, and presents an animistic understanding of nature's sanctity, and how sustainable relationship can be achieved. Finally, it focuses on current global crises, exploring need as opposed to desire. While ethics may be agreed, willingness to compromise desire for ethics is less easy.Part Three explores the factors that hinder ethical action, allowing careless passivity: fear, habit, a sense of impotence and a disconnection from the environment. It considers free will and the powerful fuel of deep inspiration. This is the first book to give an account of ethics from a pagan viewpoint for the modern world.

Mani, a third-century preacher, healer and public sage from Sasanian Mesopotamia, lived at a pivotal time and place in the development of the major religions. He frequented the courts of the Persian Empire, debating with rivals from the Judaeo-Christian tradition, philosophers and gnostics, Zoroastrians from Iran and Buddhists from India. The community he founded spread from north Africa to south China and lasted for over a thousand years. Yet the genuine biography of its founder, his life and thought, was in good part lost until a series of spectacular discoveries have begun to transform our knowledge of Mani's crucial role in the spread of religious ideas and practices along the trade-routes of Eurasia. This book utilises the latest historical and textual research to examine how Mani was remembered by his followers, caricatured by his opponents, and has been invented and re-invented according to the vagaries of scholarly fashion.