The bodhisattva and the goddess

Chapter 2 investigates the goddess Svasthānī herself. Svasthānī, “the Goddess of One’s Own Place,” serves as a relatively recent and tangible case study for understanding the birth...

Covering 30,000 years of goddess worship, this fascinating book is the first and most comprehensive biographical dictionary devoted exclusively to mythological deities. S...

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power is an exploration of the many faces of the Goddess Durga in ancient and contemporary culture. This book takes us on a pilgrimage to goddess te...

This chapter offers an analysis of Taixu’s Maitreyan theology through a close reading of his commentaries on the Three Essentials—the texts he identified as the cult’s foundation. ...

Feared as the ruler of snakes, Manasā, a late entrant to the pantheon of Hindu deities, is a fiercely partisan goddess who is vengeful to her adversaries and bountiful to her adher...

This chapter draws connections between the kōlam on the threshold and the pottu (or bindi) on the forehead. These ritual marks indicate the presence or absence of auspiciousness (o...

“The ‘Plantheon’ of Greek Mythology” examines how—before the emergence of competing scientific paradigms—agricultural paradigms were subsumed into myth and integrated into religiou...

Chapter 1 introduces Nepal’s popular Svasthānī tradition: the goddess Svasthānī, the Svasthānīvratakathā text that Nepali Hindus recite annually, and the Svasthānī vrat (ritual vow...