Barbara G. Walker > Quotes

“In the beginning, in a time that was no time, nothing existed but the Womb. And the Womb was a limitless dark cauldron of all things in potential: a chaotic blood-soup of matter and energy, fluid as water yet mud-solid with salts of the earth, red-hot as fire yet relentlessly churning and bubbling with all the winds. And the Womb was the Mother, before She took form and gave form to Existence. She was the Deep.”
― Barbara G. Walker, Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women

“To each living thing the Mother gave a temporary form that would eventually dissolve, back once more into the infinite churning a cauldron of potential, where matters and energies are constantly exchanger and recombined. She made the world an image of that uterine cauldron, so that every life form sustains itself by absorbing, decomposing , and assimilating other forms.”
― Barbara G. Walker, Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women

“Few words are so revealing of western sexual prejudice as the word Goddess, in contrast to the word God. Modern connotations vastly differ from those of the ancients, to whom the Goddess was a full-fledged cosmic parent figure who created the universe and its laws, ruler of Nature, Fate, Time, Eternity, Truth, Wisdom, Justice, Love. Birth, Death, etc.”
― Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets

“Until the Crone figure was suppressed, patriarchal religions could not achieve full control of men's minds. Such religions tended not only to ascetic rejection of the physical experiences of life, but also to fearful rejection of the Divine Old Woman, and by extension of old women generally.”
― Barbara G. Walker, The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power – A Probing Account of Ancient Societies Restoring Respect and Self-Value for Contemporary Women

“A Goddess religion should be out in the open, not underground as it is right now. A Goddess religion would cause men to look at women differently.”
― Barbara G. Walker, Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women

“Our culture's official rejection of the Crone figure was related to rejection of women, particularly elder women. The gray-haired high priestesses, once respected tribal matriarchs of pre-Christian Europe, were transformed by the newly dominant patriarchy into minions of the devil. Through the Middle Ages, this trend gathered momentum, finally developing a frenzy that legally murdered millions of elder women from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries.”
― Barbara G. Walker, The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power – A Probing Account of Ancient Societies Restoring Respect and Self-Value for Contemporary Women

“The Latin Cross is not inappropriate for a church that composed itself entirely of men, for in several early societies the Latin Cross was a primary phallic symbol.”
― Barbara G. Walker

“Woman, remember. You have the memory living deep in your mind, in your blood, in your lifegiving darkness. Reach down to it and bring it forth.


Remember the time before men began to count time. Remember when woman was the world, and the world was woman. Remember when every mother established her clan, guided her children, set the standards of behavior for her lovers, and owned the home place to be passed down to her daughters. Remember when the Mother’s laws forbade man to do violence to others, especially to women and children. Remember when rape was un-known, because every sexual encounter was by woman’s choice. Remember when men dared not claim the right to control any aspect of women’s economic, political, sexual, or reproductive activities, but honored all women for bringing forth and nurturing the human race...


Remember that woman alone... had the right to decree wise laws for the benefit of future generations. Remember that woman alone knew the mysteries of life and death, of healing and cursing. Remember the shrines established by the primal ancestresses. Remember the great temples where priestesses dwelt, helping their people. Remem-ber that the world was at peace, because men were forbidden to kill.


Realize that the real foundation of human life is Woman. Remember your Goddess.

Woman, remember.”
― Barbara G. Walker, Women's Rituals: A Sourcebook