365 Goddess: A Daily Guide to the Magic and Inspiration of the Goddess – A Life-Affirming Companion for Celebrated Empowerment

by Patricia J. Telesco

Goddess wisdom for every day of the year.

Bring life-affirming magic and empowerment into every day of your life with this unique and useful guide to the goddess. Through the ages, people have celebrated the role of goddesses in maintaining the flow of life and its cycles; now 365 Goddess draws upon the traditions of goddess wisdom from around the world for each day of the year. Each entry introduces the day's goddess and her cultural role, and then offers simple activities spells, rituals, prayers, and meditations to help you achieve your goals and to transform your reality, one day at a time.

Genres: Goddess, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Mythology, Wicca, Reference, Paganism

432 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Patricia "Trish" Telesco is a professional author with more than 50 metaphysical titles on the market.

Trish considers herself a kitchen witch whose love of folkore (and a bit of Strega) flavor every spell and ritual. Her strongest beliefs lie in following personal vision, being tolerant of other traditions, making life an act of worship, and being the magic!

Trish travels minimally twice per month to give lectures and workshops around the country. She has appeared on several television segments and maintains a strong, visible presence in the public through journals like Circle Network News, and on the internet.

Her current pet projects include supporting pagan land funds and coordinating spiritually oriented tours to Europe.

Telesco began her Wiccan education and initiation on her own, but later received initiation into the Strega tradition of Italy. She is a trustee for the Universal Federation of Pagans, a member of the Authors Guild, a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and a professional member of the Wiccan-Pagan Press Alliance.

In March 2012 her husband, Paul Telesco, was diagnosed with a tumor on his brain stem. Since that time, Telesco has been focused on raising awareness and fund-raising

Reviews

[Tlh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Telesco really messed up in a couple of places in this book, and if she did so here, I hate to imagine where else she messed up. OK first of all - she writes, at the end of July, about a Goddess called "Voluspa." There is no such Goddess. The Voluspa is a poem, not a Goddess. It is found in a book called "The Poetic Edda." It is the first poem in that book. It talks about how Odin sought information from a dead seeress ("volva") about the origins of the Nordic Nine Worlds, about the Ragnarok, etc. "Voluspa" is a word that means "speech of the volva." Second - in May, Telesco writes about a Scandinavian Goddess called "Dag." Nope. No such Goddess. In the Scandinavian pagan ways, Dag is a GOD. This book is supposed to be about Goddesses, not Gods. I'm serious as a heart attack, readers - Dag is NOT a Goddess. Dag never was a Goddess. Dag forms a partnership with the solar Scandiavan Goddess Sunna, Goddess of the Sun. (Alternately, the moon God Mani and the Goddess of Night, Nott, also form a couple.) Please do not take Telesco's insights on Scandinavian pagan ways; she is not of that tradition and she has taken this stuff completely out of context and changed it around to suit her own modern feminist agenda....and she's making a buck by lying to all you readers out there. Seriously. She really is. This stuff is easily researchable with a minimum of effort, and if you take the time to look this up, you'll see she's really ripped up the old Scandinavian ways for her book. That's not cool - that's being very culturally insensitive.

[Sanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like Telesco's writing style a lot, but this book is terrible. First of all, there's a lot of inaccurate information. For example, I found the quote "Fauna's power lives on in the botanical terminology, her name having been given to vegetation" absolutely incredible. Fauna means the animal life, not vegetation. Considering all the mistakes I noticed I hate to think about the ones I missed. Secondly, this book is fluffy bunny wicca that screams cultural appropriation to your face. Now, there is nothing wrong with learning about different mythologies, but there is plenty of wrong in taking Gods of closed religions and reducing them to your all-goddesses-are-one-and-the-same-trope. Have some respect for minorities who face oppression today without you taking their Gods, especially when they have specifically wished that people wouldn't do that. Thirdly, and I know not all agree with this, I know plenty of pagans who find it disrespectful to hop from god to god without any introduction. Many compare it to walking up to a stranger on the street and asking them for a favor. You wouldn't do that to people, so why would you do that to gods?

[Rev. Ravyn Onca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am revisiting this mini tome on Goddess lore this year as part of my daily Goddess prayers/energy and devotionals. 🥰 It inspires me to learn more about culture and women as so much more than mere Herstory.

[Garnet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great compilation of celebrated goddesses from various cultures. It is full of stories and insights, the type of book that should be read over and over.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really handy little book! It is well organized so that you can find info on different goddesses. You can also use it as a sort of divinitory tool, open it to a random page to see which goddess you get or check out your "goddess of the day".

[stella · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little writing for every day... a little esoteric, but fun if you want some divine input on your day.

[Crystal Vassil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for the first year. Learn about a lot of different Goddesses. Some I had never even heard of before.

[Olga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Doesn't look like a well researched or well written source.

[Sonee Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was tempted to read about one goddess per day, as recommended, but I didn’t have the patience. I also found some of the daily activities to be cumbersome, as they would require advance planning. The author does suggest to “peek” at each activity in advance and plan, but I wasn’t up for it—it didn’t seem practical. I ended up reading about a month worth of goddesses per day. The description about each goddess was basic yet informative, although there were misspellings.

[Patricia Morgunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book of Goddess knowledge with historical references as well as some practical worshipping ideas.I brought the Kindle version but any median ,this is a great book to have on ones shelf.

[Lelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the epitome of cultural appropriation...

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for those who need a little reminder or push to help find your way

If you are looking for your path, this book introduces you a vast array of goddesses. If you just want a little daily reminder the passages are a good quick read that are insightful.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was assigned to me to read. I enjoyed it but I'd caution the reader to do some cross referencing with regards to some of the goddesses Telesco mentions.

[Jessie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not my favorite daybook, even though Patricia Telesco is a favorite pagan author. There are many incorrect dates but through the years, I've made annotations and usually find an appropriate reading for the day. I've used this book annually since about 1999.

12/09/11 page 375 87.0% "Tonatzin (Mexico) Themes: Religious Devotion, Blessing Carry a seed and soil wrapped in green cloth with you today."
10/07/11 page 280 65.0% "Wieben Frauen - Listen closely to the voices of the trees and see if they have a message for you."
09/07/11 page 255 59.0%
08/08/11 page 232 54.0% "The Hindu goddess Parvati is the center of the Teej festival in Nepal."
06/25/11 page 183 42.0% "White Nights in Russia"
05/06/11 page 130 30.0% "Chantico - Mesoamerican goddess of the hearth and home."
03/06/11 page 64 15.0% "Today is whale watching day. I tried to find info on what was actually happening today, but only found advertisments for tickets to watch the whales, maybe. Let's just celebrate day 2 of Tibetan New Year instead."
02/10/11 page 44 10.0% "Daily Reading"
02/08/11 page 44 10.0%
02/06/11 page 40 9.0%

[Lisa Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure delight! Patricia Telesco has researched goddesses from around the world, posting them on the day people celebrate them. A goddess for every day of the year. She provides the name of the festival day, the goddess celebrated, her themes, symbols, and a description of who and what she is. Then Telesco suggests little ceremonies to perform, clothing to wear or food to eat in honor of the goddess. Finally, she suggests an incantation. The day I’m writing this, June 8, is Dragon Boat Festival in China, the goddess is Nugua, who symbolizes the Yin Yang. You should carry a coin in your pocket to invoke the balance of opposites. I love it! Whatever your religious beliefs (or lack of them), this is a book to add a bit of lovely magic to your life every day.

[C.J. Prince · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent reference book. Did you imagine 365 goddesses? After reading this book, I'm sure there are more. Wonderful to imagine. After all, she got such little press for lo these many years. Now you can read a goddess a day, plan a party on a goddess's day of your choice or just spend an afternoon in front of the fire browsing.

If you honor the divine feminine in any way, you will want this book as a reference. Enjoy!!!

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a witch for about ten years. Now I'm an atheist looking back on some of my favorite "witchy" books from that time. One of my favorite authors was Telesco for reasons I cannot remember now. This was my first book by her and was once my most treasured. I enjoyed the mythology and fun suggestions for what to do on those days. I cannot for the life of me remember what happened to my copy of this book. I'm not going to repurchase it, though. I don't miss it THAT much.

[Patricia Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I read yearly. The information on the different Goddesses, and traditions are wonderful. Also, the to do this day information is spot on. Sometimes I can use what I learn at different times of the year, for various things but having a pathway to follow is amazing.
Ill be restarting in the new year. I read ahead, and finished but the information within this book is powerfully affective.

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't picked up this book to reference since May of 2004 probably because it wasn't exactly the book I was looking for when I purchased it. It's a decent book if you want to learn little snippets about the different goddesses worshiped around the world but it's far from comprehensive and doesn't go into nearly as much detail as I was expecting.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another daily meditation book that I love. Each day has a different Goddess and ideas for getting in touch with Her.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little snippits about a large variety of goddesses and holidays throughout the world. I was introduced to this book in 2007 and still occasionally pick it up.

[Briar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting little book. Good "food for thought."

[MJ Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this in sooner than a year lol it was so good but still use daily. I recommend for anyone child of the goddess.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I will keep it around for some time as a reference. It is also fun to just open it up and see who you found.

[Jaina Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great resource by Telesco. She shows how to bring magick and reverence into everyday life, with playful innovation and by using whatever you have on hand.

[Tabitha Chamberlain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good day to day meditation/activities for those that want to get into touch with the Goddess aspect.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational and inspirational.

[Hannah Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book suitable for people wanting to read on various goddesses.

[Pageturner Pagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I use this as a reference book a lot. It's one of my favourites for glancing at some basic information.

Whilst it's not the most in-depth or detailed work, it's useful and has a few Goddesses in it that one wouldn't necessarily think of off the top of one's head.

I appreciate the artwork in my copy and also enjoy the writing style and voice of the author.

All in all, a great reference book or a page-a-day work through for a Book of Shadows or other journal. Not so great for sitting down and reading in one go.