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Sheela na gig: The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power
Traces the origins of the Sheela na gig from Medieval times to Paleolithic cave art
• Reveals the sacred display of the vulva to be a universal archetype and the most enduring image of creativity throughout the world
• Provides meditations on the Sheelas the author encountered in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales, allowing readers to commune with the power of these icons
• Includes more than 150 photographs and illustrations from around the world
For millennia, the human imagination has been devoted to the Goddess, so it is hardly a surprise to find images of supernatural females like Sheela na gigs adorning sacred and secular architecture throughout Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. Appearing on rural churches, castles, bridges, holy wells, tombs, and standing stones, these powerful images of a figure fearlessly displaying her vulva embody the power of the Dark Goddess over the mysteries of sex, life, death, and rebirth.
Exploring the art and myth of the Sheela na gig from Celtic and Classical times back to Paleolithic cave art, Starr Goode shows how the Sheela embraces a conundrum of opposites: she clearly offers up her ripe sex yet emanates a repelling menace from the upper half of her hag-like body. Through more than 150 photographs, the author shows how the Sheela is a goddess with the power to renew, a folk deity used to help women survive childbirth, and, as a guardian of doorways and castle walls, a liminal entity representing the gateway to the divine. She explains how these powerful images survived eradication during the rise of Christianity and retained their preeminent positions on sacred sites, including medieval churches.
The author provides meditations on the individual Sheelas she encountered during her 25 years of research, allowing readers to commune with these icons and feel the power they emanate. Exploring comparable figures such as Baubo, Medusa, the Neolithic Frog Goddess, and vulva depictions in cave art, she reveals the female sacred display to be a universal archetype, the most enduring image of creativity throughout history, and illustrates how cultures from Africa and Ecuador to India and Australia possess similar images depicting goddesses parting their thighs to reveal sacred powers.
Explaining the role of the Sheela na gig in restoring the Divine Feminine, the author shows the Sheela to be an icon that makes visible the cycles of birth, death, and renewal all humans experience and a necessary antidote to centuries of suppression of the primal power of women, of nature, and of the imagination.
• Reveals the sacred display of the vulva to be a universal archetype and the most enduring image of creativity throughout the world
• Provides meditations on the Sheelas the author encountered in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales, allowing readers to commune with the power of these icons
• Includes more than 150 photographs and illustrations from around the world
For millennia, the human imagination has been devoted to the Goddess, so it is hardly a surprise to find images of supernatural females like Sheela na gigs adorning sacred and secular architecture throughout Ireland, England, Wales, and Scotland. Appearing on rural churches, castles, bridges, holy wells, tombs, and standing stones, these powerful images of a figure fearlessly displaying her vulva embody the power of the Dark Goddess over the mysteries of sex, life, death, and rebirth.
Exploring the art and myth of the Sheela na gig from Celtic and Classical times back to Paleolithic cave art, Starr Goode shows how the Sheela embraces a conundrum of opposites: she clearly offers up her ripe sex yet emanates a repelling menace from the upper half of her hag-like body. Through more than 150 photographs, the author shows how the Sheela is a goddess with the power to renew, a folk deity used to help women survive childbirth, and, as a guardian of doorways and castle walls, a liminal entity representing the gateway to the divine. She explains how these powerful images survived eradication during the rise of Christianity and retained their preeminent positions on sacred sites, including medieval churches.
The author provides meditations on the individual Sheelas she encountered during her 25 years of research, allowing readers to commune with these icons and feel the power they emanate. Exploring comparable figures such as Baubo, Medusa, the Neolithic Frog Goddess, and vulva depictions in cave art, she reveals the female sacred display to be a universal archetype, the most enduring image of creativity throughout history, and illustrates how cultures from Africa and Ecuador to India and Australia possess similar images depicting goddesses parting their thighs to reveal sacred powers.
Explaining the role of the Sheela na gig in restoring the Divine Feminine, the author shows the Sheela to be an icon that makes visible the cycles of birth, death, and renewal all humans experience and a necessary antidote to centuries of suppression of the primal power of women, of nature, and of the imagination.
- GenresGoddessSpirituality
384 pages, Hardcover
Published December 17, 2016
11 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Starr Goode
3 books3 followersStarr Goode, MA, teaches writing and literature at Santa Monica College. Winner of The David L. Kubal Memorial Essay Prize, she wrote "The Fable of the Invisible Woman" for The Rule of Mars: Readings on the Origins, History and Impact of Patriarchy. She is also a recipient of The Henri Coulette Memorial Poetry Award from The Academy of American Poets. As a poet, her work has appeared in numerous publications, most recently in Expanding Circles: Women, Art & Community and Sage Woman and was commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to create a bookmark from her poem "Gossip." Producer and moderator for the cable TV series, The Goddess in Art, the programs are now available on YouTube. She has been profiled for her work as a cultural commentator in the LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. Her latest essay, "Adventures She Has Brought My Way" appears in Elders and Visionaries Anthology published by Cambria Press. Now available is her meditation on the masculine, The Art of Living: Falstaff the Fool and Dino. Her new book, Sheela na gig, The Dark Goddess of Sacred Power, will be published in October 2016 by Inner Traditions.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 12, 2026
A very fascinating book, I should like to learn more about the Sheela na gigs. I thought the author's story to be very compelling
August 11, 2025
The author's name is an effective warning notice that this book is in the unfortunate tradition of the notorious Marija Gimbutas. It is such a pity that pseudo-feminists give feminism such a bad name.
This author is a stranger to evidence and argument. She is also, like many of her peers, astonishingly ignorant - for example, of the scores of medieval (11th century and later) carvings of male exhibitionists on churches and even on a couple of Irish castles.
It has not entered "her pretty little head" (as unpleasant patriarchists used to say !) to wonder why the overwhelming majority of exhibitionists, male and female (as well as coupling couples) would be placed on churches, with the sanction of an obscenely misogynist clergy, if they were underground pre-Christian feminist icons. Those on Anglo-Norman castles (at least one of them a copy of a 12th century exhibition in Western France) were obviously apotropaic, and not likely to be a call-up to their female Celtic subjects.
As one of the first scholars to study the (relatively) small number of Irish and British exhibitionists since 1972 (when many Irish figures were locked in the vaults of museums and I - and my mother - had to get permission to examine them) I deplore the recent industry of ignorance that now obscures them.
This author is a stranger to evidence and argument. She is also, like many of her peers, astonishingly ignorant - for example, of the scores of medieval (11th century and later) carvings of male exhibitionists on churches and even on a couple of Irish castles.
It has not entered "her pretty little head" (as unpleasant patriarchists used to say !) to wonder why the overwhelming majority of exhibitionists, male and female (as well as coupling couples) would be placed on churches, with the sanction of an obscenely misogynist clergy, if they were underground pre-Christian feminist icons. Those on Anglo-Norman castles (at least one of them a copy of a 12th century exhibition in Western France) were obviously apotropaic, and not likely to be a call-up to their female Celtic subjects.
As one of the first scholars to study the (relatively) small number of Irish and British exhibitionists since 1972 (when many Irish figures were locked in the vaults of museums and I - and my mother - had to get permission to examine them) I deplore the recent industry of ignorance that now obscures them.
August 25, 2018
Wow! Informative, witty, well researched. Best feminist analysis of ancient history since The Chalice and the Blade.
February 1, 2025
Quite pleasing documentary that could serve as an introduction to Sheela-na-gig phenomenon, albeit leans toward pseudo-scientific, for the author expressed her personal stances in a rather trivial manner, subjectively interpreting the scientists she cited, which made me feel uncomfortable every now and again on her behalf.
The first part of the book is dedicated to the discussion on account of Sheela-na-gig sculptures throughout the mythology and history of civilisations, yet in reverse chronology: starting from 20th century, moving backward through the Renaissance, the mediaeval period, antiquity, and at length Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras. In these chapters, the author reviews existing literature regarding Sheelas and endeavours to elucidate rather illusive mystery hidden behind Sheela sculpture in different civilisations and eras.
The second part is somewhat personal journal and the author’s travelogue where she described her adventures during the pilgrimage across Ireland and Great Britain, seeking the Sheelas. Many vivid descriptions and anecdotes are present among those paragraphs, quite interesting to roam through.
The third part, from my perspective, is entirely unnecessary for this study. However, it seems to be the core and hidden inspiration that the author had in mind all along, subtly weaving it throughout the book, though rather discreetly until this section. Here, she elaborates on feminist and counter-patriarchal perspectives in European and non-European cultures, drawing numerous parallels related to the Sheela phenomenon in contemporary art and various movements. Undoubtedly, this is the most tedious part, which diminished the overall impression of the book.
The first part of the book is dedicated to the discussion on account of Sheela-na-gig sculptures throughout the mythology and history of civilisations, yet in reverse chronology: starting from 20th century, moving backward through the Renaissance, the mediaeval period, antiquity, and at length Palaeolithic and Neolithic eras. In these chapters, the author reviews existing literature regarding Sheelas and endeavours to elucidate rather illusive mystery hidden behind Sheela sculpture in different civilisations and eras.
The second part is somewhat personal journal and the author’s travelogue where she described her adventures during the pilgrimage across Ireland and Great Britain, seeking the Sheelas. Many vivid descriptions and anecdotes are present among those paragraphs, quite interesting to roam through.
The third part, from my perspective, is entirely unnecessary for this study. However, it seems to be the core and hidden inspiration that the author had in mind all along, subtly weaving it throughout the book, though rather discreetly until this section. Here, she elaborates on feminist and counter-patriarchal perspectives in European and non-European cultures, drawing numerous parallels related to the Sheela phenomenon in contemporary art and various movements. Undoubtedly, this is the most tedious part, which diminished the overall impression of the book.
January 14, 2025
Absolutely superb book. I have read it numerous times and still find something fascinating and inspiring every time I read it again. It is the best book I have read on Sheela Na Gig. It includes a fascinating pilgrimage with the author to visit Sheelas in situ where they still remain in Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland. It is incredibly well researched and traces the vulva all the way back to art on Paleolithic cave walls and even earlier and then brings Sheela's story back to artists who are re-imagining her in the modern day. Highly recommed.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews