The Goddess in the Shadow

by Allycia Rye

Harness the Power of the Dark Goddesses
Across the world there are stories and myths of dark goddesses who haunt the forests and dwell in our dreams. Goddesses who lurk in the shadows. Even in their own mythology, these goddesses have been shunned, used as examples of what women should not be.
Just as each culture has a Shadow, so too does each person.
It is into our Shadows that we push our unwanted desires, our forgotten skills, our traumas, and the personal energy that we've been taught we must not show.
In "The Goddess in the Shadow", you'll learn the mythology behind ten dark goddesses, and discover how each dark goddess represents aspects of your own shadow, and how each can teach you valuable life lessons.

You'll also learn how to harness the divine feminine energy of the goddesses to heal your own shadow, and bring energy and vitality into your life.

Genres: Dark, Nonfiction, Reference

182 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2022

Reviews

[CEGatling · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the surface this book is a good offering. I mean who doesn't want the power of a goddess or a god to overcome difficulties in life? Having a balanced view of deity is as important as having a balanced view of life. Deity is light and twilight and dark. Deity is female and male and non-gendered. Deity is engendering, growth, and death. The author is right about that. All of those things need to be explored, in ourselves as well as in whomever we focus our veneration.

That being said, appropriation is never a good look, and the taking of certain goddesses in this book and the use of them in ritual that have nothing to do with their original worship purely for your own use and edification, is spiritually disrespectful at best and spiritually dangerous at worst.

Hecate, Sedna, Oya, Kali, and Pele are goddesses from closed practices and you approach them a certain way within those practices. If you are not part of that culture or initiated into that practice you can put yourself in a very dangerous position with no ancestral cover.

"Cultural appropriation, spiritual appropriation is one of the the quickest, easiest and simplest, ways to cross, to hex, and to condemn yourself on a spiritual level." ~ LadySpeech Sankofa

You cannot bypass foundational spiritual work you need to do before you approach ANY spirit. To quote LadySpeech again, "If humans can cosplay other humans, spirits can cosplay other spirits...and what they will do is exploit you."

Be CAREFUL out here in these spiritual streets.

1.5 stars for content
4 stars for narration
2.75 stars total

FYI: I received a free Audible copy of this book via Hentopan Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

[Andrew Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very timely

I have been looking at shadow work, & this really hit the nail on the head for me.


In our unconscious, most negative emotions, like sadness, resentment, and jealousy, are converted to anger. That built-up rage is toxic. It can manifest as illness and it can keep us fearful of expressing our true emotions and feeling them. Goddess Pele shows us that anger has a purpose and must be felt, never hidden.

[Aurie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grammatical errors, factual errors, poor research, and the bibliography made entirely of websites (Wikipedia, blogs, youtube and etc). Will be returning and do not recommend this book to anyone.
I am so disappointed as this book had great potential :(.

[Randelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel meh about this book. Which is sad because it has good information in it. My discontent with it comes from the lack of editing. There are numerous misspellings and errors in punctuation.

Additionally there are instructions in several rituals that do not include enough information. For example one ritual indicates the third eye and states that area is the middle of the forehead, another talks about the chakra on the throat, yet more simply say rub oil on this/that/the other chakra with no explanation of where they are. I found that frustrating.

I am looking at this book as a beginning point. It is a mere introduction to dark goddesses and shadow work. For that it is good. As a deeper wealth of knowledge on the subjects it is lacking.

[Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good friend of mine recommended this book to me. I’m in my “dark feminine era” currently & this read was exactly what I needed. I enjoyed learning (& relearning) about these different goddesses & deities. I resonated with some of them heavily & every lesson hit home in some kind of way. I annotated the hell out of this book on my kindle lol i definitely plan on implementing a lot of what was said.

I recommend this to anyone woman on a spiritual journey &/or looking to tap into the divine feminine energy within herself.

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the ideas in here I’ll keep and put into action. The need to feel what I’m feeling and not allowing others to dismiss them. Standing up for myself, to feel unbridled joy and not apologize for it, and not allowing others to disrespect me.
I do wish we would’ve gotten more background on The Morrigan, Hecate, Baba Yaga, Hathor. I don’t care to invoke but to learn more about these myths. So I was disappointed by the lack of information.

[Toshya Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is full of great information, including detailed information on the lore of Lilith, Pele, and Oya. However, I couldn't get past the various edits needed in the first chapter and the missing edits needed even in one of the spell sections. The idea was a 10/10. It's the execution that missed for me.

[Alecia🐈‍⬛🛸 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The general concept of the book was good, however the information about some of the goddesses was inaccurate. Some of the goddesses listed are from closed practices. The information about Lilith and Hathor/Sekhmet was not fully accurate. I am a follower of both, and have done a lot of research about both.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the flow of the writing but I did feel a little off about working with beings from closed practices especially in ones that are known to come to people if they want to work with them. Other than that it was a very empowering book and I will be taking something away from reading it.

[Misty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!

As a devotee of Kali, I've also worked with a few of the goddesses in this book. This is a wonderful telling of important myths that very much relate to us in our world today. The importance of the dark goddess and the divine feminine can no longer be ingored.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Direct, easy reading

It cuts through the extra junk and gives you what you need. It's a great introduction to the dark goddesses and diving into your own practice, working with them

[Lil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes I love this book so much highly recommend which it had more information about the goddess but towards the end she provides the links to her research on them so it’s up to you to do the research on them she Briefly decide s them to prove a point and the point was proven at least for me

[Eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

THEE Dark Goddess Primer!

Great introduction to the dark goddesses, complete with history and rituals.Highly recommended read for anyone interested in goddess worship. Will come back to this book again.

[Ashanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this was a good jumping off point for someone like me who doesn't know all the goddesses. It did a good job of making me curious about each goddess presented so at some point I'll have to get on that and learn more about each one.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Direction

Some of the sources are a bit iffy and the stories are not entirely accurate, but they are stories, so do they need to be? I’m going to research more on the goddesses I am less familiar with, but I like the empowerment and general idea.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful information

I enjoyed reading different takes on some of the mythology and plan to use the resources to dig more into the content. Considering doing some of the rituals but I definitely want to do more research first.

[Rebekah Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating and love what we can learn from the lessons of the goddesses. Definitely a great resource for shadow work.

[Melody Whittinghill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved!!!

The description was awesome and I truly could feel the story of each goddess! The author did a great job .

[Hollidaisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was interesting and empowering- I really enjoyed it. The author's writing is good and the information is absolutely engaging.

[Bhumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book

A best book to know about the goddesses and rituals, virtues associated with them. I will revisit this book again and again.

[Sian Witch reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good little book , infact it's much better than most books on dark goddesses I have read it's short but packed , the author includes Goddess that I not seen in similar books

[Arden le Fey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the worst book I've read, but definitely not the best. Needs an editor to go over it again. Good jumping off point, though.

[Dorothy Velez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit repetitive

There are some gems of insight in this book, making it worth reading. I found the stories of the goddesses interesting and succinct. My overall impression is good.

I found many paragraphs/sentences in the ritual portion repetitive and mostly unnecessary.

This is basically Jungian psychology using ritual and goddesses as stand-ins for the self. I don't know if this is a good, bad, or indifferent technique to get past personal resistance to change. In my gut, I think it might work to alleviate any guilt or self-doubt. On the other hand, it gives the credit for the self-work to an external force.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing is not the greatest (run on sentences abound) and ideas are pretty basic, but a good intro to the dark feminine

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

To start this out, I found some of this book interesting. I love the bits of information on each of the goddesses. I do think there should be warnings that some of these particular goddesses are from closed practices. I do like how there is mythology, plus the lessons from this mythology explained for you. Would I recommend this book? No, not really.

[Elsa Foston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved reading this book. I knew some of the myths included but it's always interesting to see other interpretations. Plus all the ritualistic explanations were new knowledge to me. I have the digital version but a hard copy could be a great reference to have, especially if one prefers time away from electronics.

[Meghan Vishaway · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super simple read. Great intro information for women starting a Shadow Work journey. Really good place to start. I can see how this is going to be a great book for referencing when new obstacles arise that require work with a different deity.