Carol Christ holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author of the widely reprinted essay"Why Women Need the Goddess," which has introduced many to the rebirth of the ancient religion of the Goddess. She has written five influential books on women's spirituality and feminist theology: She Who Changes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), Rebirth of the Goddess (Routledge, 1998), Odyssey with the Goddess (Continuum, 1995), Laughter of Aphrodite (Harper, 1987), and Diving Deep and Surfacing (Beacon, 1980/1986/1995). With Judith Plaskow she co-edited the classic anthologies, Weaving the Visions(1989) and Women Rising (1979/1989), which have changed women's lives and revolutionized the teaching and study of religion in North America. Carol has taught at major universities in the United States, including Columbia University, Harvard Divinity School, Pomona College, San Jose State, and the California Institute of Integral Studies. In 1987, experiencing a glass ceiling in her field and burned out after years of feminist activism, she resigned a tenured full professorship and moved to Greece, where she has continued to teach and write, in an ever more embodied way.
Carol loves the Greek land, the Greek language, and the Greek people; and shares this love with all who come on her tours. She has lived in Athens and Lesvos where she, like Sappho, has heard the muses sing. In Crete she discovered the sacred tree in the center of the garden and descended four levels into the darkness of a cave, experiencing personal transformation. It is her great joy to be able to share both knowledge and intuitive wisdom with participants in Ariadne Institute programs. Carol has been leading tours to Greece since 1981.
Learn more about Carol's work by visting her words page.
Find Carol's books at local feminist or independent bookstores. Or order from Amazon.com using this link and you will also be making a contribution to Ariadne Institute's scholarship fund.
Jana Ruble was a participant on the first Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete in the fall of 1993, where she was led in the path of an ancient ritual dance. She became a founder of Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual in 1994. She served as Ariadne's Co-director from 1993-2002 and remains on its Board of Directors. Her openness, warmth, enthusiasm, and musical talent helped to shape Ariadne's programs.
Jana is a professional cellist and teacher who played for many years with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and the Laurel String Quartet. She has been active in women's groups concerned with politics, health, and spirituality for over twenty-five years. Currently she is enjoying retirement, dividing her time between in Taos, New Mexico and Blacksburg, Virginia.
Cristina Nevans made her first Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete in the fall of 1997, returning in fall 1999. She has lived in Greece since 1986 and is a landscape architect who has designed gardens for several of the archaeological schools in Greece, including the Study Center at Pachia Ammos, Crete. She loves to share her insights about traditional and contemporary Greece and to tell how the Goddesses of Crete changed her life. She will assist you and Carol on the spring tour.