Chaos Alert: Barbara Walker

From: Hughes, John <JohnP.Hughes_at_dva.gov.au>
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 09:52:30 +1100


Heys Folks

A brief aside...

Alex:

>I'm not familiar with Barbara Walker's work

The much-quoted Barbara Walker has come up in discussion, and since she holds a dear and special place in my heart, I thought I'd share why.

Walker, the 'John and Caitlyn Matthews of womens' mythology' is a tarot writer who is also the author of 'The Encyclopedia of Womens' Myths and Secrets' and similar tomes. They occupy a special place in womens' publishing, and have been hugely influential over the last decades, which is the problem. Walker is pushing a lot of her own barrows, and is a a specialist in quoting secondary texts and obscure nineteenth century sources rather than more recent, reliable (and relatively boring) authorities: she also gleefully adds her own suspect linguistic theories to an already ecclectic brew.

It makes fascinating reading - Pip and I have *immensely* enjoyed our copy for more than a decade, but it is more at home as a source for a Call of Cthulhu or Nephalim campaign than a reference for reliable facts on mythology. (It's probably also of potential interest to Lunar scholars).

It's particularly distressing for me because an area of particular personal academic interest: the transplantation of Durga, Kali and other Indian shakti goddesses into the West and their appropriation by western feminism, has been well and truly fouled by the influential half-truths and downright inventions that pepper Walker's work. A *different* kind of myth making...

These days, seeing Walker quoted as a source sets off my detect chaos gift.

I can recommend some excellent *and* reliable books on feminist mythology if anyone is interested.

I go back to sleep now...

John    


Powered by hypermail