Monica Sjöö

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Monica Sjöö, (December 31, 1938 – 8 August 2005), was a Swedish painter and writer who was influential in the Goddess movement. She lived in Britain for the last decades of her life, and died of cancer.

Sjöö was an artist, a writer, and one of the early visionaries of the Goddess movement. Her 1987 book The Great Cosmic Mother (co-authored with Barbara Mor) helped revive what she considered the "hidden history" of the Goddess, and her paintings transformed ancient images and symbols into contemporary icons of female power.

Sjöö's work and beliefs centered around her respect and care of the Goddess, or Mother Earth. The Goddess was "the beauty of the green earth, the life-giving waters, the consuming fires, the radiant moon, and the fiery sun". Sjöö's respect for nature and the environment was not mere belief but, for her, a spiritual truth. The Goddess / Earth is to be respected as the life giver. This respect is to be found not only in her imagery, but in two texts which chronicle her journey through the written word.

The imagery Sjöö used in her paintings often makes reference to birth, the female body, and nature. All of these images were central to her beliefs regarding her "Cosmic Mother". She described herself as among the pioneers in this movement of reclaiming female divinity - along with many other writers, artists, poets, and thinkers.

In her art, she attempted to "holistically express" her growing religious belief in the Great Mother as the cosmic spirit and generative force in the universe. This was a critical component of her artwork. She claimed to enter a "state" of being or of mind where knowledge was available from past, present, and future. Yet, these abstract beliefs were grounded with a firm foundation of action and activism. She was involved with the anarchist and anti-Vietnam War movements in Sweden in the 1960s and was active in the women's movement in Britain. Her political activism always grew out of her spiritual understanding of the earth as our living mother.

Monica Sjöö lost both of her sons in very traumatic ways. Her youngest son was killed in front of her by an oncoming car at age 15. Her eldest son died of cancer, which she claimed was exacerbated by his experiences of rebirthing.

Sjöö was highly critical of the author Alice Bailey.^[1]

[edit] Bibliography

Sjöö, Monica; Barbara Mor (1981). The Ancient Religion of The Great Cosmic Mother of All. Trondheim, Norway: Rainbow Press. ISBN 8-27-223012-7.
Sjöö, Monica; Barbara Mor (1987-05-01). The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. San Francisco: HarperOne. ISBN 0-06-250791-5.
Sjöö, Monica (March 1994). New Age and Armageddon: The Goddess or the Gurus? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future. London: Women's Press Ltd.. ISBN 0-70-434263-4.
- Reprinted as: Sjöö, Monica (1999-09-09). Return of the Dark/Light Mother or New Age Armageddon? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future. Texas: Plain View Press. ISBN 1-89-138607-7.
Sjöö, Monica (1998). New Age Channelings - Who or What is being Channeled?. Bristol, England: Green Leaf Bookshop.
Sjöö, Monica (2000-05-01). The Norse Goddess. Dor Dama Press, Meyn Mamvro Publications. ISBN 0951885960.