Once, we are told, God was a woman.

To the ancients the mystery of birth and death as expressed in the seasons, the phases of the Moon and the movement of the stars meant that the creator was feminine, and therefore women, and all that is feminine, must be closest to that essence. For millennium priestesses held the power and the Earth prospered.

There is a universal longing to return to this time of balance, and for author, dancer and priestess, Sharron Rose, her life’s journey has been one of uncovering an ancient wisdom that seems lost in this world of the Internet, telephone banking and mobile phones.

The Path of the Priestess takes us on a compelling journey deep into the heart of feminine experience. It presents a glimpse of the essential and significant role of women as caretakers of the psychic, energetic and emotional landscape of society.

Author Sharron Rose has been investigating the wisdom of ancient cultures for the past twenty five years, and the reader is carried with her on a delightful journey of spiritual exploration.

We first travel back in time to the 1970s and to India where the author spends many years under the tutelage of her teacher and mentor Sitara Devi in India. There she learns that she is too “boyish” and must eat more to become a round and curvaceous woman. The jeans and T-shirts are cast to one side as she embraces the silk and embroidered sari and learns the ancient art of seductive dance.

Through dance, Rose learns to embrace the energies of the great goddesses of India and their wisdom for this world. With so many young women suffering from eating disorders and many others over-eating and facing a life of obesity, it is interesting to look at the advice given to Sharron by her teacher, Sitara.

In India women are encouraged to be ultra-feminine and to wear seductive clothing, not to tantalise but to celebrate their feminine charms.

From there she embraces the wisdom of the Tibetan dakinis through her teacher Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. She discovers the many parallels between the Indian Goddesses and the dancing Dakini spirits who are connected to nature.

The next part of the journey takes us to ancient Egypt and the wisdom of Hathor and Isis through her teacher Dr. Robert Masters.

Here we discover that even from the most ancient of times, the wise Goddesses ruled the world.

Finally the author discovers the wisdom of the Kabbalah, the alchemists and the Gnostics and the connection to Egypt, Mary Magdalene and the Tree of Life.

We follow Sharron Rose as she takes the journey of the priestess and begins to understand her own spiritual journey through the eyes of the Great Goddess who is everywhere and yet always remains hidden.

The first segment of this book takes us on a mystical journey through the eyes of the author as she explores and rediscovers the Goddess is indeed everywhere and in every element of Western and Eastern spirituality.

At times the Goddess seems obscure but with focus and clarity. Sharron Rose reveals her majesty shining brightly in everything, including the mysterious Notre Dame cathedral.

The second part of the book uncovers ancient ceremonies and rituals to help women reconnect to their innate “Goddessness.” The author has discovered many secret and forgotten rituals to help ignite the inner kundalini or chi-energies that dance through the body.

She gently describes the techniques used in ancient Egypt, India and Tibet through focus and visualisation. This energy is inexorably sexual in essence and requires the adept to focus her attention on her reproductive organs, awakening them to their inherent spiritual powers.

There is a universal desire to return to the ways of the Divine Feminine. We see umpteen workshops and dozens of books encouraging women to return to these ancient ways.
We see this also in the many books on the secret marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. However, with much of the wisdom lost or suspect, we need guides of the calibre of Sharron Rose to point us in the right direction.

Many readers may still, even unconsciously, embrace puritanical and repressive ideas of feminine sexuality, but if you are truly going to embark upon the pathway of the priestess these austere and unbalanced ideas must be replaced by ancient truth.

The ancient truth, as Sharron Rose points out, is that sexuality, when used for spiritual growth and nurtured with reverence and love, is a speedy and powerful pathway to enlightenment.

The author is quick to point out that this liberation of sexual energy and sexual spirituality also liberates men. When the Goddess unites with the God, their oneness lifts them both from the heavy and negative energies of repression into the ecstasy of unity. This is the heart and soul of tantric wisdom.

In the millennium since the repression of the Goddess, women have been taught to believe that their bodies are not beautiful unless they fit the currently fashionable image.

Women have been taught to put a lid on their sexual appetite because it is un-spiritual. Women have been taught that because of the temptation of Eve, sexuality leads to downfall. All of this is pretty heavy stuff and therefore not an easy thought-system to overthrow.
Many women probably ‘know’ they are being manipulated to remain powerless, and therefore non-threatening, which is why so many are obsessed by their appearance and fear their aging bodies. But many women also know, deep in their hearts, there is a better way.

Sharron Rose’s book sets the record straight, and in the process frees women from this subservient archetype. However, she emphasises that the journey must begin with self-love and self-acceptance. From there the would-be priestess is free to venture into the many ancient, secret and misunderstood rituals.

Any fledgling priestess who seriously wishes to awaken her own innate abilities would be well advised to seriously study this book.

The Path of the Priestess provides contemporary women with the means to walk this time-honoured path. It is an insightful book that both entertains and reveals ancient wisdom through the path of the intrepid explorer Sharron Rose.

Surely all women in this world are currently exploring this path, and surely this book will prove to be a land-mark text in this ever-expanding journey of awakening.

– Reviewed by Lesley Crossingham in New Dawn No. 99