859470

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FTH0010.1177/0966735019859470Feminist TheologyShannon

Article

Feminist Theology

Language of the Goddess

2019, Vol. 28(1) 66­–84
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0966735019859470
https://doi.org/10.1177/0966735019859470
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Laura Shannon

Abstract
The author narrates her journey to women’s circle dances of the Balkans, and explores how they
incorporate prehistoric signs which Marija Gimbutas called ‘the language of the Goddess’. These
symbolic images appear in archaeological artefacts, textile motifs, song words, and dance patterns,
and have been passed down for thousands of years in nonverbal ways. The interdisciplinary
approach of archaeomythology suggests that the images may carry ideas and values from the
Neolithic cultures in which these dances are said to have their roots. Women’s ritual dances
affirm the Old European values which honoured the Goddess, the mother principle, and the
cycles of life, and offer an extraordinary oasis of women’s empowerment, even within patriarchal
culture, indicating that the dances most likely originate in pre-patriarchal egalitarian matriarchy.
For women today, even outside the Balkans, these women’s ritual dances offer insight and
meaning through an embodied experience of the values of the Goddess.

Keywords
Balkan dance, dance movement therapy, circle, language of the Goddess, matriarchy, patriarchy,
archaeomythology

I would like to begin by describing my personal journey with Balkan dance, specifically
women’s ritual dances in circular form. Archaeological finds show that people have been
dancing in circles since at least the Neolithic period.1 Signs and symbols embedded in

  1. Barber EW (2013) The Dancing Goddesses. New York: Norton; Garfinkel Y (2003) Dancing
at the Dawn of Agriculture. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Corresponding author:
Laura Shannon.
Email: l.shannon584@canterbury.ac.uk
Shannon 67

traditional circle dances include the circle, spiral, crescent, serpent, star, triangle and tree
of life, key motifs in the repertoire of images which archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has
called ‘the language of the Goddess’.2 These images appear in four separate strands of
inherited folk culture: archaeological finds, textile arts, song words, and dance patterns.
Since these symbols have been passed down for thousands of years, they may be seen as
a means to transmit messages from the distant past. I believe we can discern sufficient
information from these signs and symbols, as well as from our own experience of danc-
ing, to locate the origin of these dances in pre-patriarchal Neolithic cultures which hon-
oured the Goddess.
These early agricultural societies were most likely egalitarian matriarchies based on
principles of community, equality, and peace.3 Balkan women’s dances offer an embod-
ied experience of these same values for women who dance them today.4 Because tradi-
tional circle dances are learned and passed on experientially, they provide a unique and
living link to the culture of the Goddess and a pre-patriarchal worldview which honours
life and the mother principle, which Heide Göttner-Abendroth associates with care and
generosity. More than 30 years of researching and teaching these dances, informed by
my parallel background in dance movement therapy, has shown how women today can
find in them ‘an embodied spiritual practice which can nurture and guide their inner
process’, in which women ‘may receive personal insight and understanding, and connect
to sources of healing energy and ancient wisdom’.5

Balkan Dance and Sacred Space

First, I will discuss my experiences with three distinct yet interrelated forms of commu-
nal dance: the contemporary practice of Sacred Dance or Circle Dance, which combines
traditional dances with choreographed circle dances; the international folk dance move-
ment in the US and UK, which offers Balkan circle dance in a recreational setting; and
Balkan dance, specifically women’s dances, as a living tradition in Eastern Europe.
  2. Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of The Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
 3. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins;
Christ CP (2016) A new definition of patriarchy: control of women’s sexuality, private
property, and war. Feminist Theology 24(3): 214–25; Eisler R (1987) The Chalice and the
Blade. Cambridge, MA: Harper & Row; and Göttner-Abendroth H (2009) Societies of Peace:
Matriarchies Past, Present and Future. Toronto: Inanna Publications.
  4. In speaking specifically of women’s dance, I am not advocating an essentialist position vis-
à-vis women of today; rather, I am reporting on an existing tradition in another culture which
is strictly gendered yet benefits the entire community. I give a more thorough definition of
women’s ritual dances, as opposed to Balkan dance in general, in Shannon L (2011) Women’s
ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in our time. In: Leseho J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing
on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing through Dance. Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57;
Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan women’s dance. Dance, Movement
& Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78; Shannon L (2017b) Women with wings: right-brain conscious-
ness and the learning process in Balkan dance. In: Voss A, Wilson S (eds) Re-enchanting the
Academy. Seattle, WA: Rubedo Press, 325–48.
  5. Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan women’s dance. Dance, Movement &
Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78, 58.
68 Feminist Theology 28(1)

Evidence collected by archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel and others has shown that peo-
ple have danced in circles since prehistoric times.6 Shared movement synchronizes body
rhythms and brain waves, creating feelings of connection and unity among people who
dance together.7 Archaeological finds indicate that ritual dance provided a sacred space
for women, and Balkan women today still use their dance circles to create safe spaces for
themselves. In contrast, most women in patriarchal societies today don’t have access to
safe and sacred space. My women students today, who share a longing for such space,
find it in Balkan women’s circle dances which transmit pre-patriarchal values emphasiz-
ing community, equality, and respect for all of life.8 These are the values of the matrifocal
cultures of Old Europe, in which I believe these dances have their roots. Awakened in us
through the embodied experience of circle dance, these values can show us the way to a
sustainable future. This is the message of the language of the Goddess.

Folk Dance, Sacred Dance, the Search for Sacred Space

Growing up in the patriarchal society of the United States in the 1970s, I was aware
from an early age that my femininity made me a target. First as a girl, and then as a
young woman, I felt out of place, powerless, inadequate and acutely ashamed, simply
because of my sex. My young self could see no safe way to be a woman in a woman-
hating world. These feelings led me as a teenager to the women’s spirituality circles of
the 1980s, where I found confirmation of my experience and support for my feminist
awakening. My quest for new ways to be at home in my body led me to Middle Eastern
dance, dance movement therapy, and other healing movement modalities which helped
me reclaim my own body as a safe space and gave me faith in my own female strength
and power.
At that time, international folk dancing was a popular pastime in the US and UK, and
I developed a passion for Balkan circle dances in my teenage years. I encountered Balkan
dances again at the Findhorn community in Scotland in 1985, where they were practised
together with modern choreographed circle dances, in the method known there as Sacred
Dance. Sacred Dance, originally developed by German ballet master Bernhard Wosien,
had been brought by Wosien (assisted by his daughter Maria-Gabriele Wosien and his
student Friedel Kloke) to the Findhorn community in 1976, and was quickly adopted
there as a spiritual practice in dance form for awakening group consciousness.9 Sacred

  6. Garfinkel Y (2003) Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture. Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press, 3.
  7. Ehrenreich B (2007) Dancing in the Streets. New York: Metropolitan Books, 337–43.
  8. The term ‘Old European civilization’ was used by Marija Gimbutas to refer specifically to
Neolithic civilization in the period from 7000–3500 BCE. It is also known as the Danube
civilization. ‘The term Old Europe… may also be used for all of Europe before the Indo-
European invasions, including the megalithic cultures of western Europe (Ireland, Malta,
Sardinia, and parts of Great Britain, Scandinavia, France, Spain, and Italy) from the 5th to the
3rd millennium BCE’.. Eisler R (1987) The Chalice and the Blade. Cambridge, MA: Harper
& Row, 258.
  9. Shannon L (2016a) String of Pearls: Celebrating 40 Years of Sacred Dance in the Findhorn
Community. Winchester: Sarsen Press, 6.
Shannon 69

Dance offered a joyful and meaningful way to connect with others. The dances were easy
to follow, often slow and meditative, and the circle seemed to provide the sense of safe
space and community which I had been seeking. I began training in the Findhorn method
of Sacred Dance in 1987.
While I loved and appreciated the beauty of the overall experience of Sacred Dance,
at the same time, I felt that something was missing. I observed that the dances:

were built on a foundation of Christian, masculine, sky-oriented, hero- and saviour-based

interpretations of myth and symbol. There remained in my heart a hunger for something more
balanced, more inclusive, more earthy, more womanly.10

My parallel experience in women’s Middle Eastern dance and dance movement therapy
hinted at deeper, more earth-based and feminine approaches to movement, which I
longed to find in circle form. For me, for dance to be truly ‘sacred’, it would need to
include the feminine and feminist perspectives which I cherished from my experience
with women’s spirituality circles. So my search continued.
In contrast to the meditative and solemn ambiance which they took on in Sacred
Dance, Balkan dances in international folk dance groups in the UK and US were
taught in a way which was sporty and secular. Highest status was given to the most
difficult dances, usually men’s dances with vigorous movements and complex vari-
ations, and the slow, simple, meditative dances at the heart of Sacred Dance were
almost entirely absent. In a typical folk dance class, everyone started out dancing
together, but as the dances grew increasingly difficult, more and more people sat out,
so the dancing circle grew ever smaller. It felt like a microcosm of the modern
Western view of dance as a competitive, performative activity only suited to the
youngest and fittest, from which every dancer will eventually and inevitably be
excluded by age or infirmity. Back then, in the days before YouTube and before I
began my own travels in the Balkans, I had nothing to compare it to, so I thought this
was just the way things were.

Balkan Dance in the Balkans

In the late 1980s I began to travel to the Balkans, particularly to Greece and Bulgaria, to
witness circle dance as a living tradition. There I recognized many dances I had learned
in international folk dance, but the ratios were reversed: here, the complex and difficult
dances were not so strongly emphasized, and the vast majority of dances were simple
enough for everyone to join in. There were far fewer dances: whereas the dance groups I
knew were proud to boast repertoires of hundreds or even thousands of difference dances,
in the Balkans one village might have a basic repertoire of five or ten dances, which
everyone knew – and just two or three of those were the main ones which were danced
over and over. These were the simplest dances, in which everyone could participate, and

10. Shannon L (2016b) Women’s ritual dances: secret language of the Goddess. In: Hwang H,
Beavis MA (eds) She Rises! Vol. 2: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Lytle
Creek, CA: Mago Books, 311–22, 312.
70 Feminist Theology 28(1)

almost always versions of the three-measure pattern which is considered to be the oldest
and most widespread of all circle dances.11
The dances with highest status, then, were the ones with the greatest degree of acces-
sibility and inclusivity. With live music, these simple dances went on a lot longer than the
short recordings we were used to in folk dance class. In them I discovered again the
deeply meditative quality of shared joy, connection, and peace which I had known and
loved in the simple steps of Sacred Dance. Here, at the heart of traditional dance, I found
an atmosphere of acceptance, cooperation, inclusivity and equality, so different from the
hierarchal and competitive attitude of folk dance class.

Women and Men Dance Differently

The simpler dances, it turned out, were mainly women’s dances, which I had not really
come across before, since they were almost entirely absent from both folk dance and
Sacred Dance. The international folk dance classes did acknowledge a traditional differ-
ence between men’s and women’s ways of dancing, but most women did not dance in
women’s style; most often, everyone danced by in men’s style, with larger steps, bigger
lifts and higher jumps. Those considered the ‘best dancers’ were the men and the women
who could dance like men.
Why was this? In those days, almost all the teachers in the folk dance circuit were
men, despite there being far more women than men among the students. It was simply
taken for granted that the students would try to dance like their teachers, and that the
men’s style was somehow ‘better’. To me, this was another manifestation of Western
society’s tendency to see the male norm as the human norm, while women’s experience
is marginalized.12
In the Balkans, however, the gender divide in dance reflected a gender divide in cul-
ture, which strictly delineated activities and spaces considered female and male. In the
US and UK, where I grew up, the idea of female ‘liberation’ was often defined by the
degree to which women could enter realms previously considered ‘the man’s world’, so
I was surprised by a society in which women did not seem to want to emulate or compete
with males. Dances in Greece and the Balkans are gendered within an atmosphere of
overall inclusivity, and people dance at every stage of their lives. In a typical rural village
in Greece, for example, some dances are danced by everyone, while others are for par-
ticular subgroups (men or women; young or old; married or unmarried; groups of kin;
groups of friends, and so on). Not everyone dances every dance, but everyone dances, in
keeping with their role in society.
Seeing the high status given to women’s dances in the Balkans inspired my quest for
the women’s dances I could now see were missing from both the folk dance and the

11. Hepp M (2015) Genese und Genealogie westeurasischer Kettentänze. PhD thesis, Westfälischen
Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, Germany; Barber EW (2013) The Dancing Goddesses.
New York: Norton; Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing
in our time. In: Leseho J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing
through Dance. Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 151.
12. Spender D (1980) Man Made Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1–3.
Shannon 71

Sacred Dance repertoires. The women’s ritual dances, with their simple repetitive pat-
terns and distinctive style, offered the meditative and inclusive quality I most enjoyed in
Sacred Dance, together with the earth-based and woman-centred aspects I had been seek-
ing. My training in dance movement therapy helped me to recognize the inherently thera-
peutic quality of these dances, and their potential significance for women beyond the
Balkans.
Why do women and men dance differently, anyway? The answer is partly based in
biology. Of course, women dance vigorous fast dances too. But for a woman who is
pregnant, or has recently given birth, or is breastfeeding, or is elderly, or is in poor health,
overly energetic dances are neither enjoyable nor safe. It makes sense that the faster
dances are more often danced by young women in that all-important life phase between
menarche and marriage, a high-ranking subgroup known as lazarínes in Greece and
lázarki in Bulgaria. In general, however, most women’s dances are simple enough for
women in all phases of life and stages of physical ability to join in with ease.

Women’s Ritual Dances

Because the steps were simple and all the women were expected to take part, the wom-
en’s circles created the safe and sacred space for women I had longed for all my life. The
dance circle offered a peaceful place of rest and relaxation for women, an oasis within
the arid desert of an otherwise strictly patriarchal culture. I was touched to see how
Balkan women’s dance rituals were respected in their society, and how men supported
these women-only spaces, for instance as musicians playing for their dancing, or simply
by acknowledging women’s right to gather regularly to dance and sing.
The women I met, who became my friends and teachers, seemed transformed by their
dance experience, freely expressing joy, laughter, delight, and light-heartedness which
were not necessarily their main mood in everyday life. Neurological research confirms
that the act of dancing and singing in unison affirms feelings of belonging and cohe-
sion.13 The women wear festive costumes specific to their village and age group, empha-
sizing connection and solidarity and minimizing individual differences. Both folk dance
and folk costume enable women to transcend the cares and concerns of daily life and
enter a separate ritual time and space in which they move beyond the personal into a state
which is transpersonal.14
I have described elsewhere how dancing women in their ritual stance and ritual dress
take on the appearance of the Goddess.15 This powerful female figure runs all through the
culture of the dance: the Goddess is referred to in songs, embroidered on cloth, encoded
in dance patterns, and reflected in the appearance of each dancer. Donning beautiful and

13. Ehrenreich B (2007) Dancing in the Streets. New York: Metropolitan Books, 337–43.
14. Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in our time. In: Leseho
J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing through Dance.
Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 146.
15. Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in our time. In: Leseho
J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing through Dance.
Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 146.
72 Feminist Theology 28(1)

elaborate festive clothing embroidered with female figures, women join the dance circle
in a ritual posture we can call ‘Goddess-derived’.16 Thus transformed, the women dance
to bring blessings and good energy to the community, a living tradition which can still be
witnessed on ceremonial occasions such as Easter and Midwives’ Day.17 In the context
of their ritual dance, the women become mediators of the life-giving power which was
the central attribute of the ancient Goddess.
For me, these dances were not merely ethnographic curiosities. In them, I saw an
ancient and authentic means of spiritual expression and communion with the divine.
Once I began to study the women’s dances in a serious way, my background in dance
movement therapy helped me understand their inherently therapeutic capacity. The
dances can naturally facilitate processes of healing and insight, help dancers reconnect
with the sacred cycles of life, and even support the healing of trauma.18
More than 30 years of researching and teaching women’s ritual dances has shown
how they can serve as sources of empowerment, even for women far from the Balkans.
They touch on the universal impulse to share a meaningful and joyful experience of the
sacred in connection with others, within a spiritual ethical framework which affirms the
rightness and goodness of nature, the body, and the female. This is the ancient worldview
of the culture of the Goddess.

Ancient Roots of the Dance – How Old Are the Dances?

The historical and archaeological record provides plenty of evidence for ancient circle
dancing. ‘The value of [the round dance] for communal cohesion in ancient Greece can
hardly be overestimated’;19 even Plato stated that ‘choral dance and song are identical
with education as a whole’.20 Round dance rituals at sites including Delphi, Knossos, and
Eleusis sought to align the human realm with a higher cosmic order, symbolized by the
circle.21 The chorus in Aristophanes’s Ranae sings, ‘In the sacred round dance of the
goddess … I will go with the women and girls/where they dance all night for the god-
dess’.22 and indeed, the work of ritual in ancient Greece was largely in the hands of

16. Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in our time. In: Leseho
J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing through Dance.
Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 146–47.
17. Shannon L (2017c) Dance of Persephone: the trata of Megara. In: Hwang H, Beavis MA (eds)
Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess. Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books, 2017, 202–7; Shannon
L (2017d) Tis babos: the dance of the one who gives life. In: Hwang H, Beavis MA (eds)
Celebrating Seasons of the Goddess. Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books, 2017, 254–63.
18. Shannon L (2017e) Medusa and Athena: ancient allies in healing women’s trauma. In:
Livingstone G, Hendren T, and Daley P (eds) Revisioning Medusa: from Monster to Divine
Wisdom. Bergen, Norway: Girl God Press, 206–22, 217.
19. Haarmann H (2014) Roots of Ancient Greek Civilization: The Influence of Old Europe.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 172–73.
20. Plato (1997) Complete Works. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. Laws 654b, 672e.
21. Boutsikas E (2015) Greek temples and rituals. In: Ruggles CLN (ed.) Handbook of
Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy. New York: Springer, 1573–81.
22. Stanford W, Fletcher G (eds) (1958) Aristophanes: The Frogs. London: Macmillan & Co.,
445–46.
Shannon 73

women, whether laywomen or professional priestesses.23 Strabo affirmed that ‘all agree
in regarding women as the chief founders of religion, and it is the women who provoke
the men to the more attentive worship of the gods, to festivals, and to supplications’.24
Circle dance, however, long predates the classical period. Circles of dancing figures
– most often female – have been depicted for thousands of years in rock art and pottery
fragments in Europe and the Near East. Representations of dancing women appear as
early as 14,000–12,000 BCE,25 with remarkable abundance from 7,000 to 4,000 BCE,
coinciding neatly with the spread of agriculture. According to archaeologist Yosef
Garfinkel, scenes of dancing ‘are among the oldest and most persistent themes in Near
Eastern prehistoric art’, and the dancing motif is ‘one of the most powerful symbols in
the evolution of human societies’. Communal dance formed an integral part of agricul-
tural and seasonal rituals, and was the central means of passing on knowledge and wis-
dom from one generation to the next.26
Both Garfinkel and Elizabeth Wayland Barber provide ample evidence for the
Neolithic origin of Balkan circle dance and the connection to the development of agricul-
ture. Many dance rituals are based on a belief linking the fertility of females with the
fertility of the land.27 Givers and nurturers of life, and the likely inventors of agriculture,
women were considered the natural mediators of the sacred cycle of life, death, and
regeneration.28 In parts of the Balkans today, where they are still seen as having the
power to communicate with spirits and travel between the worlds, women sing and dance
to bless the planting, gather the harvest, and pray for rain, and also to mark life transi-
tions such as birth, menarche, and marriage.29 Dance rituals confirm women’s impor-
tance in their community and reinforce their sense of self-esteem, autonomy, and sense

23. Connelly JB (2007) Portrait of a Priestess. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; Kaltsas
N, Shapiro HA (eds) (2008) Worshipping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens.
New York: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation.
24. Jones H, Sterrett J (2005) Geography. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Strabo, 7.3.4.
25. In Gönnersdorf, Germany. See Garfinkel Y (2014) Archaeology of dance. In: Soar K, Aamodt
C (eds) Archaeological Approaches to Dance Performance. BAR International 8. Series
2622, Oxford: Archaeopress, 5–14, 6.
26. Garfinkel Y (2003) Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture. Austin, TX: University of Texas
Press, 3.
27. Barber EW (2013) The Dancing Goddesses. New York: Norton, 313–33.
28. See Leavitt RR (1980) Women in transition: Crete and Sumer. Feminist Studies 6(1): 76–
102. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3177651?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents;
Stanley A (1995 [1993]) Mothers and Daughters of Invention. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, both cited in Christ CP (2018) Goddess pilgrimage to Crete: a sacred jour-
ney for women. Unpublished paper, 14.
29. In men’s dance rituals such as the kukeri in Bulgaria and the Theophania ceremonies in
Northern Greece, some of the men must wear women’s clothing, as a means to temporarily
gain access to the realms of life and death where normally only women may go. Ritual cross-
dressing has been practised at least since the classical era. See Shannon L (2014a) Theofania
in northern Greece: men’s dance rituals of blessing and protection. Kef Times: Online Journal
of the East European Folklife Centre. Available at: http://keftimes.org/kef-times-article/
theofania-in-northern-greece-mens-dance-rituals-of-blessing-and-protection/
74 Feminist Theology 28(1)

of connection, through an embodied experience of power and the conscious creation of

women-only sacred space.

Signs and Symbols: the Language of the Goddess

Dance steps can not be carbon-dated, but signs and symbols in material artifacts can shed
light on non-material art forms (such as dance steps, song words, and folk tales) where
the same symbols appear. Balkan women’s dance takes place within an extraordinary
aesthetic richness: the exquisite colours of the intricate handmade costumes, the patterns
and motifs woven and embroidered in the textiles, the sheer beauty of the dancing circle
with its exuberant movement in synchronized steps, and the potent, hypnotic songs and
melodies in archaic modes, intervals and rhythms. Visual, auditory, emotional and
kinaesthetic perceptions combine to strengthen the sense of connection to the life force
which is expressed in women’s dance and also in Neolithic art. As Gimbutas describes,

Celebration of life is the leading motif in Old European ideology and art. There is no stagnation;
life energy is constantly moving as a serpent, spiral, or whirl. Recall the richly painted vases of
the Cucuteni, Dimini, Butmir, and Minoan cultures, and sense the moving, turning, rising,
splitting, and growing energy they portray.30

The ‘moving, turning, rising, splitting, and growing energy’ depicted visually in Neolithic
artefacts reflects what people feel when they dance.
In my exploration of women’s ritual dances in the Balkans I was struck by the enor-
mous quantity of ritual textiles laden with symbolic motifs, including the ubiquitous
image of the Goddess as well as the circle, spiral, serpent, crescent, star, triangle, zigzag
and tree of life.31 These symbols are equally abundant in the archaeological record. They
feature among the 32 ‘first signs’ of Paleolithic rock art, identified by paleoarchaeologist
Genevieve von Petzinger,32 and recur throughout Neolithic Old Europe and the Classical
period, appearing in the religions of Greeks, Etruscans, Basques, Celts, Germanic peo-
ples, and Balts, and into modern times.33 This remarkable historical continuity, and the
care with which they have been handed down, show the importance these signs and
symbols had for those who used them. Because of their close association in the Neolithic
era with Goddess figures and scenes of worship, Gimbutas named this collection of signs
‘the language of the Goddess’.34

30. Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 321.
31. Kelly MB (1989) Goddess Embroideries of Eastern Europe. Winona, MN: Northland Press,
10, 63–68; Paine S (1990) Embroidered Textiles. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990, 65–67.
32. Von Petzinger G (2017) The First Signs: Unlocking the Mysteries of the World’s Oldest
Symbols. New York: Atria Books, vi.
33. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins,
308–21; Spretnak C (2011) Anatomy of a backlash: concerning the work of Marija Gimbutas.
Journal of Archaeomythology 7: 25–51, 40.
34. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 308–
21; Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row,
xxiii.
Shannon 75

Sacred Script and Multiple Meanings

Along with visual motifs such as spirals and whorls, Gimbutas identified a repertoire of
geometric and linear markings which she viewed as a sophisticated system for transmit-
ting ideas. She referred to it as a ‘sacred script’, because of its association with ritual
objects, and argued that it developed ‘from a long use of graphic symbolic signs found
only within the context of an increasingly sophisticated worship of the Goddess’.35
Although ‘it is not universally recognized that the inscriptions found on Neolithic arte-
facts constitute a form of “writing”’, many scholars agree that these signs and symbols
may have been used to transmit meanings.36 Elizabeth Wayland Barber, for instance,
suggests the signs may have served to mark agricultural and calendrical cycles, which
were intrinsically linked to the cycles of women’s lives.37
Although we cannot say for sure what the symbols mean, it is likely that they are
polyvalent or ‘transfunctional’, capable of carrying multiple meanings simultaneously.38
‘The idea that symbols can have more than one meaning’, as Carol Christ reminds us,
‘can be difficult for scholars trained in rational analysis to comprehend’,39 yet the very
fluidity and flexibility of polyvalent symbols is a clue to their power. As Christ explains,
‘[t]he diversity of explications of the meaning of the Goddess symbol suggests that sym-
bols have a richer significance than any explications of their meaning can express’.40

Archaeomythology
The discipline of archaeomythology, which combines mythology, linguistics, folklore,
archaeology, history and ethnography, provides a helpful methodological approach for
examining associations between material and non-material cultural expressions.41
Bulgarian ethnographers Ilieva and Shturbanova use the archaeomythological method to
reveal how folk dances employ symbols to transmit messages they have carried since
antiquity, ‘despite the layers of cultural transformation’.42 Maria-Gabriele Wosien says

35. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 308.
36. Marler J (2008) Introduction. In: Exhibition Catalogue: The Danube Script: Neo-Eneolithic
Writing in Southeastern Europe. Sebastopol, CA. Institute of Archaeomythology; Sibiu,
Romania: Brukenthal National Museum, vii-viii, vii.
37. Barber EW (2013) The Dancing Goddesses. New York: Norton.
38. Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1.
39. Christ CP (2017a) The mountain mother: reading the language of the Goddess in the symbols
of ancient Crete. Available at: https://feminismandreligion.com/2017/05/22/the-mountain-
mother-reading-the-language-of-the-goddess-in-the-symbols-of-ancient-crete-by-carol-p-
christ/.
40. Christ CP (1979) Why women need the Goddess. In: Christ CP, Plaskow J (eds) Womanspirit
Rising. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 273–87, 279.
41. Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of The Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, xv.
42. Ilieva A, Shturbanova A (1997) Some zoomorphic images in Bulgarian women’s ritual dances
in the context of old European symbolism. In: Marler J (ed.) From the Realm of the Ancestors:
An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas. Manchester, CT: Knowledge, Ideas & Trends,
309–21, 310.
76 Feminist Theology 28(1)

that geometric patterns representing dance are handed down in traditional cultures as
coded images or ‘signposts through life’, providing ‘memory models for deep experi-
ences of human consciousness’ preserved in sacred traditions of movement and ges-
ture.43 To understand these ‘signposts’ requires a certain degree of lateral thinking. We
can be guided by the words of poet Adrienne Rich:

To do this kind of work takes a capacity for constant active presence, a naturalist’s attention to
minute phenomena, for reading between the lines, watching closely for symbolic arrangements,
decoding difficult and complex messages left for us by women of the past.44

To this I would add that the subjective experience of dancing the dances can illuminate
the values and teaching encoded within them.
Other examples of symbolic language in women’s folk art include the Ukrainian
Easter eggs known as pysanka (pl. pysanky), literally ‘written eggs’, painted with pre-
Christian patterns which bestow blessings and protection, and the ‘gramménes’ or ‘writ-
ten’ aprons of Greek Thrace, woven with fertility symbols believed to bless and protect
the bride.45 For the women who ‘write’ and wear these aprons, textiles are their texts.46
Women’s folk arts such as these perpetuate the Neolithic view of women’s artistic expres-
sion as an invocation of divine benevolent forces of nature, for the benefit of their
community.

Four-fold Methodology
Over time I developed a fourfold methodology comparing symbols in four separate
strands of folk culture: archaeological artefacts, dance steps, dance songs, and textile
patterns. All four of these areas show a striking similarity of imagery, with key motifs
appearing again and again. In my view, this can not be a product of coincidence.47

43. Wosien M-G (2018) Still Point and Moving World. Welfare J (trans.) Winchester: Sarsen
Press, 32, 27.
44. Rich A (1979) On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966–1978. New York: WW
Norton & Co., 14.
45. Pysanka: the Ukrainian Easter Egg (1975) [DVD]. Directed by S. Nowytski. Similar tradi-
tions exist in Poland, Romania, Germany, and other regions. Souflí aprons are documented by
Hatzimichali A (1979) The Greek Folk Costume, Vol. 1. Athens: Melissa Publishing.
46. Shannon L (2017b) Women with wings: right-brain consciousness and the learning process in
Balkan dance. In: Voss A, Wilson S (eds) Re-Enchanting the Academy. Seattle, WA: Rubedo
Press, 325–48, 336.
47. Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in our time. In: Leseho
J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing through Dance.
Forres: Findhorn Press, 144. Amanda Williamson reports that the same motifs – ‘circle, water,
spiral, serpent and womb’ – commonly appear in somatic movement exploration in relation to
‘the re-emergence and reconstruction of the palaeolithic and neolithic Goddess’. She identi-
fies them as ‘holistic symbols that pre-date patriarchal religion’. Williamson A et al. (2015)
Somatically inspired movement and prepatriarchal religious symbolism. Dance, Movement &
Spiritualities 2(3): 323–55.
Shannon 77

Through these repeating motifs, the Old European symbol system has been kept alive
into the present day. Signs such as the circle, spiral, serpent, crescent, star, triangle, zig-
zag, tree of life, and the Goddess, initially seen in archaeological finds, recur in the pat-
terns of women’s circle dances, and in the textiles women make and wear for their ritual
dancing.
To give one example, the butterfly symbol in Neolithic art is associated with the
Goddess and her powers to transform and regenerate.48 Even today, it often appears in
traditional dance costumes, for instance on the bodice of women’s chemises in Pentalofos,
Greek Thrace.49 The butterfly’s prominent wings reflect the ritual posture with upraised
arms frequently seen in women’s dances and Goddess figures. This anthropomorphic
representation reflects the image of the ‘woman with wings’, another key motif in both
traditional folk costume and Neolithic art.50
The dance songs which accompany the women’s dances typically feature images of
protected space, including harbour, walled garden, orchard, sacred grove, threshing
ground, woven basket, partridge nest, castle, fortress, monastery, enclosed courtyard,
well or spring, and the circular path of sun, moon, and stars.51 All of these metaphors in
some way affirm a safe and fertile space, often specifically a round enclosure. At the
same time that these images are brought into being through the songs the women sing,
they are mirrored by the dancing circle, the temenos or sacred space in which the process
of ‘conscious healing dance’ can unfold.52
The repetition of simple patterns in the dance affirms the eternal continuation of the
cycle of life, death and regeneration. Gimbutas argues that reverence for these cycles,
represented by the Goddess, was the most important aspect of Old European spiritual
belief. Just as nonverbal mythopoetic images carry multiple meanings, so the Old
European Goddess had multiple manifestations and most likely originally did not have
one specific name.53 Her most ancient and primal incarnation, in the embodiment of
cycles of life, death and rebirth, was seen as the omnipresent and all-encompassing basis
for life itself.54 Because the symbols which stand for the Goddess take the place of a
name, the ever-repeating simple steps can be seen a danced symbol, a mantra in move-
ment, a practice of silent affirmation, invocation, or praise.

48. Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 275.
49. Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan women’s dance. Dance, Movement &
Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78, 73.
50. Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in our time. In: Leseho
J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing through Dance.
Forres: Findhorn Press,138–57, 144; Shannon L (2016b) Women’s ritual dances: secret
language of the Goddess. In: Hwang H, Beavis MA (eds) She Rises! Vol. 2: How Goddess
Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Lytle Creek, CA: Mago Books, 311–22, 315.
51. Kourmadias K, Shannon L (2016) Limani (Harbour): Traditional Music from Greece and
Asia Minor. [CD] Athens: Lavra Music.
52. Leventhal MB (2013) Bridge to the soul: the art of healing [film]. Art 4 All People Interview
Series, December. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9y3y4hhnWI
53. The people of Neolithic Old Europe did not write names on their artifacts; and we do not
know their spoken language.
54. Gimbutas M (1989) The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 316.
78 Feminist Theology 28(1)

Neolithic Old Europe and the Indo-Europeans

Marija Gimbutas, the foremost researcher of the Neolithic civilization in which Balkan
dances have their roots, concluded that Old European culture was a successful egalitarian
society based on agriculture and peaceful trade. The absence of major defensive fortifi-
cations and weapons of war show that people lived without constant fear of attack by
other tribes.55 Grave goods show gender divisions – female graves contained cult objects
such as red ochre, figurines, altar and temple models, for example, while male graves
contained tools of crafts and trade – yet wealth is evenly distributed, indicating economic
equality. Crucially, there is no sign of gender oppression or any hierarchy of males over
females or vice versa. Abundant artistic expression served to celebrate life and express a
sense of belonging to a sacred cosmic whole.
According to Gimbutas, this pre-Indo-European culture was settled, agricultural,
peaceful, egalitarian, matristic, matrilineal and probably matrilocal society, and revered
the Goddess as the power of birth, death, and regeneration in all of life. This belief sys-
tem found expression in countless female figurines (of the Paleolithic as well as the
Neolithic era), most likely representing a powerful primal Goddess who personified the
divine mysteries of nature. For this reason Gimbutas termed the Neolithic culture of Old
Europe a ‘civilization of the Goddess’.56
In contrast, Indo-European peoples who entered Europe in the period from 4,400 BCE
onwards brought with them an entirely different social structure. These tribes from the
steppes of Central Asia, whom Gimbutas called Kurgans, were nomadic warriors on
horseback with bronze weapons that had not been seen before. Their culture was patriar-
chal, patrilineal, hierarchical, and warlike, and worshiped a male image of god. Their
burials show an unequal distribution of wealth and resources, a social pattern of male
dominance, and relative indifference to art.57 Over time, the Indo-European/Kurgan
incursions into Europe established an era of patriarchy, the cultural paradigm which
Christ defines as an integral system of male dominance based on ‘the control of women,
private property, and war’. In this system, male dominance is enforced by violence, and
female sexuality is controlled by men to ensure patrilineal descent.58 The patriarchal
social system endures in most of the world today.59 Although Gimbutas’s Kurgan hypoth-
esis was disputed by the archaeological establishment in the US and the UK for decades,
it has been proved correct by recent DNA research.60

55. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins,
330, x.
56. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 324.
57. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 352;
Eisler R (1987) The Chalice and the Blade. Cambridge, MA: Harper & Row, 45.
58. Christ CP (2016) A new definition of patriarchy: control of women’s sexuality, private prop-
erty, and war. Feminist Theology 24(3): 214–25, 215.
59. Eisler R (2002) The Power of Partnership. Novato, CA: New World Library, 212.
60. Kristiansen K et al. (2017) Re-theorising mobility and the formation of culture and lan-
guage among the corded ware culture in Europe. Antiquity 91(356): 334–47. doi:10.15184/
aqy.2017.17.
Shannon 79

Egalitarian Matriarchal Society

It is important to clarify that the term ‘matriarchy’ does not denote a mirror image of
patriarchy.61 Matriarchy is not ‘a system of autocratic rule by women with an equivalent
suppression of men’, but rather ‘a structure in which the sexes are more or less on equal
footing’.62 As Göttner-Abendroth explains, one literal definition of the word matriarchy
is ‘the mothers at the beginning’: ‘By virtue of giving birth to…the next generation, and
therefore to the society, mothers clearly are the beginning; in matriarchy they have no
need to reinforce it by domination’.63 Matriarchal cultures are gender-egalitarian, while
placing women and mothers at the centre of society. As Christ suggests, it is more accu-
rate to use the term ‘egalitarian matriarchy’, ‘to make it clear that we are not talking
about women dominating men’.64
Present-day patriarchy presents itself as universal, eternal and inevitable, but this is
not the case. There are many modern matriarchal societies in the world today, including
the Mosuo people of China and the Minangkabau of West Sumatra (who number more
than five million people).65 The concrete example provided by these and other existing
egalitarian matriarchies can help us envision the early Neolithic culture of Old Europe.
‘Matriarchal societies honour principles of care, love, and generosity which they associ-
ate with motherhood, as models for the behaviour of women and men’.66 The paramount
ethic is to protect life and those who are vulnerable, because life is sacred and nurturers
have an honoured role.67 These same key principles – care, love, generosity, and connec-
tion – are central aspects of the circle dance experience, indicating that Balkan women’s
dances which affirm Old European values within patriarchal culture are most likely
rooted in pre-patriarchal egalitarian matriarchy.

61. Gimbutas herself did not speak of ‘matriarchy’, preferring to call Old European cultures
‘matristic’. Nevertheless, her use of the term ‘Goddess’ was considered highly provoca-
tive in the academic establishment. Spretnak C (2011) Anatomy of a backlash: concern-
ing the work of Marija Gimbutas. Journal of Archaeomythology 7: 25–51. However, in
2017 British archaeologist Lord Colin Renfrew, who for decades positioned himself as
‘one of Gimbutas’s most vociferous antagonists’, publicly acknowledged that Gimbutas’s
Kurgan hypothesis, considered controversial for over 30 years, ‘has been magnificently
vindicated’ by new DNA evidence. See Christ CP (2017b) Marija Gimbutas triumphant:
Colin Renfrew concedes. Available at: https://feminismandreligion.com/2017/12/11/
marija-gimbutas-triumphant-colin-renfrew-concedes-by-carol-p-christ/
62. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 324;
Sanday PR (2003) Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 230.
63. Göttner-Abendroth H (2013) Matriarchal Societies. New York: Peter Lang, xvi.
64. Göttner-Abendroth H (2013) Matriarchal Societies. New York: Peter Lang, xv; Christ CP
(2018) Goddess pilgrimage to Crete: a sacred journey for women. Unpublished paper, 11.
65. Göttner-Abendroth H (2009) Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present and Future.
Toronto: Inanna Publications; Sanday PR (2002) Women at the Center: Life in a Modern
Matriarchy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
66. Christ CP (2016) A New Definition of Patriarchy: Control of Women’s Sexuality, Private
Property, and War. Feminist Theology 24(3): 214-225, 224.
67. Sanday PR (2002) Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 24.
80 Feminist Theology 28(1)

Values of the Goddess

The essential difference between the value systems of Old European versus Indo-
European societies is one of power, not gender. Old European civilization emphasized
linking rather than ranking, in Marija Gimbutas’s terms; Riane Eisler names it a culture
of partnership rather than domination; Carol Lee Flinders says it is based on belonging
rather than competition, and Starhawk speaks of a society which cultivates power-from-
within instead of power-over.68
Women today can experience the positive values of Old European partnership culture,
and of egalitarian matriarchy, directly in the dance. Women’s ritual dances are coopera-
tive, peaceful, egalitarian, and woman-centred, showing respect for life, mothers and the
mother principle. In the way they honour women’s connection to the life-giving powers
of nature, teach each woman to be a leader and encourage each woman to stand tall in a
‘posture of power’, the dances provide an image of the divine feminine in which women
can see themselves reflected.69
This is important. As Christ explains, ‘religious symbol systems focused around
exclusively male images of divinity create the impression that female power can never
be fully legitimate or wholly beneficent’, and therefore ‘the simplest and most basic
meaning of the symbol of Goddess is the acknowledgment of the legitimacy of female
power as a beneficent and independent power’.70 Women’s ritual dances which transmit
symbols and values of the Goddess offer an embodied experience of legitimate female
power which is validated by others in their society, within a safe and sacred space.71

Women Dancing Today

So far we have looked at three types of Balkan dance: Balkan dance as taught in Sacred
Dance groups, Balkan dance as taught in international folk dance groups, and Balkan
dance in the Balkans, both in Neolithic times and in the present day, with a focus on
women’s ritual dances. Now I would like to look at Balkan dance in my women’s groups,
which specifically focus on Balkan women’s ritual dances. I have made this my life’s

68. Gimbutas M (1991) The Civilization of the Goddess. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 324;
Eisler R (2002) The Power of Partnership. Novato, CA: New World Library, 212; Flinders C
(2003) Rebalancing the World. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 201–202; Starhawk
(1987) Truth or Dare. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 10.
69. Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan women’s dance. Dance, Movement &
Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78, 69; Shannon L (2014b) Heiliger raum und körperhaltungen der macht.
[Holy space and postures of power] Neue Kreise Ziehen, 2, 6–9; Shannon L (2016c) Shared
leadership: the hidden treasure of women’s ritual dance. Available at: https://feminismandreli-
gion.com/2016/11/01/shared-leadership-the-hidden-treasure-of-womens-ritual-dance-by-laura-
shannon/
70. Christ CP (1979) Why women need the Goddess. In: Christ CP, Plaskow J (eds) Womanspirit
Rising. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 273–87, 277.
71. League P (2012) Living the dance in Tarpon Springs: music and movement in a Greek–
American community. Forum Folkoristika. Available at: http://eefc.org/folkloristika_1-3.
shtml
Shannon 81

work for over 30 years, and have witnessed how women all over the world, of all differ-
ent ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds, respond to the simple steps of the
ancient circle. The dances offer women a profound sense of belonging, within a safe and
sacred space which is the basis for the inherently therapeutic quality of the dances.72
Traditional women’s ritual dances naturally provide a container and a context ‘for
women to affirm and transmit pre-patriarchal values, such as the importance of commu-
nity, mutual support, and shared leadership, within a circular, not a hierarchical struc-
ture’.73 Because dances can only be learned by doing them, women’s ritual dances of the
Balkans have been passed on for millennia through direct experiential transmission, and
thus provide a living link to ancient cultures that honoured the Goddess.
We have seen that Neolithic peoples used visual art to celebrate the cosmic whole of
which humans are a part, and to express reverence for the sacred dimension of life, per-
sonified in the image of the Goddess. The same messages are transmitted in a direct and
unmediated way through women’s embodied experience of the dances today. To illus-
trate this process, I would like to invite my students to speak for themselves:

The dance creates “a sense of compassion for the women of other times and the women in my
life” and “a strong sense of community and common destiny”.74

The dances help us ‘plug in to our deeper rhythms and to our experience of birth and
death in a way that can never be out of date’.75

[Dancing] helps me remember that those before us have come through many cycles: ups,
downs, surges, reverses, waxing and waning. Whatever happens, we are not on this journey
alone.76

To dance in a circle of joined hands is to be present and responsive to others, sharing a common
space, each person one of the parts of the whole.77

72. Shannon L (2014b) Heiliger raum und körperhaltungen der macht. [Holy space and postures
of power] Neue Kreise Ziehen, 2, 6–9; Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan
women’s dance. Dance, Movement & Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78, 58.
73. Shannon L (2016c) Shared leadership: the hidden treasure of women’s ritual dance.
Available at: https://feminismandreligion.com/2016/11/01/shared-leadership-the-hidden-
treasure-of-womens-ritual-dance-by-laura-shannon/
74. Maria Marta Suarez in Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of heal-
ing in our time. In: Leseho J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of
Healing through Dance. Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 153.
75. Claire Hayes in Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in
our time. In: Leseho J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing
through Dance. Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 141.
76. Karen Fleischer in Shannon L (2011) Women’s ritual dances: an ancient source of healing in
our time. In: Leseho J, McMaster S (eds) Dancing on the Earth: Women’s Stories of Healing
through Dance. Forres: Findhorn Press, 138–57, 144.
77. Mónica Lémez in Shannon L (2016a) (ed.) String of Pearls: Celebrating 40 Years of Sacred
Dance in the Findhorn Community. Winchester: Sarsen Press, 100.
82 Feminist Theology 28(1)

In the dancing circle of women I feel the connection to the powerful energy of life, the source
of the source, from which everything flows and into which everything flows, in which
everything has a place.78

When we touch this source through the shared experience of forms and rhythms that have
existed for thousands of years, we…find new, powerful and gentle possibilities for ourselves,
our relationships and our tasks in life. 79

In these responses, we can see how Balkan women’s circle dances enable women to
experience the positive values of the Goddess, and to practice skills which can help cre-
ate a more cooperative and equitable society.

What Does the Language Say?

The main messages of the women’s dance language are simple: everyone is welcome in the
circle; you are never too old to dance; leadership must be shared; the body is the home of joy;
connection with others is essential. The dances help us develop patience, awareness, stamina,
balance, and support, while the visual and kinesthetic unity of the circle replaces competition
and discord with cooperation and harmony. They teach us when to conserve energy and when
to release it, when to yield and when to make a stand.80

Communal dance supports the well-being of each member and the group as a whole.
Each dance circle serves as a temporary community, based on values of community,
belonging, partnership, and peace. In the horizontal rather than hierarchical struc-
ture of the circle, dancers feel connected to the earth and to each other. Everyone is
equally welcome and is equally valued. Circle dances help women discover their
own power and dignity, and practice new and healthier ways of thinking and being.
In this way, the collective embodied experience of these values provides an antidote
to the misogyny, hierarchy, and disconnection embedded in the patriarchal
paradigm.
The emphasis on shared leadership is vital. Because Balkan dances almost always
take the form of an open circle, each woman must know how to lead the dance when it is
her turn. Each woman is therefore encouraged to develop leadership in the dance, which
requires reponsibility, initiative and will. As Christ describes,

In a Goddess-centered context…[a] woman is encouraged to know her will, to believe that her
will is valid, and to believe that her will can be achieved in the world, three powers traditionally

78. Christiane Hagel in Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan women’s dance.
Dance, Movement & Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78, 72.
79. Corinne Chatel in Shannon L (2017a) Symbols of the Goddess in Balkan women’s dance.
Dance, Movement & Spiritualities 4(1): 57–78, 65.
80. Shannon L (2016b) Women’s ritual dances: secret language of the Goddess. In: Hwang H,
Beavis MA (eds) She Rises! Vol. 2: How Goddess Feminism, Activism, and Spirituality? Lytle
Creek, CA: Mago Books, 311–22, 316.
Shannon 83

denied to her in patriarchy…. In the Goddess framework, will can be achieved only when it is
exercised in harmony with the energies and wills of other beings.81

This last point illustrates the difference between a culture of partnership and culture of
domination. The dance leader of the moment activates her individual will not in a self-
serving, autocratic or tyrannical way, but in the service of the well-being of the commu-
nity. She expresses her leadership in harmony with the existing trajectory of the circle.
As Maria-Gabriele Wosien writes, ‘[b]y following the projected path in a ritual situation
the dancer joins the act of creation: the dancing steps enhance the flow of life-energy’.
The dancer thus aligns her will with the sacred cycles of the cosmos and the highest good
of all beings.82
Generosity and hospitality are sacred in Eastern European culture, as anyone who has
travelled there knows, and the dance circle itself is a source of generosity, giving its
blessings freely to all. The more people experience the joy and togetherness of the dance,
the more these positive qualities are strengthened and increased for everyone present.
These key qualities can be seen as gifts from the ancient ‘partnership’ culture, character-
istic of egalitarian matriarchies and a feminist gift-giving economy.83 They are precisely
the values which humanity needs to cultivate now if we are to build a peaceful and sus-
tainable future. In our time, Balkan women’s circle dances offer an embodied experience
of this ancient ethic, as a valuable alternative to the dominant modern paradigm based on
competition, hierarchy, and inequality.

Conclusion
Women’s ritual dances of the Balkans encode a living spirituality, emphasizing commu-
nity, sustainability, shared leadership, mutual support, creativity and peace. These are
precisely the values of the Goddess-reverent cultures of Old Europe, and they can be
directly accessed by dancers today.
Images and symbols of the Goddess, encoded in dance patterns, song texts and textile
motifs, have been passed down from Neolithic times into the present day. These symbols
serve as a nonverbal language which honours the natural cycles of life, death, and regen-
eration. The image of the divine feminine in female form is emphasized repeatedly, first
in thousands of Goddess figures revealed in the archaeological finds of Paleolithic and
Neolithic times, again in the steps, songs, and costumes of traditional women’s dances,
and finally in the values of the Goddess which are transmitted directly and experientially
in the dance.
Because Balkan women’s ritual dances were seen as a way to communicate with the
divine, and served to transmit knowledge, ethics, and an understanding of the human

81. Christ CP (1979) Why women need the Goddess. In: Christ CP, Plaskow J (eds) Womanspirit
Rising. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 273–87, 284.
82. Wosien M-G, Welfare J (trans.) (2018) Still Point and Moving World. Winchester: Sarsen
Press, 83.
83. Vaughan G (1997) For-Giving: A Feminist Critique of Exchange. Austin, TX: Plain View
Press.
84 Feminist Theology 28(1)

place within the cosmos, I suggest the dances can be seen as an experiential, embodied
theology, whose central tenet is reverence for the source of life, death, and regeneration.
The core values of this theology are communicated in a nonverbal way, through danced
experience and the symbolic language of the Goddess. Balkan women’s ritual dances can
be said to offer a specifically feminist theology, because of the way they empower
women, enable women’s artistic expression and put women back at the centre of their
society. Clearly based on Neolithic concepts of the Goddess, they have roots in the egali-
tarian matriarchies of the past, reveal a potent capacity for healing in the present, and
carry valuable messages for the future.
Lisa Isherwood has asked: ‘Is there such a thing as theological legacy which is not
destructive?’84 I believe these ancient dances, and the life-affirming worldview they
embody, may offer one answer to this question.

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Carol Christ for our many inspiring conversations exploring these themes.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

84. Isherwood L (2018) Editorial. Feminist Theology 26(3): 211–12.