Cherry Gilchrist - The Circle of Nine: An Archetypal Journey to Awaken the Divine Feminine Within

PRAISE FOR THE CIRCLE OF NINE

Cherry Gilchrist skillfully opens the Circle of Nine so that all women may deepen their connection to the sacred feminine mysteries that the Nine Sisters weave for us.

Caitln Matthews, author of Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, Bride of God

Magnificent and inspiring. The most succinct and profound discussion of the feminine archetypes that I have ever read.

Richard Smoley, author of Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition

Change happens when women gather together. The Circle of Nine is a beautiful book that assists women coming together to consider the feminine from a spiritual perspective. It provides poetic portraits of nine archetypes that can be used for both personal meditation as well as empowering connection. It's a wonderful source for women's interests and needs.

Carol S. Pearson, author of Persephone Rising: Awakening the Heroine Within

Cherry Gilchrist weaves a magical web of deep wisdom, timeless archetypes, and thoroughly modern understanding. This beautifully written book will help countless women understand, accept, and celebrate our true selvesgoddesses, one and all.

Bel Mooney, author and advice columnist

Walt Whitman boasted that he contained multitudes. Cherry Gilchrist modestly confines herself to nine feminine archetypes, yet they embody every role a woman may play, the myriad relationships she may have, her essential emotions, and her deepest thoughts. Reading this book, I experienced profound recognition and revelation. Cherry offers insights on how we may use the divine forces within us to reveal our truest selves.

Mary Cutler, BBC scriptwriter & Anglican Lay Preacher

With a light touch that allows us to explore the depth of her material for ourselves, Cherry Gilchrist defines nine ways to be a woman. And there is an important truth here: it is only in the company of other women that we can truly celebrate our femininity.

Su Bristow, author of prize-winning novel Sealskin and practicing herbalist

The Circle of Nine describes nine female archetypes, offering fascinating insight on how they are manifest and the ways women can utilize them to enrich their lives and strengthen their spirits.

Foreword reviews

This edition first published in 2018 by Weiser Books, an imprint of
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2018 by Cherry Gilchrist

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages. Previously published in 1988 by Dryad Press, Ltd and in 1991 by Penguin Arkana, ISBN: 978-0140193060.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-632-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gilchrist, Cherry, author.

Title: The circle of nine : an archetypal journey to awaken the divine feminine within / Cherry Gilchrist.

Other titles: Circle of 9

Description: Contemporary Female Archetypes from an Ancient Tradition. | Newburyport : Weiser Books, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018018503 | ISBN 9781578636327 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: WomenPsychology. | Archetype (Psychology) | MythologyPsychological aspects. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies. | LITERARY CRITICISM / Feminist.

Classification: LCC HQ1206 .G55 2018 | DDC 155.3/33dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018018503

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover photograph Gettyimages.com

Interior image: Primavera, 1482, by Sandro Botticelli (14451510).

Uffizi Gallery, Florence Italy

Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Typeset in Adobe Jenson Pro and Incognito Pro

Printed in Canada

MAR

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.redwheelweiser.com/newsletter

To my granddaughters,
Eva Grace and Martha Love.
You carry the torch for our line of
mothers and daughters,
and have helped inspire me to
write this new version of
The Circle of Nine.

M y heartfelt thanks go to those women who have provided new insights and material for the current version of this book.

In particular thanks go to founding members of the Nine Ladies Association, who helped me to review our shared history and envision the future of women's spirituality. I offer a special tribute to the late Barbara Cousins, who encouraged me to write the new version of this book, with gratitude for a lifetime's friendship and collaboration.

To Fleur Darkin for her willingness to share her love of dance, and for a superb exposition on its significance, which lights up my chapter on Lady of the Dance.

To Liz Erett for help with the mathematics of the Nine, much needed by my number-averse brain.

To members of the Amberley Circle of Nine group, who helped to keep the flame burning.

I would like to thank those who have made it possible for this book to be launched: most especially, in fond memory of the late Doreen Montgomery, my agent, who gave me unfailing support and encouragement for more than twenty years. Her final email to me expressed her delight in this new version of The Circle of Nine.

And, of course, thank you once again to the team at Red Wheel/Weiser for their encouragement and excellent editing advice. It's pleasure to work together!

Last, but definitely not least, thanks go to my husband, Robert Lee-Wade, for his willingness to allow the Circle of Nine into our lives and share adventures which included tramping across moorland in rain and fog to find some of the Nine Maidens stone circles.

O n a cold spring day in March 1981, a small band of women gathered at the Nine Ladies stone circle in Derbyshire. They were drawn to this remote place by the name of the circle, in the hope that it might provide inspiration for a new form of women's work. Here, on the open High Peak moorland, stand nine waist-high stones, a graceful presence in the wild landscape. To the women's surprise, the ancient Bronze Age circle was not empty; in the center of the rough-hewn stones, a bunch of nine daffodils had been placed. The golden flowers blazed like a beacon, lighting up the circle and setting the seal for the spiritual work founded that day, which continues right up to the present.

Although I was not present at the stone circle on that first occasion, I was among those who helped to set up the first women's groups soon afterward. Our work cohered around the nine archetypes you will meet in this book: the three Queens, the three Ladies, and the three Mothers. Working together, we defined their names and explored their attributes in contemporary terms, giving new form to the nine mythic figures that have been with us in one guise or another since time immemorial. Here, we will explore these archetypes as the Queen of the Earth, the Weaving Mother, the Lady of the Dance, the Queen of the Night, the Just Mother, the Lady of the Hearth, the Queen of Beauty, the Great Mother, and the Lady of Light.