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# Missing Witches – Monica Sjöö: The Earth Is A Witch And The Men Still Burn Her
- URL: https://www.missingwitches.com/episode-4-monica-sjoo-the-earth-is-a-witch-and-the-men-still-burn-her/
- Published: 2018-10-14T06:00:05.000Z
- Updated: 2023-11-21T15:41:57.000Z
- Description: A deep dive into the divine feminine, from goddess worship to modern motherhood, guided through the landmines by author, artist, activist, witch: Monica Sjöö. We really wanted to dedicate an episode to one of the groundbreaking powerhouse 70s witches – those take back the night witches who wer
- Author: Risa Dickens
- Tags: Missing Witches, Podcast, #wp, #Import 2022-12-12 16:34, #missingwitches_1mes06, Art Witchcraft, Earth Magic, Activist Magic, Queer Magic, Feminist Magic, Witch History

A deep dive into the divine feminine, from goddess worship to modern motherhood, guided through the landmines by author, artist, activist, witch: Monica Sjöö. 

**NB*: This episode was originally published Sept. 2018\. We are going back and posting the essays we wrote for those first episodes now, Winter 2023, in an effort to make our work more accessible. The ideas in these episodes evolved into our two books:* [*Missing Witches: Reclaiming True Histories of Feminist Knowledge*](https://bookshop.org/p/books/missing-witches-recovering-true-histories-of-feminist-magic-risa-dickens/14857216?aid=91531&ean=9781623175726&listref=books-by-missing-witches&ref=missingwitches.com) *and* [*New Moon Magic: 13 Anti-Capitalist Tools For Resistance and Re-Enchantment*](https://bookshop.org/p/books/new-moon-magic-13-anti-capitalist-tools-for-resistance-and-re-enchantment-risa-dickens/19508628?aid=91531&ean=9781623177904&listref=books-by-missing-witches&ref=missingwitches.com)*.* 

We really wanted to dedicate an episode to one of the groundbreaking powerhouse 70s witches – those take back the night witches who were influencing our moms and step moms and weird aunts without us knowing – and we wanted to try to do justice to that young emergent Wicca rebirth scene. But we also had this sense that there was a lot of bullshit in the new age stuff that emerged at that time, and we felt like we hadn’t quite found a perfect entry point… until we stumbled on the art, research writing and fierce activism of Monica Sjoo. Artist, activist, feminist, witch, Monica Sjoo’s greatest work is her paintings: women channelled from ‘the unknown country’ goddesses, ancestors, cosmic mothers. She also co-authored an overwhelming goddess history called the Great Cosmic Mother; walked through live munitions testing from Silbury Mound to Stonehenge; had her iconic paintings threatened with gross indecency charges; and as the Guardian wrote in their loving obituary “she and others, from End Patriarchy Now, interrupted a Bristol Cathedral service to demonstrate against the non-recognition of female spirituality by the Church of England. The dean joined hands with them, to sing to the goddess in front of the altar.” 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b0/b2/b0b2b0c5-0324-4ded-8c78-fb468356e3e1/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/6f68f0252f300f579e07680aa7baed35.gif)

Monica Sjöö (1938-2005)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/b0/b2/b0b2b0c5-0324-4ded-8c78-fb468356e3e1/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/dw-22.jpg)

[Feminist Archive South](http://feministarchivesouth.org.uk/collections/monica-sjoo-collection/?ref=missingwitches.com)

**Monica Sjöö Resources**

Monica Sjöö Great Cosmic Mother : Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth by Barbara Mor and Monica Sjöö Harper Collins, 1987 New Age and Armageddon : The Goddess or the Gurus? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future by Monica Sjöö Women’s Press, Limited, 1997 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/sep/23/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries1 http://www.artcornwall.org/features/Monica\_Sjoo\_God\_Giving\_Birth.htm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsNmJ7GKOUQ http://www.artcornwall.org/features/Reluctant\_shamanka\_Monica\_Sjoo.htm https://monicasjoo.weebly.com/gallery-1.html http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-51715850/view?partId=nla.obj-51715966#page/n1/mode/1up  – http://www.academia.edu/7945671/God\_Giving\_Birth\_-\_Connecting\_British\_Wicca\_with\_Radical\_Feminism\_and\_Goddess\_Spirituality\_during\_the\_1970s-1980s\_The\_Case\_Study\_of\_Monica\_Sj%C3%B6%C3%B6