Monica Sjöö

I am deeply sad and sorry to have to report the death of my friend Monica Sjöö. Monica had been suffering from cancer for the last few years. She died on the 8th of August 2005 in her home in Bristol, UK, in the presence of her son Toivo and a few of her many loving friends.
We made a large website dedicated to her memory www.monicasjoo.org, which is run by my friend Annie Johnston (Monica's daughter-in-law). It has a large Art Gallery with more than 200 images, articles, biography and many other features.

Monica was born in Sweden and was an internationally renowned visionary artist and writer. She spend most of her adult life living and working in Britain. In the 1960's she became one of the pioneers of the feminist movement, as well as a major instigator of the revival of the world-wide ancient religion of the Goddess.
Through her extraordinary paintings Monica became an initiator of Goddess art. First of all through her now famous work "God giving birth" (1968) and from then onwards through the prolific creation of many works of astonishing and often radiating beauty. These were inspired by her own visions, the landscapes of Mother Earth and by ancient sacred sites, temples and relics left to us by early matriarchal cultures.

Monica drawing in the Karolian Forest on a visit to Russia to attend a conference of the Taiga Rescue Network

Monica also led the way as a pioneer in woman studies and Goddess studies in particular. Her passionate commitment to the Goddess in all her many manifestations led to an immense scholarship.
As a result she wrote "The Great Cosmic Mother, rediscovering the religion of the Earth". This work was later revised and updated in partnership with American poet/feminist Barbara Mor and became a classic and highly influential book on the subject.
Monica's other published books are: "New Age and Armageddon" (now reprinted in a revised edition as "Return of the Dark/Light Mother") and "The Norse Goddess". (Please scroll to the bottom of this page for more information). In addition she wrote countless pamphlets, articles and poems for various magazines.
"God giving birth" by Monica Sjöö

Monica Sjöö's important contribution to waking us all up to the dangerous imbalance in our patriarchal cultural was not limited to art and scholarship, but also extended to very practical activism in many areas, including sexism, racism, the peace movement and environmental awareness.
In 2005 it is difficult to recall just how revolutionary and ground-breaking the feelings, ideas and actions of this self-taught artist and thinker were in the 1960's. Few people blink an eyelid these days when they hear words such as "Goddess", "Pagan", "earth-centered religion" and so on. But we should remember that Monica closely escaped being prosecuted for blasphemy several times just for exhibiting her radical painting "God giving birth". In those days God was still supposed to be exclusively white, male and living in heaven.
Monica helped us to see that this blinkered view did not always poison humanity's relationship with divine intelligence, the source of our being.
In doing so she also made an immeasurable contribution to enabling women to lift themselves up from being second-class citizens and inferior beings. We are valuable individuals able to partake in the creation and nurturing of life by the grace and power of our female body, mind and spirit.
During her life Monica Sjöö did never become a household name or a celebrity. The narrow world of the art establishment has so far been too blind to recognise the beauty and importance of her work. Monica was maybe too much of a radical and anarchist for them and anyhow, she was too busy creating and researching to have the time or interest to promote herself as a career painter or as a commercial artist.
Nevertheless, she has been an immense inspiration to a multitude of other avant-garde thinkers and artists. In a world where we are increasingly becoming aware of the insensitive and ruthless way we have treated Mother Earth, this influence will continue to be felt.
If the human race survives the arms race and if the chaos resulting from global warming, the looming energy and resource crisis will not completely devastate our society, she will one day be remembered as one of the great creative visionaries of our time.
Anna Fraser

"The Great Cosmic Mother, rediscovering the religion of the Earth" by Monica Sjöö

This passionate exploration draws on religious traditions, cultures and archeological sources from all over the world, and throughout history, to recreate for the first time the Goddess religion that is out ancient heritage. Monica Sjöö and Barbare Mor show that the religion of the Goddess - which is tied to the cycles of women's bodies, the seasons, the phases of the moon and the fertility of the earth - was the original religion of all humanity.

"One of the most important books I've ever read."
Alice Walker (author of "The Colour Purple" and many other wonderful books).

502 pages, ISBN 0-06-250791

"Return of the Dark/Light Mother or New Age Armageddon? Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future" by Monica Sjöö

In this book Monica exposes at the roots of the New Age movement a deep mistrust of Earths life giving wisdom which must be rediscovered if we are to survive another thousand years.

This new and revised edition of the influential and controversial book originally published by The Womens Press (titled "New Age or Armageddon?" ) contains expanded critiques of channeling and genetic engineering along with more than 40 photos of Sjöös paintings which place the Earth in her many forms at the center of a feminist vision for the future evolved from the integrated, wholistic, life-giving wisdom of our living Mother planet who doesnt need to be saved by spacemen who would turn Earth to light or sterilized by corporations who would own the Mother seed.

328 pages, ISBN 1-891 386-07 7

"THE NORSE GODDESS" By Monica Sjöö

An excitingly original book by internationally respected writer and artist Monica Sjoo on the goddess spirituality of her own native land of Sweden and of Finland and the land of the Saami (formerly Lapland). Featuring artwork by Monica to compliment the text the book tells of the rediscovery of the ancient Norse Goddess in the stories, sites and prehistory of these very beautiful and sacred places.

64 pages, ISBN 0.9518859.6.0