The Pregnant Goddess

2020

Originally published as Pagan Pregnancy: A Spiritual Journey from Maiden to Mother in 2008

When I became pregnant, I looked for material on how to grow spiritually through it. I was frustrated to find very little that wasn’t Christian-centered. And so, in typical Arin fashion, I wrote the book I had wanted to read during my first pregnancy. How could I practice my nature-based spirituality and do energy work safely during gestation? What was a way to explore and appreciate the shifts in my own energy and psyche as my pregnancy progressed? How could I look to the mythology of the triple goddess to guide me from the stage of Maiden to Mother?

It took a very long time to be released, and I understand why. When it was first listed for preorder, bookstores passed on it because (a) new age books are already a limited market within the larger publishing sphere, but (b) pregnant people in the new age slice of the publishing pie was a very, very small audience. And so it was postponed. My editor fought and fought for its release, until at Imbolc of 2008 an ebook version was finally made available.

It was rereleased—and released for the first time in print—twelve years later in 2020 as The Pregnant Goddess. I probably would have written it differently fifteen years and a second pregnancy after I originally wrote it, but the core of it is still valid. I hope it helps whoever needs it.