Divinity as the Eternal Feminine, by W. Holman Keith. Pageant Press, 1960. First Edition.

Very scarce! The 1960 book that envisioned the rebirth of Goddess worship, written by one of the earliest public practitioners of neo-Pagan spirituality in North America.

Author W. Holman Keith was a former Baptist pastor who became disillusioned with patriarchal Christianity, and found his true spiritual calling with the Church of Aphrodite. This was a sect founded on Long Island, NY in 1939 by Gleb Botkin. Botkin was the son of the personal physician to Czar Nicholas II, and immigrated to the USA after the Russian Revolution. His Church of Aphrodite was recognized as a legitimate religious organization by the NY State Supreme Court, and was featured in a LIFE magazine article shortly afterwards. 

The Church "centered on aligning human conduct with Aphrodite's core attributes of love and beauty, understood as the primordial cosmic forces sustaining creation. Botkin posited love not as a transient sentiment but as an objective, eternal energy emanating from Aphrodite, the sole deity and architect of the universe, which demands active cultivation to counteract opposing forces like hate and discord. Adherents were thus morally obligated to channel this energy through personal and communal actions that foster harmony, rejecting ascetic suppression of natural inclinations in favor of affirmative participation in the divine order."

"The Church of Aphrodite posited sexuality as an inherent and positive aspect of human nature, integral to the expression of divine love without descending into excess or ritual eroticism. Founder Gleb Botkin explicitly rejected Victorian-era suppressions of sexual impulses, viewing them as distortions of natural harmony, yet he ensured that church services and doctrines maintained a decorous focus on spiritual elevation rather than carnal indulgence. In Botkin's writings, such as his 1967 pamphlet In Search of Reality, love—encompassing physical intimacy—is framed not merely as emotion but as a primordial cosmic energy sustaining the universe, with sexuality serving as its earthly conduit when aligned with ethical selflessness."

Keith was a member, and moved to Los Angeles in 1969 to found his own branch of the Church called "The Neo-Dianic Faith." He wrote Divinity as the Eternal Feminine nine years earlier as his personal theological statement about Aphrodite and Goddess worship in general. He died in Los Angeles in 1996, aged 95 years.

This is one of the most sought-after of all books about the Neo-Pagan, Wiccan, and Goddess-worship spiritual movement. It is a must-own for anyone interested in this fascinating subject, or in "Sex Magick" or nontraditional religion.

Format: 5.5 x 8.25" hc w dj, First Edition, 194pp.