Mother Labyrinth - Sylvia Linsteadt

A journey into myth, folklore and prehistory, uncovering long buried, natural wisdom on women's bodies and pregnancies.

From moorland to the Mediterranean, Sylvia Linsteadt takes us on a search for fairy tales and myths about conception, pregnancy and birth. Following the month-by-month journey of gestation, Linsteadt uncovers hidden threads within stories that range from Minoan archaeology to Sumerian myth and medieval European folklore.

Pregnancy narratives, she discovers, are embedded in our earliest creation myths, and breadcrumbs of wisdom are scattered throughout the European fairy tale and folktale tradition, the feminine mythic journeys of the ancient Mediterranean and West Asia, and the intertwined stories of Eve and of the Virgin Mary.

This is a fascinating, deeply evocative journey. Exploring female centered societies as well as the oral story-weavers in the patriarchal past, Linsteadt celebrates and recenters the power of birth, and of women's bodies.