Meet Janet
About Me
After a life long interest in comparative religion, I finally answered the call of shamanism over 20 years ago. I have traveled throughout the world to experience and learn first hand how the mysteries of life have come to be expressed, blessed, honored and lived in differing lands and cultures. I have studied and been initiated into different cultural traditions and now ONE GODS, WHEN EVE WAS A GODDESS and WHEN MOSES WAS A SHAMAN represent my return to my earthly roots, my cultural and ancestral Jewish heritage, the people of the Tanakh.
I have always seen myself as a pagan. While the word has become pejorative, “pagan” simply means countryside or peasant, someone who lives close to the land and in harmony with nature. To those who stop to listen, each landscape has its own vibratory essence, its own music if you will. It was (and still is) pagan peoples who have been nourished by this knowledge, and who have held it in sacred trust through oral, and more recently, written teachings. As the Mystic Pagan, it is my goal to study, explore and experience these teachings and their deep knowledge, the wisdom of the land, and it’s various cultural expressions.
Why do I write?
Every day when I open the newspaper, it feels like the world’s fractures are ever deepening. Decisions of world leaders tend to be based fear and on maintaining the power of the already rich and powerful. The institutions of the world are crumbling even as we witness them. The foundations and values of our culture are not serving us. Human beings are in terrible pain, too often fighting amongst ourselves for resources which seem scarce but don’t have to be. The Earth itself is sending out dire warnings with climate change, fires, flooding, droughts and more. We need to re-evaluate our values and find new paradigms for our society. One way to start this process is to look at how the ancients ordered their systems and what lessons they felt were important. By uncovering the older teachings behind the familiar ones we all know, we can learn more about our most ancient roots. Doing so can give us new/old foundations going forward.
With my combination of research ability, personal experience, and shamanic initiations, I am in a unique position to study, evaluate and discuss ancient teachings. By combining research and shamanic experience, I have developed my own form of spiritual forensics to dive deeply into the ancient texts.
My passions:
- To cultivate the potentials of spirit in our daily lives.
- To understand how ancient knowledge can change our lives today.
- To use the profound teachings and knowledge that I gathered over continents and time to challenge society’s thinking and create new paradigms – ones that are nurturing, earth-based and loving – for living our lives.
It is my great honor and pleasure to be able to share these teachings.
BOOKS
Now Available
I have re-issued my book, Desperately Seeking Persephone under my own imprint, Flower Heart Productions. It has a new cover and a new subtitle – The True Story of My Shamanic Journey Through the Underworld. It is now available in both paperback and kindle on Amazon. Here are two of the reviews: Desperately Seeking, Joyfully Found Janet Rudolph takes us with her on a journey that is at once deeply personal to her and
Emerging from the Underworld: a book review by Eline Kieft
Desperately Seeking Persephone: A Shamanic Journey Through the Underworld by Janet Rudolph weaves together a healing journey from abuse and rape, a deep personal connection with the goddesses Inanna and Persephone, and the ups and downs of a long-term shamanic apprenticeship. These strands could have easily filled three separate books, but Janet masterfully crafts an integrated tapestry of personal and mythical strands. She integrates everyday life experiences, liminal space and the archetypal realms until something new
With Gratitude
Thank you for visiting my site. I haven’t updated it in some time. For now, I am moderating the site: /FeminismandReligion.com/ I have been working on a project called Biblical poetry. For that and to read my monthly blogposts you can click here. I invite you to visit the FAR site and to check back here for updates and events.
More Biblical Poetry
This is the 3rd in a series of Biblical poetry where I am “translating” verses of the Bible. You can read the first two here: Biblical Poetry and Biblical Poetry, Part 2. One of my primary purposes of doing this work is to strip away patriarchal veneers that have been layered upon original teachings. I reach into ancient pagan knowledge in order to reclaim what I believe to have been lost. Below is each
Biblical Poetry Part 2
Last month, I wrote about a new project I have been playing with which is to re-write biblical verses as spiritual poetry rather than follow along with stricter translations (although truth be told, my translations have never been strict). My main goal is to strip away the layers of patriarchy that grew up around universal, earth-based, mystical lessons. In my last blogpost I wrote about why I translate El (god in English versions) as
Biblical Poetry
This blogpost is about biblical verses and uncovering the magic and spirit behind its words. Why, you might ask, is this a project that belongs on a blog dedicated to feminism? I believe it does because it helps us to strip away the many layers of patriarchy with its attempts to hide and/or change original teachings. Remember; these stories were originally oral wisdom teachings of the “folk.” They weren’t written down until