Monica Sjöö

Monica Sjöö
Born	(1938-12-31)31 December 1938 Härnösand, Västernorrland, Sweden
Died	8 August 2005(2005-08-08) (aged 66) Bristol, England
Occupation(s)	Painter, writer, radical anarcho/eco-feminist
Notable work	God Giving Birth (1968, oil), The Great Cosmic Mother with Barbara Mor (1987)
Movement	Anarchism Ecofeminism Feminist art movement Goddess movement Women's liberation movement
Spouses	Stevan Trickey Andrew Jubb
Children	3

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Monica Sjöö (31 December 1938 – 8 August 2005) was a Swedish-born British-based painter, writer and radical anarcho/ eco-feminist who was an early exponent of the Goddess movement.^[1] Her books and paintings were foundational to the development of feminist art in Britain, beginning at the time of the founding of the women's liberation movement around 1970.

Sjöö's most famous painting is God Giving Birth (1968), which depicts a woman giving birth and was inspired by Sjöö's religious view of motherhood; it sparked some protests from Christian groups in the 1970s.^[2] She wrote or co-wrote the manifesto Towards a Revolutionary Feminist Art (1971) and The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth (1987).

Sjöö's art and writing became well-known outside of the UK, and throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s she corresponded with influential American writers, artists and pagans such as Jean and Ruth Mountaingrove, Starhawk, Zsuzsanna Budapest, Shekhinah Mountainwater, Lucy Lippard, Alice Walker, and Judy Chicago.

Her parents were the Swedish painters Gustaf Arvid Sjöö (1902–1949) and Anna Harriet Rosander-Sjöö (1912–1965), who divorced when Sjöö was three years old.^[3] She left school and ran away from home when she was 16.^[3][4]

Sjöö traveled Europe and held a variety of jobs: she worked in vineyards and as a nude model at art schools in Paris and Rome.^[4][5] She first came to Britain in the late 1950s, and eventually settled in Bristol where – except for a period in Wales in the early 1980s – she lived for the rest of her life.^[6]

Sjöö was the main author of Towards a Revolutionary Feminist Art (1971) one of the first, and most militant, feminist art manifestos. It was discussed widely in the feminist press, and The Guardian published an article in response.^[8]

Sjöö wrote the original pamphlet^[9] that, with Barbara Mor's re-write and expansion,^[10] would become the book The Great Cosmic Mother (1987). It covers women's ancient history and the origin of religion, and is one of the first books to propose that humanity's earliest religious and cultural belief systems were created and first practised by women. It is currently in print and has been, and still is, a part of many women's studies, mythology and religious studies syllabi.^[11] Her research and writing helped uncover the hidden history of the Goddess. Sjöö's successful use of interdisciplinarity in her research has led to its acclaim within the Goddess movement.^[12]

Sjöö's first exhibition was at the Gallery Karlsson in Stockholm, Sweden in 1967.^[13] Having been a founder member of the Bristol Women's Liberation group, in March 1971, she participated in the first "Women's Liberation Art Group" exhibition held at the Woodstock Gallery in London.^[14][15]

Margaret Harrison (1977) states that [on one occasion in 1970 several of Sjöö's paintings were banned from being shown in St. Ives during the St. Ives festival]. (...) "Monica then wrote in Socialist Woman (Nottingham) proposing forming a group or alliance of women artists. This led to the formation of the Bristol Women's Art Group (...)".^[16]

Sjöö used imagery in her paintings which often references birth, the female body, and nature. All of these images were central to her beliefs regarding her "Cosmic Mother". She described herself as among the pioneers in this movement of reclaiming female divinity – along with many other writers, artists, poets, and thinkers. In her art, she attempted to "holistically express" her growing religious belief in the Great Mother as the cosmic spirit and generative force in the universe. This was a critical component of her artwork. She claimed to enter a "state" of being or of mind where knowledge was available from past, present, and future.

Sjöö's most famous painting, God Giving Birth (1968), depicts a woman giving birth, and has the title text painted in red capitalized letters. It is an expression of Sjöö's spiritual journey at that time, inspired by her religious experience during the birth of her second son, and represents her perception of the Great Mother as the universal creator of cosmic life. The painting and its concept created some controversy among Christian groups in the 1970s; at a group exhibition in London in 1973, it led to Sjöö being reported to the police for blasphemy, although the case was not taken up by the court.^[17]

Sjöö's work and beliefs centered on her respect and care of the Goddess, or Mother Earth. The Goddess was "the beauty of the green earth, the life-giving waters, the consuming fires, the radiant moon, and the fiery sun". Sjöö's respect for nature and the environment was not mere belief but, for her, a spiritual truth. The Goddess / Earth is to be respected as the life giver. This respect is to be found not only in her imagery, but in two texts which chronicle her journey through the written word.^[18][19]

Yet, these abstract beliefs were grounded with a firm foundation of action and activism. She was involved with the anarchist and anti-Vietnam War movements in Sweden in the 1960s and was active in the women's movement in Britain. Her political activism always grew out of her spiritual understanding of the earth as our living mother, similar to the beliefs of some Native American peoples.

Sjöö was highly critical of many of the ideas and personages of the New Age movement, including Alice Bailey, J. Z. Knight and "Ramtha", and Gene Roddenberry for some of the ideas behind Star Trek.^[20]

Starhawk described Sjöö's work as paintings that "transformed ancient images and symbols into contemporary icons of female power."^[21] In 1976 Sjöö was the subject of a film documentary shown at the ICA and NFT.^[22]

Sjöö believed heterosexuality was an unnatural state imposed by patriarchy, and later in her life she enjoyed a number of intimate romantic relationships with women. (In the context of the 1980 essay by Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence".) However, after separating from her second husband, Andy Jubb, a composer, in the mid 1970s, Sjöö had an intense relationship with Keith Paton, a founder of the Alternative Socialist movement and, like Sjöö herself, a regular contributor to the alternative press, especially Peace News. Under Sjöö's influence, Paton changed his name to Motherson (or Mothersson).^[23]

Two of her three sons died young. In 1985 her youngest, Leify, was killed in front of her by an oncoming car at age 15. Her eldest son, Sean, died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1987, aged 28.^[24] She claimed that his death was exacerbated by his experiences of rebirthing.^[25] Sjöö's grief at this double loss led first to an artistic paralysis akin to writer's block, and then to artistic expression, in the shape of the painting My Sons in the Spirit World (1989).^[24]

Sjöö died of cancer in 2005, aged 66.^[1]

Sjöö's art can be found in the Women's Art Collection at Murray Edwards College in Cambridge and at the Museum Anna Nordlander [sv] in Skellefteå, Sweden. Some of her works are currently held in private collections of individuals: Sig Lonegren, Alice Walker, and Genevieve Vaughan^[13] hold a few, while Maggie Parks holds most of her art.^[26] The Temple of Goddess Spirituality dedicated to Sekhmet holds Solar Lionheaded Sekhment of Primordial Fire (1992, oil on hardboard) where it is displayed in the living room of their guest house.^[27][28]

• Sjöö, Monica (1975). The Ancient Religion of the Great Cosmic Mother of All. Bristol, England: Monica Sjöö. (Original pamphlet)
• Sjöö, Monica (1977). Den Store Kosmiske Mor og Hennes Urgamle Religion (in Norwegian). Trondheim: Regnbuetrykk. ISBN 9788272230011.
• ——; Mor, Barbara (1981). The Ancient Religion of the Great Cosmic Mother of All. Trondheim: Rainbow Press. ISBN 82-7223-012-7.
• ——; Mor, Barbara (1987). The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. ISBN 9780062507914.
• ——; Mor, Barbara (1991). The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth (2nd ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. pp. 501. ISBN 0062507915.
  • Excerpted in: Sjöö, Monica; Mor, Barbara (2016). "The First Sex: In The Beginning We Were All Female". In Barrett, Ruth (ed.). Female Erasure. Tidal Time. ISBN 978-0997146707.

• Sjöö, Monica. "Nearly full Moon, Autumn Equinox 1986". Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.
• —— (12 September 1987). "New Age or Armegeddon". Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.
• ——. "Are There Great Female Beings Out There – Waiting for Us to be Free..." Archived from the original on 14 March 2016.

• Sjöö, Monica; Berg, Anne (1971). Images on Womanpower – Art Manifesto (trying to get a rough and necessarily incomplete idea of what we are about). Bristol, England.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Reprinted in "Towards a Revolutionary Feminist Art"
• ——; Berg, Anne; Moore, Liz (1972). Towards a Revolutionary Feminist Art. Bristol, England: Monica Sjöö.

• The Great Cosmic Mother - Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, co-authored with Barbara Mor, Harper & Row (1987)
• The Norse Goddess, Dor Dama Press, Meyn Mamvro Publications (2000)
• Return of the Dark/Light Mother or New Age Armageddon? – Towards a Feminist Vision of the Future, Plain View Press (1999)
• Spiral Journey, Antenna Publications (2019)

• White, Rupert (2018) Monica Sjöö: Life and Letters 1958-2005 Antenna Publications ISBN 9780993216442
• Gunnarsson, Annika (2010). "Monica Sjöö". In Nilsson, John Peter (ed.). Det Andra Önskemuseet: The Second Museum of Our Wishes (in Swedish). Göttingen: Steidl. pp. 104–108. ISBN 9783869301457.
• Björk, Chanda (Fall 2010). Vulvan, förlossningen och mötet med modergudinnan. Om Monica Sjöös målning God giving birth (PDF) (Masters thesis) (in Swedish). Sweden: Södertörn University.
• MacLeod, Katarina Wadstein (2012). "Att måla med det vita bläcket: Monica Sjöö och Kosmos inom hennes livmoder" [Painting with White Ink: Monica Sjöö, Cosmos in her Womb] (PDF). Tidskrift för Genusvetenskap (in Swedish). 33 (4). Sweden: 105–128. doi:10.55870/tgv.v33i4.3472. S2CID 249668060.
• Feraro, Shai (2013). ""God Giving Birth" – Connecting British Wicca with Radical Feminism and Goddess Spirituality during the 1970s–1980s: A Case Study of Monica Sjöö". The Pomegranate. 15 (1–2): 31–60. ISSN 1743-1735 – via EBSCO.
• Raivio, Magdalena (2014). Gudinnefeminister – Monica Sjöös och Starhawks berättande – subjektkonstruktion, idéinnehåll och feminist affiniteter (PDF) (PhD thesis) (in Swedish). Sweden: Karlstad University.

• Monica Sjöö's archived website
• Archived papers at the University of Bristol Library Special Collections
• Monica Sjöö's art in the New Hall Art Collection Archived 17 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge