Lucy Goodison

Lucy Goodison (born 1945) is a writer who has combined work as an archaeologist of the prehistoric Aegean with involvement in the practice and teaching of body psychotherapy and engagement with issues of social justice.

She has focused on actively challenging the mind/body split and bridging the divide between thinking and feeling that is basic to the western world view.

Her books include: Death, Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion; Moving Heaven and Earth: Sexuality, Spirituality and Social Change; and Holy Trees and Other Ecological Surprises.

Lucy Goodison was educated at Bushey Grammar School and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she graduated in Classics and Modern & Medieval Languages.

She obtained a PhD in Classical Archaeology from University College, London.

She has been an Honorary Research Fellow of University College, London; a Leverhulme Research Fellow; and a Phyllis and Eileen Gibbs Travelling Research Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge.

She started work in the media, as staff scriptwriter for the BBC World Service, then as writer and director of historical and archaeological documentaries for ‘Chronicle’ on BBC-TV.

She retained an interest in film and the arts, but her subsequent career followed three main concurrent and intertwined trajectories: as an independent scholar specializing in prehistoric Aegean and early Greek religion; as a practitioner, workshop leader and trainer in body therapies; and as an activist in community campaigns, especially around health, mental health and disability.

These different strands of activity have informed her writings, which range from academic texts to journalism and books for the lay reader on self-help therapy and on symbolic, somatic and social issues.

Her earliest archaeological work, the monograph Death Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion, presented an innovative synthesis of evidence for the importance of the sun in Aegean religion; she is also concerned with investigation of other physical aspects of prehistoric religion, especially in funerary rituals at the Mesara-type tombs of Minoan Crete.

She has been an advocate of integrating sensory, spiritual and social awareness in the consideration of ancient lives, and has published numerous academic papers on various aspects of early Aegean religion.

An ongoing interest in iconography, literature and performance in the field of the contemporary arts has been reflected in occasional work, including at Inter-Action Community Arts Trust 1970—1972; as Co-Director and Administrator of Reportage Photo Library 1991—1994; a continuing involvement in writing and performing in community dance and topical street theatre; and work since 2010 as a Co-ordinator of the non-profit imprint Just Press, publishing alternative titles ranging from studies of early documentary photographers to histories of radical theatre.

Work in these fields has included 1977—1988 as a Workshop Leader at The Women’s Therapy Centre in London; 1988—1991 as Information Worker for Mencap in London; 1997—2001 as a Dance Therapist (currently a Registered Dance Movement Psychotherapist) in the Drug Addiction Unit at Holloway Prison, London; and 1979—2003 as occasional tutor of self-help therapy, massage, dance, dreamwork and disability issues in Adult Education, including at the Mary Ward Centre, The Open Centre, Shoreditch Health Centre and Westminster Pastoral Foundation in London, and the Dorset Adult Education Service.

In this field she has authored several books and a number of articles, including for The Guardian, Social Work Today, Open Mind, Psychotherapy and Politics International and Health Service Journal.

Her 1981 book In Our Own Hands: A Book of Self-help Therapy (co-authored with Sheila Ernst) clarified the possibilities for choice and autonomy for those undertaking therapy, and became a Time Out and City Limits Alternative Bestseller; her writings on disability and special education were used as teaching materials by the Open University.

Death, Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean Religion, Institute of Classical Studies 1989.

From 1990—1997 she was an occasional Lecturer for the British Museum (Education Service); 2001—2004 she taught Modern Greek in Adult Education; and she has lectured nationally and internationally on the iconography and embodied/performative ritual practices of prehistoric Crete.

Concurrently she trained in, and ran a 25-year private practice in, therapeutic massage; has been a practitioner and teacher of bodywork therapies; and has campaigned around special education, self-help therapy and the National Health Service.

Moving Heaven and Earth: Sexuality, Spirituality and Social Change, The Women's Press 1990.

Ancient Goddesses: The Myths and the Evidence, British Museum Press 1998, co-edited with Christine E. Morris.

‘Divination with Water: A Diachronic Perspective’, in Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Elounda, 1—6 October 2001, 369—383.

‘Re-constructing Dialogues with the Dead’, in Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Elounda, 1—6 October 2001, 325—340.

‘From Tholos Tomb to Throne Room: Perceptions of the Sun in Minoan Ritual’ in Aegaeum 22 (Potnia) 2001, 77—88.

‘Helen Waterhouse and her “Priest-Kings?” paper', in Cretan Studies Vol.7 2002, 89—96, with Helen Hughes-Brock.

‘From Tholos Tomb to Throne Room: Some considerations of Dawn Light and Directionality in Minoan Buildings’, in Knossos: Palace, City, State, edited by G Cadogan, E Hatzaki and A Vasilakis, British School at Athens 2004, 339—350.

‘A New Catalogue of the Mesara-type Tombs’, in Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici 47 2005, 171—212, with Carlos Guarita.

‘Wearing Wings and Falling: Ikaros in Archaeology?’, in Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Chania, 1–8 October 2006, 579—596.

‘Beyond Feasting: Activities with Animals at the Mesara-type Tombs’, in Proceedings of the 10th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Chania, 1–8 October 2006, 179— 195.

‘Horizon and Body: Some Aspects of Cycladic Symbolism’, in Orizon: A Colloquium on the Prehistory of the Cyclades, edited by N Brodie, J Doole, G Gavalas and C Renfrew, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2008, 417—431.

‘“Why All this About Oak or Stone?”: Trees and Boulders in Minoan Religion’, in Archaeologies of Cult: Essays on Ritual and Cult in Crete in Honor of Geraldine C Gesell, edited by A L D’Agata and A Van de Moortel, American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2009, 51—57.

‘Gender, Body and the Minoans: Contemporary and Prehistoric Perceptions’, in Aegaeum 30 (Fylo) 2009, 233—241.

Holy Trees and Other Ecological Surprises, Just Press 2010.

‘At Death’s Door: New Evidence and New Narratives from the Mesara-type Tombs’, in Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Rethymnon, 21st—27th October 2011, 277—293.

‘“Nature”, the Minoans and Embodied Spiritualities’, in Archaeology of Spiritualities, edited by K Rountree, C Morris and A A D Peatfield, Springer 2012, 207—225.

‘Goddesses in Prehistory’, in A Companion to Gender Prehistory, edited by D Bolger, John Wiley and Sons 2013, 265—287, with Christine Morris.

‘Where did the Mesara-type Tombs Travel From?’ in Proceedings of 12th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Heraklion 21st—25th September 2016 (online), 1—15.

‘Sunlight, Divination, and the Dead in Aegean Ritual Tradition’, in The Oxford Handbook of Light in Archaeology, edited by C Papadopoulos and H Moyes, Oxford University Press 2017 (online), 1—25.

‘Thoughts about Light and Water at the Oval House of Chamaizi’, in Von Kreta nach Kuba: Gedenkschrift zu Ehren des Berliner Archäologen Veit Stürmer, edited by K Müller, B Schiller and Der Fachschaftsrat des Winkelmann-Instituts der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Logos Verlag Berlin GmbH 2018, 101—119.

‘Journeys with Death: Spatial Analysis of the Mesara-type Tombs of Prehistoric Crete’, in Unlocking Sacred Landscapes: Spatial Analysis of Ritual and Cult in the Mediterranean, edited by G Papantoniou, C E Morris and A K Vionis, Åström Editions 2019, 121—138.

'“Seeing” Stars… or Suns?' in Aegaeum 44 (Neoteros) 2020, 169—179.