21 Jul 2026
154. When Women Were Shamans: Feminine Roots of Communing with the Animate World with Gabriela Gutierrez
What if the oldest roots of human spirituality are inherently more Feminine than we've been taught to imagine?
In this rich and expansive conversation, I sit down with writer, poet and scholar of ancient religion Gabriela Gutierrez to journey into the deep past—to the Palaeolithic caves, the earliest expressions of religious experience, the role of women within prehistoric ritual life, and the forgotten relationship between humanity, the Earth and the sacred. Together we explore what archaeology, mythology and living traditions might reveal about our oldest spiritual inheritance, and what remembering it could mean for us today.
About Gabriela
Gabriela Gutierrez is a Spanish–Welsh writer, poet, and scholar of ancient religion. She works at the intersection of myth, ritual, and ecology to recover the animistic worldviews that preceded institutional religion. She speaks several languages and has worked internationally in human-rights advocacy, field research, and traditional ritual lineages. Drawing on both archaeological fieldwork and study within living traditions, she bridges scholarship and direct experience to explore how myth and spirituality can return to modern life as embodied sources of meaning. Her first non-fiction book is forthcoming with Shambhala Publications, and her poetry has appeared in Clarion Poetry Magazine.
In this episode we explore:
The possibility that Women were among humanity's earliest ritual specialists, and the female and feminine roots of prehistoric spirituality.
Why paradox lies at the heart of authentic spiritual experience—an and/and rather than an either/or.
The Imaginal as a genuine way of knowing and a valid research methodology.
The earliest archaeological evidence of religious experience within Palaeolithic cave art, dating back 40,000–60,000 years.
How non-human symbolism within cave imagery reveals the animistic worldview of our ancestors.
The famous storming bison cave paintings, and what they reveal about prehistoric ritual life.
The common threads of what Gabriela calls the Old Religion, and what "religion" meant before institutional faiths emerged.
The four archetypal mythic stories that recur throughout prehistoric Europe, and why female initiation sits at the heart of each.
The forgotten feminine face of the sacred, and why reconnecting with our deep history matters today.
The ritual of dismemberment, communal grief, and our ancestors' relationship with the cycles of death, renewal and the Earth.
Moving beyond rigid masculine and feminine polarity through Gabriela's beautiful invitation to consider both Mother Earth and Father Earth.
The myth of Descent as a menstrual story, including links to Persephone, Minoan culture and ancient menstrual initiation.
Why all women carry an initiating capacity through the womb, though not every woman would necessarily have been a ritual specialist.
The modern tendency to anthropomorphise gods and goddesses, and what is lost when we forget the animate forces beneath their names.
Who the Melissae really were, and Gabriela's fascinating research into the Bee Priestesses of Ancient Greece.
Why bees—one of the oldest sacred feminine symbols—escaped the renunciation suffered by so many other creatures sacred to the feminine.
Episode Resources
Cave paintings of Altamira (https://donsmaps.com/altamirapaintings.html)
What the Bee Knows - PC Travers (https://www.amazon.com/What-Bee-Knows-Reflections-Symbol/dp/0140194665 )
The Flowering Wand - Sophie Strand (https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-flowering-wand-sophie-strand/book/9781644115961.html )
Minoan Fresco Art of ‘Xeste 3’ Akrotiri (https://cycladic.gr/en/toichografia-ton-gynaikon-apo-to-adyto-tou-ktiriou-xesti-3-akrotiri-thiras/ )
Connect with Gabriela
Instagram: @honeyedways (https://www.instagram.com/honeyedways/)
Substack: Under A Fig Tree (www.gabrielamgutierrez.substack.com )
Website: www.gabrielamairgutierrez.com (http://www.gabrielamairgutierrez.com)
Connect with Rachel
Instagram: @therachelhodgens (https://www.instagram.com/therachelhodgens/)
Website: https://rachelhodgens.com.au (https://rachelhodgens.com.au/)
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