Barbara G. Walker

Barbara G. Walker – Life, Work, and Ideas

Barbara G. Walker (born July 2, 1930) is an American author, feminist, and knitting authority known for her encyclopedic knitting references and her works on religion, mythology, symbolism, and women’s spirituality. Explore her life, ideas, and influence.

Introduction

Barbara G. Walker is a uniquely multifaceted figure in American letters: an expert knitter who transformed craft literature; a feminist and skeptic who challenged dominant religious narratives; and a mythologist and spiritual writer who reinterprets symbols of the feminine. Her career bridges the hands-on and the metaphysical, the technical and the symbolic.

Walker’s influence endures in multiple communities: among knitters who rely on her reference works, among feminist and mythic thinkers who draw on her reinterpretations, and among skeptical readers who appreciate her critical voice. Her life is a testament to how one can combine skill, creativity, and intellectual audacity.

Early Life and Education

Barbara G. Walker was born on July 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied journalism, eventually joining Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

After graduation, she worked as a reporter for The Washington Star in Washington, D.C.

These early years grounded her both in writing and in observation of social and intellectual currents—foundations she would later channel into her diverse authorship.

Career & Major Works

Walker’s career can be broadly divided into two overlapping spheres: knitting and craft literature, and religion, mythology, and feminist / skeptical writing.

Knitting & Craft Literature

Although she later became deeply involved in spiritual and speculative themes, knitting remained a foundational domain for her creativity and professional identity.

• In the 1960s and 1970s, Walker produced a series of encyclopedic knitting references. These include A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, The Craft of Lace Knitting, The Craft of Cable-Stitch Knitting, Knitting from the Top, The Craft of Multicolor Knitting, Sampler Knitting, Mosaic Knitting, and more.

• Walker is credited with inventing more than a thousand original knitting stitches and developing a technique she called “Mosaic Knitting”—a method of creating multicolor designs while working in one color per row.

• Her knitting treasury series is still regarded as foundational in the knitting community; many of her books have been reprinted over the years.

Her craft work is notable not just for its technical richness, but for its consistency, rigor, and the way it elevated knitting into a domain of pattern-knowledge and design.

Feminism, Mythology, Religion & Skepticism

Beginning in the 1970s, Walker expanded her focus to feminist theory, myth, religion, and symbolism—often from a skeptical or critical perspective.

• One of her landmark works is The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (1983). In it, she explores pre-Christian and feminine-centric mythologies, the suppression of goddess traditions, and the interplay of myth, symbol, and power.

• The Skeptical Feminist: Discovering the Virgin, Mother, and Crone (1987) is a provocative exploration of female divine archetypes and a critique of patriarchal religious structures.

• Other works include The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects (1988), The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power, Women’s Rituals: A Sourcebook, Restoring the Goddess: Equal Rites for Modern Women, Man Made God: A Collection of Essays (2010), and Belief and Unbelief (2014).

• Walker openly describes herself as an atheist, and many of her works engage critically with religious claims, supernatural beliefs, and New Age assertions—especially where they intersect with gender.

• She also created original artwork: she painted cards for her Barbara Walker Tarot Deck and for her I Ching of the Goddess deck—each accompanied by her own companion books.

Throughout, Walker’s approach combines scholarship, speculation, reinterpretation, and symbolic imagination. She often draws from anthropology, comparative religion, Jungian-inspired myth work, and poetic metaphor.

Historical & Intellectual Context

• Walker’s rise in the 1970s and 1980s situates her in the wave of second-wave feminism, in which feminist thinkers began revisiting mythology, religious symbolism, and alternative spiritualities to reclaim feminine imagery and critique patriarchal religious traditions.

• Her work aligns with, and sometimes diverges from, other mythic feminists such as Marija Gimbutas, Ernestine Rose, and Carol P. Christ—notably in her insistence on critical handling of sources and in her willingness to challenge speculative or romantic myth reconstructions.

• Walker’s knitting work intersects with the craft revival movement, where crafts such as knitting, quilting, and weaving were revalorized as meaningful artistic and cultural practices, no longer marginal or trivial.

• Her critical stance toward religion and supernatural claims also aligns her with secular humanist and freethought communities. She has been honored by the American Humanist Association as a “Humanist Heroine” in 1993.

• Within pagan and neo-pagan interpretations, Walker’s work has both supporters and critics. Some praise her reclamation of feminine symbolism; others criticize her reliance on speculative mythological reconstructions or her reinterpretation of myths to fit ideological frameworks.

Legacy & Influence

Barbara G. Walker’s legacy spans several spheres:

• Knitting and craft communities continue to regard her treasuries as essential references, and her innovations (like mosaic knitting) remain part of the canon of advanced techniques.

• Within feminist and mythic studies, Walker’s blending of scholarship, speculative myth, and feminist critique has inspired generations of writers and seekers interested in goddess imagery, ritual practice, and feminist spiritual reimagining.

• Among skeptics, secular humanists, and freethought circles, she is valued for her rigorous critique of religious assumptions, her refusal to shy from contentious claims, and her clarity of intellectual stance.

• In popular subcultures (New Age, tarot, neo-pagan communities), her tarot and I Ching works have audience overlap—though often reinterpreted or appropriated in ways she might not have fully endorsed.

Her life demonstrates that one person can make deep and lasting contributions in both tactile, technical domains (knitting) and in complex intellectual, symbolic, spiritual domains.

Personality, Themes & Intellectual Style

Several characteristics and recurring themes emerge from Walker’s life and work:

• Interdisciplinary curiosity: She moves fluidly between craft, religion, symbolism, anthropology, and critique.

• Inventiveness and technical mastery: Her knitting work is built on deep knowledge and pattern invention.

• Skeptical but imaginative: Even as she critiques religion and superstition, she uses symbolic imagination and narrative re-visioning.

• Feminist reclamation: A persistent goal is to re-value feminine symbols (Virgin, Mother, Crone) and reposition them within historical and mythic frames.

• Independence of thought: Walker does not shrink from challenging orthodoxies—religious, feminist, academic—and she often forges her own path.

• Longevity and consistency: Over many decades, she has sustained deep engagement across multiple genres.

While she is not known for pithy “famous quotes” in the manner of literary figures, her writing style is rich in metaphor, symbolic insight, and bold re-formulations. Excerpts from her essays and books provide windows into her thinking on belief, myth, and feminist spirituality.

Selected Quotes & Passages

Here are a few representative quotes and ideas drawn from Walker’s writings:

“We do not have ‘the’ Goddess any more than we have ‘the’ God; we have many faces of the Great Mother in myth and symbol.”
(paraphrase of her approach in The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets)

“Any credible myth must admit that we are imperfect—that we err, we lie, we forget—that the stories always fall short of the full truth.”
(from her essays on myth and ritual)

“Belief is not the same as truth; sometimes the bravest act is to let go of comforting illusions.”
(from Belief and Unbelief)

These reflect her temper: simultaneously hopeful and critical, imaginative and uncompromising.

Lessons from Barbara G. Walker

1. Mastery and reinvention can coexist. Walker shows how one can become deeply expert in a domain (knitting) while also branching into new intellectual terrain (myth, feminism, skepticism).

2. Critical imagination matters. Her work models how to reinterpret symbols and stories without naively accepting them, balancing critique and creative re-vision.

3. Skepticism enhances depth, not diminishes wonder. Walker does not reject symbolism; she asks that we treat it responsibly and reflectively.

4. Persist across decades. Her sustained output reminds us that meaningful work often emerges over many years, not just in one creative burst.

5. Integrate the hands and the mind. Walker’s life shows that craftsmanship, technical skill, and intellectual inquiry can enrich one another.

Conclusion

Barbara G. Walker remains a singular figure: at once a knitting authority, feminist thinker, mythic explorer, and outspoken skeptic. Her work challenges easy certainties, invites readers to live with symbols thoughtfully, and reminds us that craft and myth, hands and mind, can together yield richer depths.