About
Anique Radiant Heart
Dedicated to assisting women to reclaim their natural spiritual authority, Anique continues to teach women the power and joy that comes from a sacred path that celebrates the Divine Feminine.
- High Priestess of the Global Goddess
- Goddess Scholar
- Sacred Singer Songwriter
- Author
- Spiritual Teacher
Roles and titles
As she has been known
- Priestess of the Goddess and Singer of the Sacred Songs of the Temple
- Priestess of the Global Goddess and a Crone Elder in her community
- Holy Elder of the Temple of the Global Goddess
- Presiding Priestess of the Mother Temple in Maitland
- Co-Weaver and Cauldron Keeper of Goddess Conference Australia, 2016 to 2022
- Convener of the Women and Depression Conferences, 2006 and 2007
- Australian anchor of the international Gather the Women Congress, 2007
- Devi of the Heart Songs
Her story
Thirty-seven years of practice
Anique has been holding Temple space, first in her own home, then further afield, for thirty-seven years. In 2013 that work found its first dedicated home: the Temple of the Global Goddess in Maitland, founded the same year she began the three-year Priestess of the Global Goddess training.
Anique has been taking people on Journeys for the past 27 years, sharing her teachings and her music with daughters of the Goddess all over the world. She is a well-loved member of the international Goddess community.
Born into a life of deep spiritual belief
I was born in Egypt in 1947 of French/Lebanese Jewish parents… All this changed in 1956, when the military dictatorship decreed that Egypt was for the Egyptians… My whole extended family chose Australia as our new home… So as a child of 9, I had to deal with a huge geographical and cultural relocation… All this to explain that I was born into a life of deep spiritual belief, and strong ethno/cultural connection.
- Born in Egypt in 1947 in the lineage of the Priestesses of Hathor
- Ancestry in Crete through the lineage of the Priestesses of Ariadne
- Ancestry in Anatolia through the lineage of Artemis of Ephesus, as deemed true by DNA testing in 2020
Her family says she came out of the womb singing. At three, standing on a coffee table in her sister’s school waiting room, she sang Piaf’s “Je ne Regrette Rien” along with the radio to a room of rapt teachers and parents, and soon she was singing at every family wedding, bar mitzvah, engagement and birthday. At thirteen she entered Channel 9’s talent show Opportunity Knocks and won, with appearances on Saturday Date and Bandstand to follow.
With no formal musical training she became a fixture of the Sydney clubs: a talent-quest win at St George Leagues Club, a support slot for Shirley Bassey, years as a band vocalist, and later performances alongside Harry Belafonte, Carmen McRae, Judy Small and Robyn Archer. In the mid-seventies she discovered women’s music and began to use her voice for songs written by women for women, performing at women’s festivals and at the National Lesbian Confests at the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s Festival Hall.
Alongside the music she built a twenty-year career as a marketing and public relations consultant to the New South Wales Government and the corporate world: she managed the State Government’s 1988 Bicentennial Exhibition, bringing together 32 departments, organised the first international conference of the Institute of Architects, and was communications manager for the University of Sydney’s SURF project, before retiring from consulting in 1999. She has also been known as Anique Lamerduc and Anique Duc.
Finding the Goddess
1982Ballina, New South Wales
In the late seventies, I discovered feminism. It was a revelation that led me to question all hitherto important areas of my life, including religion…
In 1982 I attended my first Women’s Spiritual Festival at Ballina. This was a major turning point in my life. The setting was beautiful, in the bush by a beautiful river… women everywhere, all shapes and sizes, wearing all the colours of the rainbow… it was intoxicating!
It was here that I discovered the Goddess and my sacred connection.
Since then she has worked “deeply to develop the closest possible connection with the Light on a daily basis”, with a number of inspiring teachers.
- Composer and healer
Kay Gardner
The first woman to research and write a book on music as healing.
One of my first teachers.
- Her spiritual teacher
Gratitude
Her spiritual teacher taught her
to live in gratitude, in every moment.
- 2007
Her Holiness Sai Maa
She met Sai Maa in 2007.
To say my life has changed to my very core is an understatement.
- Artist and historian
Max Dashu
Max’s art touched her early on her path; Max later became a dear friend.
Come and remember with me.
Anique Radiant Heart
Since 1989
A longer history
Anique Radiant Heart has dedicated her life and her talents to assisting women and girls to awaken the great Feminine Divine within them. Gifted with a miraculous voice and the ability to open people’s hearts with her singing and teaching, she has facilitated Goddess mystery workshops and events, celebrating the Goddess through ritual and song in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Italy, Greece, Singapore, Hungary, Holland, Crete, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand.
A keen scholar, author, singer-songwriter, artist and political activist, Anique’s love for the Earth, women and the Feminine Divine she lovingly calls the Goddess, has been the motivating force behind her extraordinary music and the work she does in the world.
1989In 1989, Anique founded Invoking the Goddess and created the first website in Australia solely celebrating the Goddess and the ancient religion of the Goddess. From 1996 till 2002, she organised an annual Goddess festival of the same name on the outskirts of Sydney, and published a newsletter mailed out free of charge to over 500 subscribers. In 2005, with the help of donations from Goddess worshippers all over the world, Anique founded the Australian Goddess Temple on her land.
2007At the 2007 Australian Goddess Conference, Anique was honoured as Foremother and Elder of the Goddess Community in Australia. Her work as a spiritual teacher, ceremonialist and sacred singer has grounded many in the love and reverence of the Goddess.
2009In 2009, she launched her CD Living the Goddess, completing a trilogy with Invoking and Embracing the Goddess, before turning to a seven-year project setting music to the seven major chakras — the first of which, Kuan Yin: Light of Compassion, was released in 2010.
Anique is a popular and loved presenter and brings with her a unique style of teaching and sacred singing. She lives in the country in Australia with her life partner and three feline familiars and one canine. Her art and her garden complement her music and teaching, and provide the serenity of a balanced and grounded heart.
Temples and gatherings
A place totally dedicated to the Goddess
There had to be one Temple at least in Australia, totally dedicated to the worship of the Goddess. A Temple open to all who wished to connect with the Divine. And not only a Temple, a place of teaching and learning.
2005Willawarrin, then the Hunter
The Australian Goddess Temple was manifested in 2005 on her land at Willawarrin, with the help of women and men from all over the world. When she moved to the Hunter, the Temple came too:
“Where I go… the Temple goes.”
On 24 April 2010 she held the first workshop in the new Temple near Maitland, a Sacred Gourd Rattle making day, to “ground the energy of the Temple as place of worship, place of community, place of governance and place of service”.
Among the Temple’s founding principles
- Every woman is Priestess of her own life.
- Healthy diversity is celebrated: “ethnic, racial, sexual, economic, social and appearance”.
The gatherings
- Every spring
Invoking the Goddess Spring Creation Gathering, Minto
It aimed “to give women a small taste, once a year, of how life can be if only we would take the time to focus on the Divine in each other and ourselves”.
- Solstices and equinoxes
The Invoking the Goddess newsletter
Her seasonal newsletter went out on the solstices and equinoxes for more than a decade.
- 2006 and 2007
Women and Depression Conferences, Sydney
She convened both conferences, from which a book was published.
- July 2007
Gather the Women Congress
The Australian anchor of the international congress, at the Women’s College, University of Sydney.
- 2011 and 2013
Teachers brought to Australia
So that women here could learn from them: Kathy Jones, founder of the Glastonbury Goddess Temple, in 2011, and the Goddess historian Max Dashu in 2013.
- 2016 to 2022
Goddess Conference Australia
Born of late-night conversations with Aunty Bilawara Lee, the Larrakia Elder, when the two found they shared a vision for the Goddess community in Australia. The first conference, Invoking the Rainbow Serpent Spirit of the Divine Feminine, was held on 18 to 20 November 2016, with a fund to bring Aboriginal Elders to the gathering. Five Conferences were held, the last in 2022.
From jazz diva to sacred singer
Her recordings
In her concert From Diva to Devotion Anique tells the story of 45 years as a jazz diva and sacred singer of the Goddess. Before the CDs she sold chakra-chant cassettes, seven chants each relating to a particular Goddess, and a Body Blessing Chant “as a daily self blessing… a celebration and affirmation of our body as temple for our soul”.
- 1990Anique
A live recording from her support slot on American singer Alix Dobkin’s Australian tour; her first album.
- mid-1990sLover Mine
Eleven original songs written with David Calaby in Townsville, from reggae and Latin funk to a dash of country, all on the theme of Mother Earth as the creative force. The title track won a Queensland BASF Sunnie Award.
- 1997Hot and Mellow
A jazz album released for her 50th birthday with Roger Frampton (piano), Jonathan Zwartz (bass) and Warren Trout Jr (drums): Moondance, Misty, Georgia, Route 66 and more. Afterwards she decided to stop singing jazz with a band.
- Les Clichés
The soundtrack of a musical she starred in.
- Piaf Classics
Two of her signature songs, La Vie En Rose and Je ne Regrette Rien, with piano.
- Anique Live
A live album.
- launched 25 May 2002Invoking the Goddess
Co-produced with David Calaby and recorded at The Greenroom Studio in South Australia: a daily practice of prayers and chants, the first of the Goddess trilogy.
- recorded from June 2004Embracing the Goddess
Songs of praise and celebration for the circle and the seasons. “Singing Her Praises” was written for an international congress of Goddess-loving people.
- Living the Goddess
The third of the trilogy, a sacred tool for priestesses with extended chants for singing meditation. Its first song, “No Separation”, has been taken up by women everywhere as a daily mantra.
- 2010Kuan Yin: Light of Compassion
The first of a seven-year project to make a CD of healing music for each chakra: “a complete Heart Chakra Healing”.
- 2012Priestess
Launched at an after-dinner concert at the Athanor Retreat Centre in the Netherlands.
She whispered in my heart… I heard her say that with Her help I would create 3 CDs of music dedicated to Her worship. The first would give devotees a daily practice to ground Her into their lives; the second would give them the songs of praise and celebration one needs to express when one is filled with Spiritual joy; and the last would give them the songs to do Her work as Priestess.
Books and teachings
Anique is the author of Chanting the Chakras: A Way to the Goddess Through Energetic Use of Voice and The 33 Teachings of Kuan Yin. Her workshops have included The Goddess and the Chakras, The 33 Vibrations of Kuan Yin, The Goddess Way, The Dark Goddess, The Ancient Civilisation of the Goddess, What Is a Priestess, Making a Sacred Gourd Rattle, and the Invoking the Goddess three-day retreat. She leads rituals for the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter days, and has created rites for handfastings, baby namings, gratitude and abundance. Her invitation has always been: “Contact Anique from anywhere in the world and she will come to you and your community.”
In her own words
Anique on voice, practice and the Goddess
“I believe we are all gifted by the Divine with one particularly obvious gift. Our Goddess given gift I suppose. And our job in this lifetime, among others, is to optimise and develop that gift to the best of our ability. I was blessed with a miraculous voice and the ability to sing like an angel. I now know deep in my heart that my voice and singing opens the heart centre and facilitates healing.”
“My voice is a gift from heaven... sharing it through my music is my gift back to the community and to myself.”
“The Divine Mother has gifted me with a spectacular voice and I use it to heal and teach women how to heal themselves.”
“All of us are born with beautiful voices and the desire to sing... Yet all of us, yes, all of us have our own song, inside us. And all of us yearn to sing our song, our Soul Song.”
“Goddess Spiritual Practice is fundamental to what I teach and invite students to do on a daily basis.”
“There are as many ways of connecting to the Divine as there are birds that sing.”
“This vast land is so ancient and its Original People are the oldest living indigenous culture in the world, so the stories trigger ancient archetypal memories of our own deep past.”
“My desire is to bring fine teachers here so that all women can have access to them.”
“As I am an Elder, my tour is highly suited to older pilgrims, or pilgrims with slight disabilities. I keep the walking to a minimum and the speed is leisurely.”
“We all come from the Goddess, and to Her we shall return, like a drop of rain, falling to the ocean.”
What others say
Kind words
“Anique’s powerful Goddess voice is a thrill to experience, and this long-awaited CD of her sacred songs, prayers and chants is the next best thing to being there.”
“An exquisite sound… Anique’s voice lifts and inspires us, then grounds us in a profoundly earthy and healing embrace. Soulful music that speaks to the heart.”
“Thank Goddess for Anique’s beautiful voice and words that inspire and support our connection with the Goddess within each of us and all things!”
“Anique has a wonderful voice that encourages those who hear her to feel the Goddess in their own hearts.”
“I recommend “Embracing the Goddess” by Anique Radiant Heart who has been blessed with a beautiful and powerful voice and is a talented song writer… Thank you sister in the Goddess Spirit.”
“She is a great jazz singer, totally intuitive and loves the joy of the genre.”
“The reason I decided to work with Anique on this conference was to bring about a very important healing to the Goddess community here in Australia and to nurture women and girls, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to come together and have a life changing experience in the Divine Feminine.”
“I attended an Invoking the Goddess retreat, hosted by Anique Radiant Heart over a decade ago and it changed my life!”
“I have been to many a conference, but never one like this… Thank you for creating one of the most important weeks of my life.”
I had been given my voice to open women’s hearts.
Anique Radiant Heart
