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If you want to learn about Goddess symbology and what's hidden in fairytales, here's where to start:
The White Goddess, Robert Graves (what inspired the creation of alphabets?)
The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer (study in magic and religion)
The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Barbara Walker (if you want to blow all the lies you were told to smithereens)
Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes (specifically about storytelling)
anything by Marija Gimbutas (symbol and culture)
The Great Mother, Erich Neumann (Jungian perspective)
When God Was a Woman, Merlin Stone (seventies feminist perspective)

Thank you all. I'll keep it under my hat and grin.

Thank you, Gacela. I always appreciate your input. You bring up many good points and make me think.
However, I tried moving a chapter into past tense and it didn't work for me. It's difficult to put into words. The best I can do is this: I lost my MC's ability to make discoveries which, it became starkly clear, is essential to the story. Liz is learning by example and, hopefully, carrying the reader gains insight along with her.
As far as depth, I'm structuring the novel in the picaresque style. Liz will meet many characters, each with their own compelling story, and she'll have the opportunity to reflect on what she learns from each experience. Liz is hungry for understanding. She watches, listens and learns.
It's interesting that you brought up "regret." That is exactly what Liz is attempting to avoid. If I write in past tense, she will already know regret is unavoidable.
Regarding foreshadowing, I'm actually finding it easy to do. Of course since I've posted so few chapters, my foreshadowing is not yet obvious -- oh, except in the case of Rudy. Here, for instance, the reader is going, no, no, don't trust him, while Liz, in her inexperience, does trust him, at least enough to have a life-changing experience.
Regarding timeframe, this is a story about Liz, not about the sixties, although the sixties provide background of course. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think the story has to be happening in the current century to be written in present tense, it's happening "right now" for my MC, it's her life, and hopefully the reader will be carried along.
By the way, I changed my genre on this site from YA to Literary Fiction based on this quote: "literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way". Lingering on stray beauties is exactly my intent in this story about a 17 year old finding her way.
Liz's story is certainly not high-action or fast-paced. Yet, for me so far, present tense is working. Perhaps I'll do an experiment and follow Huck's example of Immediate past. For the moment though, I'm moving on to my next chapter.
Thanks again for your input! Kiss! Karen

I appreciate everyone's input!!! This was an experiment on my part. I was sitting here at my computer, my mind full of questions and no one to turn to help me sort through them when I thought, Ha! I'll try this blog thing. And it worked. Thank you all!

So beta readers? Writing groups? Friends who read for you?