Goddess movement

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The contemporary Goddess movement grew out of second-wave feminism predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s, with the realization that women were not treated equitably in many mainstream religions and that masculine gender and male imagery were attached to deity to the exclusion of feminine gender and female imagery. Some people in the Goddess movement recognize multiple goddesses; some also include gods; others honor what they refer to as "the Goddess," which may rarely be meant as monotheistic, but is usually understood to be an inclusive, encompassing term incorporating many goddesses in many different cultures. The term "the Goddess" may also be understood to include a multiplicity of ways to view deity personified as female, or as a metaphor, or as a process. (Christ 1997, 2003)

Contents

[edit] Terminology

Capitalization of terms such as Goddess and Goddesses usually vary with author or with the style guides of publications or publishers.

A goddess in this sense can be considered to be an aspect of the Great Goddess as well as a goddess in a pantheon with a particular role. The Hindu goddess, Durga, is a case in point. The name Durga can refer to a specific aspect of the Goddess but in the Shakti forms of Hinduism generally refers to the Great Goddess as AdyaShakti : the primoridal Shakti who incorporates all aspects.) Anthropologists in their studies of goddesses have noted that adherents of goddesses often view their own goddess as a personal guardian or teacher.

  • The Goddess or the Great Goddess is a type of female deity who is primary. She historically existed in many cultures, though not under the same names and not necessarily with the same traits. If there is a male god, his powers derive from her. (Gottner-Abendroth 1987). These terms are not usually understood to refer a single deity that is identical across cultures but rather a concept common in many ancient cultures, which those in the Goddess movement want to restore. (Christ 1997). When Goddess is spoken of as a personal guardian, as in 'my Goddess' it means 'my worldview in Goddess spirituality.'
  • Goddess Spirituality is sometimes used as a synonym for Goddess Movement and sometimes as the spiritual practice that is part of the Goddess movement.
  • Goddessing is a recent contribution to Goddess vocabulary, possibly derived from the British journal of the same name, following from Mary Daly's suggestion that deity is too dynamic, too much in process and changing continually, to be a noun, and should better be spoken as a verb (Daly 1973). Goddessing may also mean Goddess culture, Goddess way of life, Goddess practice, or 'my goddessing' as in my individual interpretation and experience of Goddess.
  • Priestess refers to women who dedicate themselves to one or more goddesses. It may or may not include leadership of a group, and it may or may not include legal ordination. The analogous term for men is "priest." However, not everyone who dedicates themselves to the Goddess or goddesses calls themselves a priestess (or priest).
  • Thealogy is a term whose first use in the context of feminist analysis of religion and discussion of Goddess is usually credited to Naomi Goldenberg (1979). It substitutes the Greek feminine prefix "thea" for the supposedly generic use of the Greek masculine prefix "theo." Frequently used to mean analysis of Goddess thought and mysticism, it can also be used more liberally to mean any kind of divine, not just deity divine, as in meditation, ethics, ritual pragmatics.

[edit] Background

Inclusive spirituality in the West initially gained ground in 19th century, when North American first-wave feminists such as Matilda Joslyn Gage introduced the idea of female Deity, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton published The Women's Bible. Their contemporary, the Swiss Joseph Jakob Bachofen, increased the attention given in Europe to prehistoric matriarchal Goddess cultures. However this information lay dormant in the North America and much of Europe until second-wave feminism. In addition to Bachofen, second-wave feminists who became interested in the history of religion also referred to the work of Helen Diner (1965) and M. Esther Harding (1935).

Since 1970 a growing Western movement of Goddess Spirituality has emerged as an international, well networked and richly documented culture. From 1974 to 1984, WomanSpirit, a journal edited in Oregon by Jean and Ruth Mountaingrove, published articles, poetry, and rituals by hundreds of women, exploring ideas and feelings about female deity. The journal The Beltane Paperswhich started publication at about the same time, has been publishing continuously for more than 30 years, making it the longest still-published Goddess publication in the U.S. In the 1980s and '90s, an adult education course offered by the Unitarian Universalist Church, "Cakes for the Queen of Heaven," (Ranck 1995) introduced thousands of women to what was known about the suppression of ideas of the female divine, including information about ancient Goddess cultures. In 1983, Jade River and Lynnie Levy founded the Re-formed Congregation of the Goddess, International(RCG-I). Motherhoused in Madison, Wisconsin, RCG-I continues today with groups called "Circles" in many U. S. localities, as well as an educational program, priestess training, and ordination. The Goddess movement is described or explored by various films and independent media, such as the Women and Spirituality trilogy made by Donna Read for the National Film Board of Canada. Read and Starhawk have produced a documentary about Marija Gimbutas called Signs Out of Time.

Attempts to create more inclusive ways of describing Deity by using both genders in grammar and imagery can seem awkward to some, or unnecessary to those who claim their spirituality has little sense of gender. Inclusive language can seem competitive, because monotheism has space for only one deity. However these objections have been refuted by many Goddess scholars, one of the earliest and most effective of which is Carol P. Christ's essay (1979), "Why Women Need the Goddess."

[edit] Use of Mythological Materials

Participants in the Goddess movement sometimes use myths either from ancient or classical mythologies or received in oral tradition or invented. These myths are not understood literally, but rather figuratively or metaphorically. For instance, creation myths (Budapest 1980, Laura 1989, Starhawk 1979) are not seen as conflicting with scientific understanding but rather as being poetic, metaphoric statements that are compatible with, for example, the theory of evolution, modern cosmology and physics (Starhawk 1979, Laura 1997).

Myths from ancient or classical cultures are often rewritten or reinterpreted because there is little written material from what is considered pre-patriarchal times, beginning 3500-3000 BCE in the ancient near east and Europe (Eisler 1987). Because myths from religions that included goddesses after this time, including Greek and Roman mythology, may have patriarchal bias, such myths are often rewritten or reinterpreted by Goddess movement writers to eliminate or minimize what they feel to be misogynist bias. One commonly reworked myth is that of Demeter and Persephone. (Christ 1987, Pollack, 1997, Spretnak 1978).

British scholar Daniel Cohen is currently creating new mythologies that help bring men into the Goddess movement in ways that use men's strengths in non-oppressive ways (Henning and Cohen 1988 and Cohen 1997).

[edit] Wicca or Wicce

Some, but not all, participants in the Goddess movement consider themselves witches, Wiccans/Wiccens or Pagans. Others call themselves Goddessians (Laura 2002). Still others use no identifying label.

Witches, especially Dianics, trace their origins to Neolithic pre-Christian cultures, believing that Wicce (the feminine form of Wicca, and therefore preferred by Dianic Wiccans) is a distillation of a religion found at the beginning of most, if not all, cultures. Wise women and mid-wives are considered the first Witches. Gerald Gardner (1884-1964) who, with Doreen Valiente (1922-1999) founded Gardnerian Wicca, a form of modern Wicca in Britain, claimed to be initiated into such a surviving tradition. For their time, Gardner and Valiente advocated a fairly feminist ideal of priestess authority in service to Goddess and God. Valiente became known in Britain as the 'Mother of the Craft' and it is thought that she may have done some of the writing, or been responsible for some ideas, credited to Gardner (Ruickbie 2004). What is definitely known is that Valiente is author of the Charge of the Goddess, later edited by Starhawk to be more gender inclusive (Starhawk 1979:76). The existence of a modern Goddess-worshipping form of religion was first revealed to the public on a large scale by Margaret Murray's books, The Witch Cult in Western Europe, The God of the Witches (1933) and The Divine King in England. Murray was a prominent British Egyptologist active in first-wave feminism. She was also one of the first scholars to document the matrilineal inheritance patterns of the Hebrew monarchy.

Other influences on Wicca and Western Paganism, and to some extent the Goddess movement, were 19th-century occultism, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (Greer 1995), and romantic nature movements in which the female sacred was more valued in contrast to and perhaps in reaction to mainstream Christian spirituality, as described, for example, in the work of Robert Graves, especially The White Goddess and Mammon and the Black Goddess.

The main forums for the movement during the 70s and 80s were independently produced magazines and journals such as The Green Egg in America and Wood and Water in the UK, among many others. These periodicals attempted to represent the diversity of thought and belief. Mention should also be made of the work of UK feminist groups such as the London-based Matriarchy Study Group which produced the Goddess issue of the feminist periodical Shrew (this was an occasional publication, produced by a different collective each issue) as well as the pamphlets Menstrual Taboos and The Politics of Matriarchy; these featured the early writings of Asphodel (Pauline) Long and the artist Monica Sjoo among others. Internal newsletters of the Matriarchy Study Group and the later Matriarchy Research and Reclaim Network contained much discussion of goddesses and their significance to modern and ancient women, and some of their members produced the periodical Arachne, which brought similar material to the public.

In America, Starhawk, activist and author of numerous books, is an influential author/priestesses in the American Goddess movement. Her 1979 book, The Spiral Dance, played a large role in popularising the Goddess movement as well as modern Witchcraft among committed feminists, and is considered a classic of modern Paganism.

A women-only Dianic Craft or Dianic Tradition version of the Goddess movement, was created by Zsuzsanna Budapest (Zee or "Z"), who was also a prolific author, and who twinned fortune-telling and witchcraft from her Hungarian background, with feminism.

The Dianic view is that separatism, in a world where gender roles were once strictly defined, is sometimes considered dangerous because it challenges the patriarchal assumptions of Western culture (Budapest 1980). Zee is considered by her sect to be the honoured Mother of the American Dianic Craft and a primary proponent of modern separtist Goddess thealogy.

Many non-Dianics, as well as Starhawk (herself considered to be one of Zee Budapest's students), who also reject monotheistic patriarchal culture, do not agree with Zee's justification for separatism. Starhawk's paganism was more broadly based and also drew on the Feri tradition of Witchcraft which, itself, incorporated Hawaiian, European, and and Middle Eastern elements. She was initiated into the Feri tradition in California by Victor and Cora Anderson. Starhawk is the founder of the Reclaiming Tradition of Witchcraft, which includes both women and men.

[edit] Thealogy

Goddess Spirituality characteristically shows diversity: no central body defines its dogma. Yet there is evolving consensus on some issues including: the Goddess in relation to polytheism and monotheism; immanence, transcendence and other ways to understand the nature of the Goddess.

[edit] One or Many?

One question often asked is whether Goddess adherents believe in one Goddess or many goddesses: Is Goddess spirituality monotheistic or polytheistic (Eller 2000)? This is not an issue for many of those in the Goddess movement, whose conceptualization of divinity is more all-encompassing (Starhawk 2001). The terms "the Goddess," or "Great Goddess" may appear monotheistic because the singular noun is used. However, these terms are most commonly used as code or shorthand for one or all of the following: to refer to certain types of prehistoric goddesses; to encompass all goddesses (a form of henotheism ); to refer to a modern metaphoric concept of female deity; to describe a form of energy, or a process. (Long 1996, Laura 1997, Christ 1997 and 2003).

The concept of a singular divine being with many expressions is not a new development in thought: it has been a major theme in India for many centuries, at the very least as far back as the 5th century, though hymns in the early Vedas too speak of a one-Goddess-many-goddesses concept. (Jayran 2000)

One of the underlying themes of the earlier forms of Goddess religion is the concept of the aspects of deity. This is neither syncretism nor henotheism but a realisation of the unity behind a multiplicity of manifestations. It is apparent from the earliest written records that we have from Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Mediterranean. The Goddess speaks of herself as being known by many names and in many forms, and then recounts the individual names, attributes and placenames. This is as true of Inanna from Sumer as it is of the Isis in Rome and Egypt.

[edit] Within or Without?

Another point of discussion is whether the Goddess is immanent, or transcendent, or both, or something else. Starhawk (1988) speaks of the Goddess as immanent (infusing all of nature) but sometimes also simultaneously transcendent (existing independently of the material world). Many Goddess authors agree and also describe Goddess as, at one and the same time, immanently pantheistic and panentheistic. The former means that Goddess flows into and through each individual aspect of nature--each tree, blade of grass, human, animal, planet; the latter means that all exist within the Goddess (Starhawk 1979, Laura 1997, Christ 1997).

Starhawk (1979:77) also speaks of the Goddess as both a psychological symbol and "manifest reality. She exists and we create Her" (italics hers). Laura (1997:175) describes Goddess as being interactive. Possibly building on Mary Daly's (1973 and 1978) suggestion that the divine be understood not as a Being (noun), but as Be-ing (verb), Carol P. Christ (2003), shows the similarities between Goddess thealogy and process theology, and suggests that Goddess thealogians adopt more of the process viewpoint.

Aristasian religion[1], on the other hand, states strongly that the Mother created us, that She exists independently of human beings and is the First Cause of all things.

[edit] Ethics

Although the Goddess movement has no Ten Commandments dictating a specific code of behavior, there are commonly held tenets and concepts within the movement that form a basis for ethical behavior. (Christ 2005) Those participants in Goddess spirituality who are Wiccan/en, follow the Wiccan Rede: " 'An it harm none, do what ye will," and the Wiccan belief that "what you send, returns three times over," (Starhawk 1979). Some traditions believe that this means it will be returned to you three times, or in a portion three times as big, while others say it will instead be returned to you on three levels of being- physical, mental, and spiritual.

Some people in the Goddess movement honor the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The Maiden aspect of the Goddess shows women how to be independent and strong; the Mother aspect shows women how to be nurturing; and the Crone aspect shows that respecting elders is important and focuses on wisdom, change, and transformation.(Starhawk 1979)

Because the Crone aspect of the Goddess is understood by some to at times be destructive, some consider it to contain both positive and negative imagery and to present an ethical quandary. The Hindu Goddess Kali, or Kali Ma, is often seen as an example of the Crone aspect. She is often mistaken as a cruel goddess by those ignorant of the Hindu tradition. But Kali is seen in India as the dark and destructive aspect of harmonious balance. The concept is that the corrective force in a dark age must be a righteously directed dark force. Thus, to combat the demons of ignorance, ego, anger, etc. the darker aspect manifests. Later on even her fierce image softens in the love of her devotees. Her duality is easily reconciled with the monism of Hinduism, which understands the fundamental unity of truth as being impersonal and stratified in an ego-knotted existence (such as the human condition), and thus to the evil or unrighteous she is destruction personified and to the loving and moral devotee she is nothing but the love of the mother. (Jayran 2000)

Other Goddess ethical beliefs are that you don't harm the interconnected web of life,and that peace and partnership should be the goals, rather than war and domination. According to Goddess theologian Carol P. Christ the following are ethical touchstones: "Nurture life; Walk in love and beauty; Trust the knowledge that comes through the body; Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering; Take only what you need; Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations; Approach the taking of life with great restraint; Practice great generosity; Repair the web." (Christ 1997:167).

[edit] Prehistoric Cultures

The Goddess movement draws some inspiration from archeological and anthropological findings (Gimbutas 1974 and 1989, Mellaart 1967) claiming that Neolithic and some later cultures were not patriarchally-structured; that is, they were not based on domination and almost always included reverence for the divine embodied as female.

Heide Gottner-Abendroth, working in the 1970s to mid 1980s and writing originally in German, called these cultures matriarchies. She presented what may have been the first cross-cultural analysis of the transformation of prehistoric cultures in which the local Goddess was primary and the male god, if there was any, derived his power from the Goddess. In what she terms the "Downfall," which occurred at varying times in various cultures, the gods overcame the goddesses and made them subservient. (Gottner-Abendroth 1987)

There seems to be some difference in North American and European nomenclature. The term "matriarchy" to describe these cultures has been rejected by many Goddess movement authors, especially those in North America, because it implies female domination as the reverse of the male domination present in patriarchy. These authors point out that such a reversal was not the case, but rather these prehistoric cultures had a more egalitarian form of social structure that included matriliny, that is, parentage traced through the mother (Eisler 1987, Gimbutas 1989, Christ 1997, Dashu 2000). According to Eisler, cultures in which women and men shared power, and in which female deities were worshipped, were more peaceful than the dominator societies that followed. Eisler proposed the terms "dominator" and "androcracy" instead of "patriarchy," and "partnership" and "gylany" (taking the first letters of the prefixes gyne [female] and andro [male] and linking them with an "l") instead of "matriarchy." Others use the terms matrifocal (Christ 1997, Pollack 1997, Starhawk 1979) and matrix. Carol P. Christ (1997:58-59) writes, "The term matriarchy is not used by scholars who are aware of its controversial history."

Ian Hodder's reinterpretation of Gimbutas and Mellaart (2004) tends to question the existence of "matriarchal" or "matrifocal" cultures, as do a number of other academically-based archaeologists and historians (Hutton, 1991, Tringham & Conkey, 1998, Meskell, 1998, see also Eller 2000). It is less common outside the academy, see for instance Max Dashu, founder and director of the Suppressed History Archivesand others both outside of and within the academy (Dashu 2000, Marler 2003 and 2004, Rigoglioso 2002, Starhawk 2001).

[edit] Earth As Goddess

Parvati, a Hindu goddess, is seen as sprung of earth, and fertility goddesses found not only in the Indian subcontinent but all over the world (Dexter 1990; 1997) attest to a widespread culture that associated the large and fertile mother figure with rich harvest and crops. In traditions that can be seen to stretch back at least until the early 1st millennium, Indian farmers will often see the welfare of their crops through the lens of their local goddess deity. (Jayran 2000)

The "Venus" or Goddess of Willendorf is one of the oldest known examples of a Goddess figure, many conclude to represent a Mother Goddess because of her large breasts and other motherly body features. Found near Willendorf, Austria in 1908, and estimated to have been carved 22,000 to 30,000 years ago, it shows a figurine with large breasts, and large, though not pregnant, belly (Pollack 1997: 63).

Many people involved in the Goddess movement consider the Earth to be a living Goddess. For some this may be figurative, for others literal. This literal belief is similar to that proposed by Gaia theory, and the Goddess-name Gaia is sometimes used as a synonym for the Earth. Many of those in the Goddess movement become involved in ecofeminism, and are concerned with environmental and ecological issues (Starhawk 1988). Goddess movement adherents claim the hierarchical scheme giving humans dominion over the Earth (and nature) has led to the lack of respect and concern for the Earth, and thus to what environmentalists feel are current environmental crises, (Eisler 1987) such as global warming. Rather than having dominion over the Earth, Goddess movement theorists see humans living as part of the Earth environment, and also refer to Earth as "Mother." (Budapest 1980, Starhawk 1979)

[edit] References

  • Bailey, Douglass. (2005). Prehistoric Figurines: Representation and Corporeality in the Neolithic. Routledge Publishers. ISBN 0-415-33152-8
  • Budapest, Z., The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries, Part II, Susan B. Anthony Books, 1980 and later editions.
  • _________, Rebirth of the Goddess, Addison-Wesley, 1997.
  • _________, She Who Changes, Palgrave MacMillan, 2003.
  • _________, The Laughter of Aphrodite, Harper & Row, 1987.
  • _________, "Why Women Need The Goddess," in Womanspirit Rising, Harper & Row, 1979, p.273.
  • Cohen, Daniel, "Iphigenia: A Retelling," in Christ, 1997, p. 179.
  • Daly, Mary, Beyond God The Father, Beacon Press, 1978.
  • ___________, Gyn/Ecology, Beacon Press, 1978.
  • Dexter, Miriam Robbins, Whence the Goddesses, Pergamon Press,1990.
  • Dexter, Miriam Robbins, “Earth Goddess” In Mallory, J.P. and Douglas Q. Adams, eds., The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997: 174.
  • Diner, Helen, Mothers and Amazons, (Introduction by Joseph Campbell, trans. John Philip Lundin), Julian Press, 1965.
  • Eisler, Riane, The Chalice and the Blade, Harper, 1987.
  • Eller, Cynthia, The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, Beacon Press, 2000.
  • Gimbutas, Marija, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, Thames and Hudson 1974 [1982].
  • _____________, The Language of the Goddess, (Foreword by Joseph Campbell), HarperCollins 1991 [1989].
  • Goldenberg, Naomi, The Changing of the Gods, Beacon Press, 1979.
  • Jayran, Shan, presentation at Goddess Studies Colloquium, Bristol U.K, 2000.
  • Gottner-Abendroth, Heide, Matriarchal Mythology in Former Times and Today (pamphlet), Crossing Press, 1987.
  • Greer, Mary K., Women of the Golden Dawn, Park Street Press, 1995.
  • Harding, M. Esther, MD, Woman's Mysteries, Longmans, Green and Co., 1935.
  • Henning, Jan and Cohen, Daniel, Hawk and Bard Reborn: Revisions of Old Tales, Wood and Water, 1988.
  • Hodder, Ian, "Catalhoyuk," Scientific American, January 2004.
  • Hutton, Ronald, The Pagan Religions in the Ancient British Isles, 1991.
  • Laura, Judith, Goddess Spirituality for the 21st Century, RTP/Open Sea, 1997.
  • __________, She Lives!The Return of Our Great Mother, Crossing Press, 1989
  • Long, Asphodel P., In A Chariot Drawn By Lions, Crossing Press, 1993.
  • MatriFocus A cross-quarterly web magazine for and by Goddess women.
  • Mellaart, James, Catal Huyuk, McGraw-Hill, 1967.
  • Meskell, Lynn, "Twin Peaks: The Archaeologies of Çatalhöyuk" in Goodison, Lucy and Christine Morris (ed.) Ancient Goddesses, 1998
  • Monaghan, Patricia, The Goddess Path, Llewellyn Worldwide, 1999.
  • Pollack, Rachel, The Body of the Goddess, Element, 1997.
  • Ranck, Shirley Ann, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven, Delphi Press, 1995.
  • Rigoglioso, Marguerite, "Women's Spirituality Scholars Speak Out: A Report on the 7th Annual Gender and Archeology Conference at Sonoma State," 2002, on http://belili.org/marija/rigoglioso.html, accessed 1/25/06.
  • Ruickbie, Leo, Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, Robert Hale, 2004.
  • SageWomanU.S.print magazine with online presence
  • Sjoo, Monica and Mor, Barbara The Great Cosmic Mother : Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, Harper and Row, 1987.
  • Spretnak, Charlene, Lost Goddesses of Ancient Greece, Beacon, 1978.
  • _________, The Spiral Dance, Harper, 1979 and later editions.
  • _________, Truth or Dare, HarperCollins, 1988.
  • Tringham, Ruth & Conkey, Margaret, "Rethinking Figurines: A Critical View from Archaeology of Gimbutas, the 'Goddess' and Popular Culture" in Goodison, Lucy (ed.) Ancient Goddesses, 1998

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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