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Discovering Goddess Spiritualityby Diane Rae Schulz |
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The re-emergence of the Goddess and feminist spirituality is women's response to our unfulfilled spiritual longing for a meaningful experience of religion, one which allows us to see the Divine as HER. The revival of ancient goddess lore and ritual manifest in woman-centered, celebratory religion is a reality, a many-faceted jewel shining in the gloom of modern life. Traditional patriarchal religions have granted women little if any possibility of realizing their unique spiritual gifts, much less empowering themselves. We have been relegated to second class status, confined to traditional gender specific roles as mothers and servants of men, and not admitted to leadership positions -- except in the rare instances of women who have created their own religions, such as Christian Science or Theosophy -- until very recently. With the resurgence of feminism in the 1970s, women began to question their own religious belief in patriarchally structured religion and have been successful in securing some minimal changes within their traditions. Women rabbis are now accepted in all but the Orthodox branch of Judaism, and in some Christian denominations women have the right to become ministers. In an early feminist critique, Changing of the Gods<, Naomi Goldenberg reminds us of how religion, by the nature of its symbols and images in ritual and doctrine, affects our social values and constructs: It is the psychic picture of Christ and Yahweh that inspires the loves, the hates and the behavior patterns of Christians and Jews.The psychology of the Jewish and Christian religions depends on the masculine image that these religions have of their God. Feminists change the psychological impact of Judaism and Christianity when they recognize women as religious leaders and as images of divinity. While the battle for women's equality goes on within traditional religious structures, the new Goddess spirituality movement has emerged with all the purity of a maiden waking after centuries, all the love of life of a devoted mother, and all the clear understanding of a wise grandmother. Putting the female in the center of the myth has an empowering effect on women, promoting and restoring the balance that has been lacking in society for the past 5,000 years, the so-called historical reality our society subscribes to. Goddess spirituality has emerged from both the neo-Pagan movement of the 1950's and New Age movement of 1960's, encompassing both pagan and Native American symbols and rituals. The term "pagan" comes from the Latin pagus meaning rural inhabitant, and was ascribed by the early Christian church, which was mainly an urban phenomenon, to peasants who practiced age-old nature worship of the earth, the elements, and the cyclical round of the seasons, a decidedly feminine based religion. They were agriculturists and depended on the earth and favorable weather for production of crops. As the word pagan began to be associated with anti-Christian over the centuries, an attempt was made by the ruling Catholic religious state, during the Middle Ages, to stamp out all those opposed to its ideology. What is referred to as the "Burning Times" by practicing pagans today, is known to most western students as part of the Inquisition, the "witch hunts". Midwives, herbalists, old women, widows, spinsters -- women who were not bound legally or socially to a man -- were suspected of worshipping the devil, were tortured and killed in great numbers, and as a result, pagan practices went underground, barely surviving the onslaught. Western culture underwent crucial changes that produced the particular brand of estrangement from the Soul/Whole that has characterized our Euro-American worldview until now. The indigenous people of the Western hemisphere, who were also worshippers of the earth and its cycles, are living with the results of the insatiable appetite for cruelty that male-centered society demands and supports against pagans of any kind. Self-empowerment is a key concept in understanding why some women are opting for goddess spirituality. In the secular world we know that empowerment is extremely important for women hoping to break the feminine stereotype of passivity and subordination that has been projected as our "natural" way of being. If the traditional religions support a subordinate position for women, then it follows that the society will reflect that belief. In reviewing a recent book, Living in the Lap of the Goddess by Cynthia Eller, Carol Lemasters writes: Eller succeeds in extracting five central elements of goddess spirituality: reverence for nature, the use of magic and ritual, a commitment to the empowerment of women, acceptance of the movementís sacred history of ancient matriarchies, and the use of gender as a primary mode of religious analysis. Sacred history here refers to a huge body of pre-historical archeological evidence of matriarchal societies combined with very early historical sacred writings about goddesses from Sumeria, Greece, Egypt and other cultures. The work of Marija Gimbutas, an archeologist who has contributed a wealth of pre-historic evidence of widespread goddess worship from at least 30,000 BCE, had this to say in The World of the Goddess, a highly informative video made in 1990 shortly before her death. The archeological record shows that the most ancient religion was goddess religion... I'm sorry to say that we do not find a father image in early history...we do not find any material to support a father...for a very long time we do not find evidence of the understanding of a the father's role in the reproductive process . . . for a very, very long time. . .do we know the beginnings? We actually cannot answer that question today. . .but we can see that the Paleolithic culture, which goes back 50,000 years, already was producing small flint carvings of triangles [pubic triangle is a goddess symbol] and goddess figures. Gimbutas shows how the same symbols which developed in Paleolithic times survived into the Neolithic, particularly in what she has termed "Old Europe", now the Balkan states, Southern Europe and the islands of the Mediterranean. She also described the cities of the Old European culture as being without fortification, particularly noting the absence of weapons. According to her theory, these peaceful, agricultural societies had existed for thousands of years until waves of Indo-European sky- worshipping, pastoral tribes began invading from the East, on horseback, from the end of the 5th millenium BCE. From the archeological evidence, it's easy to see that the two cultures were completely different. The invaders brought their love of conquest and weapons and their male gods. Islands such as Crete and Malta, which escaped the invasion because of their isolation, have produced overwhelming evidence of matriarchal, matrifocal, highly developed societies. Eventually, of course, a hybrid culture of these two evolved into the archaic patriarchal city states, the historical time we are usually taught was the beginning of civilization. Elinor Gadon, in The Once and Future Goddess writes: The Goddess was continuously worshiped for thousands of years (ca. 3500-500 BCE) in the ancient Near East during the ascendance and decline of civilizations that flourished and were conquered. Her names were many: Ishtar, Astarte, Anahita, Ma Asherah, but she was first known as Inanna, the beloved and revered deity of Sumer. . .Inanna played a greater role in Sumerian myth than any other deity. . .Inanna's story has been restored. . .[from]fragmented cuneiform tablets comprising the Cycle of Inanna. .. The Hymn to Inanna was sung at the sacred marriage rites between the Goddess and the Sumerian king to ensure the fertility of the land and to legitimize the king's rule. The sacred marriage (hieros gamos) was celebrated annually throughout the Near East . . .The cosmic powers of the Goddess had to be transferred to the king to ensure his powers of leadership and fertility. Alas,
historical evidence shows that the Goddess' position slowly
changed from that of the supreme deity to the wife or mother
of the male deity, eventually resulting in the loss of her
power to create of and by herself. In some mythologies the
Goddess is raped or killed and dismembered. As male gods
gradually took prominence, worship of the great goddess, and
respect for women, became virtually nonexistent. Ultimately,
with the rise of monotheism, religious functions and
interpretation of the sacred became male dominated. Merlin
Stone, in her well known, ground breaking book, When God
Was a Woman, writes of the process women are going
through as they re-discover themselves as representatives of
the Goddess. Feminists concerned with goddess spirituality have seldom offered absolute or pat answers to theological questions. What has been happening is the experiencing . .. of these personal or group experiences: how it feels to regard the ultimate life-force in our own image -- as females; how it feels to openly embrace and to share our own contemplations .. .how it feels to gain a sense of direction, a motivating energy, a strength, a courage -- somehow intuited as coming from a cosmic female energy force that fuels and refuels us. -- The importance of experiential worship is a key component of goddess spirituality. Carol Christ, another feminist thealogian, discusses the importance of experience as opposed to objectivity. The ethos of objectivity, a product of the Enlightenment, is a worldview that is rooted in the myth that objective thought is possible and desirable. The mythos behind the ethos of objectivity is the story that mankind's route out of the mire of superstition, gnorance, and barbarism is rational thinking guided by universal principles...The ethos of objectivity is the root of the scientific method . . . the ethos of objectivity tells us that dispassionate, rational analysis is the bulwark of civilization, whereas subjectivity and passion open the floodgates of irrationality and chaos. She suggests that feminists instead employ "embodied thinking" as an alternative to objective thought: "...embodied thinking enlarges experience through empathy. Empathy is the act of putting ourselves in another's place. . .Empathy is possible because we have the capacity to make connections between our lives and those of others." Starhawk, a licensed minister of the Covenant of the Goddess, writes in an early work, The Spiral Dance, Witchcraft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology . . . the inner knowledge literally cannot be expressed in words. It can only be conveyed by experience. . .Goddess religion is unimaginably old, but contemporary Witchcraft could just as accurately be called the New Religion. The Craft, today, is undergoing more than a revival, it is experiencing a renaissance, a re-creation. Women are spurring this renewal, and actively reawakening the Goddess, the image of the legitimacy and beneficence of female power. The practice of goddess spirituality can take many forms, from constructing a small altar or meditation space in one's home, to participating in ritual circles with other women, to large seasonal celebrations which include men and children. My first experience of the practice of goddess spirituality was an all women's Samhain (Halloween) spiral dance six years ago. The ritual involved meditation on the goddess Hecate, the dark aspect of the triple goddess, the goddess of death and rebirth, and it culminated in a whirling spiral dance -- scores of women of all ages holding hands and singing, weaving in and out, re-enacting an ancient celebration of the power of women. I left the gathering feeling uplifted, energized, and reassured of women's unique spiritual unity. As Hallie Iglehart writes in Womanspirit (1983), the experience of ritual is "an integral and essential part of human existence. We treasure both old and new repeated rituals because they give us a sense of our own continuity." Felicity Artemis Flowers' ritual class, "Introduction to Goddess Religion", turned out to be an excellent way for me to take part more directly in a circle of healing and empowerment. The circle was composed of women of all ages, including a mother and her pre-teen daughter. Felicity began by sharing the story of her own journey to the goddess. She credits Z. Budapest, a European witch who has become very popular in this country, with her awakening. Felicity was involved in the feminist movement at the time (1970s) and secretly hoped that goddess spirituality would be incorporated into the movement. She talked about the three things she finds necessary for understanding the power and practice of goddess religion: First is being Self identified as a woman, as a source of life giving. Second is being Earth identified: "If a religion doesn't specifically tell us to worship the Earth, it's telling us not to." And the third is informing your values by this identification. "In goddess religion, we don't pray to Her, we identify with Her. We must reclaim the goddess in ourselves through experience, letting our emotions flow like water." This Woman Identification process is a Be-coming. We have to re-vision our society and become tools for evolution. Felicity spoke at great length of the history of both ancient goddess religion and of patriarchal religions. She listed three main components of patriarchal religion: 1) Power over others, 2) Strict adherence to dualism, and 3) The view that only the afterlife is good, not earthly life. By contrast, "the Dianic tradition is the embodiment of action, activism. Diana/Artemis is the symbol of a goddess who is free, naked, alone and SAFE." Felicity related this to the issue of rape and violence in our society, showing how goddess religion and politics can co-exist. The session ended with a ritual. We stood, holding hands, around a central table with a candle, a crystal, an apple, a mirror, a chalice and flowers. In the candlelight she led us through a visualization of ourselves as goddesses drawing energy from the molten core of the earth up and out through the tops of our heads. We chanted and hummed "Ma" throughout. Then we passed around the mirror, saying as we looked into it, "I am the goddess", then turned it to the next woman, saying, "You are the goddess". Following that we passed the crystal and individually asked for a blessing for someone else; then the chalice symbolizing the power of the womb, and the apple signifying our reclaiming of the power of knowledge. Finally we closed with a song about women's power. Truly an inspiring evening of ritual! Felicity offers classes in Witchcraft and is the founder of Artemis Institute "dedicated to the spiritual empowerment of women. Artemis Institute offers classes, workshops, seasonal and full moon rituals, and many other events that honor women's lives and our sacred connection to the earth." Another gathering I attended recently was a talk and slide show by Leslie McIntyre, who calls herself a "Shemama" to distinguish herself from a shaman. The event took place at Milk & Honey, a shop devoted to the goddess located in Sebatopol, California. Leslie had recently returned from a tour of ancient goddess sites in Crete, Malta and Egypt. We all sat on the floor with the sweet fragrances and beautiful artwork of the shop surrounding us. "I think goddess spirituality is a verb," she said, "to goddess -- as in, I'm goddessing well today." She had made the trip to get in touch with our ancestors. She feels that we white people have lost the connection and can no longer see the ancestors, whereas other cultures still revere and feel them. Her focus was the worship of the Dark Goddess of Africa, which spread all over the ancient world. "Now is the time for the resurgence of the Dark Mother's values of justice and equality. If we can access our African origins, we can open ourselves up to that lost connection." We watched a slide show of her trip, then spent a few moments meditating on the goddess in the still dark room. Leslie's energy is very soft and flowing, like a great mother's love. These personal experiences have reassured me that although the violent world that patriarchy has created may seem to be the only reality, our recognition of the Goddess and our participation in ritual circles in celebration of Her is bringing to light the alternative reality, not one dedicated to War, but one grounded in reason, justice and love of the earth and her children. At a book signing I attended this spring, Jean Shinoda Bolen, a feminist Jungian psychologist and writer, gave us a preview of her forthcoming book, due this month, The Millionth Circle, which "depends upon a simple hypothesis: when a critical number of people change how they think and behave, the culture will also, and a new era begins . . . Eventually these collective experiences will cause our entire culture to undergo a foundational shift." This message made me tingle with anticipation. The circle has forever been the symbol of wholeness, in my mind associated with ritual, shared consciousness and healing. The prospect of interlocking circles encompassing the globe offered stunning possibilities for cultural transformation. May it come soon, and, as we say at the end of our ritual circles, in one voice: Blessed Be!
(This article was originally presented as a paper for a class in Women's Studies at Sonoma State University.) |