The Goddess Unmasked
Marjorie always thought of God as a judgmental "man in the sky who punishes you if you're bad and rewards you if you're good." Then she was introduced to the concept of the "goddess," a female deity who was "nurturing, mysterious, and loving like the earth, or like a mother." Goddess worship seemed to provide Marjorie with the mystical experience she'd never experienced in her lukewarm religious upbringing.
Rena, a middle-aged woman who was hurt and angered by a painful divorce, was led through a friendship with a kind older woman to join a group of 13 Wiccans. "We believed we could harness positive female energy for good," says Rena. "It was fun and different, and they were like my sisters." One of Rena's first assignments was to set up a home altar with a statue of a goddess.
Marjorie and Rena aren't the only ones drawn to goddess worship. According to a recent American Religious Identification Survey, 200,000 to 300,000 women actively practice it in the U.S., with numbers growing steadily. Many more nibble around the edges, intrigued by the promise of a religion that empowers women and values their spirituality. In fact, the Internet features thousands of websites devoted to goddess worship, as well as books, magazines, training camps, college courses, fairs, and membership groups, often called covens or groves.
An Ancient Religion Made New
Goddess spirituality, goddess worship, the sacred feminine, and the feminine divine all refer to a deity most often identified as "Mother Goddess" or the "Great Goddess." Other names used include Mother Earth, Gaia, Sophia, Artemis, Diana, and Isis. Often associated with the earth, the moon, and fertility, the goddess is usually described as an energy force inside every living and nonliving thing.
Popular writers such as Dan Brown and Sue Monk Kidd have helped to take goddess worship mainstream. Brown's The Da Vinci Code, a blockbuster novel with 50 million copies in print, falsely claims Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married, that Mary's special relationship to Christ endowed her with the true leadership of the church, and that she carried on an ancient tradition of special feminine holiness.
In her New York Times bestselling novel The Secret Life of Bees (slated to become a movie starring Dakota Fanning), Sue Monk Kidd tells the fictional story of motherless 14-year-old Lily, who escapes her abusive father to find comfort in a universal mother/goddess. Bees has sold four million copies and been translated into 23 languages.
Early in her career, Kidd identified herself as a Christian. But in her 1996 memoir, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Kidd describes a gradual awakening to a whole new identity that didn't include Christ. "My soul is my own," Kidd proclaimed. "It is all right for women to follow the wisdom in their souls, to name their truth, to embrace the Sacred Feminine. … She is in us."
Originally published in: Today's Christian Woman, 2007, May/June, Vol. 28, Issue 3, Page 30
Related Topics:
Evangelism, Goddess worship, New Age, Spirituality, Wicca
More from Susy Flory:
Kyria.com | Books
Join the Kyria.com Community!
Become a member to have access to the following:
- Full access to hundreds of other articles for thoughtful, influential women
- The monthly Kyria digizine, each issue focusing on a spiritual discipline or theme
- 20 percent discount on all of the downloadable resources in the Kyria Store
downloadable guides
Prayer and Meditation
Cultivating a deeper relationship with God.
Ministering to Working Women
How your women's ministry can better meet the needs of women who work outside the home.Browse More Guides
back to top
Average User Rating:
Displaying 1–5 of 68 comments.
See all comments
Tami M
My heart breaks for those women who have been driven away from Christ by those who claim to be His followers. I, too, have heard it all: God must be an actual man because we're made in His image and He became incarnate in the form of a male. Women are more foolish and need men to lead them. Women are not trustworthy...and on ad nauseum. Some day, the church will open it's eyes and see what it has done to those who hold up half the sky and repent. But until then, it will continue to drive women away. There is a reason that many women feel that God is a man in the sky waiting to gig them for doing wrong - or who just won't accept them because they don't have the right plumbing.
Robert Ishoy
The Church of SHE has been established just for this purpose. Worshiping the Goddess and her universal truths. To learn more go to the web site http://churchofshe.org
Inanna'sPriest
There is NO evidence that sacred prostitution was ever widespread in pagan societies. It was rare and in most societies virgin priesthood was the ideal (e.g. the "Vestial Virgins" of Rome. The Goddess herself was sometimes associated with chastity (Artemis/Diana for example).
The Last straw
"In ancient pagan centers of goddess worship, women often were forced to work as temple prostitutes in homage to the goddess." Where did you get your sources? Are you on drugs? As the "name" I chose implies, I have had about enough of the ingnorance of the Church being spread around to impressionable people, so I appolagize if this seems a bit harsh. The above quote is rediculous and quite obviously fabricated.
Jennifer
I appreciate this article for the fact that the author does not suggest pushing or condemning someone for different worship practices. In our church we use inclusive language and don't define God as a male or a female but mostly both! I'm not sure Jesus or God cares if we come to God looking for a mother, for a father, or a teachers, so long as we come to God.
Rate & Comment on this article *