To those who are aware of her presence, she has always been there, shrouded in mystery and yet near at hand… the Goddess has inspired countless artists throughout the centuries, yet it is today that she is being sought after with utmost desire and intensity, as if, all of a sudden, people started to remember a long-forgotten condition of harmony and balance.
The Goddess Spiritual Revival
In the last thirty years, many books about women, nature, politics and deity have been published. In the seventies, it was mainly feminists who wrote scathing words about God being a Goddess and Mother. The interest in the feminine side of God has been steadily growing among Jungian psychoanalysts, historians and archeologists, anthropologists and theologians.
A milestone of feminist scholarly research is Marija Gimbutas’ The Civilization of the Goddess, which was published in 1991 and was to become a monument to the history of the matriarchal society which existed before monotheism; that matriarchal society was replaced with a patriarchal model. Her theories have been opposed, as well as admired; their influence on contemporary spirituality, however, has been remarkable.
The rising of neo-pagan religions like Wicca, which have their centre in the worship of the Goddess, demands a deeper analysis of this new spiritual and social trend, which merges spirituality and politics and makes for a strong involvement in environmental and social justice issues as part of a holistic view of life.
Difference Between New Age and Goddess Spirituality
The followers of the Goddess religions see themselves as the children of both ancient and modern underground traditions and don’t like to be confused with new agers. Indeed, close observation of the two phenomena brings to the fore a major difference with regard to their respective attitudes towards the spiritual dimension and the powers of the individual.
While the New Age believes that through an appropriate use of personal power, will and positive thought, everybody can manipulate reality and transform it in order to achieve their personal goals and have a successful life, the Goddess worshipers — whether they are Christian, Buddhist, Wiccan or other — believe in the value of self-abandonment to a superior source of power, which is nurturing and positive, as well as mysterious and demanding.
A Balanced View of Life
The Goddess, the ultimate reality, both gives and takes and her path, among women and men alike, is becoming a strong catalyst for a different approach to personal and community life. Old patriarchal values with their oppositions between good and evil, masculine and feminine, spirit and matter are being left behind.
From a holistic point of view, which holds that everything in the universe is interconnected and interdependent, all black and white distinctions cannot give a realistic picture of reality and more often than not lead to all sorts of religious fundamentalism. Many women and men are increasingly recognizing this and opting out of this mentality, in order to embrace alternative points of view.
Those who choose the Goddess see themselves and everybody else as part of a universal web of life, where balance has to be preserved in order for the whole ecosystem to thrive. In this sense, Goddess spirituality has much in common with eco-friendly movements which see the earth as a nurturing mother; in fact the followers of the Goddess speak of the earth as the body of the Goddess herself.
Core Beliefs and Values of Goddess Spirituality
The Goddess movement is not uniform, as many organizations gather under this umbrella definition. However, some common beliefs and values can be outlined in the following manner:
- Every person is a manifestation of the Deity, which takes different creative forms in every creature.
- Freedom of belief and respect for everybody’s experience of the Sacred are defended.
- There are many paths up the mountain where Deity dwells and the gods and goddesses of world cultures are different embodiments of this truth.
- Caring has to replace exploitation and control.
- The Deity manifests in different forms around the globe, and God worshippers focus on its feminine aspect.
- The Earth is the Sacred Mother of All, the home of all that is.
- All creatures, human, animals, plants and minerals are interdependent.
- The retrieval of the feminine consciousness is to be fostered in order to save the planet and humanity from disaster.
- Feminine and masculine are two aspects of the same reality and have to be balanced.
- The feminine is that aspect inside every creature that creates and nurtures, cares and provides, thus favoring both inner and outer healing.
- Failing to acknowledge the feminine results into dominance, exploitation and damage.
- “Harm none” is the main ethical statement, whereby harmony, peace, love and joy follow.
The return of the Goddess is a sign of an increasing dissatisfaction with predominant values and attitudes. Those who believe in the Goddess see her as a strong power for transforming one’s consciousness and the world at large, even if they are aware that the Divine is beyond human definitions, whether masculine or feminine.
Source:
Ruether, Rosemary R. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: a Western Religious History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Print.
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