History of the Goddess
And Her Return in Modern Religion
Introduction
"Mothers of the Earth," "Queens of the Universe," "Queens of the Heavens," "Great Mother," "Bride," "Cerridwin," "Diana," "Hecate," "Sophia," "Erishkegel," even "Mary;" the names of the Goddess seem infinite. All are goddesses believed to be creators, destroyers, lawmakers, prophets, healers, hunters, war leaders, oracles, and truth-givers. Most of these names have been inherited by us in our contemporary Western world as mere relics, curiosities whom we read of in histories and myths written, mainly, by men. Their sacred stories no longer sacred, but turned into children's fables or anthropological specimens to be studied for what they say about "ancient man." Too often, because of this, the power of these names, the power of the entities which once claimed these names, has largely been forgotten. Their temples lay in ruins, the prayers forgotten, the devotion of those who DO consider themselves the "faithful" considered heathenish and superstitious.
Slowly, over the last few decades, however, we have begun to reclaim these stories. Whether you consider the ancient Goddesses to be living entities, manifestations of "The One," or psychological archetypes, it is irrelevant. The truth is they ARE re-entering our modern lives. From Saturday morning cartoons to statues standing proud atop capitol buildings, their influence is beginning once again to permeate our society, bringing with them all their power, anger, sensuality, charisma, and wisdom.
Why Now?
The reasons for Their return are many. The rise in feminism (in the truest sense of the word), politics, the lack of, demonizing, or marginalizing of women in most mainstreams world religions, even the technological advances that have given us more time to ponder the emotional and spiritual, rather than dedicating every waking minute to the world in order to provide physical sustenance have laid the groundwork for the Goddess' revival.
The Goddess calls to the dissatisfied, those who have found themselves outside the mainstream or disenfranchised from it for one reason or another. Perhaps we have always felt "different" without understanding the reason why; perhaps we've experienced some life-altering event that left us feeling alone and adrift in a male-centered religion; maybe we simply "ran into" another child of the Goddess by "chance" that sparked some interest or activated some touchstone within us. Perhaps the over-emphasis of the physical over the spirit, of technology over Nature, of the rational over the intuitive, of the primacy of the human over the animal has unleashed a backlash against the male-centered religions that are seen to promote this type of thinking.
Feminism, the women's fight for political and economic justice, has also sparked the return of the Goddess. As women struggle for equality, they are often confronted with established, patriarchal, and religiously-justified images of Woman as weak, sinful, subservient, and apathetic. Even today, news stories will state quite subtly that some aspect of our lives or our children's lives are the result of women working outside the home; weaving it into the story as though the idea is a true and accepted fact that we all obviously know.
As women seek to counter these established images and attitudes, may search through history, mythology, and religion for role models of their own. Some found stories of women, buried and misinterpreted, of Woman as warrior, scholar, Matriarch, and Goddess. Some of the images were found and reclaimed with mainstream religions include: Eve, Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Tamar, Abigail, Deborah, Judith, Jael, Esther, Miriam, Hannah; Elizabeth, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Thekla, tens of hundreds of Christian Saints; Khadijah, A'iasha, Fatimah, and the many Saints of the Sufi. And as the women's rights movement struggles to spread to other parts of the world, the women of Africa, Asia the Middle East, and South America are also turn into to books of religion, mythology, folklore for images of strong, determined women.
How Did It Happen?
In the beginning was Woman and Woman was All. Then She was not All, She was but One of Many, though still beloved and powerful and feared. Then, She was One of Many, but no longer powerful. Then, She was no longer She but she.
And so it went in the West and throughout much of the rest of the world. Pagan patriarchal warriors and priests brought word of their mighty (male) Gods; Jews and Christians and Muslims and Zoroastrians brought word of their One God; Buddhists declared women too-closely tied to the illusion of the world; and brothers and sons and lovers revolted against matriarchy and declared male to be above female, as evidenced by the "Divine."
The "Divine," though proclaimed to be beyond gender, or as encompassing both genders, was nonetheless referred to and portrayed by the masculine. Women suffered because of this. Woman lost the magic of her body, the power of her words, the wisdom of her mind. Her body was no longer magical, the source of pleasure and life; the first and original holy altar. Now it became the source of temptation and sin. Her words were no longer words of counsel and respect;, but seen as vain, frivolous, trivial. Her mind was no longer wise, creative, and inventive; now she was seen as empty-headed, and kept from education afforded her brothers.
But what of men? Did they really profit from the overthrow of the Goddess and the marginalization of women? Look at what society expected from men, which only now… with the resurgence of the Goddess… is beginning to be mitigated: men were not allowed to cry, to express sentimentality, to show feelings of any kind except perhaps anger, which was seen as wielding power. He was to work to "provide" and only what we could provide materially (which is what could be seen and touched), was worthwhile. The more material things he could call his own, or the more wealthy he had that -could- buy these material objects, the more powerful he was seen and the more validated as a man.
Popular opinion is that sociological culture is a pendulum. The pendulum swung, then, from matriarchy to patriarchy; from the cooperative ways of the Goddess to the aggressiveness of the God. Another opinion is to see the infancy of the world as the age of the Goddess as "Great Mother," when ancient man needed to feel safe and secure in some form. If that is the case, then perhaps this current age of patriarchy is akin to "adolescent rebellion," of finding our own two feet and feeling invisible in the process; feeling as though the entire Universe revolves around us and owes us everything. If that's the case, with the resurgence of the Goddess, could we be heading for a new age of maturity - an actual equality between God and Goddess, between male and female? We could only hope!
The Goddess through Story and Mythology
One of the foundations of Wicca is the Legend of the Descent; but Wicca isn't the only religion to have a descent legend In fact, the history of the Goddess (and the Goddess worshippers, as well as women in general), can be traced, I believe, in the religious stories and fables of cultures. The more ancient the story, the more likely it is that the Goddess appears as a "Great Mother," with or without a male consort. Often, one of her first creations is a male god with whom to share her existence, as in the Greek Goddess Gaia, Earth Mother, and Shekinah of the Jewish Cabbalists of old Moorish Spain.
As the male warrior culture arose, we begin to find the rise of descent legends. The changes are related in the myths: Nergal pulled Ereshkigal from Her underworld throne and forced Her into marriage. Zeus changed into a cuckoo, landed in Hera's lap, then changed back into His manly form and raped Her. The Aesir invaded the ancient lands of Scandinavia and drove the peaceful Vanir into exile. Often, the change was initiated by a powerful hero, usually the son of a God: Theseus destroyed the Goddess-worshipping civilization of Crete, Apollo wrested Delphi from Gaea. In a few instances, the change took place during recorded history: Akhnaton temporarily replaced the female-honoring faith of ancient Egypt with the monotheistic worship of the male Aten; the priests of Yahweh overthrew Jezebel and Athaliah, daughters of Asherah; and the Kaaba was taken from the Trinity of Al-Lat, Manat and Al-Uzzah and given to Their father, Allah.
The Goddess Within
We believe the spark of the Goddess is all around us in everything that lives, as well as within ourselves. We each hold a view of the Goddess in a different form, though, and that form may even change as we age, tackle life's obstacles, or experience a significant event of one type or another. That aspect of the Goddess helps us cope and/or understand and learn what is happening to or for us at that moment. At other times, we may feel we need to call upon the power and energy of a particular goddess for our magick, either as a Goddess who was worshipped in Her own right, or as an aspect of the Universal Goddess, the Great Mother.
We all know of the three aspects of the Universal Goddess: the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. And we'll discuss these aspects more as we get deeper into Her mysteries. For now, we're going to stay with the many, different aspects of the Goddess as seen in individual goddesses. Some view the goddesses as Archetypes, as potentials that exist in all of us, particularly women. Carl Jung stated that Archetypes are elements of the collective unconscious, and called them "living psychic forces that demand to be taken seriously" and went on to delineate several archetypes, such as The Hero, The Persona, The Self, The God/Goddess, etc. However, Jung felt it was necessary to understand which archetypes were working in our lives in order to control and eventually transcend them, and to not lose ourselves so far within the archetypes that it produced neuroses. We, on the other hand, seek understanding not to transcend, but rather to make the power inherent in these "living psychic forces" a part of our lives, controlling them only as they are expressed within and through ourselves, using them to become more, as an individual and co-creator of the environment around us.
Beyond functioning as predispositions in our personality behavior, we see archetypes as a source of spiritual wisdom, which can give us a sense of meaning in our lives. But, as above, so below… each goddess archetype has both strengths and weaknesses. When we find with which goddess we're most closely aligned and become aware of Her strengths and weakness, we call those traits into our own lives, reinforcing that which is already within our personality, and helping us to better cope with all that life can throw at us.
On the flip side, knowing which goddess (and the traits She embodies) who seems most alien to us, gives us a clue as to what is missing in our life, for whatever reason. There is usually one goddess aspect in our personality who's rejected or disowned because of her traits. When this goddess makes her presence felt in our lives, we're uncomfortable, we feel "off-balance" and experience stress. This goddess (referred to as the "shadow" in Jungian psychology) may rarely appear, but when she does it often leads to what we refer to as the "Dark Night of Soul." It's at these times we feel most uncentered, when our life seems to be in total chaos, and we feel alone, abandoned, and adrift. However, every Dark Night of Soul usually precedes some "aha!" experience of great importance in understanding some deep lesson in our life, or in finally getting rid of some heavy form of karma once and for all. Recognizing the "Shadow Goddess," and incorporating her strengths in our lives validates us as whole, complete individuals. We may not always feel completely comfortable with the "shadow" side of ourselves, but if we cultivate the strength it can bring and utilize that strength in a positive manner, we can not only learn control of our "baser instincts," but use them to lift ourselves out of untenable positions.