At the very beginnings of Western civilization, there were early cultures, egalitarian and peaceful, that honored the Goddess and whose arts and religious artifacts reflect their interest in the sacredness of nature and an orientation to life. These societies were long lasting—in places like Catal Huyuk they existed for thousands of years, and they originated agriculture, pottery, weaving, architecture—the arts and skills that were to be the basis of civilizations to come.

But they changed when culture and religion became more and more focused on war. Myths changed—from celebrations of the sacred marriages and sacred images of food, plants—to the imagery of warfare, with Gods as conquerors and Lords of Battle. Law and religion changed as well—and the results are still with us.

I was raised Jewish and still feel deeply connected to those roots. But as a young woman deeply interested in questions of the spirit, and always at the top of my Hebrew school class, I saw nowhere to go in Judaism. At that time, there were no women rabbis, cantors, and few women scholars. Women could teach Hebrew school, or head up Hadassah, or marry a rabbi, but that was about it. Of course, all of that changed a decade later with challenges from the feminist movement, but in the meantime I had found a community of people practicing the Old Religion of the Goddess.

The Goddess is not just God-in-a-skirt, she represents a different spiritual orientation, one which locates the sacred in this world, in the cycles of nature, in the body and all its processes, that sees sexual communion, birth, maturation, healing, and even death and decay as sacred processes.

As a young woman, it was tremendously empowering for me to find a spiritual tradition that honored my body and that encouraged me to take on roles of responsibility and leadership.

In our tradition, we honor women without denigrating men, and there are also many wonderful, powerful and empowering men in our communities. But men do not have the automatic position of privilege—unearned, assumed authority—that they do in some other religions.

There isn’t space here to fully discuss this issue, but if you want to pursue this question further, I refer you to my own books, (see www.starhawk.org), especially The Spiral Dance and Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (HarperSanFrancisco, 1988) and our documentary on the work of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, Signs Out of Time. (Available from www.belili.org). Marija’s own books, The Language of the Goddess, The Civilization of the Goddess, The Living Goddess (with Miriam Dexter Robbins) are also excellent resources, as is Riane Eisler’s The Chalice and the Blade.