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I'd like to think Starhawk is onto something valuable here. There is already a small and rapidly growing Pagan movement in Israel that has been restoring worship of the goddesses indigenous to the land like Asherah. Considering how the God of Abraham has been implicated in a lot more bloodshed than peacemaking there, why not give the Goddess a chance?

All the Israeli Pagans I know of come from Jewish backgrounds, like Starhawk. There have been hints of Arab Goddess revival in the Middle East too, but little information because of the extreme secrecy needed, especially when it's a question of uppity Arab wimmin.

So I dream of Arab and Jewish Pagans miraculously getting past the barriers that separate them... and joining together in the worship of the land's Goddesses that they all share in their common ancestry, to cooperate in working toward peace. I have a CD of Israeli Pagan songs with the same phrase sung in Hebrew and Arabic: "One hug per day brings peace that will last" - hibuk ehad le-yom mevi' et ha-shalom / mu`anaqah wahdi fi yom bi-halli al-salam yadum.

I'm a female druid priest and my only objection is that people are saying "women need the goddess" as if exchanging a God for a Goddess is the answer to the suppression of women. There have never been any historically documented cases of matriarchy (save a few in India) and certainly no Great Goddess cultures. Goddesses and Gods were worshipped together equally, male and female, fulfilling the same roles as each other. I object to the misandrist feminists who tell me I can't worship my Gods just because they are male; that this vague "Goddess" is the only way to go because I'm biologically female.

Equality, not matriarchy, is humanity's future.

Historical developments in American religion suggest that women have often been at the forefront of new religious movements. The Shakers, Christian Science, Seventh-Day Adventism, and Wicca, just to name a few, are some of the new religions that were founded by women. Aimee Semple McPherson was the most well-known Pentecostal minister of her day, and African-American women have an especially long history of missionary work to Africa ever since the late 1800's. Moreover, women have always made up the majority of churchgoers in the U.S. So, at least in the United States, the history of women in religion is more complex than many seem to think. Susan Sered's award-winning book "Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister" discusses these events in some detail, as well as woman-religion around the world.

Being a jewish woman, you have neglected the hindu tradition of worshipping women gods, nay, goddesses.

If I be honest to you, sister, there is but one goddess, the mother of all the living things, including us, humans, of course. We humans are wendowed with something so superior that the rest of the living creation has no way to compete with us.

the human intelligence, human mind endowed to think and create unimaginable things, All the scientist's brain cells do not differ from us ordinary folks of both sexes, yet they are our avantgarde creationists. If we do not think about, or just about anything imaginable, we may suffer the same fate of the animals.
Religion, whatever that curious thing may be doing to us as humans is not doing enough as people have encased their religions or their separate but equal, to them, branches of the mother religion. They restrict our independent think, the power of reasoning and finding what is good for us, as individuals, not as masses following the dictates of some ancient seer, guru, god, god's only son who sacrificed himself to pay the price of our sins.

Nobody thinks.

Why would any religion straight its theology, its message, its bonafide articles of religion? The Cristianity, islam, jewish traditions and their now famous book of laws governing every aspect of their followers' lives.

All this makes me mad.

Hinduism, however, has not bothered to put great stress on "How to," where at, whys and why-nots of western religions, islam judaism have that bad habit.

person of intelligence may or may not follow the strict rules of the religion and yet be a part of the tradion, suitably modified for their best outcome.

We, Hindus, have a long and very stable tradition of worshipping a female goddess. She could be your Kali, with several arms carrying weapons and dancing on the cadaver of god shiva whom she had beheaded and the head, dripping with fresh blood, her toungue hanging out for more blood, all crimson red and the whole stance and demeanor of her image must be the readon her followers worship her.

I wish I had a mother like Kali, taking care of me, solving my personal problems and facing all kinds of my enemies with weapons and showing action at the cost of her beautiful face.

The women goddesses carry a special meaning to many rich and poor worshippers. It is the first authority figure who not only loves them dearly but is willing to take a sword, proverbiallly speaking, of course, to defend her child, her ward till the person, the child attains enough wherewithal to take of themselves. There are nine of these women goddesses. They are not all, cruel. Some look as good or better yet, better than one's own mama.

The women goddesses include, Godess of knowledge, Saraswati, goddess of wealth, money and prosperity, Lakshmi, Bhadrakali is a new and improved version of cruel and fearful Kali. Bhadra, in Sanskrit means, Good deed.

Hope you guys got some original and interesting information about women gods of india.

Sid harth

Hello Starhawk,

I think that women need the Goddess, instead of relying on a male deity or male dominated religions, which like it or not, are dominated by men. Therefore, they can control women through their sprituality, which is very damaging. This leads to viewing women and their once a month bodily functions as evil or "unclean". Girls usually learn about their monthly cycle in an air of secrecy, they learn to be ashamed of it. Boys, on the other hand, are celebrated when they reach maturity. Most things female are suppressed and looked down on, and living in society as a female is challenging because of it.
Thank the Goddess for women like Starhawk to introduce women like me to the divine in every woman!

Blessed Be

I'm a huge fan of Starhawk. There, I just needed to say that since this seems to have turned into a discussion of Starhawk's popularity!

Women have fared excerably under religion for thousands of years. The world's current major religions all opress women. Beyond that, women need, as Starhawk's example from her own life demonstrates, the Goddess. For political, as well as personal, reasons:

"Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir was well aware of the function of patriarchal religion as legitimater of male power; she wrote, "Man enjoys the great advantage of having a god endorse the code he writes; and since man exercises a soverign authority over women it is especially fortunate that this authority has been vestred in him by the Supreme Being. For the Jew, Mohammedans, and Christians, among others, man is Master by divine right; the fear of God will, therefore, repress any impulse to revolt in the drowntrodden female."

From "Why Women Need the Goddess" by Carol P. Christ in The Politics of Women's Spirituality ed. by Charlene Spretnak

~waves~ Hi, Ba'al!

This was a very well written article. I myself am not a huge fan of Starhawk's either but she wrote this well. I tend to believe that the way that you see the Divine is a representation of your innermost self. I could be wrong but that is how I feel. Be Blessed.
Love, Light, and Peace to All.

William:

Starhawk's theology does honor men; her focus just isn't on men in this essay. Her focus is on women, and how and why they have come to where they are in the current global religious arena (reference the initial question). I know that sometimes it is difficult for men to see that there is no implied denigration when they are not the subject of the discussion. It just means that they are simply not the subject. In this particular discussion, they are the object -How and why do they / have they affected women? (as a corrolary to the original question) Women's roles and experience are being examined as subject rather than object or vehicle for male transformation, as is so often the case. Women do not have an automatic position of privilege or power within the tradition; they just are not automatically dismissed due to their reproductive organs and physical presentation. If one reads the most recent addition of Starhawk's Spiral Dance, including the updated endnotes, one will see that she takes a decidedly post-modern approach to gender interpretation now-a-days, with the recognition of "masculine" and "feminine" as constructed categories that ARE NOT inextricably linked to the sex of male and female, respectively. Each individual is an interesting and unique mix of these attributes.

I thought it was a very nice article...and I am not a huge fan of Starhawk. I thought The Spiral Dance was very hard to get through and it took me a very long time to read it.

But this article I found was very good. I think that the way Mr Anderson took the article was indeed unintended. We see the divine in all aspects of life and in male and female for without each other, life would cease to continue for our race.

Peace my friends.
Peace.
Linda

Beati pacifici - Blessed are the peacemakers

As much as I value the work of Starhawk (both her books and her political activism), there are times in which I can only shake my head.

"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 are two points with this statement that I have a problem with. The way this is written they neither denigrate nor honor men. Should both sexes be a reflection of the Divine, then both should be honored.

The second point is more of a question. Do then women have an "automatic position of privilege—unearned, assumed authority"?

It is perhaps un-intentional that this passage can be taken this way. It is, however, this sort of comment that makes me wonder, if my fears, that a form of Mono-Thea-ism is developing out of Starhawk's work, are not without basis. Mono-ism is not an optimal choice, we have seen that over the last few millinia.

I pray for a balanced future.

BB

William

The twin archetypes (male and female) dance around the pregnant void. Their event horizon is the place of birth and death, where the moth circles in upon the flame to strip form to emptiness radiating light.

It is a tremendous pity that for most the sense of naked apprehension and boundlessless is sublimated into dead symbols. The symbols must burn to reveal the creative centre, which being incapable of representation is the pure all-present brilliant presence.

Without conflict and neither supreme, the two together dance form from emptiness until form is drawn once more through them into the moth's flame.

Anonymous, perhaps you missed this part:

"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."

Since Starhawk was raised Jewish, I'm sure that she's well acquainted with the story of Esther. Like reading it at every Purim, I suppose. Please don't assume that because a person chooses not to follow the Bible, it doesn't mean that they're ignorant about it. Most Pagans could tell YOU more about the Bible than your Christian minister could.

In the extraordinarily unlikely event that there is some sort of unique deity in the universe, its very uniqueness would make the idea that it has gender meaningless.

The supernatural beliefs of humans typically have representations of gender since this is central to our biology, and these representations often conform to or reinforce prejudices of all sorts. It would be better to jettison all of it.

Not just a Goddess in a skirt? Good for you. clap clap clap....I had a wiccan lover once upon a time. She was a beautiful, and very troubled soul. Through her life I was taught the horrors of rape, as she was raped by two men over an extended period of time in every orifice they could fill. she was battered, bruised, and bitten. it was as if the two animals had violated part of me too. all i could do was be as supportive as i could. she would not contact the authorities. i contacted rape counseling for advice on how i could help her. eventually she got back on her feet. rapidly actually which i think gives some account of the horrors of her life and times. once she was back on her feet, we eventually went our own separate ways. ways that never should have intersected in the first place. this bad choice i made was the result of another opening, or rip in the fabric of trust. a lie, this time a significant lie my significant other had told me. May God...however you imagine her to be dressed or not...smile upon you lady witch and do not ever lecture others on how to visualize God...ever.

Someone, I always say when ya can't think of anything bad to say about someone then talk about somebody else. lol

Interesting essay. The notion of Gods and Goddesses probably has female roots dating, as stated at least 5,000 year back and further. Of the genders females are the true believers in my experience and no matter the JCM sect they tend to add in at least astrology and usually a lot more anyhow. Why not eliminate the background noise? If there's going to be religion this one looks as good as any to me. Where do I sign up?

If you d not have anything nice to say, why say anything at all?

Hi Starhawk, you should read The Book of Esther! It's A wonderful story of a poor woman who became Queen, saved her people from certain death and became more powerful then the King himself!

I'm sure you would appreciate a story about such a courageous woman as Queen Esther.

I know I am.

Peace,

Starhawk,

A fine essay. But how did you and the WaPo let the misspelling get by in the first line? It should have been "fared," not "faired."

A believer in any MAN'S religion!
Never! All the cults, organized religions that
have no respect for women, I wonder why so many join these clubs of injustice. Women do not follow in blind step with all that holy scat!
Be the Goddess we are and give them nothing.

I'm glad to finally see a Goddess worshipper represented among all of the Judeo-Christian-Moslem "On Faith" writers. Starhawk's writing is very powerful, and speaks to all women regardless of their beliefs. While I don't always agree with her methods of political activism, I applaud Starhawk for "walking the walk" of social justice. The Divine is both male and female - and none.

Blessed be!

(Hi Lumara!) I'm happy to see Starhawk's thoughts in a new forum, as well. My first copy of "The Spiral Dance" is dog-eared and well-loved. I've been perusing the comments from all the postings and am so very pleased that the over-all tone from the Pagan community is one of good humor and compassion. Fundamentalists come in all flavors; it is perfectly possible to be a fundamentalist pagan or atheist or follower of any doctrine; it just requires a rigid adherence to one concept or thoughtform. For me, Paganism isn't so much about belief; it's about being open to the experience and expression of the underlying energies of the life force and power inherent in the Land and allowing that experience to shape itself into a conscious collaboration - to become one with what I choose to call the Sacred Intelligence and yet, to remain myself. If I think I already know the truth, how will I recognize it should it come in a different form? Is it really necessary to feel certain of what may or may not happen after death? Can we simply, in the immortal words of Iris Dement, "Let the Mystery Be?"

I was delighted to learn that Starhawk will be posting regularly at this Newsweek/Washington Post website. Her book "The Spiral Dance" had a profound effect on me years ago by showing a new perspective on some powerful spiritual experiences I've had. I will be visiting regularly to see what she has to say. Blessed be!