The spiritual beliefs and ritual practices of those who belong to the Goddess movement are essentially no different from those of Goddess feminists, and all Goddess feminists regard themselves as belonging to the Goddess movement. The difference between the two terms is one of emphasis: Goddess feminists explicitly stress their feminist politics whereas the term ‘Goddess movement’ draws attention to the spiritual or religious focus of the movement. It should be noted, however, that a feminist stance is fundamental to the Goddess movement and politics and religion are deeply integrated within it. The constituency of the Goddess movement includes more men than that of Goddess feminism, but women still far outnumber men within the Goddess movement.
The movement emerged in the United States in the late 1960s resulting from a confluence of neo-pagan ideas and practices with the spiritually-inclined portion of the women’s liberation movement. Feminist authors like Mary Daly, Merlin Stone, Naomi Goldenberg, and Carol Christ were influential in the movement’s early days, pointing out the damaging effects or irrelevance of male-identified religions, specifically Judeo-Christianity, for women, and championing an alternative woman-identified spirituality centred on the principle of the Sacred Feminine or ‘the Goddess’. Neo-pagan authors— Starhawk, Z.Budapest and a raft of others on both sides of the Atlantic—introduced elements derived from Wicca into the movement.
The movement grew rapidly and is now represented in all Western societies and some Asian ones. The estimated population in the US is 500,000 and in the UK is 110-120,000 (Griffin 2000:14). Along with most other branches of Neo-Paganism, the movement acknowledges ‘the Goddess’ as the pre-eminent symbol of divinity. It differs from Wicca and some other neo-pagan traditions in that the masculine principle or ‘the God’ is given little or no recognition, gender bipolarity is not an important belief, rituals are less formally structured and more creative, there is no long process of education and initiation into a group, and there is not the array of lesser divinities, spirit beings, elementals, fairies and so on.
Participants in the Goddess movement say that Goddess religion is the oldest religion of all, with origins that extend back into the Paleolithic age and a worldview which resembles shamanism. Drawing on archaeological, ancient historical and classical research, they claim that for many thousands of years the religions of European societies centred on the worship of a great Goddess who was responsible for the generation, nurturance and re-generation of all life: wild plants, crops, animals and humans. In these societies the human feminine, as well as the divine feminine, was revered, women and men shared power equally, and community life was non-hierarchical and largely peaceful. The earth was considered sacred, Her seasons and cycles reverently acknowledged and celebrated.
This way of life is believed to have changed drastically in the Bronze Age when several waves of Indo-Europeans invaded southern Europe bringing with them warrior gods and patriarchal social systems and dealing a fatal blow to the older peaceful, matrifocal, Goddess worshipping cultures. Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has detailed this scenario extensively in a number of books, and her research is widely quoted and highly valued within the movement. Archaeologists outside the Goddess movement, however, including feminist archaeologists, have recently strongly criticized Gimbutas’s methods and interpretations.
Nonetheless this history/mythology lends rhetorical power and inspiration to members of the contemporary Goddess movement, who claim that the time is now ripe for the Goddess’s re-emergence. The demise of the Goddess is deemed to have been closely tied to the demise of women’s position in society and the perspective which held the earth as sacred. Her return is seen as heralding a much needed re-valuing of women, a rebalancing of gender relations, a resacralization of nature and a re-conceptualization of human relations with the rest of the natural world.
The chief pre-occupation of the Goddess movement is to heal the damage caused by several thousand years of patriarchal religion and culture, especially its effects on women and the environment. Goddess rituals are created, often loosely based on a Wiccan structure (see Wicca), with the intent of empowering women to take control of their lives and to see themselves as divine.
The three core principles of Goddess religion, according to Starhawk (1989:10), are immanence, interconnectedness and community. Immanence relates to the belief that ‘the Goddess’ is embodied in all of nature, including each person. Interconnection refers to the idea that all beings are linked and interdependent with all others in the cosmos to create one organic, living system (see Gaia). Community—which includes not only people but also animals, plants, soils and oceans—is a natural culmination of the other two principles, emphasizing the need to live with integrity, responsibility and an awareness that preserving the earth is essential to preserving human life.
The movement is highly eclectic in its employment of myths, goddesses and ritual practices from ancient and contemporary religions. Goddesses—whether ancient Greek, Celtic, Native American, Hindu, or Maori—may be invoked or prayed to as deities or regarded as archetypes of womanhood or tools for insight and inspiration. Because of this borrowing from numerous religious traditions, the Goddess movement has been accused of appropriating the cultural property of indigenous peoples and of appropriating and reinterpreting the past to serve contemporary social and spiritual agendas. Some within the movement are also concerned about these issues.
