While the Goddess spirituality movement runs alongside the women’s and feminist spirituality movements, I am certain the Goddess herself looks on with wonder and pride at Her creations. I am sure that it pleases Her to see women so devoted to self-sovereignty, and the fierce determination to get out from under the lash of patriarchy, to stand as women together, united in our passion for a better world.
While I know in my heart that we are continually held in the mind of the Goddess, I am called to wonder, how often is She in ours?
Though we make great strides together in our common goal of freedom and peace, some of us seem to be less at peace than ever before; there seems to be an undercurrent of loneliness, of disconnection. Lately, I’ve been thinking, it is at least possible that the thing that keeps us up at night is less about the state of the world, and more about the sometimes tenuous connection with our Mother. We may be so focused on self-empowerment that we have forgotten that there is another power, a “higher power” if you will. And She wants to commune with us.
Part of our getting out from under the crush of the patriarchy has been to abandon male god centered religion. For too long we have been taught that even in the spiritual realm, it is men who oversee us and our souls. A potential problem arises when we leave that behind without a sufficient substitute, which can lead to religious and spiritual freefall. Sometimes we stand in such defiance of the language of patriarchal religion we can become disconnected from the ideas beneath the words. But what if there was a better way? What if we could have a reclaiming of religious and spiritual terms, for our benefit, for developing our connection with our Creatrix?
The Oxford Dictionary defines worship as “the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity” and “to show reverence and adoration for (a deity); honor with religious rites.” Yet some of us developed the idea that “worship” means being subservient or groveling on our knees, an idea supported by followers of a wrathful and punishing male godhead figure. I would suggest that worshipping Goddess is entirely another animal. For part of my own worship is the understanding of Her power, that She is, indeed, a power much greater than my human self. For myself and for all women, that Power that creates worlds is always at our back.
The word “religion” itself often leaves a bad taste in the mouths of women if we associate the word with the whole world of patriarchy. However, if taken alone and out of context, religion simply means “the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, a particular system of faith and worship.” Religion as a concept can be divorced from the current religious climate. If we are dedicating time to the development of our spiritual lives we are, in fact, practicing a Goddess religion.
Part of my own rituals of the Goddess is to tell Her I love Her, often. It is the simplest of prayers but the one that instantly makes me feel connected. I also spend time at the various altars in my home, bend to kiss the ground outside my door, make offerings, and write and perform rituals in Her honor. Goddess religion allows me to develop my practice in any way that I wish, there is no doctrine to conform to. I don’t think She requires these things from me, and I certainly will not be punished if I don’t perform. I do it because it makes me feel close to Her. I do it because, as Thomas Merton so eloquently said, “…I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.”
There are many other religious and spiritual terms that have become warped by circumstance, they deserve another look, and for each woman to ask herself, “What do these terms really mean to me? What could they mean for me?” Words like miracle, reverence, devotion, humility. We get to personalize our definitions in ways that work for us, and us alone. We can make room in our hearts for awe and reverence.
BIO: Kelly J. Applegate-Nichols is a Ministerial Priestess, writer, poet, researcher, and the host of the popular Girlfriend God Podcast. She lives among the cornfields and big open sky of Central Illinois with her wife Cindy and their fur children Bella and Ruby.
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I really like this essay… good point: “We may be so focused on self-empowerment that we have forgotten that there is another power” I think there is an element of hidden desperation here that is not acknowledged – and why not – women are all under fire, so no blaming please…. curiously the root of the word religio is to link back – to what we have lost? I think we need to let go of patriarchal religions that keep us stuck, but that is only my opinion. The goddess is about WHOLENESS – She also resides in nature – is Nature from this naturalists point of view. And nature’s cycles define her rituals.. or can depending on individual practice. I find aligning myself with the 8 spokes of the year work best for me. There’s something else that disturbs me… it seems as if the power of the goddess is diminishing in some way…. I remember when I first came to the mountains before forest strip logging began (rape). I had horrible dreams of trees disappearing which of course later came true…but I also sensed something more sinister – for lack of a better word – my dreams told me that the animals were leaving along with the trees… that it would be more difficult to keep HER with me as time went on…It’s not that I don’t feel a connection to Her/them it’s just harder to get into that place for long. Rightly or wrongly I do blame the energy of this destructive culture for interfering with that which is timeless. The horrible thing is that like it or not we are connected and can’t escape what humans are doing – wars, endless murders, rape of women and children, destruction of women’s basic rights. I could go on here. We are living in dark times and this leaves us more vulnerable than before. STILL SHE LIVES.
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Still She Lives indeed. I hope it gives you some solace to know that I spend a lot of time with women who are finding their way home to Her. And I see a multitude of evidence that the tide is turning indeed. The Goddess is on the lips of more and more women every day. Great change is always preceded by great chaos. So hold on to your hat and your hope and to Her. She has a grand plan we cannot really know, of that I am certain!
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Thank you for this Kelly. We have a lot in common. I too honor Goddess at my various altars throughout my day, between clients, and simply to return to Center … which is, of course, where She resides. I think people reference Goddess “Spirituality” to distinguish Her worship form “Religion” since the “R” word is so fraught. Your clarifying thoughts on this are well composed and I hope it’s okay if I share them with the women I serve.
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Absolutely! Share away. I’m glad you found it inspiring and that together we women can embrace our own religion, sans the patriarchal overtones!
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What too many people do not know is God/Source is both divine mother and divine father God/Source, in fact it is divine mother who is responsible for manifestation. I grew up believing that the holy trinity was, the father (God was a man, apparently in physical form-later learned God is energy non physical) the son, and the holy ghost. As it turns out, divine mother God is no holy ghost after all and, we are son’s and daughters of God/Source. I believed that we came from ribs of men, you can’t make this stuff up and, later learned first there was Seswan then there was Wakun, which made sense seeing women birth men, men do not birth women. Turns out their is lots of crazy shite going around! The exciting news is that people are becoming self realized and self actualized, these are exciting times for women!
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Thanks for your comments Cate. I took was raised that way. Like you, I also believe in a singular Source that, of course, contains both masculine and feminine energy, just as we ourselves contain both. But, as you say, only females can birth anything, so it stands to reason that Source is the Divine Feminine. Plus, research has shown that the earliest recorded spiritual and religious beliefs were female in nature. For me, I need to see Source as feminine in order to feel spiritually and emotionally connected. And, with the state of the world being what it is, we need Her now.
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I saw the Godhead, they say that your head needs to be and mine was, my desire was that great. I saw God/Source is pure love, beyond description, this is all I can say. We can talk to God/Source talks to us of course, my take is that God is just waiting for us to show up and my take is that god/Source speaks to us in the sex of our choice, then I believed God was a man, perhaps it will be different next time, God/Source adores us so much, we are his/hers. I had so many delusional beliefs of course, just mad really, created by Catholic religion and schooling which sought to separate us from God/Source for the purpose of power/control, I had to earn brownie points to get to God, this creates untold suffering, we are separate from God, one another, plants animals Gaia, we are one and connected through the web of life, crystalline grid, we are crystalline consciousness, electromagnetic beings/spirit. Our wombs are conscious and the work of this lifetime is healing our womb and yeah our mother wound/which was actually created through patriarchy (Mary Daly covers this brilliantly in her book GYN ECOLOY), our wombs are connected to Devi, divine mother God/Source universal womb, through which all life is birthed. These are some things that I have been able to uncover, I have so much to learn.
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I agree with everything you said. I had a lot of mother wound healing to do on my path to Goddess. And I’m also a recovering Catholic. 🙂
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Yeah Kelly I think many of us have/had a mother wound, patriarchy actually creates psychopaths, girls, women are not ment to be mother, mothering is a verb not a noun, a role among many roles women perform. Try this, girls should be mother’s, some even become “mother”, domestic “caretakers” for everyone-responsible for people/everyone, for love of course. We have both our father and mother within us, to heal, (both were playing out their part in a patriarchal script- that was not them). I know first hand how wounds like narcissism, neurosis, psychopath, hysteria are created and the roots of these wound lie in what I term, patriarchal wounding. I am not one for medical labels, preferring to go to the root, the wound, how/what created this wound and healing the wound from this place/source in every case the wound circled back to patriarchy. We can not omit half of the human race, girls and women, and not expect psychological, spiritual suffering right. Part of womb healing is healing the mother wound, within our own wombs. Women are reflections of divine mother God/Source, connected to the universal womb that births all life, we and divine mother God are co-creators of life. The soul of a child enters through their mothers womb into the child, this is the moment of life-the breath of life. CO-creation at it’s best!
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Sorry, I ment to say, your head needs to be on fire and mine was, just means your desire is so great to see/know God/Source, I think trust is a huge part of knowing God, religion and earlier attachment issues can get in the way, this has been my humble experience. Why be afraid of God/Source, I was, perhaps others are as well. No need to be though God adores us, in all of our craziness, speaking for myself now, lol.
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