BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement (2024)

Goddess spirituality in Glastonbury

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Glastonbury is a small town in South West England with a big spiritual tradition. Some people believe that this is where Christianity in England began, and it's still a place of Christian pilgrimage; but it's become a centre for alternative spiritualities, too.

BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement (1)The Goddess Temple ©

Glastonbury now has a goddess temple, a sacred space set aside for the exploration and celebration of the Divine Feminine. The Temple, in the loft of an old house, is painted all in purple and decorated with large wickerwork images of various goddesses.

The Temple, which opened at Imbolc (2 February) 2002, is believed to be the first of its kind to have opened in Europe in fifteen hundred years.

Glastonbury is an appropriate place for a Goddess Temple, since followers of the movement believe it is connected to many Goddesses. Among them:

  • the Lady of Avalon (Morgen la Fey),
  • the Nine Morgens,
  • Brigit or Bridie of the Sacred Flame,
  • Modron - Great Mother of the lineage of Avallach,
  • Our Lady Mary of Glastonbury,
  • the Crone of Avalon,
  • the Tor Goddess,
  • Lady of the Hollow Hills,
  • Lady of the Lake,
  • Lady of the Holy Springs and Wells.

To clarify: Our Lady Mary of Glastonbury refers to Mary, the mother of Jesus. This can cause confusion since although Mary is regarded as a goddess by some pagans, Christians do not consider Mary a goddess or part of the Godhead.

Water and worship

On the day of the BBC's visit the Temple was set up to worship Domnu, an ancient Irish goddess of the deep ocean, celebrated as the mother of water.

BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement (2)Altar to Domnu with statue of Gliten ©

In celebration of Domnu the main altar was decorated in blue and turquoise - the colours of water, or of sky reflected in water. On the altar was a statue of a goddess known as Gliten, with dolphins on her dress.

After a solemn act of calling Domnu and other goddesses into the temple, there was a time for the seventy women (and a few men) taking part to reach out to the goddess in an act of personal prayer.

They did this by writing their wishes on a piece of paper which was made into an origami boat, and set afloat on a large bowl of water.

The worshippers blew their boats to the other side of the bowl with a straw, as an act of faith in the goddess and the universe that wishes for the good of all would be granted.

One or many

Britain's ancient pagan traditions contain many hundreds of goddesses. They are closely bound up with the cycle of nature, with different goddesses being celebrated at different times of year.

But at heart, all of the goddesses are one, says Kathy Jones, a researcher into Britain's ancient goddess traditions and a priestess of Avalon, as the mystical, invisible side of Glastonbury is known.

Kathy says that many of today's goddess images come from five thousand years ago, before patriarchy changed the face of religion. And Kathy thinks the many faces of the goddess are a profound advantage for the worshipper in that:

...we can each of us be attracted to the face that we like the look of and that we resonate with.

Kathy Jones

The Goddess and the Environment

There is a close connection between the Goddess and nature. The Goddess is said to be present in all creation, in trees and flowers, streams and lakes, the sun and the earth.

BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement (3)An altar set up to celebrate the Summer Equinox ©

Starhawk, who calls herself a witch and is one of America's best-known practitioners of goddess spirituality, explains the Goddess in nature like this:

For me the Goddess is identified with the Earth, not just in the sense of the ground, but the Earth as the planet Earth, as the whole living being that we're part of, which itself is part of a whole living Universe.

So in a sense the Goddess is another way of saying the great creative forces of life in the Universe, the great cycles of birth and growth and death and regeneration.

And today there's a whole scientific theory - the Gaia theory - that says the Earth is a living organism.

"But scientists are always very careful to say but that doesn't imply there's any consciousness.

I say well that's the advantage of being a witch, you don't have to worry about being respectable and you can just say 'yes the Earth is alive and everything on earth has a consciousness, and everything is interconnected and everything is constantly in communication.'

It's learning to open our ears to that communication and learning to attune ourselves to that connectedness that brings us into a right and a balanced relationship with all of life...

Starhawk

This worldview leads many followers of the Goddess to celebrate her as the giver of nature's bounty. It also explains why Goddess worship and environmental campaigning so often go together.

The Crone

Goddess worshippers honour the whole cycle of nature, and with it the whole life cycle of women.

Brian Charles, a priest of Avalon, says that in so doing they reject the strong element in Western culture which casts aside the old woman. Old women are devalued in the modern world because they are of no use to men, since they are no longer potential lovers or mothers.

But followers of the Goddess not only honour the woman as maiden, lover, and mother, but also as the old woman, or crone.

Real or constructed

Do goddesses have an objective, independent existence? Or is goddess spirituality more about finding one's place in nature and at the same time empowering women, giving them a more positive self-image?

Patricia Monaghan, one of the founders of the American goddess movement, thinks it's a case of 'both and' rather than 'either or':

I've always had a sense that there is spirituality in nature, that nature is more than simply a supermarket for us to shop in. And that it has its own power and reality that is different and compellingly different...

I think that you can be using Goddess mythology as a way of strengthening oneself but also being reverent toward the complexities that surround us in the natural world.

Patricia Monaghan

But how much is modern Goddess spirituality about authentic images of the ancient goddesses - and how much do today's worshippers make up as they go along?

Patricia Monaghan thinks that the relationship between humanity and the divine has always been something fluid:

BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement (4)Decorations on the altar ©

I think there's always been in humankind a creative relation to the divine... I don't think there's ever been the one true version of god... So I think that although people say well, this is just a re-creation, I think it has always been a re-creation.

We live in the moment and we create toward the divine, and I don't think there was one point at which goddess religion was right and now we've got it wrong, but rather that we're reinventing the connection to the feminine divine, and sometimes it looks silly, and I suspect that sometimes in the past it looked silly.

Patricia Monaghan

A personal view

So what does the Goddess mean to her followers? Sally, a priestess of Avalon, explains how the Goddess changed her life.

I'm 54 and I consciously came to the Goddess in this lifetime when I was 50, so really quite late.

And until then I was brought up as a Christian, born and bred in nunneries, schooled in convents all my life, wanted to marry Jesus when I was 17, and then met Buddhism.

My husband died in quite a big sort of tragedy when I was young, and I went into healing and homeopathy and Buddhism and travelled all along that road, but always with a very male concept of god you see...

And really this new path for me 4 years ago has been a complete revelation in my life... Complete healing, complete reversal of a lot of psychological concepts of the empowerment of the female divine within me, you know... the recalling of a very ancient set of beliefs that used to exist inhabit this land a long time ago. So it's like a rebirth inside and out really.

Sally, Avalon priestess

Information

The Goddess Temple is located at 2-4 High Street, Glastonbury, Somerset, BA6 9DU.

The temple is now open up to six days a week, 11:00am-5:00pm for private prayer and meditation.

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Find out more

  • Feminine divine in Christianity, Islam and Judaism

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BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement (2024)

FAQs

BBC - Religions - Paganism: The Goddess movement? ›

So in a sense the Goddess is another way of saying the great creative forces of life in the Universe, the great cycles of birth and growth and death and regeneration. And today there's a whole scientific theory - the Gaia theory - that says the Earth is a living organism.

Who started the goddess movement? ›

Marija Gimbutas, often dubbed "Grandmother of the Goddess Movement" in the 1990s, continues to be cited by many feminist writers, including Max Dashu. Many other scholars, including Joan Marler and Marguerite Rigoglioso, support her work.

What are the main beliefs of paganism? ›

Pagans believe that nature is sacred and that the natural cycles of birth, growth and death observed in the world around us carry profoundly spiritual meanings. Human beings are seen as part of nature, along with other animals, trees, stones, plants and everything else that is of this earth.

What God did the Pagans worship? ›

Anglo-Saxon paganism was a polytheistic belief system, focused around a belief in deities known as the ése (singular ós). The most prominent of these deities was probably Woden; other prominent gods included Thunor and Tiw.

Who do Pagans pray to? ›

Pagan religions follow the female divine principle, identified as the Goddess beside or in place of the male divine principle, as expressed in the Abrahamic God.

Is there a religion that worships a woman? ›

Hinduism worships and respects women and the many strengths and powers a woman possesses. Hinduism is an ancient religion that began in present day India. In ancient Hindu scriptures women were worshipped in the form of goddesses to represent all woman's strength, beauty, wisdom , bravery and talent.

Which religion has female goddess? ›

In the Dharmic religions (mainly Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism), there are many goddesses that are widely venerated. The earliest source for several of these goddesses is the Vedas. However, goddesses can also be found in the art of the even more ancient Indus Valley civilisation.

Why is paganism frowned upon? ›

Criticism of its historicity. Many pagan traditions have been criticized on the basis that they bear little resemblance to the historical practices of which they claim to be revivals. Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca, claimed that it is a continuation of an ancient persecuted Witch cult, a widely discredited notion ...

Is Christianity based on paganism? ›

The early Christians adapted many elements of paganism. Ancient pagan funeral rituals often remained within Christian culture as aspects of custom and community with very little alteration. A type of song sung at death, the ritual lament, is one of the oldest of all art forms.

Do pagans believe in heaven? ›

Pagans view the world as a place of joy and life, not of sin and suffering. We believe that the divine is here with us in the natural world, not in some faraway place in the sky.

What is a pagan according to the Bible? ›

When Christianity became generally accepted in the towns and cities of the empire, paganus was used to refer to a villager who continued to worship the old gods. Christians used the term for anyone not of their faith or of the Jewish faith. The word in Old English for such a person was what is now heathen.

Do pagans still exist? ›

Pagan religion is still practiced widely throughout the Western world, and today it is more popular than ever. Some focus on specific branches of Paganism, such as Druidry, while the UK's Pagan Federation, and the Australian Pan-Pacific Pagan Alliance embrace wide schools of religious thought.

Do pagans still believe in God? ›

One principle of the pagan movement is polytheism, the belief in and veneration of multiple gods or goddesses. Within the pagan movement, there can be found many deities, both male and female, who have various associations and embody forces of nature, aspects of culture, and facets of human psychology.

What are pagan rituals? ›

It may consist of informal prayer or meditation, or of formal, structured rituals through which the participants affirm their deep spiritual connection with nature, honour their Gods and Goddesses, and celebrate the seasonal festivals of the turning year and the rites of passage of human life.

What is an example of a pagan prayer? ›

Mother of all things, watch over me tonight, Hold me in your arms, until the morning light. Blessed be the mother goddess, by all her many names. May she bless my family and friends. May she bless the animals of the world, and all people everywhere.

What religions are considered pagan? ›

Paganism encompasses a diverse community with some groups concentrating on specific traditions, practices or elements such as ecology, witchcraft, Celtic traditions or certain gods. Wiccans, Druids, Shamans, Sacred Ecologists, Odinists and Heathens all make up parts of the Pagan community.

Who are the artists in the goddess movement? ›

American artist Mary Beth Edelson engaged with the figure of the prehistoric Goddess through photomontages and performances, during which the artist summoned an ancient goddess lost to historical record. Climate activist and eco-feminist Monica Sjöö was a leading member of the goddess movement in the UK.

Who created the goddess? ›

According to legend, Durga was created for the slaying of the buffalo demon Mahishasura by Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and the lesser gods, who were otherwise powerless to overcome him. Embodying their collective energy (shakti), she is both derivative from the male divinities and the true source of their inner power.

What is the goddess theory? ›

From the 1970s to the 1990s, archaeologist Marija Gimbutas developed the “Goddess Theory,” focusing on a divine female figure worshipped in “Old Europe” and displaced by Metal Ages' patriarchal warrior cultures.

Who was the first goddess in history? ›

Ishtar (the word comes from the Akkadian language; she was known as Inanna in Sumerian) was the first deity for which we have written evidence. She was closely related to romantic love, but also familial love, the loving bonds between communities, and sexual love.

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