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When we ask the question “What is the sacred feminine?” there are numerous answers and expressions, but as women begin to search for a representation of the sacred expressed in the female form rather than the male, many have turned to the ancient past to find a rich history spanning many, many thousands of years where the gods that were worshipped were not male. Indeed our ancestors from many cultures and eras right up until circa 2000 BCE worshipped a feminine deity, and she was the goddess. As women academics investigate and rewrite the herstories of our ancient past we uncover a much richer retelling of the lives of both men and women. They worshipped a feminine deity, who has existed since the Stone Age, some 30,000 years ago. As Merlin Stone wrote: “This rediscovery of the Goddess has provoked a new understanding of the roles of women in the origin and history of our earliest religions. As a consequence, there is re-emerging interest in the Sacred Feminine within our popular culture and spirituality. Both women and men are asking: who is the Goddess and where has she been for 4000 years?”
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The rise of patriarchy from around 2,000 BCE slowly degraded worship of the goddess and replaced it with new ideas that took the focus away from reverence of the earth and raised it to worship of invisible Gods in the skies. Along with this worship of a god connected with mind and no body, was the loss of power afforded to the feminine, their bodies, their sexuality and the earth itself. Women and their bodies then became viewed as the source of sin, as depicted in the creation myth of Adam and Eve, with a woman’s sexuality tempting man away from god who represents higher mind and spirit, into the passions of his lower physical sexual nature, represented by woman and her physicality. From the sexual, creative woman whose body once mirrored the fecundity of the goddess, suddenly woman equals original sin. And so it has been for some 4,000 years. But the pendulum swings once again to rebalance the energies that have been predominantly masculine and with it women are remembering. Remembering that the earth gives us life, that their bodies are sacred, that they are powerful creators, and that they can contribute to the healing of the planet at this time. |
While it would be incorrect to imagine goddess as a direct feminine reinterpretation of God, it is more correct to understand goddess as alluding to a pantheon or collection of different names and images and she could just as easily be worshipped as a river or a mountain. But one of her most common forms is that of the Great Mother Goddess.
From the voices of numerous women, the following collection more fully describes the sacred feminine:
- is the nurturing, welcoming, accessible, kind, gentle (yet firm or fierce when necessary), compassionate, accepting, forgiving, patient and wise attitude of the Loving Mother Essence.
- encourages a holistic approach to healing of mind, body and spirit and fosters positive self esteem, inner growth, Self awareness, Self-realization, and Self-actualization. Values the cultivation of one’s sacred heart-inner wisdom, intuition, inner truth, inner divinity.
- affirms and values the “Divine Mother” or Goddess as birthgiver and creatrix-as the aspect that brings life into the world.
- cherishes nature and all the earth’s beings-affirms life and appreciates all its beauty, bounty, diversity and mystery as well as respecting it’s ferocity.
- regards sexuality as a natural and intrinsically good and sacred experience between loving, consenting partners whether for pleasure or procreation.
- is especially respecting, empowering, and encouraging to women (to balance the centuries of suppression of the feminine nature), yet without elevating one gender over another. And particularly validates and celebrates woman’s passages of menarche, menstruation, birth-giving, and menopause.
- values the reclaiming, rediscovering, remembering and restoring of the lost ancient evidences of matrifocal societies and cultures, goddess archetypes and lore, and the history of empowered women, leaders, priestesses, healers, mothers, artists and activists.
- cherishes devotional, creative or artistic expression (dance, music, etc.), as a valuable, sacred experience.
- respects egalitarian, partnership and democratic models of community and societal structure, and promotes non-hierarchical, non-authoritative, non-dogmatic style of leadership
- honors cycles of life, nature, of the body and the individual. Respects the process of death as a natural (and sometimes potentially benevolent) cycle of nature and respects an individual’s freedom of choice in death. Respects a woman’s freedom of choices in birth-giving.
- regards the dark side of nature and human consciousness not as evil but as a manifestation of the “winter” and destructive cycle of nature and thus part of the process of life and learning.
- appreciates the inventing and sharing of ceremony and ritual to assist one and another through life’s cycles, individual changes, passages and yearly seasons.
- Ø ecognizes that there is a male and female aspect to each personality and encourages both men and women to cultivate the balance.
