The Role of Feminism In The New Age Movement & Goddess Religion

The Role of Feminism in the New Age Movement and Goddess Worship

Introduction

New Age religion has given women the chance to revisualize the divine, in the feminine. It also encourages the empowerment of women. Giving women the self-esteem and religious regard too more easily become leaders.

It has been proposed that the new religious movement toward goddess worship is the result of the feminist movement. Some have suggested women created it in defiance of the patriarchal rule of the Christian church. Others have recommended, because of the empowerment and self-esteem gained by women, through the feminist movement these new religions were created, for and by women.

The Role of Women in Religious History

Ancient Society

From the time of the Upper Paleolithic period (25,000 BCE) evidence has shown the worship of a goddess figure. Beginning in the Neolithic period (7,000 BCE), strong evidence of well-established goddess worshiping peoples is in the archeological evidence. A great goddess was worshiped in all areas of the world at some time (Stone, 1976).

For early man, in hunter-gatherer societies, the female contribution to both food and religion was equal to her male counterpart. There is considerable archeological evidence that a great mother goddess was the major deity in these ancient societies. These female deities held prominent positions in worldwide worship. Not only did female goddesses hold prominent positions but so did all women (Johnstone, 1992 & Stone, 1976).

Women were given primary authority over religion in early civilization, because of the female role in sustaining and reproducing the community. The evolution from “mother of children to mother of the tribe”, and on to “mother of mankind” would have been logical (Johnstone, 1992 & Stone, 1976).

As hunter-gatherer societies discovered horticulture and began to rely more on cultivation for their food, the female goddess remained prominent. This is due to the association between women, in most hunter-gatherer societies, being the principal gardeners for the community. However, the male gods did begin to assume greater prominence (Johnstone, 1992). None the less, priestesses remained in charge of many of the religious temples and held the most prominent religious positions in the culture.

The Beginnings of High Yield Agriculture

With the domestication of animals and the invention of the plow, the male role in food production began to greatly exceed the woman’s. Steadily, women began to depend upon men for their basic needs and their status in the community began to decrease (Johnstone, 1992). Many of the female goddesses became merely consorts and assistants to their male counterparts. Positions previously held by the male gods. Others became specialists or supervisors over particular functions. Now, the primary gods for society were male. However, the female deities remained in positive roles, as did the female members of the religious community.

As a more patriarchal culture evolved, women steadily lost any dominating roles they held in society. Decreasingly, women were allowed to perform monetary or other legal transactions without a husband or father overseeing their actions (Stone, 1976).

The Society Ruled by a Male Deity

Eventually, the role and view of the female became ambiguous. The ultimate oppression of women religiously can be seen in early Indian religion. By five hundred BCE, women had been clearly reduced to a second class status. It was even believed that in the body of a woman a soul couldn’t reach salvation (Johnstone, 1992).

Once all major religions reached their maturity, they all strongly resembled each other in their treatment of women. The degree and type of religious involvement granted to women was often a subordinate role.

Where Women Found Positive Spiritual Outlets

In the Far Eastern civilizations predating five hundred BCE, the trend of female oppression was a bit slower. In early Buddhism, woman’s’ status saw a modest restoration. Women received a great deal of respect in the home and were also allowed to manage property. Buddhist women weren’t forced to marry, nor were they required by social or religious dictum to become recluses after being widowed. Most importantly, Buddhist women were allowed to study the sacred and become preachers and teachers (Johnstone, 1992).

There is evidence of early respect of women in Confucianism and Taoism, and opportunities for women to participate in religious activities. However by the time Confucianism began to move into Japan the depression of women had begun.

There is also evidence, that early Japan utilized a matriarchy with female shamans. These shamans played vital roles in the religious activities, of the community. Again, in the Far East, by five hundred BCE, women were second class citizens, and had loss their civil rights.

Until modern times, women had no real alternatives to the lives they would lead. Women would start out dependant on their fathers, get married, become dependant on their husbands and have children. Their only alternative was to devote themselves to the church, usually as nuns. Nuns lived a life of travel, education, devotion, and in many ways adventure. Until the modern feminist movement this was the most feminist and self-sufficient a lifestyle a woman could lead (Kaylin, 2000).

Since the feminist movement, the role of the nun in the United States has diminished greatly. Women today have more possibilities, they can choose from a variety of careers (Kaylin, 2000) and there is less pressure on women now to become married or have children. Therefore, the role of the nun is quickly becoming a dying profession, in the US. Women no longer see the perks, only the sacrifices. But to a woman at the turn of the 20^th century, the idea of independent living had promise, even if they couldn’t marry and have children, nuns delivered babies and ran orphanages, feeding their innate female need to nurture. They were able to go out into the world, on their own, be their own person, and be respected for their decision.

Current Roles of Women in Religion

In the current age, there is much turmoil over what the contemporary roles of women are. Traditionally, women have played subordinate roles in the established church (Johnstone, 1992), despite the teachings of feminism, encouraging the equality and empowerment of women.

Since the church is a representation of society, it is no wonder that the churches have also become involved in the feminist debate (Johnstone, 1992). By a long tradition, mainstream religious bodies have excluded women form leadership positions in churches (Stark & Bainbridge, 1985).

Women don’t always want to be church leaders, however studies show, they are more religious than males and, entitled to equal privileges within the church. Unfortunately, women’s careers as religious leaders have been limited by the church, “Nationally, only 20 percent of the female clergy are serving in the traditional parish ministry as ‘head pastor’” (Johnstone, 1992). There is a tendency to separate or isolate women clergy into specialized roles, and assign them to nonparish roles, such as positions within the denominational and bureaucratic structure, or in campus ministry (Johnstone, 1992). With such statistics, mainstream religion often appears to oppress its female members.

Some feminist conflict theorists have viewed these practices as evidence that men are an interest group, whose members cling tenaciously to their positions of authority and power (Roberts, 1984). Many others have felt this way.

Responses to Female Religious Oppression

Some women want to remain in their current religious traditions but at the same time they want to reform the organizations traditional patterns, while staying in good standing in the church (Johnstone 1992). There is also the “revolutionary response” with two sub-movements. The first, is a call to “exodus” from mainstream religious institutions (Griffin, 1995). The second is a new proclamation of feminine empowerment, and the rejection of male patriarchy, of religion. This second movement is the response to be focused on.

Three main streams of feminine-oriented religion have emerged. These include:

1) Feminist Witchcraft and worship of a Goddess

2) Woman-identified culture and

3) Women-identified chronicles, philosophy, and theory (York, 1995).

Unlike main stream religion, there appears to be an over representation of women in cults. (“The cult is a group composed of radically individualistic religious seekers” (Lee, 1995)) It appears the over recruitment of women into new religious movements is the result of deprivation of women, by established churches (Stark & Bainbridge, 1985). The opportunity to become leaders or even founders of their own religious movements is the source of the attraction for many women to cults (Stark & Bainbridge, 1985).

The New Age Alternative

Modern religious movements offer spiritual freedom for woman without the need for celibacy and a chance at true and total leadership. Currently, it is suspected that all existing magick, witchcraft and satanic groups post date the 1950’s and almost two thirds have appeared since 1970 (Stark & Bainbridge, 1985). The fact there are no old groups of this type suggests they began to bloom with the feminist movement.

New Age religion helps to answer all the basic religious questions, of personal identity and relationship with forces that affect destiny (Johnstone, 1992). One result of women trying to answer spiritual questions, has been the increasing experimentation with both new and rediscovered religious forms and emphases (Johnstone, 1992). The teachings and practices of New Age Religion are aimed at raising the consciousness of people to have a good relationship with a higher reality. According to Johnstone:

“The object is to become synchronized with the higher self, which is the appropriate linkage to other people, to the, cosmos, and to God.... The key concept is that of holism. This is a concept that all things are really one, and that oneness is God. Accordingly, People are God, Nature is God, and right thinking is God (1992).”

Why Woman Choose New Age Religion

Some women prefer New Age practices, because these groups have a circular type hierarchical structure, in contrast to the traditional bureaucratic structure, whose basic form is the ladder (York, 1995), which trains people to defer their power and responsibility upward (Griffin, 1995). The circular form of governing offers the religious participants more involvement in their own spiritual leadership and religious experiences.

Both, the New Age movement and Neo-Paganism, recognize a need for spiritual idiom in feminine terms (York, 1995). As a result of the worship of both a God and Goddess, women can see the divine in themselves. Witchcraft can be seen as a solution to the ancient problem of the subordination of women religiously and otherwise. With the dual worship of masculine and feminine, women are considered equals, and sometimes superiors (Johnstone, 1992 & Stark & Bainbridge, 1985). Some people feel paganism is a “rage and defiance against traditional religion” (Johnstone, 1992), however, most serious practitioners of neo-paganism will deny this.

Another aspect of the New Age movement is the principal that all people and all things come form the divine (York, 1995). With this principal people are sacred because they are ultimately part of the divine. Unlike, in Christianity where woman was created second to and for man and is responsible for the fall of man, New Age spirituality encourages the idea that we are all close to God and a part of God, and eventually return to God. This relationship is emphasized in a common chant sung in Neo-Pagan circles

We all come from the Goddess and to Her we shall return, like a drop of rain flowing to the ocean.

Conclusion

Women find solace in the idea that the “All” can be divided into two great forces, both male and female, God and Goddess (York, 1995). By creating mythopoetic images that include the seasons of the year, and the female body, women in the goddess movement, seek to shape a new cultural view of themselves (Griffin, 1995). These women are again being made sacred, and not just by other women but by men as well who are willing to admit the flaws in the concept of a masculine only divine. It has been suggested that men who see a feminine face feel they have a better more loving relationship with God (Greeley, 1995). If this is so for men then why wouldn’t the same feminine imagery for women, give women a more complete since of empowerment and sacred worth.

Not once has this author run into a woman that admits she is only involved in goddess worship because she is a feminist. Most women involved in the New Age movement are feminist, often becoming involved in feminist activities in the community, such as rape crisis centers, family planning, and resource centers (Griffin, 1995). These women gravitate toward this spirituality because they are encouraged by the respect and honor they are afforded, simply for being spiritual beings themselves. It is my opinion that the empowerment of the feminist movement gave women the opportunity to seek out alternate and less “main stream” forms of spirituality, rather than this spiritual movement being the result of a “femi-nazi” mentality.

Regardless of the ultimate future of Paganism and the New Age movement, woman have begun to experience the sacred on their terms. It is likely that many women have and will develop a taste for their own personal brand of spirituality, and society will continue to see these spiritual movement.

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