Unmasking the Goddess
Not long ago, I wrote a book called Fear Not Da Vinci: How to use the best-selling novel to share your faith. Dan Brown’s blockbuster novel, with 50 million copies in print, falsely claims that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married, that Mary’s special relationship to Christ endowed her with the true leadership of the church, and that she carried on an ancient tradition of special feminine holiness. Brown tapped into a growing spiritual movement: goddess worship.
As I did research for Fear Not Da Vinci, I was shocked as I came across thousands of websites devoted to goddess worship, as well as books, magazines, training camps, college courses, fairs, and membership groups, often called covens or groves. My new book, Unmasking the Goddess, is a close look at goddess spirituality. I’m a writer, an evangelical Christian, and I’m looking for the truth. Want to join me in my journey?
I’ve been doing some reading on the revival of goddess worship, and keep coming across the following ten concepts. They’re not arranged in any particular order. Can you add to the list?
Top Ten Teachings of the Goddess Worship Movement
- Spirituality = sensuality. Sex is natural and a powerful way to worship the goddess and gain power. The body itself is holy.
- Development of psychic powers is desired in order to gain personal power.
- An energy or “life force” is manifested in all of creation (animism). All nature is sacred.
- Humans are divine.
- People are basically good and ultimate truth comes from the individual’s own personal experience or conscience.
- The Higher Self is a personal, wise spirit guide to be cultivated.
- Goddess worship is based on personal experience, often depending on an altered state of consciousness.
- Tolerance: all religions, philosophies and ideologies are equally valuable and to be affirmed.
- Pagan/wiccan ethic: If you harm none, do what you want. No absolute rights or wrongs.
- Worship of “the All,” a universal deity polarized as both female and male, goddess and god. The goddess herself has three roles: mother, maiden, and crone.
This is just the beginning. As I research Unmasking the Goddess, interview current and former goddess worshipers, talk to scholars and historians, I hope to uncover the truth about goddess worship. Hang on; we’re in for a ride!
5 Responses 
Leave a Reply 
SUSY FLORY is a writer, speaker, and journalist who inspires and challenges women to embrace a life of passion, boldness, & adventure. In your own unique way, YOU can change the world, starting in your own backyard. 
Hi
Delighted to see that you are trying to grapple with the new spiritualities of neo-pagan and Wiccan thought.
I note from your Today’s Christian Woman article you have read Craig Hawkins and Catherine Sanders.
Have you perused the themed edition of Sacred Tribes Journal on Pagan religions? That edition contains a number of investigative and reflective articles on Christian encounters with Pagan and Wiccan practitioners and beliefs.It is accessible on-line at
http://www.sacredtribes.com/
Also have you looked at the case study of missional responses to Wicca and Goddess Worship in “Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach” edited by Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost and John Morehead (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2004) pp 209-225.
I feel that you would find those items thought-provoking. There is also my on-line item “Wiccans and Christians: Some Mutual Challenges” available via the index at http://www.jesus.com.au
Blessings
Philip
**********************************
Hi, Philip. I am familiar with your Wiccans and Christians article, and found it very helpful. I heartily agree with your conclusions. I guess the challenge comes in trying to live them out.
Thanks for blogging on my TCW article, as well. As you can probably guess from my article, my book is not intended to be an exhaustive academic treatise, but instead more of a handbook for the average woman who has a pagan friend or relative she’d like to reach out to with the saving message of the Gospel.
Thanks for the work you’re doing in this area.
Blessings,
SUSY
***********************************
Susy
Do you think your approach to the “top ten teachings” might not be a little too “conceptual”? In my experience, as a Christian amongst Goddess Worshippers, what holds the Goddess Worship movement together is seen far clearer in its ritual teachings than in its theology teachings. For instance, I would say that within Wicca one of the top ten teachings would have to be how to cast a circle, and contrast that with the fact that quite a bit of disagreement is tolerated over the nature of deity – some are pantheistic polytheists, some are genuine polytheists and some are atheists whom interpret goddesses and gods in terms of interior Jungian archetypes. I mean this in the nicest possible way but your theological approach does reflect your Christian background. If you would like to discuss these issues further you will find me blogging at http://mattstone.blogs.com and you may wish to consider joining an egroup we have for discussing such issues at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thinplaces/.
Regards
Matt Stone
********************************
Dear Matt:
Perhaps a better title for that post would have been “Top 10 Beliefs.” I agree, from what I’ve learned in research and conversations with practicing wiccans, that there is a wide divergence in theology. But I do think it’s helpful,
especially for evangelical Christians who have little or no knowledge of pagan beliefs, to try to learn as much as we can. And I’m not surprised my Christian background shows; I guess I’d be surprised if it didn’t!
I believe we have a common interest; let’s stay in touch.
Blessings,
SUSY
********************************
Susy, it is good to see another Christian addressing an important area of spirituality in the Western world, and your feminine perspective is desperately needed.
I am a friend and colleague of Philip Johnson, John Smulo, and Matt Stone. We work collaboratively in the area of alternative spirituality in the West, and continue to work together on a number of projects. I resonate with what they have already shared with you.
I suppose if I were to try to add something else it would be to try to balance the need to contrast Goddess spirituality and Wicca with Christianity with the equally important need to sympathetically and empathetically understand why so many people are increasingly drawn to these spiritual pathways. For years I was a leading figure in the evangelical counter-cult community, and I presented many seminars with Watchman Fellowship that warned the church about the dangers of alternative spiritualities. While this has a place in contrasting biblical teaching with non-biblical alternatives, I came to recognize that I was only fulfilling part of my responsibility, and I was not trying to understand the pathways of the “religious others” I was talking about. In the end I felt I was in fact doing a disservice to both my Christian audience and Pagans.
In recent years I have tried to find the appropriate balance that understands Pagans by engagement with them, and in more appropriate descriptions of their practices and beliefs, while also preparing Christians for more effective engagement through a missional-apologetic stance. I would be happy to serve as another resource person for you, and I will keep you in my prayers as your book develops.
In the meantime, you might find some value in my blog, Morehead’s Musings, found at the URL mentioned in connection with this post. The blog frequently addresses issues related to alternative spirituality, including Paganism and Wicca, and does so in a way that attracts the interest of both Christians and Pagans. In fact, it is linked to on a prominent Pagan blog, The Wildhunt, like Matt Stone’s blog is.
Best wishes to you with this project.
The concept you refer to, though you may already know this, when you say ‘mother, maiden, and crone’, is actually a belief that has been present for a VERY long time. It is an old ‘triple-goddess’ religion that has been present since before ancient Greek religion.
Hey,
Thank you for not ragging on the wicca/witchcraft religion…all I see now days is “Witchcraft is Satanism” and it erritates me… Thanks again
Blessings
Lunora