Goddess worship = Wicca?

Posted by Susy Flory on Jan 17th, 2007 | 1 comment home title

In my research, one question that has arisen several times is this: are goddess worship and Wicca the same thing? It’s an important question. Put it this way: If you are exploring goddess spirituality, you might think twice if you know you are actually exploring witchcraft.

(For the record, Wicca and witchcraft are the same thing. An ex-witch friend says "Wicca is just the politically correct term for witchcraft.")

From my reading and interviews, it seems as if the majority of Wiccans worship the goddess, as well as the horned god. But it’s hard to pin down–Wiccans are leery of being labeled or categorized, have no written, systematic theology, and follow an experience-based religion. So it’s difficult to say they all worship a goddess.

On the other hand, not all people who worship a goddess are Wiccans. There are goddess worship
traditions in many other religions and cultures, including Hinduism (India … by the way, the picture on the right is the Hindu goddess Kali. She scares me! Check out the necklace of human heads. Not a goddess of love, she), Buddhism (Asia), and Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Norse mythology. There were prehistoric fertility cults in much of the world (see image to the left–the goddess of Willendorf found in Austria, 1908. The goddess fair I went to in Sebastopol featured an altar with a large reproduction of this figure…you can see it in my December post). The Bible specifically condemns the worship of the goddess Asherah, the consort of Baal. She was sometimes called the "queen of heaven."

But in its modern form, those who are currently involved in goddess spirituality do have certain things in common. Here’s a short list:

worship of the feminine
belief that the earth (Gaia) is female and the giver of life
the goddess/Gaia is an energy force around and in us
this goddess energy can be harnessed and used for one’s own ends (aka "magick")

The American Encyclopedia of Religions puts both goddess worship and Wicca into something called "the magick family," because they both seek control of their environment by using supernatural power.

It’s all about power, really, and always has been. Do you want it for yourself? Or will you submit to the power of One greater than yourself? More in the next post …

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