CAT: Granted that some Christians are trying to take over the world—are pagans trying to take over the world?

SUSY: Let me answer with a quote from a popular pagan book: “The
Goddess is coming back! She is returning in myriad ways, some subtle,
others less so … Subtly she is returning through myth, magic and
intuition.” The idea of the return of the goddess is a common theme; if
you hang around pagans long enough, you will hear about a long ago
mythical golden age where the goddess reigned and all was peace and
harmony. Pagans are looking to return to that golden age and often
create and participate in rituals with that goal.

Pagans are very much interested in building personal communities and
in self-empowerment, and not so interested in government and policy
building, as far as I have seen. Their influence comes more in the
arena of arts and culture, where they are
very influential. Many
churches, too, are incorporating goddess spirituality into their
beliefs and practices. A few weeks ago I went to a class at a
Franciscan monastery near my house; their bookstore was stocked with
titles on the sacred feminine, the feminine divine, and “sophia,” code
words for pagan goddess worship.

CAT: Every so often at places like WitchVox,
I read of pagan disgust with Christian characterizations of them as
“Satan-worshipers” and so on. Do Christians do a good job of
communicating meaningfully with pagans? Why or why not?

SUSY: I’d have to agree that most Christians are pretty uninformed
about all things pagan. But there’s a good reason for this—it’s a very
recent phenomenon in the U.S. Only in the last decade has goddess
spirituality and wicca begun to take root and flourish here so there
was really no need before to understand or study pagan beliefs. It’s
the same with Islam; when I was in college, it was simply a non-issue
and the only Mohammed we knew was the famous boxer.

But as paganism grows and flourishes, as the numbers indicate may be
happening, it’s essential that we study it. If you have a sister, or a
daughter, or a friend setting up a home altar, choosing a goddess and
dedicating her life to knowing, worshiping and serving that goddess,
you’d better have an understanding of what she believes and practices
if you
want to speak into her life.

The apostle Paul did just this; before he shared the Gospel, he
studied the gods and goddesses of that city. It’s a mark of respect.

Once a pagan realizes that you’ve taken the time to study their
beliefs, and that you want to understand why they believe what they do,
they are much more likely to have a deep, spiritual conversation with
you.

Click here for the rest of the interview, or to follow Cat’s "Monday Hum" column. This girl has a way with words! (Find out more about Cat, also known as Cathi Lyn Dyck, on her personal blog, where she offers wise words for writers.)

COMING SOON: A book review and interview with Lilian Calles Barger, founder of the Damaris Project and author of Chasing Sophia: Reclaiming the Lost Wisdom of Jesus. This book is a new and fresh account of pursuing authentic Christianity in contemporary times.

Back to goddess stuff. A few weeks ago, a writer friend named Cat interviewed me for her blog at Humble O Radio.

Cat is also a master gardener, and wanted to talk about goddess worship from the angle of earth spirituality. Here’s how she set it up:

From … the United Nations Global Biodiversity Assessment, as quoted in Forcing Change, Issue 6, Volume 1. (www.ForcingChange.org is a site chock-full of documentation of world politico-religious agendas and trends.)

Author and researcher Carl Teichrib quotes the UN Environmental
Programme’s literature as encouraging people to think of the soil as
“our Goddess; our religion.” Yes, it’s where our food grows, and as
such it sustains our physical lives. But at what point do we cross the
line of assigning it a spiritual value, and on what basis? Is pagan
spirituality being manipulated for political purposes?

Nahhhh… Couldn’t be. Politicians never do stuff like that. (From Humble O Radio’s blog on "The Monday Hum: Watchdoggin’ It)

Cat then asked me all sorts of questions about earth spirituality. Here’s an excerpt from our chat:

CAT: For the sake of my beleaguered readers, what is earth worship?

SUSY: Many pagans believe that the earth itself is
female and the giver of life. They call this deity “Gaia,” and teach
that she is an energy force around us and in us. Many pagans,
especially Wiccans, believe that Gaia is a goddess (sometimes called
the Great Goddess or the Mother Goddess), and that she takes many forms
with different names such as Diana,
Artemis, Isis, and hundreds of
others. Pagan artwork often pictures the earth as a beautiful woman
with long flowing hair, dressed in robes made up of flowers and
animals, pregnant, with the planet portrayed as her womb. So, one huge difference between pagans and Christians is that pagans
worship the earth, while Christians worship the Creator of the earth.

Earth worship is nothing new; it seems to have arisen in the form of
fertility cults in ancient Mesopotamia, where archeologists often
unearth small stone figurines in the form of a chunky woman that were
probably used as objects of worship in this religion.

What is new is the current popularity of earth worship. It seems to
attract spiritual seekers who are especially attuned to ecological
issues. In other words, outdoorsy people with a love for the natural
environment might naturally be intrigued by a religion that elevates
Gaia, or Mother Nature, to godhood. This attraction is easy to
understand; some of the moments when I’ve felt closest to God have been
on a granite mountaintop in the Sierras or marveling at reef fish off
the coast of Maui!

Click here to read the rest of the Humble O Radio interview, including some thoughts on the "Christian Right Wing."

More tomorrow….

Before I share a few thoughts on the living goddesses of Nepal, I did want to make one observation about this blog–it draws a fair share of critical comments! I don’t know if you read many other blogs, but most personal blogs draw a majority of positive comments. Things like "Right on!" "You go, sister," and the like.

However, "Unmasking the Goddess" has been drawing some strongly worded comments (which I
sometimes have to edit) from the pagan community; as a whole they tend to favor secrecy and I get the feeling they don’t really appreciate a Christian looking into their beliefs and practices. So far, I’m not dissuaded. I look to the apostle Paul as a mentor in this area; he studied other religions so he was prepared to engage in marketplace conversations about matters of the Spirit.

So where’s my marketplace? This blog. And you’re invited to join the conversation!

Now, on to the Living Goddesses. Did you see their photos in the news? Two little girls from Nepal, worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists, recently visited the U.S. to help promote a documentary on this ancient practice.

Each girl is selected between the ages of 2 and 4, on the basis of physical perfection,  to serve as a "kumari," or living goddess.

After a special ceremony involving frightening tantric rituals, the spirit of the goddess is said to enter the
girl’s
body. She is then taken to live in a special house called Kumari Ghar at
Kathmandu’s Hanumandhoka palace square, where she reigns as a living deity, responsible for the country’s health and prosperity.

When puberty arrives, the goddess supposedly leaves, and the girl is returned to her family with a small pension, never to marry (it’s bad luck).

The Supreme Court in Nepal has investigated the practice as exploitative; I would agree. The girls are not allowed contact with family or other children, or to go to school. Objectified, subjected to scary occultic ceremonies, and said to be possessed by a violent goddess responsible for the welfare of her people—what a life for a little girl!

Goddess spirituality promises empowerment for women; but for the kumari, it means only slavery.

[If you're a subscriber, and would like to comment on this post or read the comments, click here to go to the Unmasking the Goddess blog.]

The Secret, a documentary-type film by an Australian named Rhonda Byrne, supposedly reveals a secret method, passed down through the ages, to get everything you’ve ever wanted, including…

• wealth
• health
• job
• love
• new car
• big house
• weight loss
• joy
• happiness

Have you heard of The Secret?  Everyone seems to be talking about it, including Oprah, Larry King, Newsweek,  and the Washington Post. It’s a bestseller, with a film sequel and a TV series already in development. So if you haven’t already, you’ll probably hear friends talking about something called "the law of attraction," which is, well, THE SECRET.

So what’s the law of attraction, you ask? It goes like this.

You want something … maybe a new car or house or some money. Then you think about it. Really, really hard. And that’s the secret. If you think really hard about whatever it is that you want, it’s yours.

One of the The Secret’s biggest proponents is Joe Vitale, a self-help guru and internet marketing  genius. Here’s his explanation of the power behind The Secret: "It’s like the universe is a giant catalog and all you have to do is place your order." Or it’s a genie and all you have to do is wish. According to the film, the law of attraction is a universal law that you can use for your own ends.

It’s interesting: this idea that you can control the power and energy of the universe is also one of the bottom line beliefs of goddess worship and wicca. I wrote about that in my very first post on this blog.

Bottom line of The Secret? It’s all up to you. You are responsible for your own happiness, you control your own destiny, you are responsible for your own success and health and prosperity. If you fail in these key areas, then you have been practicing negative thinking.

Is it just me, or is that a horrible burden to take on? That means if I get downsized, it’s a result of negative thinking. Breast cancer? Not enough positive thoughts. An abusive marriage? Sorry, all my fault. Car accident? I guess I’m just not harnessing that universal energy well enough.

See what I mean? I don’t want the stress and burden and strain of believing that I can control every negative and positive circumstance with my own mind. 

So what about the murdered Virginia Tech students? The people living under repressive dictatorships? The children born into poverty? The thousands displaced by the New Orleans hurricane? The families drowned by last year’s tsunami? Where’s their genie? Why can’t they order from the "catalog of the universe?"

Sorry, but The Secret is not for me. Today I’m trusting One who is greater than me with all of that responsibility … A personal God who cares, who knows what it’s like to live on this earth in the dust and strain and stress and pain. Who understands what it’s like to be poor, to be homeless, and even to face death.

I want a Savior, not a "Law."

Want to read more? A few links:

• Newsweek article: Decoding The Secret, by Jerry Adler, 3/5/07
• Washington Post article: Self-Help’s Slimy Secret, by Tim Watkin, 4/8/07
• Wikipedia article (a good overview)

if you’re a subscriber, and would like to comment on this post or read the comments, click here to go to the Unmasking the Goddess blog.