Worship Of The Goddess

[Honza]

Is there such a religion as Paganism? Or is Paganism any religion that does not believe in the One God? Like the Greek Gods or Roman Gods.
One thing which strikes me about ancient Celtic religion is the Faith in God as the Almighty feminine; the Goddess. God has slowly been Masculinized over the centuries into 'Our Father', but once upon a time people used to think of God more as 'Our Mother'
I know God is genderless or both genders as one, but how we talk about God says something about us. I.e. most of us would say 'He' or 'Him' about God as second nature, but people say that used to be 'She' or 'Her'.
The divine Goddess or Mother is a very loving nuturing being. If one spends time praying to Her or Worshipping Her in ones own way then one fills with Her divine Femininity and slowly starts to take a different outlook on God than the 'God is light/bliss/self realisation' explanation of God.
For example people and socialising seem aspects of the divine Mother more so than meditation and discipline.
What do you think?

Hi Honza!

I actually think that the pagans knew that 'god' was ultimately both male & female, but the male aspect was actually born out of the female - which is the other way round to the story of Adam & Eve in the bible. Simply put, the female aspect came first, lol.

Although it seems like pagans worshipped many different gods/godesses, in actual fact, they were just putting names to different aspects of god as a whole. They saw god in everything & everywhere - which is the absolute truth, is it not?

Over the past few thousand years, the pendulum has swung right over to patriarchal dominance, therefore creating the inbalance we see today. Manifestations of this include control and supression of women, competitiveness & 'the old boy network' approach. Hopefully now, the pendulum will swing back towards the centre, with the return of the goddess energies!

Have you also noticed that on spiritual type forums, that women seem to be in the majority? I reckon this has something to do with us being naturally more in touch with this godess energy/divine feminine, and in us sensitive types, this is triggering our awakening. Obviously there are many sensitive men out there too, but you have to fight against alot of conditioning from society, things like being ridiculed from showing any emotional reaction (such as crying) because it's not manly to do so! Macho man still predominately rules.

This is just my take on things, of course!

I found this little quote off a website a while ago, which illustrates what I'm trying to say here:

For the past 500+ years, the Divine Female Goddess Energy has been extremely suppressed and practically lost in the Western World. The society has been predominately run by a male dominated patriarchal game based on fear, oppression, and greed. It's based on many self-righteous ego-trips trying to attain superiority to rid of their inferiority complex. The more power they craved, the greater their sense of powerless was deep inside.

Since the dawn of the new millennium, you see now that the great Pendulum of Life is swinging back to the other side. The spiritual awakening that you see all over the planet is an effect of the Divine Feminine being reborn in each of us again. As we were each starved from the Divine Feminine energy, it is now being craved from every angle. This is why we are experiencing one of the greatest times of transformation this planet has seen.

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wonderful jaycee. thankyou :)

[Honza]

I find 'worship of the Goddess' very fortifying and grounding. Its like touching upon 'Mothers Might'. Mothers certainly make their offspring strong, and thats the effect the Goddess has on me; bless her.
Shes like a primeaval, organic presence. Like a 'Womb' in away.
Our connection to the divine Mother ought to be cherished and celebrated.

After all we were all just babies in our mothers arms once upon a time!

Honza.

[devolution]

My beloved has read a book recently called "When God was a Woman" - it is an extremely interesting account of how the feminine literally used to rule the Earth, and in a more enlightened and constructive manner...
I implore you to read this - it's so eye-opening and shows us why things are the way they are today....And what we need to do to return to harmony and peace....

I have always felt that the feminine energy is the source of all things - the female creates and gives life...We all come from the female...And in fact, each and every one of us actually starts life as female in the womb....The male is a subset of the female (Male has XY chromosones - where the Y is half of the X; as opposed to the female, males are inferior!)....Eventually the male genetic code will be too corrupted to be viable anymore....

The Greeks used to highly regard the Androgyne - and believed that it was even more powerful than their Gods, and so it was split up into male and female on Earth....

Females are softer, more tender, more evolved, more intelligent, more beautiful ;) than males....

I don't hesitate to go as far to say that males are in fact the weaker sex - women cope better than men in most circumstances....

It is curious that over the last 50 years, the strange trend has been for females to be forced to abandon their femininity and embrace the traits and habits of men...

But I feel we are all starting to see a shift which will result in the feminine forces return to dominate the Earth - a relief to us all - less pain, less wars, less misunderstandings, less destruction....

That sounds like a great book Devolution.

It is said that in the very beginnings of life on Earth that we were all androgenous/hermaphrodites, and that something happened to cause the split into male & female (polarity).

In the times of Lemuria, the female energy/goddess ruled, but without the balance of male energy it was doomed to fail as much as the current patriarchy is.

What we need is balance - equality, which is hopefully what is starting to happen as we speak!

oh bless you devolution! i have called some men "honorary females"...not taking anything from your manliness which many of us women so admire...but you are one, to have that much respect for the feminine...and to understand what it really is. my boyfriend is an "honorary female" as he's a peacemaker instead of a warrior. although, he get's a so angry at other drivers too! lol. he is human still.

i like that you pointed out about women using masculine traits to get ahead. i think of the post-feminist movement and the shoulder pads and the hard nosed women trying to keep up in the business world. i guess it was needed then in the early stages as women fought to find equality but i feel that more now realise the effectiveness of just "being". being what you truly are, and working together. man and woman. both genders contain masculine and feminine in each. it's just been tipped up and imbalanced for so long.

but there is so much hope...

Originally Posted by Honza

Is there such a religion as Paganism? Or is Paganism any religion that does not believe in the One God? Like the Greek Gods or Roman Gods.
One thing which strikes me about ancient Celtic religion is the Faith in God as the Almighty feminine; the Goddess. God has slowly been Masculinized over the centuries into 'Our Father', but once upon a time people used to think of God more as 'Our Mother'
I know God is genderless or both genders as one, but how we talk about God says something about us. I.e. most of us would say 'He' or 'Him' about God as second nature, but people say that used to be 'She' or 'Her'.
The divine Goddess or Mother is a very loving nuturing being. If one spends time praying to Her or Worshipping Her in ones own way then one fills with Her divine Femininity and slowly starts to take a different outlook on God than the 'God is light/bliss/self realisation' explanation of God.
For example people and socialising seem aspects of the divine Mother more so than meditation and discipline.
What do you think?

There were many Pagan religions although not a religion called Paganism.... just as there are many christian religions instead of religion called christian.... Just as the christian religious share a fundamental belief so did the Pagan Religions.... The Pagan religions were sacred femine based religions they embraced the duality of God Both the male and the female
face of god.. thru God and Goddess beliefs.....Being Earth Based was another foundation they shared in fact I read somewhere that the translation of the word Pagan was "Country Dweller"
The word Pagan has been demonized over the centuries to conjure up images of Human sacrifice and satanic worship in most peoples minds ...however the actual pagan beliefs were closer to todays New Age Spirituality ......

Paganisn demonized indeed Blip! Since the patriarchy's been in charge on Earth (about the last 5,000 years or so evidently), just about everything connected to the matriarchy/Goddess energies and consciousness has been claimed as something evil, unbalanced, untrustworthy, dark and to avoid at all costs. Clever way to herd the masses away from remembering that they/we used to be profoundly more aware, self empowered, and in alignment with Earth and everything else for that matter.

Another great book about the planetary change from a matriarchal/Goddess awareness into a reduced and strick patriarchal planetary rule and the why's of it is Catastrophobia - The Truth Behind Earth Changes In The Coming Age Of Light 2001 Barbara Hand Clow.

Like Blip mentioned ancient Paganism or Goddess consciousness IS very much like what we've been seeing since the first of the "hippies" in the 1960s and now in our 'new age' awareness and rapidly evolving spirituality. We read from some wise people today of the "return to the Goddess" and/or "the return to the original blueprint for Earth" and that is what's finally beginning to happen. That and a lot more.