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Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Titles of Mary
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# Goddess movement
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Terminology
Capitalization of terms such as "Goddess" and "Goddesses" usually vary with author or with the style guides of publications or publishers. Within the Goddess community, members generally consider it proper to capitalize the word "Goddess", but not necessary when generic references are made, as in the word "goddesses".
- Goddesses refers to a local or specific deities linked clearly to a particular culture and often to particular aspects, attributes and powers (for example: the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar; Athena; or Hindu goddesses like Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, poetry, music, inspiration and wisdom; and Lakshmi goddess of wealth and sovereignty).
- The Goddess or the Great Goddess is a female deity that is regarded as primary. Such a religious system existed historically in many cultures, though not under the same names and not necessarily with the same traits. If there is a male god, his powers may be seen as deriving from her. (Gottner-Abendroth 1987). These terms are not usually understood to refer a single deity that is identical across cultures but rather a concept common in many ancient cultures, which those in the Goddess movement want to restore. (Christ 1997). When Goddess is spoken of as a personal guardian, as in 'my Goddess' it means 'my worldview in Goddess spirituality.'
- Goddess Spirituality is sometimes used as a synonym for Goddess Movement and sometimes as the spiritual practice that is part of the Goddess movement.
- Goddessing is a recent contribution to Goddess vocabulary, possibly derived from the British journal of the same name, following from Mary Daly's linguistically suspect suggestion that deity is too dynamic, too much in process and changing continually, to be a noun, and should better be spoken as a verb (Daly 1973). Goddessing may also mean Goddess culture, Goddess way of life, Goddess practice, or 'my goddessing' as in my individual interpretation and experience of Goddess.
- Priestess refers to women who dedicate themselves to one or more goddesses. It may or may not include leadership of a group, and it may or may not include legal ordination. The analogous term for men is "priest." However, not everyone who dedicates themselves to the Goddess or goddesses calls themselves a priestess (or priest).
- Thealogy is a term whose first use in the context of feminist analysis of religion and discussion of Goddess is usually credited to Naomi Goldenberg, who used the term in her book Changing of the Gods, published in 1979.[1] It substitutes the Greek feminine prefix "thea-" for the supposedly generic use of the Greek masculine prefix "theo-". Frequently used to mean analysis of Goddess thought and mysticism, it can also be used more liberally to mean any kind of divine, not just deity divine, as in meditation, ethics, ritual pragmatics.
Background
In the 19th century, some first-wave feminists such as Matilda Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton published their ideas describing a female Deity, whilst anthropologists such as Johann Jakob Bachofen examined the ideas of prehistoric matriarchal Goddess cultures. However these ideas were largely ignored in the North America and much of until second-wave feminism. In addition to Bachofen, second-wave feminists who became interested in the history of religion also refer to the work of Helen Diner (1965) and M. Esther Harding (1935) Elizabeth Gould Davis (1971) and Merlin Stone (1976).[citation needed]
Use of mythological materials
Participants in the Goddess movement often invoke myths. However sceptics claim that these have been reconstructed from ancient sources and others are modern inventions.[2] These myths are not understood literally, but rather figuratively or metaphorically as reflecting ancient understandings and worldviews. For instance, creation myths (Budapest 1980, Laura 1989, Starhawk 1979) are not seen as conflicting with scientific understanding but rather as being poetic, metaphoric statements that are compatible with, for example, the theory of evolution, modern cosmology and physics (Starhawk 1979, Laura 1997).Myths from ancient cultures are often reinterpreted as new evidence comes to light. Because myths from religions that included goddesses, those after the Bronze Age, including Greek and Roman mythology, are believed to have patriarchal bias, reinterpretation by Goddess movement writers and women scholars help to provide a truer mirror of the social set up of the period in which the story was written. The myth of Demeter and Persephone is one that has been reinterpreted. (Christ 1987, Pollack, 1997, Spretnak 1978).
Theology
Goddess Spirituality characteristically shows diversity: no central body defines its dogma. Yet there is evolving consensus on some issues including: the Goddess in relation to polytheism and monotheism; immanence, transcendence and other ways to understand the nature of the Goddess.
One or many?
One question often asked is whether Goddess adherents believe in one Goddess or many goddesses: Is Goddess spirituality monotheistic or polytheistic (Eller 2000)? This is not an issue for many of those in the Goddess movement, whose conceptualization of divinity is more all-encompassing (Starhawk 2001). The terms "the Goddess", or "Great Goddess" may appear monotheistic because the singular noun is used. However, these terms are most commonly used as code or shorthand for one or all of the following: to refer to certain types of prehistoric goddesses; to encompass all goddesses (a form of henotheism ); to refer to a modern metaphoric concept of female deity; to describe a form of energy, or a process. (Long 1996, Laura 1997, Christ 1997 and 2003).The concept of a singular divine being with many expressions is not a new development in thought: it has been a major theme in
for many centuries, at the very least as far back as the 5th century, though hymns in the early Vedas too speak of a one-Goddess-many-goddesses concept. (Jayran 2000)
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Within or without?
Another point of discussion is whether the Goddess is immanent, or transcendent, or both, or something else. Starhawk (1988) speaks of the Goddess as immanent (infusing all of nature) but sometimes also simultaneously transcendent (existing independently of the material world). Many Goddess authors agree and also describe Goddess as, at one and the same time, immanently pantheistic and panentheistic. The former means that Goddess flows into and through each individual aspect of nature—each tree, blade of grass, human, animal, planet; the latter means that all exist within the Goddess (Starhawk 1979, Laura 1997, Christ 1997).Starhawk (1979:77) also speaks of the Goddess as both a psychological symbol and "manifest reality. She exists and we create Her" (italics hers). Laura (1997:175) describes Goddess as being interactive. Possibly building on Mary Daly's (1973 and 1978) suggestion that the divine be understood not as a Being (noun), but as Be-ing (verb), Carol P. Christ (2003), shows the similarities between Goddess theology and process theology, and suggests that Goddess theologians adopt more of the process viewpoint.
The Aristasian religion, Deanism, on the other hand, states strongly that the Mother created us, that She exists independently of human beings and is the First Cause of all things.
Ethics
Although the Goddess movement has no Ten Commandments dictating a specific code of behavior, there are commonly held tenets and concepts within the movement that form a basis for ethical behavior. (Christ 2005) Those participants in Goddess spirituality who define themselves as Wiccan/en, usually follow what is known as the Wiccan Rede: " 'An it harm none, do what ye will", ("an" being an archaic English word understood to mean "if", or "as long as"). Many also believe in the Threefold Law, which states that "what you send (or do), returns three times over", (Starhawk 1979). Some traditions believe that this means it will be returned to the sender three times, or in a portion three times in volume, while others say it will instead be returned to the sender on three levels of being- physical, mental, and spiritual. Still others postulate that the number "three" is symbolic, meant to indicate a magnified karmic result for one's actions.Some people in the Goddess movement honor the Triple Goddess of Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The Maiden aspect of the Goddess shows women how to be independent and strong; the Mother aspect shows women how to be nurturing; and the Crone aspect shows that respecting elders is important and focuses on wisdom, change, and transformation.(Starhawk 1979)
Because the Crone aspect of the Goddess is understood by some to be destructive at times, some consider it to contain both positive and negative imagery and to present an ethical quandary. The Hindu Goddess Kali, or Kali Ma, is often seen as an example of the Crone aspect. The concept is that the corrective force in a Dark Age must be a righteously directed dark force. Thus, to combat the demons of ignorance, ego, anger, etc. the darker aspect manifests. Later on, even her fierce image softens in the love of her devotees. Her duality is easily reconciled with the monism of Hinduism, which claims to understand the fundamental unity of truth as being impersonal and stratified in an ego-knotted existence (such as the human condition), and thus to the evil or unrighteous she is destruction personified and to the loving and moral devotee she is nothing but the love of the mother. (Jayran 2000)
Other Goddess ethical beliefs are that one should not harm the interconnected web of life, and that peace and partnership should be the goals, rather than war and domination. According to Goddess theologian Carol P. Christ the following are ethical touchstones: "Nurture life; Walk in love and beauty; Trust the knowledge that comes through the body; Speak the truth about conflict, pain, and suffering; Take only what you need; Think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations; Approach the taking of life with great restraint; Practice great generosity; Repair the web." (Christ 1997:167).
Prehistoric cultures
The Goddess movement draws some of its inspiration from the work of such archaeologists as Marija Gimbutas (Gimbutas 1974 and 1989, Mellaart 1967), whose interpretation of artifacts excavated from the region she called "Old Europe" points to societies of Neolithic Europe that were "matristic" or "goddess-centered".Heide Göttner-Abendroth, working in the 1970s to mid 1980s and writing originally in German, called these cultures "matriarchies", introducing a feminist field of "Modern Matriarchal Studies". She presented a theory of the transformation of prehistoric cultures in which the local goddess was primary and the male god, if any, derived his power from the goddess. In what she terms the "Downfall", which occurred at varying times in various cultures, the gods overcame the goddesses and made them subservient. (Göttner-Abendroth 1987) This is believed[by whom?] to mirror the gradual suppression of women and the rise of patriarchy.
Göttner-Abendroth's terminology is idiosyncratic. The term "matriarchy" to describe these cultures has been rejected by many Goddess-movement scholars, especially those in
According to Eisler, cultures in which women and men shared power, and which worshipped female deities, were more peaceful than the patriarchal dominator societies that followed. Eisler proposed the terms "dominator" and "androcracy" instead of "patriarchy", and "partnership" and "gylany" (taking the first letters of the prefixes gyne [female] and andro [male] and linking them with an "l") instead of "matriarchy".[3] Others use the terms matrifocal (Christ 1997, Pollack 1997, Starhawk 1979) and matrix. Carol P. Christ (1997:58-59) writes, "The term matriarchy is not used by scholars who are aware of its controversial history."
Ian Hodder's reinterpretation of Gimbutas and Mellaart (2004) disputes the existence of "matriarchal" or "matrifocal" cultures, as do some other archaeologists and historians in this field (Hutton, 1991, Tringham & Conkey, 1998, Meskell, 1998, see also Eller 2000). However, mythologist Joseph Campbell compared the importance of Gimbutas' output to the historical importance of the Rosetta Stone in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Marija Gimbutas, dubbed "Grandmother of the Goddess Movement" in the 1990s,[4] continues to be cited by many feminist writers, including Max Dashu. Many other scholars, including Joan Marler and Marguerite Rigoglioso, support her work. (Marler 2003 and 2004, Rigoglioso 2002). Still, Gimbutas' theories had been widely criticized as mistaken on the grounds of dating, archeological context and typologies[5] Some archaeologists consider her goddess hypothesis implausible[6] some regard her work as pseudo-scholarship.[7]
Wicca
In Wicca "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God. In the earliest Wiccan publications she is described as a tribal goddess of the witch community, neither omnipotent nor universal, and it was recognized that there was a greater "Prime Mover", although the witches did not concern themselves much with this being.[8]Within many forms of Wicca the Goddess has come to be considered as a universal deity, more in line with her description in the Charge of the Goddess, a key Wiccan text. In this guise she is the "Queen of Heaven", similar to Isis; she also encompasses and conceives all life, much like Gaia. Much like
Robert Graves popularized the triad of "Maiden" (or "Virgin"), "Mother" and "Crone", and while this idea did not rest on sound scholarship, his poetic inspiration has gained a tenacious hold. Considerable variation in the precise conceptions of these figures exists, as typically occurs in Neopaganism and indeed in pagan religions in general. Some[who?] choose to interpret them as three stages in a woman's life, separated by menarche and menopause. Others[who?] find this too biologically based[citation needed] and rigid, and prefer a freer[dubious ] interpretation, with the Maiden as birth (independent, self-centred, seeking), the Mother as giving birth (interrelated, compassionate nurturing, creating), and the Crone as death and renewal (holistic, remote, unknowable) — and all three erotic and wise.
Some, but not all, participants in the Goddess movement self-identify as witches, Wiccans or Wiccens. (Likewise, some, but not all, Wiccans and witches consider themselves to be part of "the Goddess movement.") Other participants in the Goddess movement call themselves Goddessians (Laura 2002). Still others use "pagan" as a generic label for their spiritual worldview, or no identifying label at all.
Some witches, especially Dianics, believe in a witch-cult hypothesis.[citation needed] This theory attempts to trace the historical origins of their beliefs to Neolithic pre-Christian cultures, believing that Wiccanism is a distillation of a religion found at the beginning of most, if not all, cultures. They consider wise women and midwives to be the first witches. Dianic witchcraft first became visible in the 1970s, with Z. Budapest's writings.
Her feminist version of witchcraft followed a few decades after the founding (or discovery) of Wicca by Gerald Gardner in the 1940s. In its original and traditional forms, Wicca is a duotheistic pagan religion that honors a God and a Goddess equally. Gerald Gardner (1884–1964) who, with Doreen Valiente (1922–1999) founded Gardnerian Wicca in
For their time, Gardner and Valiente advocated a fairly feminist ideal of priestess authority in service to the Wiccan God and Goddess. Covens in 'traditional' Wicca (i.e., those run along the lines described by Gardner and Valiente) were and still are led pretty much equally by both a priest and a priestess; but the priestess is often considered "prima inter pares" (first among equals); according to the book A Witches' Bible, by Stewart and Janet Farrar. (Other early authors on Wicca and witchcraft, such as Paul Huson in his book Mastering Witchcraft, and Charles Cardell of the Coven of Atho, and Robert Cochrane of the Clan of Tubal Cain, generally saw the male priest or magister as being of more importance.)
While virtually all Wiccans honor the Goddess as one of their two main deities, they may or may not consider themselves to be feminists. For this reason, they may or may not identify with the label "Goddess worshipper" when it is construed as connoting a feminist ideological position, or when it is regarded as an ideology that aims at elevating the Goddess to a position of more importance than the God. Thus, the worship of a goddess or even a Great Goddess should not necessarily be construed as a feminist position per se. (For example, the worship of feminine deities by both men and women in India was historically very widespread, as it was in ancient Greece; even though both of those cultures can be considered more patriarchal than most.)
Doreen Valiente became known in
The existence of witchcraft as the remnants of an old pagan religion as late as the early Modern Age was first suggested to a wide readership by Margaret Murray's books, The Witch Cult in Western Europe, The God of the Witches (1933) and The Divine King in England. Margaret Murray's books were focused mainly on the worship of a male Horned God, but she saw witches themselves as being either male or female.
In formulating an outline of Wiccan theology and liturgy,
Wicca and Neopaganism, and to some extent the Goddess movement, were influenced by 19th-century occultism, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (Greer 1995), and romantic nature movements in which both male and female were valued and honored as sacred, in contrast to and perhaps in reaction to mainstream Christian spirituality. Such views are described, for example, in the work of Robert Graves, especially The White Goddess (the origin of the neopagan 'Triple Goddess' concept) and Mammon and the Black Goddess.
Wicca was also heavily influenced by the ideas of alchemic symbolism, which emphasized the essential complementary polarity of male and female, and that characterized that basic duality or gender polarity as a partnership of the solar (male) and the lunar (female). In Wicca the moon is the symbol of the Goddess and the sun is the symbol of the God; and the central liturgical mystery and ritual act is "The Great Rite" or Hieros Gamos, which is a symbolic union of the God and the Goddess, as the primal male and female powers of the cosmos. In alchemy this was known as "the alchemical wedding" of the sun and the moon. In a parallel vein, traditional Wicca also draws heavily upon the Western Hermetic Tradition and its roots in the kabbalistic Tree of Life; where the twin pillars of masculine and feminine divine forces are joined by a Middle Pillar that encompasses and transcends both male and female. These "twin pillars" as they are shown in tarot decks are analogous to Valiente's depiction of the God and the Goddess as the two "mystical pillars." In this emphasis on the feminine as the equal and complementary polar opposite of the masculine, Wicca echoes not only kabalistic sources but also the polarity of yin and yang—feminine and masculine—in Taoism.
The main forums for the movement during the 70s and 80s were independently produced magazines and journals such as Green Egg in
One of the founders of modern American Goddess religions is Zsuzsanna Budapest, (Zee or "Z"), who started a women-only Dianic Craft or Dianic Tradition version of witchcraft; this was in the mid-1970s, a few decades after Gerald Gardner. She was a prolific author, and who twinned Tarot and witchcraft from her Hungarian background, with feminism. Z challenged laws in
The Dianic view is that separatism, in a world where gender roles were once strictly defined, is sometimes considered dangerous because it challenges what they see as patriarchal assumptions of Western culture (
Later, in
Many non-Dianics, as well as Starhawk (herself considered to be one of Z Budapest's students), who also reject monotheistic patriarchal culture, do not agree with Z's justification for separatism. Starhawk's paganism was more broadly based and also drew on the Feri tradition of Witchcraft which, itself, incorporated Hawaiian, European, and Middle Eastern elements. She was initiated into the Feri tradition in
Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth, a 1988 interview with Bill Moyers,[12] links the image of the Earth or Mother Goddess to symbols of fertility and reproduction.[13] For example,
Bill Moyers: But what happened along the way to this reverence that in primitive societies was directed to the Goddess figure, the Great Goddess, the mother earth- what happened to that?
Joseph Campbell: Well that was associated primarily with agriculture and the agricultural societies. It has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants...so woman magic and earth magic are the same. They are related. And the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile, and in the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form.[15]
Campbell also argues that the image of the Virgin Mary was derived from the image of Isis and her child Horus: "The antique model for the Madonna, actually, is Isis with Horus at her breast".[16]According to Joseph Campbell, "half of the world population believe that the myths of religious traditions are facts. The other half states they are not fact at all. The outcome of it is that we have individuals who consider themselves faithful because they accept these metaphors as facts and the other half believe they are atheist because they don't accept".[citation needed] One of these metaphors is Eve. Campbell argues that Christianity, originally a denomination of Judaism, embraced part of the Jewish pagan culture and the rib metaphor is an example of how distant the Jewish religion was from the prehistoric religion—the worship of the Mother Goddess or the Goddess.
Earth as Goddess
Many people involved in the Goddess movement regard the Earth as a living Goddess. For some this may be figurative, for others literal. This literal belief is similar to that proposed by Gaia theory, and the Goddess-name Gaia is sometimes used as a synonym for the Earth. Many of those in the Goddess movement become involved in ecofeminism, and are concerned with environmental and ecological issues.[17] Goddess-movement adherents claim the hierarchical scheme giving humans dominion over the Earth (and nature) has led to lack of respect and concern for the Earth, and thus to what environmentalists identify as environmental crises, (Eisler 1987) such as global warming. Rather than having dominion over the Earth, Goddess-movement theorists see humans living as part of the Earth environment, and also refer to Earth as "Mother". (Budapest 1980, Starhawk 1979)----
# The Hebrew Goddess
In this book, Patai argues that the Jewish religion historically had elements of polytheism, especially the worship of goddesses and a cult of the mother goddess.
The book supports the theory through the interpretation of archaeological and textual sources as evidence for veneration of feminine beings.
Hebrew goddesses identified in the book include Asherah, Anath, Astarte, Ashima, the cherubim in Solomon's Temple, the Matronit (Shekhina), and the personified Shabbat Bride.
The later editions of the book were expanded to include recent archaeological discoveries and the rituals of unification (Yichudim) which are to unite God with his Shekinah.
The identification of the pillar figurines with Asherah in this book was the first time they had been so identified.[1]
A third, enlarged edition was published in 1990 by Wayne State University Press.
Raphael Patai's first exploration of this theme was in his 1947 book Man and Temple in Ancient Jewish Myth and Ritual (
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# Henotheism
Henotheism (Greek heis theos "one god") is the belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities that may also be worshipped. The term was originally coined by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775–1854) to depict early stages of monotheism, however Max Müller (1823–1900), a German philologist and orientalist, brought the term into common usage.[1] Müller made the term central to his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing conceptions of God.Variations on the term have been "inclusive monotheism" and "monarchical polytheism", designed to differentiate differing forms of the phenomenon. Related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism, which are typically understood as sub-types of henotheism. The latter term is an extension of "henotheism", from καθ' ἕνα θεόν (kath' hena theon) —"one god at a time".[2] Henotheism is similar but less exclusive than monolatry because a monolator worships only one god (denying that other gods are worthy of worship), while the henotheist may worship any within the pantheon, depending on circumstances, although they usually will worship only one throughout their life (barring some sort of conversion). In some belief systems, the choice of the supreme deity within a henotheistic framework may be determined by cultural, geographical, historical or political reasons.
Henotheism in various religions
Classical Greco-Roman
While Greek and Roman religion began as polytheism, during the Classical period, under the influence of philosophy, differing conceptions emerged. Often Zeus (or Jupiter) was considered the supreme, all-powerful and all-knowing, king and father of the Olympian gods. According to Maijastina Kahlos "monotheism was pervasive in the educated circles in Late Antiquity" and "all divinities were interpreted as aspects, particles or epithets of one supreme God".[3] Maximus Tyrius (2nd century A.D.), stated:
"In such a mighty contest, sedition and discord, you will see one according law and assertion in all the earth, that there is one god, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of god, ruling together with him."[4]
The Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus taught that above the gods of traditional belief was "The One"[3] and polytheist[5] grammarian Maximus of Madauros even stated that only a mad person would deny the existence of the supreme God.[3]
Hinduism
Contemporary Hinduism is mostly monistic, or in some instances monotheistic (see Hindu views on monotheism). The concept of Brahman implies a transcendent and immanent reality,[6] which different schools of thought variously interpret as personal, impersonal or transpersonal. With the rise of Shaivism and Vaishnavism in the early centuries of the Common era, Hinduism is generally monistic and henotheistic: there is practically a consensus that there is a supreme, absolute, and omnipresent divine entity. Of the four major sects, Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism each regard only one specific Indic deity (Shiva, Vishnu, or Shakti) as the supreme being and principal object of worship, whereas all other divinities are considered merely "sub-gods" or manifestations of it. Smartism is also monistic, but does not single out one specific Indic deity but a pentad of gods - the "Panchayatana", which includes Shiva, Vishnu, Surya, Devi, and Ganesha.[7]The multitude of deities, or Devas, of the historical Vedic religion have a subordinate and secondary status vis-a-vis the One Supreme God, a status that some authors have even tried to express by comparing it to that of Western demigods or angels[citation needed]; Prakashanand Saraswati, in "The true history and the religion of India", prefers the term "celestial gods".[8] The Rigveda was the basis for Max Müller's description of henotheism in the sense of a polytheistic tradition striving towards a formulation of The One (ekam) Divinity aimed at by the worship of different cosmic principles. From this mix of monism, monotheism and naturalist polytheism Max Müller decided to name the early Vedic religion henotheistic. A prime example of the monistic aspects of the late Rigveda is the Nasadiya sukta, a hymn describing creation: "That One breathed by itself without breath, other than it there has been nothing."
Christianity
Some Christians believe in the spiritual beings angels and demons that are ontologically inferior to God. Christian churches maintain such beings are distinct from "gods", even though some churches authorize supplication, prayer and veneration of heavenly beings, angels, and saints, Christians who died in a state of grace and are believed to be in Heaven. This acknowledgment of heavenly beings during Christian prayer is practiced in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy. and some parts of Lutheranism. Such churches teach these supernatural beings do not possess any power independent of God, and maintain that veneration is properly limited to intercession with God (that is, praying to God on behalf of the petitioner).[9] In this view any miracles resulting from the veneration of heavenly beings are fully attributable to God alone, and not through the powers of lesser beings. The honor given to these beings is defined in Catholic theology as dulia, or veneration, whereas adoration or worship (latria) is reserved for the Trinity alone.To Christian monotheists, such formalized worship of an angelic or beatified figure as is present in Hinduism reflects the heresy of polytheism, henotheism, or monolatry. The majority of Protestant denominations further maintain that veneration of saints involves an act of essential worship dissonant with Christian salvation, holding that philosophical distinctions between dulia and latria are indistinguishable in practice. One of the five solas of the Protestant reformation is Soli Deo gloria, or "glory to God alone".
Mormonism
Mormons worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "in the name of" Jesus Christ (the Son of God), and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Each is acknowledged to be a member of the Godhead and to be God. Mormonism also teaches that people can be joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, eventually becoming gods themselves. In contrast to other branches of Christianity, Mormon theology considers God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit to be three separate gods united in will and purpose,[10] (see social trinitarianism) as opposed to the orthodox view of three hypostases sharing in one Divine nature or essence (ousia), with the three members of the Godhead co-eternal and co-equal, together adored (worshiped, given latria) and glorified.
Judaism
Modern Rabbinical Judaism is monotheistic, but its Canaanite religion antecedent in ancient Israel and Judah (10th to 7th centuries BC) was henotheistic. For example, the Moabites worshipped the god Chemosh, the Edomites, Qaus, both of whom were part of the greater Canaanite pantheon, headed by the chief god, El. The Canaanite pantheon consisted of El and Asherah as the chief deities, with 70 sons who were said to rule over each of the nations of the earth. These sons were each worshiped within a specific region. K. L. Noll states that "the Bible preserves a tradition that Yahweh used to 'live' in the south, in the Several Biblical stories allude to the belief that the Canaanite gods all existed and possessed the most power in the lands that worshiped them or in their sacred objects; their power was real and could be invoked by the people who patronised them. There are numerous accounts of surrounding nations of
According to the Five Books of Moses, Abraham is revered as the one who overcame the idol worship of his family and surrounding people by recognizing the Hebrew God and establishing a covenant with him and creating the foundation of what has been called by scholars "Ethical Monotheism". The first of the Ten Commandments can be interpreted to forbid the Children of Israel from worshiping any other god but the one true God who had revealed himself at Mount Sinai and given them the Torah, however it can also be read as henotheistic, since it states that they should have "no other gods before me." The commandment itself does not affirm or deny the existence of other deities per se. Nevertheless, as recorded in the Tanakh ("Old Testament" Bible), in defiance of the Torah's teachings, the patron god YHWH was frequently worshipped in conjunction with other gods such as Baal, Asherah, and El. Over time, this tribal god may have assumed all the appellations of the other gods in the eyes of the people. The destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and the exile to
Islam
The majority of inhabitants of Pre-Islamic Arabia were henotheists. The Qur'anic term for their religious doctrine is shirk (i.e., "sharing"); it describes them as mushrikin (i.e., those who believe in God, but "share" other Gods in divinity). Pre-Islamic Arabs believed in a supreme God, and the word they used for him (Allah) is the same one used in Islam. But they did believe in lesser gods too. The unequivocal monotheism of Islam (often described as the foundation of the religion and its most fundamental article of faith) arose as a reaction to this belief system. Of course, shirk is a very pejorative term in Islam, and is considered one of (if not) the gravest of sins. The Qur'an (Al-Nisa: 48) says that God can forgive anything except shirk.Islam teaches the belief in angels who always act on the command of the supreme God, most prominently the archangels Jibrail, Mikail, Israfil and Azrail. There also exists the belief in jinns, spiritual beings that can have either positive or negative dispositions towards God and humans, and who at rare times intervene in human lives. Islam, however, does not allow their followers intercession with jinns, angels, or proclaimed saints. Invocations and prayers are only permissible when they are directed towards the supreme God.
Egyptian religions
While the ancient Egyptian beliefs usually recognized many gods, worship was often focused primarily upon a supreme deity, and this focus also changed from time to time. When Amenhotep IV became Pharaoh (circa 1353 BC), the supreme deity was considered to be Amun-Ra (itself the result of an earlier rise to prominence of the cult of Amun, resulting in Amun becoming merged with the sun god Ra). Gradually, the new pharaoh shifted the focus to the god Aten, eventually declaring that Aten was not merely the supreme god, but the only god. He changed his own name to "Akhenaten" and eventually ordered removal from the temples of the name Amun (as well as references to the plural 'gods'). After his death, the prior religious establishment was restored to power, and Amun-Ra once again became supreme, among many lesser deities.
Dacian and Thracian religions
In ancient Dacia the cult of Zalmoxis had grown into a wide spread henotheistic religion by the seventh century BC. Even though the Dacians had many other deities Zalmoxis was regarded as "the one true god" by most Dacians and many Thracians. During King Burebista's reign the year of Zalmoxis' death was marked as the first day of the Dacian calendar.[citation needed]
Henotheism and monolatry
Henotheism is closely related to the theistic concept of monolatry, which is also the worship of one god among many. The primary difference between the two is that henotheism is the worship of one god, not precluding the existence of others who may also be worthy of praise, while Monolatry is the worship of one god who alone is worthy of worship, though other gods are known to exist.[15]
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# Shekhinah
The Shekinah shares some features in common with the parallel idea of Sophia (wisdom) in Christianity. Like
The word for Tabernacle, mishkan, is a derivative of the same root and is used in the sense of dwelling-place in the Bible, e.g. Psalm 132:5 ("Before I find a place for God, mishkanot (dwelling-places) for the Strong One of Israel.") Accordingly, in classic Jewish thought, the Shekhinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine presence, to the effect that, while in proximity to the Shekhinah, the connection to God is more readily perceivable.
Some Christian theologians have connected the concept of Shekhinah to the Greek term "Parousia", "presence" "arrival," which is used in the New Testament in a similar way for "Divine Presence".[1]
Meaning in Judaism
Manifestation
The Shekinah is referred to as manifest in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem throughout Rabbinic literature. It is also reported as being present in the acts of public prayer, ("Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekhinah rests" Talmud Sanhedrin 39a); righteous judgment ("when three sit as judges, the Shekhinah is with them." Talmud Berachot 6a), and personal need ("The Shekhinah dwells over the headside of the sick man's bed" Talmud Shabbat 12b; "Wheresoever they were exiled, the Shekhinah went with them." Megillah 29a).
Absence of the Temple
The Talmud expounds a Beraita (oral tradition) which illuminates the manner in which the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) is to sprinkle the blood of the bull-offering towards the Parochet (Curtain) separating the Hekhal (sanctuary) from the Kodesh Hakodashim (Holy of Holies):
[And so shall he do in the midst of the Tent of Meeting] that dwells (shokhen) among them in the midst of their impurities (Leviticus 16:16). Even at a time when the Jews are impure, the Shekinah (Divine Presence) is with them.
A certain Sadducee said to Rabbi Chanina: Now [that you have been exiled], you are certainly impure, as it is written: "Her impurity is [visible] on her hems." (Lamentations 1:9). He [Rabbi Chanina] said to him: Come see what is written regarding them: [The Tent of Meeting] that dwells among them in the midst of their impurities. Even in a time that they are impure, the Divine Presence is among them.
Jewish sources
The Talmud reports that the Shekinah is what caused prophets to prophesy and King David to compose his Psalms. The Shekinah manifests itself as a form of joy, connected with prophecy and creativity: Talmud Pesachim 117a) The Talmud also reports that "The Shekinah does not rest amidst laziness, nor amidst laughter, nor amidst lightheadedness, nor amidst idle conversation. Rather, it is amidst the joy associated with a mitzvah that the Shekinah comes to rest upon people, as it is said: 'And now, bring me for a musician, and it happened that when the music played, God's hand rested upon him' [Elisha] [2 Kings 3:15]" (Pesachim 117a). Thus the Shekinah is associated with the transformational spirit of God regarded as the source of prophecy:
After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines; and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they will be prophesying. And the spirit of the LORD will come mightily upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
The prophets made numerous references to metaphorical visions of the presence of God, particularly in the context of the Tabernacle or Temple, with figures such as thrones or robes filling the Sanctuary, which have traditionally been attributed to the presence of the Shekhinah. Isaiah wrote "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the
Meaning in Hassidic Judaism
Hassidic Judaism regards the Kabbalah, in which the Shekinah has special significance, as having scriptural authority. The word 'Matronit' is also employed to represent this usage.
Sabbath Bride
This recurrent theme is best known from the writings and songs of the legendary mystic of the 16th century, Rabbi Isaac Luria. Here is a quotation from the beginning of his famous shabbat hymn:
"I sing in hymns
to enter the gates
of the Field
of holy apples.
"A new table
we prepare for Her,
a lovely candelabrum
sheds its light upon us.
"Between right and left
the Bride approaches,
in holy jewels
and festive garments..."
A paragraph in the Zohar starts: "One must prepare a comfortable seat with several cushions and embroidered covers, from all that is found in the house, like one who prepares a canopy for a bride. For the Shabbat is a queen and a bride. This is why the masters of the Mishna used to go out on the eve of Shabbat to receive her on the road, and used to say: 'Come, O bride, come, O bride!' And one must sing and rejoice at the table in her honor ... one must receive the Lady with many lighted candles, many enjoyments, beautiful clothes, and a house embellished with many fine appointments ..."The tradition of the Shekinah as the Shabbat Bride, the Shabbat Kallah, continues to this day.
Jewish prayers
The 17th blessing of the daily Amidah prayer said in Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform services is "Blessed are You, God, who returns His Presence (shekhinato) to The Liberal Jewish prayer-book for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Machzor Ruach Chadashah) contains a creative prayer based on Avinu Malkeinu, in which the feminine noun Shekhinah is used in the interests of gender neutrality.[3]
Yiddish song
The concept of Shekinah is also associated with Holy Spirit in Jewish tradition, such as in Yiddish song: Vel ich, sh'chine tsu dir kummen "Will I, shekinah, to you come".[4]
Christianity
In addition to the various accounts indicating the presence or glory of God recorded in the Hebrew Bible, many Christians also consider the Shekhinah to be manifest in numerous instances in the New Testament.The public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, published in 1897, says,
Shechinah – a Chaldee word meaning resting-place, not found in Scripture, but used by the later Jews to designate the visible symbol of God's presence in the Tabernacle, and afterwards in Solomon's temple. When the Lord led Israel out of Egypt, he went before them "in a pillar of a cloud." This was the symbol of his presence with his people. God also spoke to Moses through the 'shekhinah' out of a burning bush. For references made to it during the wilderness wanderings, see Exodus 14:20; 40:34-38; Leviticus 9:23, 24; Numbers 14:10; 16:19, 42. It is probable that after the entrance into Canaan this glory-cloud settled in the tabernacle upon the ark of the covenant in the most holy place. We have, however, no special reference to it till the consecration of the temple by Solomon, when it filled the whole house with its glory, so that the priests could not stand to minister (1 Kings 8:10–13; 2 Chr. 5:13, 14; 7:1–3). Probably it remained in the first temple in the holy of holies as the symbol of Jehovah’s presence so long as that temple stood. It afterwards disappeared.
—[1]
References to the Shekhinah in Christianity often see the presence and the glory of the Lord as being synonymous,[5] as illustrated in the following verse from Exodus;
And Moses went up into the mount, and the cloud covered the mount. And the glory of Jehovah abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel
—Exodus 24:15–17 ASV
Lord
Spirit
The Shekinah in the New Testament is commonly equated to the presence or indwelling of the Spirit of the Lord (generally referred to as the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of Christ) in the believer, drawing parallels to the presence of God in Solomon's Temple. In contradistinction with the Old Testament where the Holy of Holies signified the presence of God, from the New Testament onwards, it is the Holy Spirit that reminds us of God's abiding presence. Furthermore, in the same manner that the Shekhinah is linked to prophecy in Judaism, so it is in Christianity:
For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
—2 Peter 1:21 ASV
Glory
Where references are made to the Shekinah as manifestations of the glory of the Lord associated with his presence, Christians find numerous occurrences in the New Testament in both literal (as in Luke 2:9 which refers to the "glory of the Lord" shining on the shepherds at Jesus' birth)[6] as well as spiritual forms (as in John 17:22, where Jesus speaks to God of giving the "glory" that God gave to him to the people).[7] A contrast can be found in Ichabod, so named as a result of the Ark of the Covenant being captured by the Philistines: "The glory is departed from Israel" (1 Samuel 4:22 KJV).
Divine Presence
By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.
—Exodus 13:21
Islam
Arabic: sakīnah is mentioned six times in the Quran, in chapters 2, 9 and 48.[8]Their prophet said to them: "The sign of his kingship is that the
Al-Qurtubi mentions in his famous exegesis, in explanation of the above-mentioned verse, that according to Wahb ibn Munnabih, Sakinah is a spirit from God that speaks, and, in the case of the Israelites, where people disagreed on some issue, this spirit came to clarify the situation, and used to be a cause of victory for them in wars. According to Ali, "Sakinah is a sweet breeze/wind, whose face is like the face of a human". Mujahid mentions that "when Sakinah glanced at an enemy, they were defeated", and ibn Atiyyah mentions about the Ark of the Covenant (at-Tabut), to which the Sakina was associated, that souls found therein peace, warmth, companionship and strength.
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nishapuri says in his Sahih al-Bukhari, that a certain man (during the time of Muhammad), was reciting the sura al-Kahf from the Quran by his tethered horse, and as he was reciting, a cloud engulfed him, which was encircling and descending, whose sight caused his horse to jump and move, and so when morning came he went to Muhammad and informed him of what occurred, to which Muhammad replied that it was the Sakinah that descended for the Quran.
According to Sunni traditions, when Muhammad was persecuted in Mecca and the time came for him to emigrate to Madinah (Medina), he took temporary refuge with his companion Abu Bakr in the
Muhammed's grandson Hussein ibn Ali named one of his daughters Sakina. She tragically perished in a Syrian prison during the imprisonment of Hussein's family members, mostly women and children, who survived the Battle of Karbala. She was the first person in the history of Islam to have been given the name Sakinah. It is currently a popular female name in most Islamic cultures.
Contemporary scholarship
Raphael Patai
Main articles: Raphael Patai and The Hebrew Goddess
In the work by anthropologist Raphael Patai entitled The Hebrew Goddess, the author argues that the term Shekhinah refers to a goddess by comparing and contrasting scriptural and medieval Jewish Kabbalistic source materials. Patai draws a historic distinction between the Shekhinah and the Matronit.In the bestselling thriller The Torah Codes by Ezra Barany, the storyline refers to the Shekhinah as a goddess and one of the characters is even named Patai. In the appendix are essays by Rabbi Shefa Gold, Zvi Bellin, and Tania Schweig about the Shekhinah.[9]
Comparative religion
- The Qur'an mentions the Sakina, or Tranquility, referring to God's blessing of solace and succour upon both the Children of Israel and Muhammad. Interestingly, Sakina, or Sakina bint Husayn, was also the name of the youngest female child of Husayn ibn Ali, ostensibly the first girl in recorded history to be given the name.
- "Shekhinah", often in plural, is also present in some gnostic writings written in Aramaic, such as the writings of the Manichaeans and the Mandaeans, as well as others. In these writings, shekhinas are described as hidden aspects of God, somewhat resembling the Amahrāspandan of the Zoroastrians.[10]
Gustav Davidson
American poet Gustav Davidson listed Shekhinah as an entry in his reference work A Dictionary of Angel, stating that she is the female incarnation of Metatron.
Branch Davidians
Lois Roden, whom the original Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church acknowledged as their teacher/prophet from 1978 to 1986, laid heavy emphasis on women's spirituality and the feminine aspect of God. She published a magazine, Shekinah, often rendered SHEkinah, in which she explored the concept that the Shekinah is the Holy Spirit. Articles from Shekinah are reprinted online at the Branch Davidian website.[11]
The Wisdom Goddess
In their book, The Cosmic Shekhinah, David Rankine and Sorita D'Este explore the Wisdom Goddess of the Bible; as well as the Kabbalah, her precedents in the history and practices of earlier cultures and later developments.
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# Goddess
In some religions, a sacred feminine archetype can occupy a very central place in prayer and worship. In Hinduism, Sacred Feminine or Shaktism is one of the three major Hindu denominations of worship along with Vishnu and Shiva. In Tibetan Buddhism, the highest achievement any person can achieve is to become like the "great" female Buddhas (e.g. Arya Tara) who are depicted as being supreme protectors, fearless and filled with compassion for all beings.
The primacy of a monotheistic or near-monotheistic "Great Goddess" is advocated by some modern matriarchists as a female version of, preceding, or analogue to, the Abrahamic God associated with the historical rise of monotheism in the Mediterranean Axis Age.
Some currents of Neopaganism, in particular Wicca, have a bitheistic concept of a single goddess and a single god, who in hieros gamos represent a united whole. Polytheistic reconstructionists focus on reconstructing polytheistic religions, including the various goddesses and figures associated with indigenous cultures.
The noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix. It is first attested in Middle English, from about 1350.[1]
Types
Earth or mother goddesses
Bill Moyers: But what happened along the way to this reverence that in primitive societies was directed to the Goddess figure, the Great Goddess, the mother earth- what happened to that?
Joseph Campbell: Well that was associated primarily with agriculture and the agricultural societies. It has to do with the earth. The human woman gives birth just as the earth gives birth to the plants...so woman magic and earth magic are the same. They are related. And the personification of the energy that gives birth to forms and nourishes forms is properly female. It is in the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Egyptian Nile, and in the earlier planting-culture systems that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form.[5]
Pre-Islamic Arabia
In pre-Islamic Mecca the goddesses Uzza, al-Manāt and al-Lāt were known as "the daughters of god". Uzzā was worshipped by the Nabataeans, who equated her with the Graeco-Roman goddesses Aphrodite, Urania, Venus and Caelestis. Each of the three goddesses had a separate shrine near Mecca. Uzzā, was called upon for protection by the pre-Islamic Quraysh. "In 624 at the battle called "Uhud", the war cry of the Qurayshites was, "O people of Uzzā, people of Hubal!" (Tawil 1993).According to Ibn Ishaq's controversial account of the Satanic Verses (q.v.), these verses had previously endorsed them as intercessors for Muslims, but were abrogated. Most Muslim scholars have regarded the story as historically implausible, while opinion is divided among western scholars such as Leone Caetani and John Burton, who argue against, and William Muir and William Montgomery Watt, who argue for its plausibility.
Germanic
Judaism
The Zohar tradition has influenced Jewish folkore, which postulates God created Adam to marry a woman named Lilith. Outside of Jewish tradition, Lilith was associated with the Mother Goddess, Inanna – later known as both Ishtar and Asherah. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was said to have destroyed a tree that was in a sacred grove dedicated to the goddess Ishtar/Inanna/Asherah. Lilith ran into the wilderness in despair. She then is depicted in the Talmud and Kabbalah as first wife to God's first creation of man, Adam. In time, as stated in the Old Testament, the Hebrew followers continued to worship "False Idols", like Asherah, as being as powerful as God. Jeremiah speaks of his (and God's) displeasure at this behavior to the Hebrew people about the worship of the goddess in the Old Testament. Lilith is banished from Adam and God's presence when she is discovered to be a "demon" and Eve becomes Adam's wife. Lilith then takes the form of the serpent in her jealous rage at being displaced as Adam's wife. Lilith as serpent then proceeds to trick Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge and in this way is responsible for the downfall of all of mankind. It is worthwhile to note here that in religions pre-dating Judaism, the serpent was known to be associated with wisdom and re-birth (with the shedding of its skin).
The following female deities are mentioned in prominent Hebrew texts:
Christianity
In some Christian traditions (like the Orthodox tradition), Sophia is the personification of either divine wisdom (or of an archangel) which takes female form. She is mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs.
In Mysticism, Gnosticism, as well as some Hellenistic religions, there is a female spirit or goddess named Sophia who is said to embody wisdom and who is sometimes described as a virgin. In Roman Catholic mysticism, Hildegard of Bingen celebrated Sophia as a cosmic figure both in her writing and art. Within the Protestant tradition in England, 17th century Mystic, Universalist and founder of the Philadelphian Society Jane Leade wrote copious descriptions of her visions and dialogues with the "Virgin Sophia" who, she said, revealed to her the spiritual workings of the universe. Leade was hugely influenced by the theosophical writings of 16th century German Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, who also speaks of the Sophia in works such as The Way to Christ.[11] Jakob Böhme was very influential to a number of Christian mystics and religious leaders, including George Rapp and the Harmony Society.
Feminism and neopaganism
Goddess movement
Main articles: Feminist theology and Goddess movement
At least since first-wave feminism in the While much of the attempt at gender equity in mainstream Christianity (Judaism never recognized any gender for God) is aimed at reinterpreting scripture and degenderizing language used to name and describe the divine (Ruether, 1984; Plaskow, 1991), there are a growing number of people who identify as Christians or Jews who are trying to integrate goddess imagery into their religions (Kien, 2000; Kidd 1996,"Goddess Christians Yahoogroup").
Sacred feminine
The term "sacred feminine" was first coined in the 1970s, in New Age popularizations of the Hindu Shakti. It was further popularized during the 1990s by Andrew Harvey and others, and entered mainstream pop culture in 2003 with Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
Wicca
Further information: Goddess (Wicca) and Triple Goddess (Neopaganism)
In Wicca "the Goddess" is a deity of prime importance, along with her consort the Horned God. Within many forms of Wicca the Goddess has come to be considered as a universal deity, more in line with her description in the Charge of the Goddess, a key Wiccan text. In this guise she is the "Queen of Heaven", similar to Isis; she also encompasses and conceives all life, much like Gaia. Much like Goddesses or demi-goddesses appear in sets of three in a number of ancient European pagan mythologies; these include the Greek Erinyes (Furies) and Moirai (Fates); the Norse Norns; Brighid and her two sisters, also called Brighid, from Irish or Keltoi mythology.
Robert Graves popularised the triad of "Maiden" (or "Virgin"), "Mother" and "Crone", and while this idea did not rest on sound scholarship, his poetic inspiration has gained a tenacious hold. Considerable variation in the precise conceptions of these figures exists, as typically occurs in Neopaganism and indeed in pagan religions in general. Some choose to interpret them as three stages in a woman's life, separated by menarche and menopause. Others find this too biologically based and rigid, and prefer a freer interpretation, with the Maiden as birth (independent, self-centred, seeking), the Mother as giving birth (interrelated, compassionate nurturing, creating), and the Crone as death and renewal (holistic, remote, unknowable) — and all three erotic and wise.
Metaphorical use
The term "goddess" has also been adapted to poetic and secular use as a complimentary description of a non-mythological woman.[13] The OED notes 1579 as the date of the earliest attestation of such figurative use, in Lauretta the diuine Petrarches Goddesse.Shakespeare had several of his male characters address female characters as goddesses, including Demetrius to Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream ("O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!"), Berowne to Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost ("A woman I forswore; but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee"), and Bertram to Diana in All's Well That Ends Well. Pisanio also compares Imogen to a goddess to describe her composure under duress in Cymbeline.
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