Feminine Divine Research Articles

Why “God” as “She” Provokes us

Why does the idea of the divine feminine result in such intense fear in some people and excitement in others? Writings on the Goddess movement consistently document that adherents sense the power of symbols and use them intentionally to create something profoundly different. My approach employs semiotic theory to offer a terminology and established theoretical base that imparts an understanding of “what” and “how” Goddess spirituality and its alternative cosmology pose for some such a risk and for others such promise. Replacing the established transcendental signified of “God” with “Goddess” ruptures and displaces the systemic and totalizing structure of Western metaphysics. This is why, I believe, reactions to the idea of the feminine divine can be so pronounced. For some, the Goddess promises to solve Western culture’s problems by creating a new, more female-valuing symbolic structure. For others, She threatens the very core of the current system of signification and everything within it.

‘Women of Vision’ in the Jewish Renewal Movement: The Eshet Hazon [‘Woman of Vision’] Ceremony

Since the 1960s, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal has envisioned a Judaism that affirms the spiritual power and creativity of women. The challenges raised by this commitment—how to formulate and foster women's gifts within Judaism—are exemplified in the Eshet Hazon [Woman of Vision] ritual, first celebrated in 1982. Incorporating Jewish texts and symbols, this ritual transformed their meaning to express a vision of women inspired by Shekhinah, the divine feminine of Jewish mysticism. The evolution of this ceremony since 1982 shows how views of women's spirituality have changed in relationship to the growth in membership and organisational complexity of ALEPH, and the increasing availability of other options, especially rabbinical ordination, for women's spiritual leadership. Influenced by the feminist spirituality movement, the Women of Vision hold a ‘gender-differentiated’ model of women's spiritual leadership, while others in Jewish Renewal have taken a more ‘gender-neutral’ approach.

Goddesses and the divine feminine: a Western religious history

Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History. By Rosemary Radford Ruether. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Pp. ? + 382; acknowledgments, introduction, photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95 cloth, $18.95 paper) Contemporary popular culture is now so full of claims surrounding the divine feminine drat it's difficult to sort them out. Some ideas include that early human cultures were peaceful and productive because they worshipped goddesses; that the gnostic gospels preserve the idea of the feminine divine, and for that reason were excluded from orthodoxy; that the worship of the Virgin Mary is a continuation of this veneration, a form of feminist resistance to patriarchal oppression; that Hildegard of Bingen was an early feminist theologian; that the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe is really an ancient Aztec goddess, Tonatzin. Many of these claims have become dogma in their own right among practitioners of feminist spirituality and New Age religions. But is there any truth to them? Feminist theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether comes to the rescue with this gem - a scholarly study of the female faces of the divine in their various iterations, from prehistoric times into the present, based on solid evidence rather than wishful thinking, and written with the insight of a religious historian. Ruether's central goal in this book is not to sort out the relative truth or fiction of competing claims, but to trace the history that connects ancient religions with contemporary feminist attempts to re-examine, revive and reclaim aspects of them for the purpose of building a more satisfying and just way of being in the world. As such, it grows out of her own lifelong experience as a both a theologian and a politically committed feminist. Her hope is that this book will be of value to feminists all along the religious spectrum, from Jewish and Christian spiritual feminists, to radical witches and neo-pagans, in that it illustrates their shared roots and common values and works to create alliances among them. But it will also appeal to a much broader audience seeking historically accurate information about putative links between early religions and contemporary adaptations of them. It would be ideal for use in classes on women and religion, and more broadly on Western religious history. Ruether started her career as a religious historian of the ancient Near East, and it's here that she begins her story by tackling the problems inherent in teasing out clues about gender and religious praxis from prehistoric archeological evidence, a partial record of material culture that is notoriously difficult to interpret. In order to properly contextualize contemporary archeological ways of understanding evidence, she must also present a history of earlier archeological theories of cultural and social evolution, including nineteenth-century models (and their twentieth-century redactions) that are often adopted uncritically and enthusiastically by some spiritual feminists. That she does this as clearly and judiciously as she does, despite lacking archeological training, is to her credit. …

Book ReviewsMetamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming. By Rosi Braidotti. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002.To Speak Is Never Neutral. By Luce Irigaray. Trans. Gail Schwab. New York: Routledge, 2002.A Politics of Impossible Difference: The Later Work of Luce Irigaray. By Penelope Deutscher. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002.Democracy Begins between Two. By Luce Irigaray. Trans. Kirsteen Anderson. New York: Routledge,

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook Reviews Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming. By Rosi Braidotti. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2002. To Speak Is Never Neutral. By Luce Irigaray. Trans. Gail Schwab. New York: Routledge, 2002. A Politics of Impossible Difference: The Later Work of Luce Irigaray. By Penelope Deutscher. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. Democracy Begins between Two. By Luce Irigaray. Trans. Kirsteen Anderson. New York: Routledge, 2001.Mary Beth MaderMary Beth MaderUniversity of Memphis Search for more articles by this author University of MemphisPDFPDF PLUSFull TextSupplemental Material Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 30, Number 4Summer 2005New Feminist Approaches to Social Science Methodologies. Special Issue Editors Sandra Harding and Kathryn Norberg Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/429259 Views: 71Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author(s).PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Shiva Hemmati Passion and Reason in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Irigarayan Feminine Divine, International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences 89 (Dec 2020): 25–32.https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.89.25

HOLLE'S CRY: UNEARTHING A BIRTH GODDESS IN A GERMAN JEWISH NAMING CEREMONY

One avenue of inquiry in feminist spirituality has been the exploration of folklore and folk ritual related to women. Folk ritual often contains elements from outside Jewish law and tradition, imported from idiosyncratic or syncretic local custom, and may therefore contain a hint of the theological imaginings of Jewish women- or even a source of images of the feminine Divine. One of the folk rituals of central Europe is the German Jewish baby naming ritual, used for both girls and boys, known as Hollekreisch (also Holekreisch, Holegrash, or Houlegraash). In this ritual, family and friends gave a child a name (usually a secular name), raised the infant's cradle three times, and, in some areas and periods, called the name of Holle. Scholars now agree that this ceremony, whose origins lie in the Middle Ages, likely stemmed from the legend of Frau Holle, a German mythic figure associated with birth, death, the cycle of seasons, the household, and the underworld. An examination of medieval Jewish legend and ritual from central Europe confirms that some Jews knew of Frau Holle, whom German women worshipped throughout the Middle Ages in spite of Church decrees forbidding it. Many modern scholars of Jewish folk custom, attempting to understand Holle's presence in a Jewish ritual, have read the Teutonic legends of Frau Holle to suggest that she is a witch and a stealer of children. They conclude that the Hollekreisch ceremony was a ritual protecting the newborn from demons. However, if one examines all the available sources from the Middle Ages to the present about Frau Holle, or Holda- and the numerous almost identical Central European goddess-figures associated with life, death, witchcraft, and children, such as Perchta, Frau Gode, Frau Venus, Frau Harke, Frau Frick, and Frau Stampa1 - she appears as an ambivalent figure. In European legend, to 62 NASHIM: A Journal of Jewish Women 's Studies and Gender Issues. © 2005

The religious use of prehistoric imagery in contemporary goddess spirituality

For archaeologists, the principal value of prehistoric figurines is that they offer a means – however limited – into the cultures and lives of prehistoric peoples. There is a long tradition of archaeologists assuming that the figurines they unearth had a religious significance for the people who created them (since anthropomorphic figurines have a religious use in many cultures with which we are familiar). However, just as archaeologists began questioning their attribution of divine status to prehistoric figurines in the 1960s, practitioners of neopagan and goddess spiritualities – particularly those in the feminist spirituality movement – were adopting it. Moreover, in addition to describing prehistoric figurines as images of a Great Goddess who dominated prehistoric religious life, these contemporary feminist neopagans use reproductions of prehistoric figurines to inspire and enact their own spirituality. Feminist neopagan appropriation of prehistoric figurines has been problematic for many archaeologists, who quarrel – legitimately – with the conclusions feminist neopagans make about prehistory based on these artefacts. Yet, as this article argues, the contemporary religious use of prehistoric figurines should not be a matter for archaeologists to decide.

Cauldron of changes: feminist spirituality in fantastic fiction

This text examines the feminist spiritual dimensions of the science fiction, fantasy, and magical realist novels of Marion Zimmer Bradley, Octavia Butler, and others, addressing the novels' use of goddess worship and linking such novels to actual currents within the feminist spirituality movement.

White Women and the Dark Mother

One of the foremost champions of the ‘Dark Mother’ today is the overwhelmingly white feminist spirituality movement, based in the United States and Europe. Over the past twenty-five years, white spiritual feminists have approached the figure of the Dark Mother, which is borrowed from Hindu, African and Christian sources, with a uniquely fraught mix of longing, envy, hope, fear and guilt. This article first discusses the explicit justifications that white spiritual feminists offer for the incorporation of the Dark Mother into their religiosity, including their analysis of how the concepts of ‘lightness’ and ‘darkness’ are deployed and gendered in patriarchal religions. It then argues that, contrary to spiritual feminist claims, the Dark Mother as such does not exist cross-culturally but is rather the joint creation of the history of religions, Jungian psychology and spiritual feminist ingenuity, and that she is constructed and utilised primarily as a means of working through white racial guilt.

Reading Marija Gimbutas

In 1974 Marija Gimbutas, previously known for her theories about IndoEuropean cultures, published a scholarly work with an academic press on neolithic and chalcolithic Europe. Titled The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe, this book argued that the neolithic (stone age) and chalcolithic (copper age) cultures of Old Europe 6500-3500 BCE were peaceful, matrifocal, egalitarian, sedentary, agricultural, highly artistic, and worshiped the Goddess. These cultures, Gimbutas argued, were overthrown between 4500 and 2500 BCE by patriarchal invaders who domesticated horses, worshiped male sky gods, and spoke Indo-European languages. Had it been published twenty years earlier, Gimbutas's book on Old Europe and the two that followed, The Language of the Goddess (1989) and The Civilization of the Goddess (1991) might have been quietly ignored. But Gimbutas's book was published at about the same time as Mary Daly's Beyond God the Father (1973); the first issue of WomanSpirit magazine (1974); Z. Budapest's Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows (1975); and Merlin Stone's When God Was a Woman (1976). It quickly became one of the works cited in support of the burgeoning feminist spirituality movement's contention that women were better off in ancient societies that worshiped the Goddess than they were in later cul-

Revisioning Death: A Thealogical Approach to the 'Evils' of Mortality

Revisioning Death: A Thealogical Approach to the 'Evils' of Mortality

Thealogy and Theology: Mutually Exclusive or Creatively Interdependent?

Thealogy and Theology: Mutually Exclusive or Creatively Interdependent?

Rituals, Bodies and Thealogy: Some Questions

Rituals, Bodies and Thealogy: Some Questions

May You Never Hunger

Dianic Witchcraft, a subgroup of the larger feminist spirituality movement, was founded in the early 1970s. Dianics practice feminist witchcraft and meet in female-only covens, focusing solely on the Goddess. I examine this emerging tradition using Deborah Heisley's theories about the perceived gendered nature of food, as well as the thinking of Susan Starr Sered about the role of food in female-dominated religions. How does a religious group composed entirely of women and consciously focused on women’s lives deal with food within religious rites and outside of them? Do the foods used by Dianic witches reflect their political or spiritual belief Systems? By analyzing the food practices at a large, Dianic community holiday ritual in Los Angeles and through interviewing two members of Dianic covens about their personal religious practices involving food, I propose some preliminary findings about the role of food in this growing spiritual tradition.

For hendes ansigt skinnede som solen

The Gernman abbess and mystic Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) developped a richly nuanced theology of the feminine. At the heart of her spiritual world stands the numinous figure she called Sapientia or Caritas: Wisdom or Love, a theophany of the feminine aspect of the divine. In Hildegard's visionary work De operatione Dei, "The Book of Divine Works", written between 1163-1173, Caritas/Sapientia plays an important part. She is the central figure in five out of the ten visions, that comprises De operatione Dei. The first two visions picture Caritas as Anima Mundi, the world soul - the divine presense in the cosmos - and Creatrix, who creates the world by existing in it as an eternal, circling motion. The eighth vision presents Caritas/Sapienta as the "living fountain", that both quickens and reflects all creatures, and inspires the prophets, including Hildegard herself. The theme of the ninth vision is "Wisdom's vesture". Because Wisdom is both a cosmic and a microcosmic figure, her garb can represent the workmanship og either God or man. In the tenth vision Caritas rests in the center of the wheel of eternity and history, and is presented as the eternal archetype of the Virgin Mary. Besides being a theological necessity as mediator of creation, incarnation and salvation Hildegard's feminine divine also serves as a model for women, particularly consecrated virgins, who represent the feminine divine on earth.

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America

Thealogy, Redemption and the Call of the Wild*

Thealogy, Redemption and the Call of the Wild*

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America. Cynthia EllerHoly Women, Wholly Women: Sharing Life Stories and Reciprocal Ethnography. Elaine J. LawlessThe Politics of Virtue: Is Abortion Debatable?. Elizabeth Mensch , Alan FreemanDiscipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesia-Logy of Liberation. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America. Cynthia EllerHoly Women, Wholly Women: Sharing Life Stories and Reciprocal Ethnography. Elaine J. LawlessThe Politics of Virtue: Is Abortion Debatable?. Elizabeth Mensch , Alan FreemanDiscipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesia-Logy of Liberation. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

The Denial of Dualism: Thealogical Reflections on the Sexual and the Spiritual

The Denial of Dualism: Thealogical Reflections on the Sexual and the Spiritual

Honeymooning with the Feminine Divine

Honeymooning with the Feminine Divine