Goddess Spirituality 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.

Neopagan Pilgrimages in the Age of the Internet: A Life Changing Religious Experience or an Example of Commodification?

This paper focuses on the phenomenon of Neopagan ‘pilgrimages’, which are advertised on the Internet and directed to various ancient sacred sites in Greece and in the Mediterranean Sea. After showing how travellers to Greece in the Modern Age have been inspired by classical myths and have often represented their trips as ‘pilgrimages’, the paper examines how Neopagans, women belonging to the Goddess Spirituality Movement, use travels to ancient sacred places as a way to reconstruct their own identity. Therefore, the perception and representation of the tourist journey as ‘pilgrimage’ obscures the reality of the commodification of religious experiences, in a globalised context in which different consumers ‘buy’ different experiences of ancient Greece.

Goddess Spirituality and Nature in Aotearoa New Zealand

Goddess Spirituality and Nature in Aotearoa New Zealand

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.

The religious use of prehistoric imagery in contemporary goddess spirituality

The religious use of prehistoric imagery in contemporary goddess spirituality

Embodied Spiritual Consciousness: Beyond Psychology

This article considers whether there is room in the work of Goldenberg, which is characterized as materialist, for spirituality. The author shows how Freudian psychoanalysis gives the opportunity for the body to be resurrected from the place of signifier of death and dissolution. However, it is also argued that it is possible to bring body and spirit together in such a way as to allow the body to flourish. The author argues for a 'thinking through the body' that is best accomplished when grounded in goddess spirituality.

From Goddess Spirituality to Irigaray's Angel: The Politics of the Divine

This article argues that the act of conceptualizing a female divine, whether by so-called low-brow Goddess Spiritualists or high-brow French philosophers, rather than being a mere spiritual exercise, has enormous political significance for feminisms. In particular, I demonstrate that Irigaray's concept of the sensible transcendental, by refiguring a god which is both male and female, transcendent and immanent, theorizes a potential dissolution of the binary logic which forms the basis of western philosophy. The second half of the article looks at the complex role of the angel in Irigaray's theory of the divine in order to demonstrate that, as a result of having misinterpreted the angel's position, critics have failed to recognize the significance and relevance of Irigaray's sensible transcendental for feminist politics.

Invented Culture/Invented Religion: The Fictional Origins of Contemporary Paganism

Research Article| October 01 1999 Invented Culture/Invented Religion: The Fictional Origins of Contemporary Paganism Michael York Michael York Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (1999) 3 (1): 135–146. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.135 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Michael York; Invented Culture/Invented Religion: The Fictional Origins of Contemporary Paganism. Nova Religio 1 October 1999; 3 (1): 135–146. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.135 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search This content is only available via PDF. © 1999 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.1999 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Goddess Spirituality and Academic Know ledge-Making

Goddess Spirituality and Academic Know ledge-Making

Avalon from the mists: The contemporary teaching of goddess spirituality

Avalon from the mists: The contemporary teaching of goddess spirituality

New age dimensions of goddess spirituality

New age dimensions of goddess spirituality