in her image

Who, or what, is Goddess?

It is my basic contention that all deities are human-generated creations and not supernatural or immortal beings. Certainly there is no robed divinity sitting upon a magical throne controlling our destiny and listening to our petty grievances or petitions for intervention.

This is not to say that I don't believe in the power of prayer or affirmations to affect change -- because I actually do. I’ve experienced the powerful effects of creative visualization, of prayer, of affirmations. But I don't think boons derived from that sort of thing can be attributed to a divine being granting me my wishes. For one thing, why my wishes and not someone elses? What would the decision process be for determining who deserved what?

No, I think maybe prayer works the same way positive thinking does; depending on how you frame your intentions you get different results -- if you dwell on the negative that's what you will be most subconsciously aware of and so too with searching for the positive in any given situation. Surely at the very least prayer is a means of finding comfort & reassurance and by doing so we are better able to solve our own problems.

You know, I always cringe when a person averts or survives a horrific tragedy and says that God/dess saved them. What about the other people that didn’t make it – does God/dess value them less? It makes me wince when a sports team wins and the coach thanks his god and/or personal saviour. God/dess chooses sides in football? Does s/he have money on the game? I think not. Even if I believed in a literal Supreme Being that was capable of doing so, I would think that wasn’t fair, or god-like for that matter. Wouldn't there more important things for God/dess to do? Like bringing an end to war…or is that about choosing particular sides too, as our politicians would have us think.

Now, I do believe it is possible that every God/dess that ever was or is could be symbolic of some sort of universal energy, a force or power, if you will, that we sense exists but cannot quantify. Of course maybe it’s just a common, universal feeling to think there really is something bigger than or beyond us as individuals. Perhaps deity is actually reflective of that certain something dwelling at our center that links all people together – a sort of immanent spiritual collective unconscious. Or it may be all of the above and more. Either way there seems to be something larger or deeper than ourselves that inspires awe, and in many, a feeling of worshipfulness.

Since the nature of this awe inspiring force is essentially incomprehensible to our present known and experienced levels of consciousness, we need to name It, to explore and maybe come to know It better in some way. This is how individual deities and their accompanying mythologies are born…thru an inspired need/drive/desire to claim relation to that which is felt at the very core of our being.

But back to the original question; who in particular is Goddess? Since deity is created in the image of humans it therefore depends on a conscious choice. Choosing to personify deity as Goddess, as sacred feminine, is an act of spiritual empowerment and healing in contemporary culture. Goddess restores balance to a long lopsided paradigm. The present dominant religious patriarchy is essentially a denial of half the human race’s divinity. By recognizing divinity as feminine we are acknowledging the innate sacredness of not just that disenfranchised female half of the human race, but of everyone -- after all, we are all born from a mother. Obviously it takes both male & female to initiate a new life, to provide the building blocks -- procreation 101. But it takes the body of a female to use those building blocks to create, nurture and birth that new life into being. In the beginning of our fragile little lives, biologically speaking, our very existence depends on mother for sustenance, and not on father. This is powerful stuff. If we are created, brought to form and nurtured by our mothers, but the mother archetype is denied sanctity, yet we are literally half of our mothers genetically -- what does that say about the level of sacredness bestowed upon all of us, women and men?

Bottom line: Goddess shouldn't be relegated to the realm of "merely" a feminist metaphorical attempt at re-visioning the world. Goddess is a universal visage capable of inspiring all of us to continually co-create our own world. Better yet, She IS our world.