Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality - A Book Review

[Richbee]

In...."Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality, Philip G. Davis, a professor of religious studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, traces the current preoccupation with the Goddess all the way back to its roots. Those roots, he argues persuasively, turn out to be planted not in the misty terrain of prehistory but in the well–mapped soil of the early nineteenth century, when neopaganism itself was born, along with other manifestations of Romanticism, in reaction to the rationality–obsessed Enlightenment. Davis surveys the archaeological remains of the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age cultures where feminists claim to have found signs of Goddess worship—caves in Western Europe, the Catal Hayuk settlement in Turkey, prehistoric Malta and the Balkans, and Minoan Crete—and finds little hard evidence to support their theories. Whereas anthropologists of a generation or so ago tended to assume that every painting or carving of a female image at an ancient site depicted an object of worship, their present-day successors are far more cautious about such ascriptions.

The ideologically driven scholarship of Gertrude Rachel Levy, Marija Gimbutas, Riane Eisler, Elinor Gadon, and Elizabeth Gould Davis—which has extrapolated from these artifacts not only a widespread cult of the Goddess in preliterate times, but an entire pacificist, egalitarian, woman–centered civilization—has been either dismissed outright or severely criticized by virtually all serious archaeologists working in the field today. Those sites have actually turned out to contain defense fortifications, masculine symbols, indicia of hierarchical social organization, and other evidence that life back then was neither so utopian nor so gynocentric as the feminists have made it out to be.

Blessed Be

Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality.

By Philip G. Davis. Spence. 418 pp. $29.95.

Book review by: Reviewed by Charlotte Allen

First Things.com (www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9902/reviews/allen.html)

It is a dogma of feminist mythology that before there was God, there was "the" Goddess? What then of the Mothers society? If after many hundreds of years, we viewed the history of Queen Elizabeth, was she the leader of a society of woman leaders, or just one women "leading" a society of Men? (no matter how misguided?)

So what is the truth about historical societies led by Uber Mothers? (Please note, my Mother was a ruthless in giving birth to ten(10) children. Yet, my family and town was not exactly a "women-center" civilization, heck, darn close, who could, or would argue with my MOM, O.K. Dad did earn some dough, but Mom could bake dozens of them tins of dough, into loaves. (Fishes were baked on Friday's :hehe:))

:mossrose:

Please, no offense intended here for any woman, or Mother alive, or remembered in history. (Hey, Mom, I love you! Happy Thanksgiving!)

Seriously, what society can be counted as a picture of "Goddess" led society?

.

[tmancour]

Seriously, what society can be counted as a picture of "Goddess" led society?



Off the top of my head, the society of the Brigantes, the northern Briton Celtic tribe in the late Roman period, would count. It was a confederacy of tribes that came together around the cult of Brigantia/Brighead/Brigit/Bree, and was traditionally ruled by a warrior queen. Was it the happy lesbotopia that the Dianic tradition envisions? Certainly not. Cartamandua, one of the few Celtic ruling queens to be written about in Roman history, was a wily political and military leader, and likely was seen as a semi-divine embodiment of the goddess.

I think you will find that only the hardest-core of the Dianics hold the uber-feminist idea of a matriarchial paradigm as historical truth and something to aspire to. The vast majority of Wiccans understand the limits of actual matriarchal power and can put it in perspective when looking at history. But there can be no doubt that Brigantia was the principal divinity of the Brigantes, and that they had a tradition of strong female rulers. That doesn't mean that male divinities were not also worshipped, but Brigantia was undoubtedly the principal.

Arion

[Richbee]

Off the top of my head, the society of the Brigantes, the northern Briton Celtic tribe in the late Roman period, would count. It was a confederacy of tribes that came together around the cult of Brigantia/Brighead/Brigit/Bree, and was traditionally ruled by a warrior queen. Was it the happy lesbotopia that the Dianic tradition envisions? Certainly not. Cartamandua, one of the few Celtic ruling queens to be written about in Roman history, was a wily political and military leader, and likely was seen as a semi-divine embodiment of the goddess.

I think you will find that only the hardest-core of the Dianics hold the uber-feminist idea of a matriarchial paradigm as historical truth and something to aspire to. The vast majority of Wiccans understand the limits of actual matriarchal power and can put it in perspective when looking at history. But there can be no doubt that Brigantia was the principal divinity of the Brigantes, and that they had a tradition of strong female rulers. That doesn't mean that male divinities were not also worshipped, but Brigantia was undoubtedly the principal.

Arion

O.K., but say having Boudicca (AD 62) as a warrior Queen really does not negate the Male dominated society, and as in this case, her husband was the former King. (Of course both Men and Women are created in God's likeness according to the Bible.)


More:

.....She was married to Prasutagus, and with him she ruled over the Iceni - the tribe occupying East Anglia - but under Roman authority. Like many other rulers in Britain at this time, Boudicca witnessed the suffering caused to her people by the heavy taxes, conscription and other indignities generated by the Roman Emperor Nero. The final outrage came when her husband Prasutagus died, and the Romans plundered her chief tribesmen and brutally annexed her dominions. This was too much for the Queen and she determined to take on Nero and his Legions. In this she was not alone, for tradition tells that all of south east Britain came to her side, ready to die for the Queen who was fierce enough to take on the Roman Empire. It's noteworthy that tribes which remained loyal to the Romans, (like the Catuvellauni) were not spared Boudicca's wrath.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/boudicca.shtml

(Just as an aside, my Mother leads revolts against taxes too. :mossrose:)

:rofl:

[Richbee]

When my Mom cooks the Thanksgiving Turkey - the great Mother rules! We just relax and enjoy the "goddess" of the kitchen! While some might conclude that this is a micro-society rules by the women, the men have the channel changer! Go Broncos!

[tmancour]

When my Mom cooks the Thanksgiving Turkey - the great Mother rules! We just relax and enjoy the "goddess" of the kitchen! While some might conclude that this is a micro-society rules by the women, the men have the channel changer! Go Broncos!


Congrats! You are one step closer to Goddess worship. It begins with the human universal, the Mother. My question: did you thank the turkey for giving its life for you?

Arion

[Richbee]

Congrats! You are one step closer to Goddess worship. It begins with the human universal, the Mother. My question: did you thank the turkey for giving its life for you?

Arion

I see the likeness of God in both my Mother and Father. Truely a paradox! ("Male and Female ...God did create them in his likeness...- Genesis)

And, the Turkey? God's good provision for us, and in and around 1620, the Pilgrims, or the Indians for that matter.

God is good!