The Goddess Ideology And Depiction

 The Goddess Ideology

God and goddess, generic terms for the many deities of ancient and modern polytheistic religions. Such deities may correspond to earthly and celestial phenomena or to human values, pastimes, and institutions, including love, marriage, hunting, war, and the arts. While some are capable of being killed, many are immortal. Although they are always more powerful than humans, they are often described in human terms, with all the flaws, thoughts, and emotions of humans.

A goddess is a female deity. Goddesses have been linked with virtues such as beauty, love, sexuality, motherhood, and fertility (exemplified by the ancient Mother-goddess cult). In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship.

Wicca:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/01/the-scholars-and-the-goddess/305910/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/goddess

Wicca is a predominantly Western movement whose followers practice witchcraft and nature worship and who see it as a religion based on pre-Christian traditions of northern and western Europe. Adherents of Wicca worship the Goddess, honour nature, practice ceremonial magic, invoke the aid of deities, and celebrate Halloween, the summer solstice, and the vernal equinox. A parallel movement, Neo-Paganism, also worshipped the Goddess and practiced witchcraft but eschewed the designation witch. As the 21st century began, Wiccans and Neo-Pagans were found throughout the English-speaking world and across northern and western Europe. Estimates of the number of adherents ranged dramatically, with the number of Wiccans in the United States believed to be between 100,000 and more than 1.5 million. The rise of Wicca and Neo-Paganism is due in part to increasing religious tolerance and syncretism, a growing awareness of the symbolism of the unconscious, the retreat of Christianity, the popularity of fantasy and science fiction, the growth of feminism, the ascendancy of deconstructionist and relativist theory, and an increasing emphasis upon individuality and subjectivity. Most modern Neo-Pagans, distrustful of the demands of traditional religions, eschew doctrine or creed and engage in the ritual expression of “symbolic and experiential” meanings. Although Neo-Paganism incorporates the emotional involvement and ritual practices associated with religion into its tradition, many Neo-Pagans prefer to think of themselves as practicing magic rather than religion. Both Wiccans and Neo-Pagans also have strong ecological and environmental concerns and celebrate the change of seasons with elaborate rituals.

Although there were precursors to the movement, the origins of modern Wicca can be traced to a retired British civil servant, Gerald Brousseau Gardner (1884–1964). Gardner spent most of his career in Asia, where he became familiar with a variety of occult beliefs and magical practices. He also read widely in Western esoteric literature, including the writings of the British occultist Aleister Crowley. Returning to England shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Gardner became involved in the British occult community and founded a new movement based on a reverence of nature, the practice of magic, and the worship of a female deity (the Goddess) and numerous associated deities (such as the Horned God). He also borrowed liberally from Western witchcraft traditions. Following the 1951 repeal of England’s archaic Witchcraft Laws, Gardner published Witchcraft Today (1954), founded his first coven of followers, and, with input from its members, especially author Doreen Valiente, developed modern witchcraft into what today is known as Wicca. It spread quickly to the United States in the late 1960s, when an emphasis on nature, unconventional lifestyles, and a search for spirituality divorced from traditional religions were especially in vogue.

Covens, which ideally number 10 to 15 members and are entered through an initiation ritual, sometime align with one of many coven associations. As coven members master the practice of magic and become familiar with the rituals, they pass through two degrees of initiation. There is a third degree for those who wish to enter the priesthood. In Gardner’s system priority is given to the priestess, and leaders in the Gardnerian community trace their authority through a lineage of priestesses back to Gardner’s coven.

Notes:

• Early cultures such as the ancient Greeks, Romans, ancient Egyptians and Vikings had a higher view of women in their religious ideology and "the goddess" archetype played a more important role.

• Hinduism still has a heavy presence of Goddess worship within its structure and is one of the few surviving modern religions to do so.

• Early western archaeologists rendered all goddess worship of early cultures to be fertility Goddess's where this was not true; a lot of female goddess's represent war, hunting and even death and pestilence.