Goddesses in World Religions and Cultures - Case Study Example

 Goddesses in world religions and cultures From the dawn of mankind, humans have searched within, without, and every corner of their being as well as their surrounding for answers to identity and principles in a world which is seemingly disordered, chaotic, purposeless, and never ending. The existentialists would agree that this is the final reality but history of the ancients and civilization as we know it now refuses to bow down to this. Modern day religions may differ radically from the forms of worship of the ancient civilizations but the purpose is always the same; to reach the Divine. Now what constitutes the divine is a topic for a research of an entirely different sort. Divinity relates to the existence and our subsequent belief in God, Gods, and/or Goddesses. Various cultures have followed polytheistic and monotheistic ideals of divinity for centuries. Some still survive today and some do not. One such Deity representation which has become a symbol rather than actual worship in the modern world is the Goddess Culture, or Goddess centered worships. Though it has manifested itself in pop culture, mass consumerism, and various outspread ‘occult’ religions, it has powerful roots in practices of old. We know that civilization’s cradle was hunting and agriculture. These two aspects were attributed to male and female counterparts as part of a natural living arrangement. Women and agriculture were equated as being fertile, bringing forth new life and vitality. This gave way to perhaps a self-constructed notion of a female deity which was responsible for vegetative-ness. Though we may not see evidence of it in our current world surroundings, the European Goddess culture of old lasted for thousands of years and has managed to permeate into differing modern day contexts. The eventual suppression of Goddess worship came about as a result of a number of factors. Historians largely believe that the Eastern dominance of Europe had a major impact. They brought biological knowledge of male procreation as well as their own mostly patriarchal values to Europe. This slow evolvement of thought coupled with male brute strength eventually came to replace the concept of the Divine Feminine and render her inferior to men. The situation was intensified when the witch-hunts and witch-burnings of the Middle Ages began to take place all across Europe and America. These were the same women who were considered heretics, pagans, and followers of some unnatural nature religion. But prior to such suppression, somewhere during the pre-Christian era, polytheistic religions dominated vastly over Europe. At the time, Greek, Roman, and Celtic Goddesses were dominating their male counterparts and a large following of literature, art, and masonry were dedicated to them. In our current world scenario, mass level worship of these Goddesses has declined and been given mostly in favor of patriarchal societies and monotheistic genderless Gods and religions. Today, the roles of Greek and Roman Goddesses can be found sprinkled in whole chunks throughout media and pop-culture. The Greek goddesses such as Aphrodite and Hera are famously seen being used in movies and television references as a kind of female empowerment and assertion of their right to be counted among mortal if no longer Divine discourses. Similarly, their Roman equivalents Venus and Juno can be encountered as often one switches on television. The Celtic Goddesses, who I would like to slightly narrow my focus on, have played a more sub-textual and implicit role in their impact on the lives of mortal, believing or unbelieving, men and women. The modern day phenomena of magic, occult, natural and pagan oriented religions have arisen from the resurfacing of the Celtic mythologies in the mid-twentieth century. The rise in this neo-paganism and its outgrowths has steadily infiltrated contemporary space for culture. Moon worship, Wicca (white magic), and ‘deviant’ female sexuality has come to be considered the staple diets for modern day Goddess culture. However, unlike the Greek and Roman deities, these figures have not been used in their entirety in modern day cultural traditions as blatantly. Instead, they maintain a subtler grasp on mainstream ideologies. For instance, Catherine M.Roach, in her book, writes of the constant references to Goddesses in her studies of sex workers and strip cultures. “More specifically, certain sex-workers and strippers were claiming that they were living out a connection between sexuality and spirituality in embodiment of a Goddess –figure…” (Roach, p.137) Clearly, the idea of female sexuality which is explicit, exposed, and celebrated in Goddess Cultures, and the Celtic female ideals of The Maiden and The Mother Goddess have caught on to at least some parts of society. These deities, because of their openness to sexual experience as a divine experience form a kind of justification and support system for sex workers in modern society. Moreover, they come to regard themselves as followers of an ancient tradition and model themselves after these alternate ethics. Similarly, the third generation feminists and supporters of post-humanism and transgenderism rely heavily on the Goddess cultures move towards a matriarchal society as a backbone for their protests against a gender dichotomized social setup. After all, according to Caputi, “Ideas of a moving and transformative goddess provide background to the most vital of contemporary feminist theologies” (Caputi, p.362). The Goddess cultures may not be feminist in nature but nonetheless provide a backdrop for agents of social change to work for; reverting to a time of female power which would ideally harmonize the world. The Celtic Goddesses were dominant in nature. They were not subjugated sexual partners of their male counterparts but rather forces to be reckoned with. This is an attribute which is not found in every Goddess culture. This is reflected in the historical inferences that at one point focus were on females and not males of the society. As society began to face a kind of social and psychological evolution however, so did the images of the Goddesses. The Goddesses of ancient Celtics, which were regarded as mystic and divine were now becoming more and more aggressively portrayed, no doubt from the masculine influences. The Goddesses were always depicted in a kind of trinity. They were the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. However, they were known in alternate forms as well but always remaining in a transmorphic set of three. Examples of them were found in their contemporary polytheistic religions such as the contrasting of one specific Celtic Goddess to the Roman Minerva by Julius Caesar. But these were rare and separated by a cultural gulf it seemed. After all, the Celtic Goddesses did not figure ‘love’ into their attributes. Instead, they were more concerned with fertility, the life and subsequent death cycle. With Christianity, there was an emergence of a War Goddess in Celtic occult known as the Morrigan. Real everyday women were, with the historical tide, being forced to give up their constructive and beneficial roles to the society they lived in and were being marred by war and the brutalities of changing religions (including the Crusades that took place in Europe for a better part of the fourteenth century). The literature of the time denotes that Goddesses were being raped, dying in child birth, and suffering due to the very features that at one time had exalted them. These women in turn, gave birth to men who would go on to become great warriors and were the new protectors of society. The divine female and her life-giving abilities were not enough. The shift was then to a life-taking culture, where men fought, won, and sustained life. The change in literary status and portrayal to a warring faction of divinity then resulted as a direct consequence of suppression. The society needed Goddesses to protect the women, a society which was steadily being taken over by a male god culture, and that is what they became. The Goddesses were forces of destruction that then wreaked death and destruction, a sentiment that was embodied in her by the culture which worshipped her. Also, the War-Goddess came to be regarded not only for her death sprees but also for a voracious sexual appetite. According to Ellis, "Her twin appetites for sexual gratification and for bringing about violent death are a travesty of the very necessary and natural forces of creation and destruction that keep the universe functioning and imbalance of which brings about disaster" (Ellis, p.32), This is a modern theme which is constantly being played out in contemporary roles that women take on and are portrayed to take on. The sexual appetite increasing is considered godly and spiritual, a femme fatale is considered a woman who has assertiveness, having superiority above men, and I would go so far as to say, a right to bring about the downfall of others to reach her goals. After all, she who can give life can also take it. Again, this transforming of the Goddess forms and their eventual aggressive streaks become reflected in the evolving forms of feminism in modern globalized times themselves. The transforming of the feminist movements of the nineteenth century in contrast to the feminism at its current point can be viewed in contrast with changing Goddess forms. Just like the Goddess figures, the feminist ideals have move from the idea of equality and women’s rights to one of female superiority and exaltation above all. The idea of love which is common enough in romantic and classical forms of art are missing from the Celtic context. Love is considered in forms which are not explicit or dramatized, but rather as they occur in the natural environments. This is also in keeping with today’s rejection of the association of ‘love’ with ‘women’. Women are more than sex objects and should not be romanticized seems to be the new age motto. Love is being replaced with sexual prowess, seductiveness, and even the Goddess link with death is now becoming related to sex-death, where one reaches levels of pleasure that surmount to a feeling of non-existence. Asides the impact on the current day woman’s ideas of sexuality and power by providing kinds of Goddess culture allegories and discourse, Celtic Goddesses portray the diversity of women. The myths about them are vast and depict them as having multiple characteristics and traits, all revolving around a central figure. In the Celtic Goddess culture, these women are intelligent, brave, beautiful, chaste, passive, romantic, aggressive, crafty, sexual, wise, and sensible. They are rounded characters which highlight the spectrum of feminine emotion. It is no wonder that modern culture draws on them for inspiration rather than the highly politicized Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans as well as the cultured and too traditional nature of the Hindu Goddesses. A clear example of this is the crafty usage of Celtic Goddess Narratives in the perfume industry. According to a study, the usage of the “archetypes of womanhood in advertising draw on Celtic archetypes of womanhood, which themselves draw on pagan archetypes. These ancient archetypes in turn merge with contemporary iconic figures such as Madonna, revealing myths to be complex narrative structures that contain many layers of cultural meanings.” The mass appeal of women to perfumes which can identify their beauty or innateness then becomes captured best in the already existing, yet explicitly abandoned structures of Celtic Goddess culture, though it is obvious that they are still used today as functional role models and aspirations for the everyday woman. Furthermore, the study finds that “Celtic goddess narrative a blending of various tensions and dilemmas that are relevant to perceptions of contemporary femininity. Hence, we suggest, the appeal of these narratives that acknowledges women to be at once pure and poisonous, seduced and seducer.” (Stevens &MacLaren, p.38) The ancient archetypes of the Celtic Goddesses have not carried on in the form of a living breathing religious practice as some other Goddess cultures may have managed to. Or otherwise penetrate into modern pop-culture and become referenced by name and remain historically intact. But the main elements of the Celtic identification of women, in terms of nature and life, encompassing elements of sexuality, fertility, spirituality, peace, equilibrium, and power do maintain a grip on the current day thought structures of women, though they act as finer and more subtle role models and influences. Works Cited Roach, Catherine M. (2007) Stripping, sex, and popular culture: Berg Publishers Caputi, Jane (2004) Goddesses and monsters: women, myth, power, and popular culture: Popular Press Stevens, Lorna & Maclaran, Pauline (2007) Exploring the Celtic narrative in advertising:goddess culture and the lexicon of perfumery: University of Ulster * Keele University JOURNAL OF STRATEGIC MARKETING 15 29–39 (FEBRUARY 2007) Ellis Berresford, Peter. Celtic Women. London: Constable, 1995. Read More