ANTHEA: ALL THINGS ARE GODDESS

Humanity tends to create Deity in its own image. We make it what we need it to be to suit our current situation. While spirituality is an innately personal experience, therein lies problems when we forget that nothing is ever really that cut and dry; especially with a deity as multifaceted as the Great Goddess.

Since entering into life on a Goddess path almost 15 years ago, I’ve noticed a trend of what I can only describe as using the Goddess as a crutch. There are some who choose to work with personal interpretations of “dark” Goddesses as a way of justifying their harmful actions. It’s almost as though they create a Goddess they believe will carry their banner of anger and allow them to be a jerk for the simple sake of being a jerk. They believe the Goddess hates Christians, men, etc. because they need her to hate them in order to feel righteous.

It’s easy to get lost in a theology that seems to have no hard and fast rules. In Goddess Religion and most of Modern Paganism morality is a very touchy, hotly debated subject most often left up to the individual. There are no commandments, no laws save one. Do no harm.

Self responsibility is a key lesson of the Goddess in general. Everyone is going to cause some amount of harm in their lives. The ability to accept the injury we cause, deal with the consequences, and learn from our experiences is not always so effortless. It’s much easier to create a personal image of Deity that makes us feel better about the choices we’ve made.

Creating Goddess as we see fit in order to validate destructive behavior or misguided beliefs simply shrugs off personal responsibility, much like an oil slick slipping off the hull of a ship. It’s not okay to cause damage simply because we’ve manufactured an image of Goddess that would raise her fist in support of our self-righteous indulgences. She will never stand idly by while we pollute ourselves and the world around us with pain. Karma will inevitably be knocking at the proverbial front door.

I have always believed that if there is such a thing as sin, it exists only in the moments when we hurt another.

Adultery, as an example, is not wrong because it leaves us destined to go to some make believe land of fire and torture after death. Nor is it wrong because sex is something to be ashamed of. It is wrong because promises are being broken and there is potential to cause great harm. Goddess doesn’t sneak into bedrooms at night, tip-toeing about the Berber carpet and peeking under the sheets to make sure it’s our spouse we’re sleeping with. She doesn’t care who we choose to share our bodies with so long as no one is getting burned in the wake of our passions.

Indeed our bodies belong to us alone and no one can be “owned” by another. And some people don’t believe in the trappings of marriage, but then why not just not be married? Imagining Goddess as a deity who agrees with sexual liberation and autonomy is one thing, but it is not within our rights to wound another individual without assuming there will be some consequences to deal with.

Hating, as another example, is wrong not because an old book tells us to love our neighbors. No matter who causes us injury and how unjust it is, hate fills the world with pain and anger like a nasty venereal virus. It’s infectious, destructive, and creates separation. No amount of deity-manufacturing will change that.

Now I am not proposing that we should sit around feeling bad for the harm we've caused throughout the course of our lives. It's useless to dwell in the past, wishing we could find the rewind button and make things different. We also shouldn't assume we are bad people by any stretch. Mistakes, accidents, poor choices, etc. all are just a part of life. Without them what would there be to learn from?

Things can get a bit sticky when we decide to bypass the qualities of Goddess that we merely find unpleasant or useless, be they of the light or dark variety. It's counterproductive to accept only her "light" qualities or only her "dark" qualities. She’s sort of a packaged deal and stripping her of any one of her innate qualities robs us of her full power and of our full potential as human beings.

Those who are healing from emotional wounds may logically choose to construe an image of Goddess who supports their feelings of being wronged; an image that somehow advocates the revenge brewing inside their hearts. In those cases a dark Goddess (created as a being who detests who we detest) may be a comforting shoulder to lean on and a protector in a daunting, painful world. She is created by our own ego to make us feel right without judging or questioning our motivations. She simply says “You’re righteous. You’re good. I’m here to support you and any harm you feel just in causing.” She allows us to say things like “I am mean to her because she hurt me” or “They deserve it”.

Is embracing a solely dark and vengeful image of Goddess, who picks and chooses which children to love over others, really the road to becoming a whole person? To healing on a soul level? Isn’t that image incomplete? Where is the loving Mother who teaches compassion for all life? Where is the Maiden with her lessons of personal freedom and choice? Where is the old Crone, full of experience and wisdom? Is it she who is hiding inside these personal and convoluted faces of the Dark Goddess?

Images of the Dark Goddess abound throughout time. Many of these dark portrayals are later additions to the pantheon of Female Divinity, contributed by patriarchal influences that wished to demonized the ancient Goddess and strip her of the captivating power she held over the people of the Earth. These patriarchal forces made the Goddess into a demented fear-monger who stole little children away and ate them for supper. All of the qualities that bring us closer to nature and thus to the Goddess were stripped away and turned into bogeymen and monsters.

The point was to make the Goddess something to be terrified of as opposed to something to embrace. They misunderstood her powers of necessary destruction, her connection with the baseness of humanity, and the mysteries of death. They didn’t see that the darkness was a symbol for the forces in the universe that scare us; the unknown, the painful, the things we can’t control.

So why are we believing the hype? Why are we drinking the kool-aid of the patriarchal cults and grabbing a hold of the images they created as our own symbols of power, liberation, and justification? Is it purely to suit our personal agendas of being angry, wronged individuals driven by a self-righteous belief that we are owed something because life just isn’t fair? How does it help to imagine the Goddess as someone who punishes and detests those of her children who wrong the others? How does it help to think of her as a being who delights in the pain of "wrong-doers"? Isn't that the image of God we were trying to escape from in the first place?

The reality of the Dark Goddess, from this Goddessian’s point of view, is that she is at times that terrifying, ugly hag. She is not there to fuel our anger or justify the harm we cause, but to teach us of those things that are not often beautiful, that are sometimes unknowable, and that we are not always willing to embrace.

The Dark Goddess calls to us to understand the darkness of death and destruction and know that it is purposeful. She beckons us to look within ourselves, see those dark, scary shadows, and love them. She is the destroyer of egos, not a tool to be used to perpetuate our own secret darkness.

The Goddess is whole and complete, taking us by the hand in order to guide us to our own completion. Listen to all of her voices, gaze upon all of her faces. Only then can we truly know her and love her in her totality.

There is a difference between reclaiming a symbol for the purpose of liberation; taking that which was meant to frighten us or degrade us and turning it out onto the unjust individuals who created it; and utilizing that symbol to enable injustice ourselves.


Picture courtesy of the BBC.

Labels: dark goddess, destruction of ego, Goddess, in her image, karma, manufacturing deity, personal responsibility

Or so I thought. Apparently love is only the whole of the law if you carry your reproductive parts on the inside.

Well it looks like I pissed someone off. Debi (a self proclaimed women's liberationist) of the Corvid Diaries has taken some offense to just about every word I have posted over the last few days. Some have been addressed in the comments of this previous post here. Another one I think deserves front page attention so I'm responding to it below.

Debi said: "I'm actually disgusted that anybody would presume to speak with the words of the goddess, and in such a patronising tone. It is utterly disrespectful both to the goddess and to all women of earth to do so."

Rhondda said: (commented on the Corvid Diaries) "Yes, I do agree with you. I really dislike making the Goddess a monotheistic entity. For me she is life in all her diversity. She is not an either/or and she is not a role to play. She is deep connection and as Mary Daly says a verb and not a noun."

See all comments from Debi's post here: Apparently Even the Goddess can be Patronizing Sometimes...


The Goddess (emphasis on THE) has a million names and faces, yet remains ONE. All life is a manifestation of her which means all life is divine. This also means both men and women are Goddess. Re: All Things Are Goddess. By presuming that no one can speak with the words of the Goddess you only succeed in making her out to be that monotheistic deity who is untouchable, not connected to her creation, etc. Sheesh, why not just call her Yahweh? She is both verb and noun and everything in between. There is no way to say she is this and not that. She is unlimited and never black and white. You make her what you want her to be and that's fine, but not when it's solely to fit into your argument and help you rationalize all of the injustice you yourself are causing.

She is not a role to play? Are you even Pagan? First of all no one needs to play at the role because we already are Goddess. Second, that's exactly what a priestess does every time she performs ritual - whether she in a group or solitary. See Drawing Down the Moon (the ritual not the book). Embodiment of the Goddess is what's supposed to happen.

I am willing to bet that if my comments weren't presumed to be anti-fem than I would've gotten "lovely post" or at the very least nothing at all. But because certain sensibilities were stepped on now it's fair game on the little Goddessian girl who believes she is divine - as Goddess teaches. How dare I? Rest assured it won't be the last time I "presume" to be Goddess. While you're blasting me about it do be sure to trample on Doreen Valiente, Starhawk, and countless others who have dared to speak the words of the Goddess. *gasp*

By the way, did you even read the first paragraph of that post? If flat out says I asked myself what would Goddess do and that's what came out. I said this is what I think she would say. When did I ever claim to be speaking for her or anyone else?

Wow, someone says something positive and this is what happens? Someone basically says "let's love each other" and this is what happens? And yet the statement "all men are rapists" (because all men are capable of rape apparently) gets applause. Well it's finally happened. I've officially slipped into a crazy cosmic bunny hole of nonsense. That's just the most ridiculous, sexist BS I've ever had the displeasure of reading. What an outlandish statement. Kudos for having brass ones, by the way. I'm ashamed to be of the same species, let alone the same gender of someone who could utter such rubbish. Why not just say all people are murderers because we're all capable of it? Anyone and everyone is "capable" of every atrocity ever committed. Wake up!

Men are not evil and woman are not just the sweet, unconditionally loving, innocent victims. I am no one's victim and I will not allow myself to follow a line of thinking that has women acting like they are rabid animals trapped in a friggin' cage. Seriously, that kind of attitude towards men is reminiscent of Hitler's attitude toward the Jews. Watch out! Here comes the gestapo! "Where are zee men? We must take zem and cut zeir nuts off!" Take your self righteous indignation and passive-aggressive sexual terrorism somewhere else.

As those of you who visit often know, I rarely get this fired up. Funny thing is, I'm not really all that mad. I'm happy and having a great day. People are smiling, life is good. I tend to think of my posts as usually pretty positive. Unless of course I'm bitching about Kirk Cameron or something. :) I try very hard to address comments and different opinions as politely as possible. Everyone deserves to have their say. This is the main reason I don't moderate comments and I allow for anonymous people to post. But, I think this is the first and last I'm going to say about this situation in an actual blog post. While there may be comments pouring in eventually I won't be taking it the front page again. Well unless I get pissed enough to do so. *wink* Yay for blogs: creative/bitching outlets.

pic: Light from the Heart Nebula from Astronomy Pic of the Day

Labels: blog response, Feminism, men are goddess, ramblings, sexism, the goddess means true sexual equality, the sexes

I have noticed lately that there is a lot of man hating going on. At least that's what it seems like to me. Maybe I'm looking at things from a different angle. I am very willing to admit that, but I'm feeling some real bashing towards the boys that isn't sitting right with me. In situations such as this I look towards what some would call a bit of a cliche: What Would Goddess Do? Well I believe Mama, as I like to call her, would say something like this:

"Knock it off girls. Be angry at the patriarchy, be angry at years of female oppression and misogyny, be angry at the societies and religions who teach our men from an early age to turn their backs on me. But stop lashing out at the boys who are as much my sons as you are my daughters. They are Goddess too, penises and all. And they are as much victims of this time as any one of you. They too have been robbed of their Mother for millenia.

My law is love unto all beings and I teach the oneness of all things. Separation is not my way. Find common ground. Teach of my mysteries in tolerance and compassion. Remove words like man-hater, male-bashing, etc. from your lexicons. Neither sex should be under the thumb of the other. Strive not to replace the patriarchy with a matriarchy but with a system that embraces all people as equal and divine. Be dreamers and seek the Utopia I intended for you since the beginning of time.

Remember that as women you are the teachers and the keepers of culture. With this comes responsibility to future generations. Raise your sons in my image. Teach them equality and respect for all life. Teach them how to love selflessly and with all of their hearts. And give your daughters the same with strength, courage, and compassion to raise their children well in their time. Know that things will not improve so long as fear, hate, and intolerance are the things that fuel your passion for change."

Labels: men are goddess, oneness, the goddess speaks, the sexes

Mother, I must make this journey of life alone
But I know always that you are with me.
Your hand with never leave my hand.
Your heart will never be far from mine.
We are always together; always one.

Though I must journey alone I ask
That you lend me your strength in times of need,
Your shoulder in times of sorrow,
Your smile in times of joy,
And your love always.

When the time comes
I shall return to you
As in all things there is a cycle
That has no end.

- From the Meditation and Worship section of The Temple of Demeter @ Panthea

Labels: demeter, goddess prayer, prayers, temple of demeter, the goddess demeter

I was reading Athana's blog again today and stumbled across some talk of testosterone poisoning. The context of it was mainly regarding sex offenders and how the hormone might play a role in such crimes. I kind of have a small amount of insight into this - at least when it comes to testosterone in women.

You see, I have polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS for short. It's caused by a high level of blood sugar which then messes with egg viability and hormone balance. Consequently one of the symptoms of PCOS is an excess amount of testosterone. Now everyone has it, but I have more than the average woman. I don't have male characteristics by any stretch, but I have seen some of the effects of this hormone in my life.

I can whole heartedly agree that testosterone can lead to agression, depression, etc. There have been times in my life when I am simply pissed off for no apparent reason. Is there really anyone out there who hasn't been? Ladies, when your moon time comes around wouldn't you say you get a little on edge at times? Anyway, testosterone may well be the culprit, but I don't think it's the only thing we can point to as far as sex crimes in men go. It sort of sounds like a crutch. Instead of saying "the devil made him do it" we could say "it was too much testosterone". Sounds like an excuse to be an asshole. It also sounds like we are allowing nature to be the only deciding factor. Could I get away with smacking someone because I have PCOS? Nope. Assault charges are inevitable in that case and that's the way it should be. I am responsible for my actions. I make my own decisions.

Let's not forget testosterone is not a bad thing. It serves its purpose in both men and women. Without it there would be no more people being born. Straight girls: how would you feel if your partner didn't want you ever? Some of you might be thinking "if only!", but eventually you would start to think you were no longer attractive to him or any other man. That sucks and also robs you of your sexuality through rejection that leads to low self worth, etc.

I guess my main point here is that nothing is ever that black and white. It's just not. Men and their hormone are not the root of all evil. Too much of anything is bad. Too much estrogen can cause cancer, life effecting pms, depression, and postpartum. Shall we say that someone who is estrogen poisoned could be more likely to leave their newborn in a dumpster? Would that be an acceptable excuse? I don't think so.

In the spirit of Thou Art Goddess Thursday - which I just missed by a few minutes - tesetosterone is Goddess, estrogen is Goddess, men are Goddess, women are Goddess, all things are Goddess. Now I'm going to go take my glucophage and keep my hormones balanced.

Labels: estrogen, hormones, men and women, pcos, polycystic ovary syndrome, testosterone, the sexes

Since Midsummer I've found that I am needing more solitude than I have in a long time. I feel very alone but I realize I am alienating myself purposely. I could chalk it up to a bit of stress - which I think is accurate - but I also feel there is some other, underlying reason for desiring only my own company.

What I know is that I haven't been painting, writing, etc. It seems all of my creative energy is trapped inside and not yet ready to come out. I am doing all of the "taking in" instead by getting lost in stories. I love stories. Even the fluffy romance novels I began reading as a kid. Not the trashy kind of novel, but the feel-good mass market romances with hints of supernatural things and a strong plot line. Those are my favorite. I've also been watching movies and catching up some tv.

This is certainly some kind of escape mechanism, because I not only watch/read these things but find myself daydreaming about them later. Can anyone deliver Tom Welling to my house wrapped in a big red bow and nothing else? But I digress. Or do I? Aren't these daydreams ways that my subconcious mind is trying to tell me that I'm missing something in my life? Or is it just as simple as the fanciful thoughts of a woman who has always had her head shoved up in the nimbus?

So what I am trying to escape from? Or am I really trying to escape at all? Could it be that there are things I am nourishing that are just not ready to be born yet? There are pregnancies all around me lately. Maybe this is my way of sympathizing, albeit subconsciously. Maybe after a rough year a whole new me is about to come into the world; fresh and new and ready to meet all the challenges that life tends to toss out.

What you are getting here are little insights into the workings of my mind. I didn't plan this post. It just showed up here on the screen spontaneously. The mind at work is fueled by the Goddess and her lessons. There are few things in my life that are not influenced by her. This makes perfect sense. The way a person thinks and what a person believes is the driving force behind their actions and decisions.

So what I see after typing all this out is that the Mother aspect of the Goddess has settled in over me and I will soon be rebirthing myself into something different; into someone I need to be. And suddenly I am excited about such a prospect and looking forward to the days ahead. Look out world. Here I come.

Pic: my feet in my old brown boots (complete with paint drippings) and a lovely little daisy growing all by itself in my back lawn.

Labels: everyday life, Misc. Mutterings, ramblings

So I gave the place a little redesign as you regular folks can probably see. I've decided it's time to get back to the basics of what this blog was intended to be.

I guess I thought all the superfluous stuff would up my traffic, increase comments, etc. But after seeing no real change I just figure it's best to stop clogging up the sidebar with a million unnecessary widgets and thing-a-ma-jigs. It's the content that counts and that's what I should be focused on. Not all the annoying bells and whistles.

I hope everyone likes the new design. It looks a little less than perfect in Safari (sorry mac users) and it's made for a big resolution. If you feel so inclined to let me know how it looks to you I would be greatly appreciative.

Oh, I would also like some opinions on something. I've been toying around with the idea of moving Panthea to blogspot. I already use blogger but I use my own webspace to host this blog. What do you guys think? It would be at a blogspot address (pantheablog.blogspot.com) that I suppose I could eventually get a domain for - and I would have to deal with the blogger nav bar at the top of my pages. The perks: easy publishing and a bunch of other tools that make things super cool and easy. Any thoughts? My other thought was wordpress, but I can't move all of my posts over there as easy as I would like. I've tried. Grr.

Now, let's see if I can come up with something blog worthly in the days ahead. Sometimes inspiration is knocking all the time and I could blog all day. Other times there's like some great void spinning through my mind and no words seem to come. Sentences get especially tough. :) Hopefully I can get some more temples done soon and get back on track.

Pic: the little harvest Goddess in my garden.

Labels: Site News