Goddesses and Gods.wps - Welcome to Our Temple

Who Was the Goddess
"The Goddess" refers to the female divine principle, or a supreme deity worshipped
by many people around the world for thousands of years until She was silenced by
patriarchal religions. In recent years the Goddess has experienced a resurgence in
popularity, by feminists seeking a spiritual dimension to their political causes, by
those interested in the ancient earth religions, including Pagans and Wiccans, and by
everyday women and men who feel that something is missing in today's prominent
organized religions.
The Goddess is difficult to define or sum up in a few paragraphs, but versatility is one
of Her most outstanding traits. For some people, She is the feminine side of God. For
others, She is the only god. She is not necessarily one person, but a multifaceted force
of energy which expresses itself in a variety of forms and can go by many different
names. She has been called Ishtar, Astarte, Inanna, Lillith, Isis, Maat, Brigid,
Cerridwen, Gaia, Demeter, Aphrodite, Venus, Artemis, Athena, Kali, Lakshmi, Quan-
Yin, Pele and even Mary, among many others. Many symbols, such as serpents, birds,
the moon and the Earth, have been attributed to Her.
The Goddess is the creator of all things and She is the destroyer. Everything comes
from Her and everything returns to Her. She is alive within everything, living and
unliving, on Earth and in the heavens. She is not distant and untouchable, like the
Judeo-Christian God. She is here here- here
with us, in us. She is maiden, mother and crone.
She is virgin and whore. She is you, She is me, She is everyone and everything.
The Goddess is great because She can be whatever you want Her to be. But most
followers of the Goddess do share a few common beliefs. Starhawk, a modern day
witch and author of The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great
Goddess, writes that the three core principles of Goddess religion are immanence,
interconnection and community. Immanence means that the Goddess is embodied in
the Earth and in us. Nature, culture and life are sacred. We must take action to
preserve the Earth and to live with integrity and responsibility. Interconnection
means that all beings are interrelated and that we are linked with the cosmos. We
should strive towards compassion and justice. With community, growth and
transformation come through intimate interactions and common struggles. Basically,
though, the law of the Goddess is love- unconditional love. She has no
commandments to follow. She does not demand sacrifice.
Misconceptions:
Misconceptions:
Goddess religion has been criticized for a number of reasons, most of which stem