Goddess, The

Last update: 21 Apr 2025 21:17
First version:

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An invention of 19th and 20th century occultism and speculations about prehistory (as opposed to particular goddesses, of whom there are and have been plenty).

In particular, the European witch-hunts were not attempts by the Church to suppress Her worship.

Recommended:
• Cynthia Eller
  • The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Will Not Give Women a Future [Mostly very well-written, and quite annihilating. Points out that, truth or falsity of the myth aside, it isn't even expedient.]
  • Gentlemen and Amazons: The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, 1861--1900
• Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris (eds.), Ancient Goddesses: The Myths and the Evidence [Review: And Never Called Her Mother]
• Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft

To read:
• Philip G. Davis, Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality
• Cynthia Eller, From Mother-Right to Glynany, 1861--2000 [Promised as "forthcoming" in her Myth; not clear if it became Gentlemen and Amazons on the way to publication, or if it's a separate project]
• Judith M. Hadley, The Cult of Asherah in Ancient Israel and Judah: Evidence for a Hebrew Goddess
• Ronald Hutton
  • The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy
  • Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation
• Lotte Motz, The Faces of the Goddess
• Rosemary Radford Ruether, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History