Goddess Monotheism?

M

Maia

Crimson Spirit
Registered Senior Member
I'm just curious.

In the history of humankind, were there any significant monotheistic Goddess religions out there? Or at least anything that came close? :)
 
I agree that "mother nature" may be the closest we can get. To start with the easy (I'm not up to this research at the moment), I'll include a bit from Wikipedia:
Polytheist religions -- which recognise many deities as forms of the divine -- such as Hinduism and most ancestral religions, have no difficulty in including female deities. In "women's religions", a Goddess is surprisingly not typical, although such religions certainly never centre on a monotheist God (Sered Goddess, Mother, Sacred Sister 1996) and often lack deities as Westerners understand them.

In Hinduism, the goddess Shakti represents the principle of energy through which divinity functions. The transcendent god, Brahman, transcends categories but its representation through the mind occurs through the categories of male God and female energy, working as a pair. Brahma pairs with Sarasvati, Vishnu with Lakshmi, and Shiva with Uma, Parvati, or Durga. Kali is a form of Parvati.

Monotheist cultures, which recognise only one central deity, find it much more difficult to recognise Goddess; recent history has overwhelmingly presented the single Deity as male, constantly using the masculine pronoun "he",and images like "Father", "Son", and "Lord". This recent trend has almost entirely excluded the feminine pronoun "she" as sacred, and images such as "Mother", "Daughter", and "Lady" as divine.

Some mystics within the monotheist religions have used these feminine forms, such as the early Christian Collyridians, who viewed Mary as a Goddess; the medieval visionary Julian of Norwich; the Judaic Shekinah and the Gnostic Sophia traditions; and discreetly expressed Sufi texts in Islam. But these teachings have never held a central place in monotheisms, and one can question whether including a female aspect of deity in a fundamentally male mythos suffices to mean Goddess.

Attempts to create more inclusive ways of describing Deity by using both genders in grammar and imagery can seem awkward to some, or plain unnecessary to those whose spirituality has little sense of gender. As a monotheist project, inclusive language can seem competitive, because monotheism has space for only one deity. Some types of Goddess thealogy have worked as Goddess monotheism, without any parallel God or attendant God consort; this may or may not include hostility towards masculinity. However many devotees who prefer to focus only on their Goddess are not anti-male, but pro-female in their inspirations. ("Goddess")
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I remember wathching a history channel special on early religion suggesting the "primal goddess" is supposed to be one of the earliest forms of monotheism predating christianity and relatively universal too. Makes sense since mom popped us out.
 
Maia said:
I'm just curious.

In the history of humankind, were there any significant monotheistic Goddess religions out there? Or at least anything that came close? :)
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Saktha is one of the 6 major sects in Hinduism. Mother Goddess (Sakti) is considered to be the supreme and all other gods/goddesses were lesser aspects her. Entire universe is made up of conscious energy (Sakti) is the belief of the adherants of this sect.
 
jinchilla said:
I remember wathching a history channel special on early religion suggesting the "primal goddess" is supposed to be one of the earliest forms of monotheism predating christianity and relatively universal too. Makes sense since mom popped us out.
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M*W: Just finished a great book, The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ, by Lynn Pinknett and Clive Prince, Simon & Schuster, 1997, page 295. It states, "the original religion of the Hebrews was, like that of all other ancient cultures, polytheistic--venerating BOTH GODS AND GODDESSES. Only later did Yahweh emerge as the pre-eminent deity, and the priests effectively rewrote their history to erase--not very comprehensively--the earlier worship of goddesses. (And as a result, the status of women declined sharply as it did in early Christianity for the same reason.)"

"The Hungarian-born anthropologist and biblical scholar Raphael Patai, in his major work, The Hebrew Goddess, has conclusively demonstrated that Jews once worshipped a female deity. Among the many examples he cites of Hebrew goddess worship is that concerning Solomon's Temple: despite the tradition, it was NOT build to honour Yahweh alone, but also to celebrate the goddess Asherah. Patai says: '...the worship of Asherah as the consort of Yahweh... was an integral element of religious life in ancient Israel prior to the reforms introduced by King Josian in 621 BCE.'"
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The scriptures disagree plainly with the assertion that Solomon's temple was built to honour a female goddess;Asherah. False!!

The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him what would he like; riches and excessive wealth,the death of his enemies, fame,etc. Solomon replied that he wants an understanding heart or wisdom which made God pleased with him.
Later on as God had told solomon's dad;King David, Solomon built the temple at jerusalem to this great God of israel ; Jehovah who had appeared to him.
His first commandment was "have no other gods besides me".

The hebrew worshipped other gods like the detestable Molech(who required blood sacrifices of infants) but they always got punished by their God; Yahweh. They constantly repented and returned to the God of their fathers abraham,Jacob who was Jehovah.
ALL THIs WAS TO DIPUTE THE NOTION THAT SOLOMONS TEMPLE WHICH WAS BUILT IN JERUSALEM WAS ALSO IN HONOUR OF A FEMALE GODDESS. THE PUNISHMENT THEN WOULD HAVE BEEN DEATH BY STONING ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT.(Thou shall have no other gods besides me,said the
Lord ,creator of the universe.)
 
tomasito said:
The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him what would he like; riches and excessive wealth,the death of his enemies, fame,etc.
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Sounds like a deal with the devil.

tomasito said:
Solomon replied that he wants an understanding heart or wisdom which made God pleased with him.
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Sounds like Solomon already had wisdom and greater than his god's.
 
tomasito said:
The scriptures disagree plainly with the assertion that Solomon's temple was built to honour a female goddess;Asherah. False!!

The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him what would he like; riches and excessive wealth,the death of his enemies, fame,etc. Solomon replied that he wants an understanding heart or wisdom which made God pleased with him.
Later on as God had told solomon's dad;King David, Solomon built the temple at jerusalem to this great God of israel ; Jehovah who had appeared to him.
His first commandment was "have no other gods besides me".

The hebrew worshipped other gods like the detestable Molech(who required blood sacrifices of infants) but they always got punished by their God; Yahweh. They constantly repented and returned to the God of their fathers abraham,Jacob who was Jehovah.
ALL THIs WAS TO DIPUTE THE NOTION THAT SOLOMONS TEMPLE WHICH WAS BUILT IN JERUSALEM WAS ALSO IN HONOUR OF A FEMALE GODDESS. THE PUNISHMENT THEN WOULD HAVE BEEN DEATH BY STONING ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT.(Thou shall have no other gods besides me,said the
Lord ,creator of the universe.)
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M*W: How do you know that the 'Creator of the universe' wasn't female? Before the outset of the OT, there was a matrilineal society where men were the slaves. Then the patriarchs of the OT
destroyed what had been created before them. Asherah was also known as Esther, Ishtar, Astarte and possibly Isis.
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Isn't the Mother goddess often portrayed as having a serpent husband? It was this earlier tradition that was turned upside down in the story of Adam and Eve when it was Eve who ate from the tree of knowledge and the serpent who coerced her into doing it.

Is the serpent a god? Wouldn't this be dualistic?
 
invert_nexus said:
Isn't the Mother goddess often portrayed as having a serpent husband? It was this earlier tradition that was turned upside down in the story of Adam and Eve when it was Eve who ate from the tree of knowledge and the serpent who coerced her into doing it.

Is the serpent a god? Wouldn't this be dualistic?
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M*W: Since there was a snide comment about my userid, I created new one.

invert_nexus, you have brought up a very good question. Instinctively, I've never been able to believe the traditional story about A&E. In those days (pre-OT times), I believe there is some alterations of the early Sumerian texts. Like the story of Noah and the Flood. Technically, I believe that story preceded A&E, but that's not why I'm here. In those days, the serpent was a god, maybe a male god, but not necessarily. This serpent god was all-powerful and knowing the truth. Some writers say he was the consort of Eve, but here's the interesting catch (no pun intended). Anyone speaking, reading and writing Hebrew, please help me out here. The Hebrew word for serpent is "hawwah." The Hebrew name for Eve is "Hawwah." And, of course, there's the old familiar "Yahweh" which is "Jehovah." Do you see the connection here?

The story goes on... A&E had Qayin, Abvil and later on, Sayet. I'm not sure about the spellings, I'm writing this from memory. Qayin kills Abvil, Qayin haul's ass out to Nod, then Sayet comes along. The Egyptian form of Sayet is, of course, Set, god of the underworld. My perception of this "underworld" isn't exactly "hell," I believe it's Earth! Some scholars have said that Sayet is the offspring of Eve (Hawwah) and the serpent (hawwah). Interestingly, the meaning of the name "Adam" or "Adami" which means "Earthling" or "made from Earth's substance, i.e. dirt." My question: Where were A&E before they landed on Earth? Where did the serpent come from if it wasn't indigenous to Earth?

The early, early matrilineal society carved robust women with serpent-like heads (i.e. Willendorf and Catyl Hayak, etc.). There is a connection to all of this, so I'm throwing it out there for comment about the goddess times. The symbolism of the serpent is that the serpent was a wise, godlike creature, as was Eve. So, what about Adam? What's his excuse?
 
Quick answer to the orginal question: NO.
There were MANY polytheistic religions that celebrated a divine feminine, but none that were MONOtheistic.
 
Goddess religions invoke the divine feminine and they were monotheistic as well. Divine feminine features creativity. Divine masculinity features divine destruction.
 
If you don't mind my asking, what monotheistic goddess worship religions are you refering to?
 
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