Goddess Monotheism

[Halcyon]

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

 

[Feathers in Hair]

I think that that's the appeal to Goddess-based traditions for many of us- or for me, at least. They're very rarely monotheistic.

 

[BFD_Zayl]

well, I honestly doubt there is a (known) religion specifically with just a Goddess, now i'm sure if you dig a bit, maybe check into your local secret society then maybe you can find out a bit more. there is however, nothing preventing YOU from worshipping a single Goddess.

 

[Grian]

I think Goddess Religion is both polytheistic and monotheistic in that there may be a thousand plus faces and names for the Goddess, but the majority of the practitioners believe that she is still one entity.

 

[bflydad]

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

Isn't the Church of Wicca (www.wicca.org) also monotheistic?

 

[Gentoo]

Isn't the Church of Wicca (www.wicca.org) also monotheistic?

How can it be when Gerald Gardner set it up to have a God and a Goddess?

 

[Grian]

I don't think so. The Church of Wicca is the center of the Correlian Trad I think. In their statments of belief they worship both God and Goddess.

 

[bflydad]

Here is a quote from the Church of Wicca's website. They definitely claim to be monotheistic. You can decide whether what they are doing is Goddess worship as you would define it or not.

In the center of everything is the God-ess (This is our shorthand for the deity construct and should not be mis-taken to mean a specifically female or male deity construct.). Like Gravity, God-ess is impersonal. It treats everyone alike. It transcends gender and human emotions. Certain ideas cluster around the Deity. We, here, are syncretic monotheists

http://www.wicca.org/church/basictenets.html

 

[Grian]

Okay, so their poly and mono at the same time. They see a polarity of male and female in deity - separated for individual worship - yet believe it is actually one entity. That makes sense.

 

[Gentoo]

I don't think that can really be called monotheism though.

 

[Grian]

It's more like henotheism which in common language is an outer mystery of many deities with an inner mystery of one deity. Or maybe Monism.

 

[Gentoo]

I'm not sure what label it has, but it's not henotheism:

hen·o·the·ism

1.the worship of a particular god, as by a family or tribe, without disbelieving in the existence of others. - Dictionary.com

 

[Grian]

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism

Henotheism (Greek εἷς θεός heis theos "one god") is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a single "God" while accepting the existence of other gods. Müller stated that henotheism means "monotheism in principle and a polytheism in fact." He made the term a center of his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing conceptions of God.
Variations on the term have been inclusive monotheism and monarchial polytheism, designed to differentiate differing forms of the phenomenon. Related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism, which are typically understood as sub-types of henotheism. The latter term is an extension of "henotheism", from καθ’ ἕνα θεόν (kath' hena theon)—"one god at a time". Henotheism is similar but less exclusive than monolatry because a monolator worships only one god, while the henotheist may worship any within the pantheon, depending on circumstances. In some belief systems, the choice of the supreme deity within a henotheistic framework may be determined by cultural, geographical, or political reasons.

 

[charles brough]

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

Some years ago I did a lot of research on this subject and, as you indicate, there is little that is clear and explanative. You know the Mother Goddess age last a very long time in Europe, the Mediteranean and the Near East, from something like 10,000 years ago to 4,000 years ago. It changed during that time. Religiion was animism when it began so that it seems to have centered around a lot of female dieties that combined into a fem-fertility force that governed life, death, returning from the dead and above all, fertility. Then, five thousand years ago, the patriarchal-monogamous religions in Sumer and Egypt evolved from a male-god Kurgan system. The new male-led societies were so successful in building civilzation and defending themselves from barbarians that the by then declining mother-goddess religion-based society had also evolved a polytheistic panthion and began adopting the Egyptian and Mesopotaimian culture as a sort of secular influence. This is in reference to Crete. It gradually adopted male rulers, a military, and even engaged in some human sacrifice.
The new Egyptian and Sumerian system adopted the mother-goddess system's female gods to balance its own male gods and create the balanced system that worked so well, so there were certainly a lot of female gods to adopt from the old fem-fertility system! The mythology of the area is filled with hundreds of them. Even the Celts adopted some of the fem-fertility gods, such as Apona, the horse goddess. Even in the Old Testament, there is reference to one of the female gods, the one of Ethesis.

I don't see how the old mother goddes system can at all be called a monotheism. In fact, there is not a single religion on Earth that worships only One God. There are always other "spirits" that are labeled other things so that the "monothism" label can seem to apply.

charles, http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com

 

[Cypress]

In Hinduism, some worship god as female.
Those call themselves Shaktas, worshipers of Shakti.
The Shaktas believe that Mahadevi (maha = great, Devi = goddess) is the Absolute Reality and all other gods including Brahma, Vishnu & Shiva are created by her.

 

[GabrielWithoutWings]

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

Might want to read The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. While there is a section on the god, it's primarily a goddess-oriented book.

The goddess is the source. The god springs from her at her own pleasure.

 

[Cimorene]

There actually is a modern, Goddess-centered monotheistic religion, called Deanism (DEA-nism), which worships Dea (Latin for "Goddess") as the sole, supreme deity. In terms of a distinct religious path it is only about 30 years old, and while it appears to have been initially practiced only by Aristasians (an all-female subculture from Great Britain), it is becoming more widespread outside that group.

More information about Deanism may be found at Mother-God.com. One may also purchase the official Deanist scriptures, "A Gospel of Our Mother God" there. For additional information, do a Google search for "Eternal Feminine wiki", "The Institute for Collyridian Filianism", and "The Filianic Scriptures". (I tried and was unable to post the links here).

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

Some would argue that the Roman cult of Isis was Monotheistic, since they believed that Isis was the collective of all goddesses, and called her Isis of the 10,000 names.

 

[Seeker of Ka]

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

Aset Ka is a religion from the northern areas of Pre-Dynastic Kermet (Egypt) and worships Aset (Isis) monotheistically and/or pantheistically. Aset was later drawn upon from the Dynastic Egyptians and as such was the only Egyptian Deity to not start as a Symbol of a Ruler or as a Local Cult of Dynstal Egyptian Polytheism. Aset was later translated by the Europeans as Isis and as such most know her by that name. Aset Ka still survives today. But is not a public religion.

 

[NadiaMoon]

Hello. There actually IS a Goddess Monotheistic religion, its called Filianism. They believe in God the Mother who created the universe, and when humanity fell from her she birthed the Holy Daughter who is known by many names such as Anna, and is the Queen of Heaven. If you want to know more, please go to this site http://www.mother-god.com/ keep in mind this site does not speak for ALL Filianists