Awakening the Goddess within

I had the typical Christian upbringing, baptized in a church that I
had attended regularly for 16 years. My 16th year however was a turning
point in my religious instruction. I came to question not Christianity
itself, but the practice of it and the way it was interpreted. I held a
vague dissatisfaction with the contradiction of Christianity. I saw
what in my church at least was a concentration of church laws rather
than the teachings of the Christian profit and savior. I have seen a
concentration of politics involved in many Christian religions
especially in the church's relationship with women's reproductive
rights and some religions that have the nerve to dictate to women how
they should "cleave" unto her husband. I saw the "word" evidently
capable of interpretations by a few self-selected men only. I saw
people using their beliefs as weapons of intolerance as Christianity
becomes rigid and intractable.

I had an intuitive feeling that there was much more to our spirit or
soul that have been lost over the millenniums. As I grew up I took an
interest in the Goddess aspect of many pagan religions. This may have
come to me naturally since I am of Irish and Welsh decent and the old
religions appealed to me more and more. I soon realized that
Christianity was a mosaic, the result of the new religion overtaking
the old through adaptation and the slow but sure destruction of the
Goddess.

Christianity tried in vain to reproduce a Goddess within the confines
of their limited beliefs, in the form of Mother Mary. Far from the
fertility symbols of many Goddesses, she is the symbol of unattainable
purity. The perpetual virgin, who sits above all women aloof and
untouchable. In turn, seductive creatures of old replaced the Goddesses
with names like Jezebel and Delilah who destroyed men's souls through
their female, and therefore destructive wiles.

This was a direct and deliberate corruption of the Goddesses who knew
the importance of replenishment of the people, animals and crops.
Fertility is and was the celebration of life, which was corrupted and
seen as sin. This celebration was replaced by undergoing the baptism
ritual, to remove the original sin of disobedience which, as we all
know, was blamed on Eve. The attainment of a perfect soul through
religious devotion was advocated to attain a place in heaven. The
replenishment of the Mother Earth was replaced by the destruction of
nature to make way for the increasing demands of civilization. Women,
who at one time were worshipped were blamed with the destruction of
paradise and became victims of stoning and burning. Such contempt for
those responsible for the birth of mankind!

The Goddesses make sense to me. It's a much kinder and gentle way of
life. The Celts treated women as equals, who fought beside their men
folk rather than simply stand behind her master as a force behind the
throne. A token condensation at best but how many times do we hear
this, even in this day and age. The Goddesses knew how to live with and
respect nature. They learned of the magic contained in nature to heal
and beautify.

Today, we are unwilling to use our innate ability to work with nature.
It has been replaced by the smell of black gold and monetary values
placed on trees for homes and pharmaceuticals concerned with replacing
natural substances for expensive chemical duplications.

We have advanced as a civilization, but lost our spirit of cooperation
and understanding. We have become a world of lonely strangers.

We need to power down and ponder where we are going and what we will
become. Each of us as individuals must learn to step back into the old
beliefs and figure out how to recapture a world we would want to be a
part of.

The awakening of the Goddess is needed. Get in touch with her. Take a
day out of your hectic life and simply take a walk in a forest, out in
the country or on a beach. The spirit of the Goddess is everywhere.
Observe the grand old Oak, feel it's strength and imagine it holds the
wisdom of the ages. See a daisy and wonder at the perfection. Look how
she moves the oceans, feel her breath in the wind and smell her
fragrance in the new born grass.

A primary lesson to be sure, but you will reawaken the connection we
all share with the Earth and you will soon discover the cooperation of
nature so she can teach us to cooperate with her. All it takes is a
walk with nature.