Goddess

Mythology is important in our UU faith in at least two ways: We recognize mythology, and calling something a myth is not to disparage it or call it untrue. The Goddess is alive, and magic is afoot. 

The first believers in religion 

  regarded God as the Divine Mother, 

    the Goddess. 

Some of the reasons for this are obvious. 

Women are the source of the continuity of life, 

  so motherhood was understood to be 

    a divine attribute. 

The concept of the loving mother 

  as a characteristic of the nature of the divine

    has never been far from human faith. 

The oldest living religion, Hinduism, 

  has many goddesses 

    who are fully equal to their consorts, the gods. 

After Brahman, the supreme being 

  (or supreme existence), 

    Hindus worship the Great Mother, 

      and she is known by many names. 

Buddhism has given the world 

  the great Goddess Kwan Yin among others. 

Kwan Yin is also known as 

  the Bodhisvatta of Compassion. 

Judaism once had a Goddess 

  who was known as the consort of YHWH. 

Her name was Wisdom. 

Christianity is no stranger to the Divine Feminine: 

  From the early years of the faith, 

    the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine, 

      consecrated the great Cathedral in his capital city 

        as the Church of Holy Wisdom, 

          Hagia Sophia. 

In addition, from the earliest times, in East and West, 

  Mary, the Mother of Jesus, 

    also known as the Mother of God, 

      has been revered. 

Her position in Christian churches 

  is not that of a goddess, 

    but she is a worthy representative 

      of the divine feminine just the same. 

One theologian said about Mary, 

  "The distance between the Mother of God 

    and God the Mother 

      is an infinite difference." 

I'm not sure that statement was intended 

  as a positive statement about God the Mother, 

    but within the context 

      of the mythology of the Divine Feminine, 

        it works for me. 

In the Arabian peninsula prior to the arrival of Islam, 

  a Triple Goddess was worshipped. 

There were early editions of the Qur'an 

  that acknowledged the Three Goddesses 

    as daughters of Allah and as intercessors. 

Those verses were eventually removed, 

  and they were called Satanic Verses, 

    but they testify to the presence 

      of the mythology of the Divine feminine 

        even in early Islam, 

          although Islam is now 

            the most monotheistic religion in practice. 

As UU's, our understanding of God and Goddess 

  also includes the ancient pagan mythology 

    of the Great Mother, the Goddess 

      and Her consort, the God, 

        both known by many names. 

An  ancient and popular form of the pagan Goddess 

  is Ostara, also known as Ishtar or Astarte, 

    and her consort is sometimes called Cernunos, 

      or the Horned God, usually depicted with antlers. 

I like to say that the ancient pagans 

  even had their own version of the Holy Trinity. 

The Goddess is a Triple Goddess, 

  the Virgin, the Mother, and the Crone. 

The correspondence to the Christian Trinity 

  is obvious, at least to me. 

The Virgin is the Daughter, 

  corresponding to the Son. 

The Mother is the Parent, 

  corresponding to the Father. 

And the Crone is the Wise Woman, 

  corresponding to the Holy Spirit. 

There is even a correspondence 

  to the Jewish and Christian concept 

    of the Image of God from Creation: 

"God created them in God's own image,

  Male and Female God created them," 

    and the lives of many women 

      include the elements and experiences 

        of the Virgin, the Mother, and the Crone. 

We UU's place both God and Goddess 

  and all the beliefs about them 

    in the context of mythology. 

Some UU's believe in God; some do not, 

  but in any case we can agree 

    that the concepts of mythology and metaphor

      are good ways of understanding the ideas 

        representing the Divine Being. 

Using the terms of mythology or metaphor 

  does not in any way imply truth vs. falsehood, 

    but it does help us represent a shared way 

      of thinking and speaking about experiences 

        of human spirituality 

          that are often otherwise difficult 

            for us to talk about. 

Myths and mythology are simply defined 

  as stories that include divine beings 

    and the miracles that they seem to bring. 

Science fiction authors have often pointed out 

  that miracles are frequently the results 

    of technologies that are not understood 

      by those who experience them and their results. 

There are many stories, 

  some fanciful, some historical, 

    that illustrate such an experience of miracles. 

One of my favorite historical stories 

  of seeming miracles

    involves the Cargo Cults 

      on some Pacific islands after WWII. 

Adherents to the Cargo Cults believe 

  that their gods will bring valuable goods and money 

    that will save them from poverty. 

They are far from unique, 

  but they are an extreme and obvious example. 

One anthropologist of religion 

  wrote (I hope) with a sense of humor 

    about a kind of Eastern European version 

      of an expectation of miraculous cargo 

        after the fall of the Soviet Union: 

The anthropologist wrote: 

CARGO cults are alive and well; they have simply been transferred to Eastern Europe, whose populations await the magic of 'The Market' and 'Capitalism' to bring them prosperity and transform their lives with every bit as much enthusiasm - and as little grasp of reality - as did the islanders the original cargo ships. 

All kinds of people look for miracles from beyond 

  to redeem them from all kinds of troubles. 

We are all capable of finding ourselves 

  drawn into this kind of magical thinking. 

The experience of magic represented by Goddess 

  is vastly different from the expectation 

    of redemption through cargo. 

Goddess magic affirms the value of every individual 

  with all of our gifts. 

We don't need the addition of goods (cargo) 

  to help us truly to be ourselves. 

We don't need material gifts 

  to find comfort in the reality 

    of life-affirming magic. 

As the beautiful contemporary saying goes, 

  "(The) Goddess is alive, and magic(k) is afoot." 

The saying probably has its roots 

  in the poem and song by the great Leonard Cohen, 

    "God is alive, and magic is afoot." 

This kind of magic(k) is a way of focusing our minds 

  and working toward the goals we believe

    are right for us. 

Rituals and special words like incantations 

  can help us with improving 

    our powers of concentration, 

      and in this light, magic can become 

        a powerful force for us. 

It's not that magic carries power of its own, 

  but we can invest anything in our lives 

    with special power 

      when it serves us as a focal point 

        for concentration and the affirmation 

          of our mental energy. 

The Goddess is alive in our hearts and minds 

  and (I believe) beyond us in the multiverse itself, 

    and the special kind of magic(k) She brings 

      can draw us ever deeper 

        into being and becoming 

          more and more truly ourselves. 

She loves us as our Mother, 

  and she wants us to be our best. 

Like every good mother, 

  she is always at work for our good. 

I have long been an incurable optimist. 

Our times are teaching me 

  that my condition of optimism

    is in fact curable. 

Looming dangers of civil war in our nation, 

  a seemingly endless pandemic, 

    the possibility of the start of World War Three 

      in Europe and Asia, 

        and with questionably survivable consequences 

          of climate change... 

All these things are leading me to question 

  a lifetime of orientation toward 

    an optimistic persuasion. 

In our presently troubled times 

  that appear to be getting worse, 

    all of us need the comfort of a loving Mother, 

      in reality, faith, or fantasy, 

        regardless of our personal religious persuasion. 

My own personal religious persuasion 

  leads me to return to an optimistic point of view 

    regarding our own destiny 

      as individuals and as a species. 

That is the source of the good news I can share today 

  in the face of so much bad news in the world. 

We all need a loving Mother, 

  and we all have one: Goddess, 

    who lives in our hearts, minds, bodies, 

      and in our Multiverse. 

Amen. 

Ameen. 

Omeyn. 

So Mote It Be. 

Let it be.