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Goddess movement
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== Background and precursors == {{Main|Great Goddess hypothesis|Matriarchy}} {{Further|Feminist theory|Women in prehistory|Women's liberation movement}} In the 19th century, some [[First-wave feminism|first-wave feminists]] such as [[Matilda Joslyn Gage]] and [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] published their ideas describing a female deity,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stein|first=Diane|title=Diane Stein's Guide to Goddess Craft|date=2001|publisher=The Crossing Press|isbn=1580910912|location=Freedom, CA|pages=23}}</ref> whilst anthropologists such as [[Johann Jakob Bachofen]] examined the ideas of prehistoric matriarchal Goddess cultures in the Mediterranean region. There are also post-traditional Goddess feminists who claim that female theologies are more ancient, having emerged in and around [[Prehistoric Europe]] during the [[Upper Paleolithic]] period or 30,000 years ago: the [[Great Goddess hypothesis]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Frank Parsons|first=Susan|title=The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00pars|url-access=limited|date=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=052166327X|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00pars/page/n99 79]}}</ref> It is said that these theologies were suppressed in the west when Christianity outlawed all pre-Christian religions through a series of edicts by [[Theodosius I]].<ref name=":5" /> These ideas gained additional traction during the [[second-wave feminism]] movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, feminists who became interested in the history of religion also refer to the work of [[Bertha Eckstein-Diener|Helen Diner]] (1965),<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Bertha Diener |last=Diner |first=Helen |title=Mothers and Amazons |publisher=Julian Press |date=1965}}</ref> whose book ''Mothers and Amazons: An Outline of Female Empires'' was first published in German in 1932; [[Mary Esther Harding]] (1935),<ref>{{cite book |last=Harding |first=M. Esther, MD |title=Woman's Mysteries: Ancient and Modern |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co |date=1935}}</ref> the first significant Jungian psychoanalyst in the United States; [[Elizabeth Gould Davis]] (1971); and [[Merlin Stone]] (1976). {{Women and Spirituality Trilogy}} Since the 1970s, Goddess Spirituality has emerged as a recognizable international cultural movement.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Tøllefsen|first1=Inga Bårdsen|title=Female Leaders in New Religious Movements|last2=Giudice|first2=Christian|date=2017|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-3-319-61526-4|location=Cham, Switzerland|pages=244}}</ref> In 1978 [[Carol P. Christ]]'s widely reprinted essay "[[Why Women Need the Goddess]],"<ref name="Why Women">{{cite web |title=Why Women Need the Goddess |first=Carol P. |last=Christ |website=GoddessAriadne.org |publisher=Ariadne Institute |url=http://www.goddessariadne.org/#!why-women-need-the-goddess-part-1/cufo |access-date=2015-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102041700/https://www.goddessariadne.org/#!why-women-need-the-goddess-part-1/cufo |archive-date=2019-11-02 |url-status=live }}</ref> which argues in favor of the concept of there having been an ancient religion of a supreme goddess, was presented as the [[keynote]] address to an audience of over 500 at the "Great Goddess Re-emerging" conference at the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]];<ref>{{cite web |title=Carol Christ -- interviewed for the Signs out of Time project |website=Belili Productions |url=http://www.belili.org/marija/bios/carol_christ.html |access-date=October 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183345/http://www.belili.org/marija/bios/carol_christ.html |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> it was first published in ''The Great Goddess Issue'' of ''[[Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics]]'' (1978).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Christ |first=Carol P. |title=Why Women Need the Goddess |journal=Heresies Magazine |year=1978 |volume=2 |issue=1 |url=https://archive.org/stream/heresies_05#page/n9/mode/2up |access-date=2015-10-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407231415/https://archive.org/stream/heresies_05#page/n9/mode/2up |archive-date=2016-04-07 |url-status=live }}</ref> Carol P. Christ also co-edited the classic feminist religion anthologies ''Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality'' (1989) and ''Womanspirit Rising'' (1979/1989); the latter included her essay "Why Women Need the Goddess."<ref name="Why Women" /> From 1974 to 1984, ''[[WomanSpirit]]'', a journal edited in Oregon by Jean and [[Ruth Mountaingrove]], published articles, poetry, and rituals by women, exploring ideas and feelings about female deity.<ref>{{cite book |title=Circle of Power: Shifting Dynamics in a Lesbian-Centered Community |first1=La Verne |last1=Gagehabib |first2=Barbara |last2=Summerhawk |publisher=New Vitroia Publisher |date=2000 |isbn=1-892281-13-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zao3wTyYE6MC&pg=PA61 |page=61 |access-date=2015-10-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109063144/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zao3wTyYE6MC&pg=PA61 |archive-date=2016-01-09 |url-status=live }}</ref> The journal ''The Beltane Papers'', which started publication at about the same time, continued until mid-2011.<ref>{{cite web |title=I am sorry to announce that TBP is no longer in print. |website=THe Beltane Papers |url=http://thebeltanepapers.net/ |access-date=October 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912064136/http://thebeltanepapers.net/ |archive-date=September 12, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Goddess movement has found voice in various films and self-published media, such as the [[Women and Spirituality: The Goddess Trilogy|''Women and Spirituality'']] trilogy made by Donna Read for the [[National Film Board of Canada]]. ===Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow=== [[Maria de Naglowska]], a Russian émigré in France, established and led a short-living occult, [[sexual magic]]al and [[Satanism|Satanic]] society known as the Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow ({{langx|fr|Confrerie de la Flèche d'Or}}) in Paris from 1932 to 1935. Naglowska's occult teaching centered on what she called the "Third Term of the Trinity", in which the Holy Spirit of the classic Christian trinity is recognized as the [[divine feminine]].<ref>{{cite book |surname=Naglowska |given=Maria de |authorlink=Maria de Naglowska |title=The Light of Sex: Initiation, Magic, and Sacrament |others=Introd., notes and trans. by William Traxler |year=2011 |publisher=[[Inner Traditions – Bear & Company|Inner Traditions]] |pages=4–8 |isbn=9781594774157}}</ref> ===Church of Aphrodite=== {{main|Church of Aphrodite}} [[File:Venus symbol.svg|thumb|upright|Female symbol of the Church of Aphrodite]] One of the earliest precursor to the contemporary Goddess movement was the [[Church of Aphrodite]], a religious organization founded and registered in 1938 by male feminist [[Gleb Botkin]], first in [[West Hempstead, New York]] and later in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]]. The Monotheistic church believes in a singular female goddess, who is named after the ancient Greek goddess of love, [[Aphrodite]]. The relationship between the Goddess Aphrodite and the visible world may be illustrated by that between a mother and her child, and the creation of the world was like a woman giving birth. The church did not continue long after Botkin's death in 1969, some of his followers went on to join new neopagan movements.<ref name="Galtsin">{{cite journal |surname=Galtsin |given=Dmitry |title=Gleb Botkin and the Church of Aphrodite (1938–1969) |date=2012 |journal=The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=91–108}}</ref><ref name="Clifton">{{cite book |surname=Clifton |given=Chas S. |author-link=Chas S. Clifton |title=Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America |publisher=AltaMira Press |place=Lanham, Md |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7591-0202-6}}</ref>
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