goddess worship

Veneration of a female deity. It is a tradition known to have existed since prehistoric times, and continues today. It has frequently been connected with the worshipper's desire for their own fertility as well as that of their crops and livestock. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians worshipped several female deities, including goddesses symbolizing fertility, wisdom, hunting, and the safety of the nation and its people. In many tribal religions and cultures, goddess worship forms a part within an overall cosmology which often depicts the Earth as the mother goddess and the sky as the father god.

Hinduism and Buddhism Both Hinduism and Buddhism have long traditions of goddess worship. In Hinduism, every deity is accompanied by a female counterpart, or goddess, such as Parvati-Shiva, Lakshmi-Vishnu, Sita-Rama and Radha-Krishna. Many temples are dedicated first to the goddess, who represents the merciful, loving side of the deity. In Buddhism, Tara and Guanyin are both often seen as goddesses of compassion. Such deities are usually considered officially as secondary deities, though popular devotion seems to accord them a higher significance.

Modern theories Some scholars claim that before the rise of the main faiths, all worship was of the goddess; others see a time when both the male and female were venerated equally. All such scholars argue that the rise of patriarchy in religion has made the worship of the goddess either frightening to the men in control or has led to a debased form of goddess worship, as for instance in the cult of the Virgin Mary. There has been a rise in worship of the goddess in the late 20th century with the rise of feminism. Notions of the goddess are being raised in Christianity as a counterbalance to the patriarchy of traditional Christian theology and terminology.