Page:What Men Want - Initial Thoughts on the Male Goddess Movement.pdf/6

Rh goddesses) within Goddess Spirituality. Given that Contemporary Paganism has partly legitimated itself as a critique of doctrinal monotheisms (particularly Christianity), this latter dynamic might be something of a surprise to non-Pagans. However, it is the androcentric and phallocentric qualities of monotheism with which Goddess spiritualists take issue.

Goddess spirituality – the-a-logy as opposed to theology − has exerted a significant influence on many of these Pagan paths. This is especially the case of Contemporary Pagan witchcraft where the default position of the duotheism of Mother Goddess and Horned God in Wicca is predominantly practiced in many covens as a thealogical spirituality, with Goddess dominant over God at least at the level of practice, if not liturgy. An example of this within witchcraft is Dianic witchcraft. This is a female only, Goddess-centred spirituality espousing a radical separatist feminism which is often accompanied by a lesbian identity politics. Since the 1970s, however, one can discern the emergence of Goddess spirituality as a specific path in its own right outside of mainstream witchcrafts.

Long suggests that the Goddess Movement has three major sources of inspiration: Paganism, feminism and, what she terms, feminist theological forms of Judeo-Christianity. Indeed recent years has seen both a feminization of Contemporary Pagan liturgy and rhetoric accompanied by an increase in numbers of female practitioners. Indeed 310