Other
Rae
Articles:
Rousing Young Visionaries for Radical Social Change
Societal Restructuring via Education Transformation
Deception of Global Democratization
PART 1 of 4
By Debra Rae
June 10, 2007
NewsWithViews.com
Goddess Worship: Its Historical Threads (�Living Goddess� Cults) [Image]
Every culture throughout the course of recorded history has glommed on to some sort of goddess figure�Venus and Isis (fertility goddesses) and Morrigan (goddess of war), to name but three. The most prolific goddess worshippers are spawned out of Hinduism and the beliefs of indigenous peoples, but even early Christian sects purportedly venerated the Virgin Mary as a goddess; moreover, contemporary mystics are petitioning the Pope to include Mary in the godhead.
Whereas some worship "God the Mother" as supreme and sole Deity, followers of Hinduism honor a plethora of goddesses. Practitioners can be conservative (in support of male dominance, state control, and colonialism); or radical, as acted out by bra-burning, perpetually offended militant feminists best characterized by their mantra, �I am woman; hear me roar!�
Throughout the centuries �living� goddess cults have venerated their fellows as deities. In ancient Egypt, for example, stateswomen such as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII wielded total power as living goddesses. The same concept has been promulgated by imperial families of China, Rome and Japan. In Nepal even today, young girls are selected as living icons.
Since the mid-19th century, goddess worship in Western society has developed into a distinct culture. Rather than worship some distant deity, devotees often prefer terms as �spirituality� or �veneration� over goddess �worship.� That being the case, �living goddess� cult followings have not escaped the West. Indeed, England�s monarchs (Elizabeth I, for one) drew on the iconic powers of a living goddess; and, on the other side of the pond, a devoted, sometimes ecstatic fan base of the Oprah Show gives shape to America�s �living� goddess cult.
Goddess Worship: Its Bogus Wisdom (A-Traditional Primordial Wisdom) For its successes in gaining needed social, political and economic equality for women, today�s Women�s Movement has been broadly acclaimed since World War II�in many respects, for good reason. Trouble is extremists rev up their message a notch by advancing the nefarious notion of female superiority�sometimes to the point of deification.
Take, for example, Caroline Myss, Ph.D. So compelling is her message in the field of energy medicine and human consciousness and potential that, for one entire year (2003), Oprah Winfrey gave Caroline her own television program with the Oxygen network, targeted to women. A former consultant to our Defense Department and 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate, Barbara Marx Hubbard applauds such women of vision who, in turn, honor a-traditional �primordial wisdom� as a resource of the spirit in their ascension process�whatever that means.
Arcane? You bet. Their feminist philosophy is decidedly esoteric, the Greek root for which means �private� or �confidential.� You see, goddess wisdom (or spirituality, as the case may be) is exclusive truth reserved for an enlightened �inner circle� of initiates. Their claim to wisdom mirrors the mystery religions of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece and Rome.
Both Carolyn and Barbara join faculty at the Wisdom University as purportedly enlightened educators for �cosmic order� and spiritual transformation. A favorite product available through the university�s bookstore is Hallie Iglehart Austen�s paperback, The Heart of the Goddess: Art, Myth and Meditations of the World�s Sacred Feminine.
That women are worthy I�ll not debate; moreover, for apparent reason, their intuitive prowess is legendary. Nevertheless, earth�s first lady, Eve, learned the hard way that dabbling with God�s exclusive knowledge of good and evil rendered no service to her relationship with Him, her family and humanity at large.
While a good woman is godly, even godlike by design, she is not a goddess, nor will she ever be one. Still, godly women are forces to be reckoned with�even worthy of praise (Proverbs 31:30)�but never to the point of usurping God�s glory.
Goddess Worship: Its New Age Expression (Earned Egoic Advancement) [Image]
Coveting divinity was and is the Achilles heel of Lucifer, chief of fallen angels. For envying the exalted status of humans, all the while craving for himself God's exclusive right to omnipotence, Lucifer was cast down from Heaven. In search of mystical union with a personal deity, Lucifer�s 21st century prot�g�es follow suit.
To discover the goddess within, a woman first must achieve elevated "cosmic consciousness"; and yoga is presumed to accomplish that purpose dandily. Its promise of yoking with the divine spirit of the universe has become all the rage�so much so that tens of thousands of copies have been circulated of a video tutorial created by Marsha Wenig of Michigan City, Indiana. Techniques within her Yoga Kids video and adult certification program (to teach yoga to children) have captivated young moms everywhere.
Many rush to their local bookstores to snatch up Yoga Baby and I Can�t Believe It�s Yoga for Kids, two among many trendy publications of this ilk. Mother-daughter yoga may well ensure bonding�but not filially. The goal of yoga is samadhi, or occult enlightenment, in giving way to one�s true divine nature. This is accomplished by controlling vital energy (prana) in the act of breathing. Some may be surprised to learn that virtually all standard yoga texts link psychic powers and other occult abilities with yoga practice.
All too often gullible women in search of �egoic advancement� gobble up self-help literature that a fallen world has to offer, but then manipulating cosmic energies simply doesn't cut it!
Better to take to heart the sobering upshot of Lucifer�s folly than to pursue an elusive dream of so-called earned egoic advancement otherwise known as achieving Christhood.
For good reason the Bible warns us to "let God be true, and [let] every man [or woman who makes claims to the contrary] [be exposed as] a liar" (Ro. 3:4).
Goddess Worship: Its Sexual Expression (Tantra and the Great Rite) [Image]
The term �sexual revolution� is not new, but was coined by anarchist Freudian scholar Wilhelm Reich. In the 1920s and 1930s, Otto Gross and he developed a �sociology of sex� further expounded upon by renowned, but controversial anthropologist Margaret Mead, author of Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). By the way, this is the same Margaret Mead who was keynote speaker at a UN Spiritual Summit Conference in which the UN�s resident guru led a diverse group in Eastern meditation.
Historian David Allyn characterized it as a time of "coming-out" when, in the 1960s, Eastern mysticism linked with America�s sexual revolution. Indeed, sexual behavior and religious affiliation changed radically for the vast majority of �enlightened,� thoroughly-modern Millie�s who readily �made love, not war.� Once freed from Sunday school morality, women were eager to explore �free love� inclusive of premarital sex, masturbation, erotic fantasies, pornography and lesbianism.
Add to this list �tantric sex,� the concept for which was featured not long ago on an Oprah show I happened onto. Simply put, tantric sex is meditative lovemaking through which partners learn to channel potent orgasmic energies. The idea is to raise one�s level of consciousness from the plane of doing to the place of being. Tantra teaches a woman to transform the act of sex into a sacrament, merging the dual nature of sexuality into ecstatic union. Once having harmonized internal masculine and feminine polarities, one allegedly realizes the blissful nature of �the Self� (capital �S� intended).
Oprah enthusiasts would do well to consider the dark side of this so-called sacrament of love. In �Christian� America alone, Wiccans number an astonishing quarter-of-a-million; and a necessary part of their Third-Degree elevation ritual, the Great Rite celebrates �sacred marriage� through sex (not necessarily with one�s �significant other�). Wiccan sex partners invoke specific gods and goddesses into one another�s bodies�the dynamic polarity for which is reminiscent of Tantra.
True, we�ve come a long way, baby, since 1962 when Helen Gurley Brown published Sex and the Single Girl and, then, went on to transform Cosmopolitan magazine into a life manual for young career women. But, in many ways, women are none the better for it. Realizing one�s �blissful Self� is sullied by an ever-increasing smorgasbord of STDs, half of which are incurable. Add to that spiritual darkness; and we have a formula for disaster�physically, culturally, and spiritually.
Goddess Worship: Its Kinseyan Fraud and Freudian Foibles [image]
Sigmond Freud (1865-1939) was an Austrian physician who pioneered study of the subconscious and unconscious mind. He developed psychoanalysis and formulated concepts of the pleasure-seeking id, the �conscious self� ego, and the conscience, or superego. A confessed atheist at war with religious mores, Freud nonetheless worshipped the god/goddess of sexuality. Furthermore, he used cocaine and championed hypnotism�both consistent with �altered consciousness� heralded by New Age feminists.
While much of Freud�s research is widely discredited, no one can dispute its cultural (even spiritual) impact; indeed, his work laid the foundation for a groundbreaking study called Human Sexual Response (Masters and Johnson, 1966), which unveiled the nature and scope of sex practices engaged in by young Americans at the time.
Earlier on, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, zoologist Alfred C. Kinsey published two similarly scandalous surveys of modern sexual behavior. In Kinsey, Sex and Fraud, co-author Judith Reisman exposes Kinsey�s illegal sexual experimentation on virtually hundreds of babies and children (for example, Table 34 tallies infant orgasms). Even so, Kinseyan sexology remains the learning base for sex education in America�s public school system.
In fact, the propagandist arm of the Kinsey Institute (Indiana University), Sex Instruction/ Information Education Committee in the United States (SIECUS) fundamentally shapes that curriculum; furthermore, SIECUS receives funding from (gulp!) the Playboy Foundation, no doubt influenced by Freud, Kinsey, Masters and Johnson, and modern goddess veneration, if not worship. The latter is epitomized in �playmates� of Hugh Heffner�s making. For decades, generously-endowed models have posed nude in Playboy magazine centerfolds only to be ogled by male worshippers in awe of their meticulously airbrushed curves.
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Similarly, the famed Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue inaugurated in 1966 left little to the male imagination, but nonetheless has served to launch modeling and acting careers of the world�s most beautiful icons of goddess-like sexuality.
Not exactly what bra-burning militant feminists of the 1960s had in mind, but then our century�s leading sexperts might have taken a bow were they alive today. For part 2 click below.
Click here for part ----->1, 2, 3, 4,
� 2007 Debra Rae - All Rights Reserved
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Daughter of an Army Colonel, Debra graduated with distinction from the University of Iowa. She then completed a Master of Education degree from the University of Washington. These were followed by Bachelor of Theology and Master of Ministries degrees-both from Pacific School of Theology.
While a teacher in Kuwait, Debra undertook a three-month journey from the Persian Gulf to London by means of VW "bug"! One summer, she tutored the daughter of Kuwait's Head of Parliament while serving as superintendent of Kuwait's first Vacation Bible School.
Having authored the ABCs of Globalism and ABCs of Cultural -Isms, Debra speaks to Christian and secular groups alike. Her radio spots air globally. Presently, Debra co-hosts WOMANTalk radio with Sharon Hughes and Friends, and she contributes monthly commentaries to Changing Worldviews and NewsWithViews.com. Debra calls the Pacific Northwest home.
Web Site: www.debraraebooks.com
E-Mail: ABCs@debraraebooks.com�
The most prolific goddess worshippers are spawned out of Hinduism and the beliefs of indigenous peoples, but even early Christian sects purportedly venerated the Virgin Mary as a goddess...
