My thoughts of Goddessia*/Making Goddessian My Own

Goddessian is a term to describe a person who worships/honors only the feminine face of the Divine or otherwise follows a spiritual path that is heavily Goddess centered, also known as Goddess Worshippers.  This term also serves as an attempt to unify those who practice Goddess Religion as well as to give a label to those who wish for an identity in addition to or instead of Pagan, Witch, or Wiccan.  For now, Goddessian is the term I choose to label my path. I am a Goddessian Neopagan, meaning my path is Neo-paganism, the flavor is Goddessian.

When I realized Dianic was not the term I wanted to use to identify myself, I started using the term “Goddess Worship” to describe my path instead.  But the term “Goddess Worship” always felt lacking to me, without a soul, overly scholarly, generic, and often felt like it needed additional explanation. “Yeah, I’m a Goddess Worshipper, and by Goddess Worship I mean a path that focuses mainly on the Goddess.  Yeah, Mainstream Wiccans worship the Goddess too, but what I mean by Goddess Worshipper is someone who either only worships the Goddess or if they do worship the God in addition to the Goddess, he’s seen has having a secondary role, as either the consort, or as a part of the Goddess not whole unto himself.” Too much explaining, to many words.  When I first found the word Goddessian, I thought it was a little silly.  I mean it was the word “Goddess” with the suffix “ian.”   Seriously what’s up with that, and do the creators of this word actually expect people to use it?  But after giving Goddessia some thought, I thought to myself, “okay I’ll bite, I’ll call myself a Goddessian.”  And really Goddessian explains my path perfectly.  Goddessian, I have a Goddess centered path.  Pretty straight forward and it’s a lot prettier than “Goddess Worshipper,” and since it’s a flowering new word it doesn’t have the same negative connotations that “Dianic” does.  It’s also doesn’t have the “So, wait, Dianics don’t necessarily worship Diana?” confusion that the word “Dianic” has either.  It’s clear Goddessians worship the Goddess. Since this is a new term which has been created to encompass many Goddess paths, it allows me some personal flexibility on what being a Goddessian means to me.  The following are my interpretations and reflections on my Goddessian path and may not mirror how other views their Goddessian paths.

To me, Goddessia is…

• Goddessians are women, men and those who blur the gender lines.
• Goddessians are Pagans, Christians, Jews and anyone of any faith or spirituality that places the feminine face of the divine at the center of her/his path.
• Goddessians are monotheists, hard and soft polytheists, pantheists, panentheists, animists, agnostics, atheists, etc.  Philosophical beliefs on the nature of the Divine don’t matter as much as a Goddessians longing to connect to the sacred feminine within and without.
• Goddessia can be practiced in the secludedness of the untouched wilderness; the comfort of one’s own living room, in a women’s circle meeting in halls of an open-minded church, or anywhere a Goddessian best connects to the Goddess.
• Goddessia honors the power of and the need for Women only Space, but understands the Goddess also calls men to Her Worship and makes room for their unique connection to the Her.
• Goddessia honors the sacred power of women’s wombs, moon blood and ability to give birth, but also recognizes that our power and connection to the Goddess go beyond our reproductive organs.  To not recognize this continues the sexist practice of reducing a woman’s value to her reproductive organs and her ability to reproduce.
• Goddessia honors the female body as sacred, and women as the embodiment of the Goddess, but understands gender is fluid, and womanhood is large enough to include women born into intersex or biologically male bodies.
• Goddessia embraces feminist values at its core but goes beyond being just a spiritualized political movement.
• Goddessia represents a vast variation of Goddess traditions, religions and spiritualities, because of this Goddessians will apply differing and sometimes conflicting definitions on the terms Goddessian and Goddessia.  We are united instead by our desire to focus our worship/honor on the Feminine Divine and the desire to nurture our relationships with Her.

For More info on the Word Godessian, check out the Medusa Coils Blog.
http://medusacoils.blogspot.com/2007/01/goddessian.html

*Goddessia is to Goddessian as Christianity is to Christian.