Warrior Goddess? Dark Goddess?

Athana at Radical Goddess Thealogy brought up the topic of Warrior Goddesses the other day and I, of course, had to post some comments.

Click here to read the original post then read below to see mine and Athana's comments. As always, I would love to know what you think.


Grian said...

I agree that we are not after female dominance. The Goddess does not want to create yet more separation. What I have a hard time with is the "there are no warrior goddesses" statement.

In my tradition the Goddess is revered as a three-fold deity. The Warrior is not one of those aspects because it is believed that the Warrior as well as the Lover are ever present throughout all other stages.

I don't think Warrior has to mean "war-mongering". It can mean destructive though. I think there is some balance lost when we forget that the Goddess is not only creating but also destroying. She is loving and also harsh - not out of animosity but out of necessity.

You can not know light without first knowing darkness and vice versa.

Just my two cents. I'd love to compare beliefs.


Athana said...

Grian, Hm. I agree with you that destruction, death and misfortune are all part of human life, and have been since the beginning. And I can't tell you that I've figured out exactly how this fits in with Goddess. I think though that "bad stuff" comes in part from the Mother, who feels an overwhelming need to protect Her children. At the moment I'm reading the book Nisa, about a Kung Bushwoman in the Kalahari Desert, southern Africa. This is a hunting and gathering society - or was when Nisa was a child. Anyway, if a Kung woman has a baby too soon after her previous baby, she doesn't have enough milk to feed both babies, and one is going to have to die. So the mother usually kills the newborn immediately after its birth. In a Goddess theaology, could we explain bad things as a result of a Mother trying to protect her children?

One problem I see with the warrior as a symbol of "bad stuff" is that war is an aberration that's been with us humans for only the past 6000 years out of the 100,000 we've existed on this planet. I'm not sure we want to use it as a symbol in the healthy religion we want to have for our species.


Grian said...

Athana,

Perhaps I immediately equate the Warrior aspect with Darkness - as in the Dark aspects of the Goddess.

Yes, I do think that destruction can come from the desire to protect. I don't know if you have children, but the thought of someone causing harm to my daughter can make me contemplate violent actions.

I think the "darkness" - for lack of a better term - is not only necessary and natural, but can be a positive force if it is understood and integrated into self. This is a very common theme in many forms of spirituality - stemming directly from the earliest Shamanic Goddess societies.