And deep reverence for our Foremothers such as Ava Park
By Caryn MacGrandle
Currently, there is a small minute portion of the world population who believe in the Goddess.
An academic estimates 300,000 people.
Ava Park speaks of this in the below video.
And that was the world she has lived in.
.00375% of the world population.
As the creator of the divine feminine app, a decade plus online platform that is Goddess Spirituality: a directory for those wishing to find Women’s Circles, events and resources relating to the Sacred Feminine, I have seen this.
I am in deep gratitude and reverence for the women who carved this path such as Ava Park.
Ava founded the Goddess Temple of Orange County in Irvine, California in 2001.
When she went to apply for the permit, the men in the council denied it and told her,
“There is no Goddess so there cannot be a Goddess church.”
That was the world she lived in.
Marija Gimbutas, Starhawk, Merlin Stone, Zsuzsanna Budapest, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Barbara G. Walker, Patricia Monaghan, Riane Esiler, ALisa Starkweather, Karen Tate, Carol P. Christ.
These are some of my deeply respected foremothers: women who when told that God is male and should be worshipped in a certain way, said,
No.
Such deep reverence for them.
Like so many others that I know, I was tapped on the shoulder by the Goddess. I did not find Her. She found me. Pregnant with my fourth child at 42. Struggling in my second failing marriage and barely surviving through each day with no support system, I knew something had to change.
I started a Mother’s group to find like-minded people and through it, I found Genis: my Genesis.
In 2013, on the day of the New Moon in Scorpio, Genis came over, and we did a full Moon Circle in my backyard. I wrote about it here in Elephant Journal.
From there, I found Women’s Circles.
And from Women’s Circles, I found myself.
I found my voice. I found Divinity within my body. I found silence and laughter and tears and fellow Sisters.
From a first-timer at a Circle:
“Forgive me for crying, I’m just not used to actually saying what I am thinking out loud.”
This is a great video. Thank you Ava.
One thing.
This may be your world, but it is not my daughter’s.
Based on actual growth rates of Paganism, Goddess spirituality, and the broader “spiritual but not religious” movement, a realistic projection is that 1 million to 10 million additional people could join Goddess-centered spirituality in the next 10–20 years—with the higher end very possible if current cultural trends accelerate.
It is estimated that tens of millions of people resonate with the Divine Feminine worldwide.
They just have to give themselves permission to find better ways.
I’m not saying that judgmentally. I want everyone to find divinity and god and spirituality and meaning and strength in whatever way works best for them.
Like a good Mother, I realize we are all made differently.
And I am not saying that Goddesses are real. I am saying what is real is the strength and power that I have drawn from them in the past decade plus.
Goddess spirituality recognizes and honors many divine feminine figures who have been revered throughout human history. Some of the most prominent include Asherah, Inanna, Isis, Sophia, Mami Wata, Shakti, Danu, Brigid, Magdalena, Quan Yin, and Green Tara. These goddesses represent various aspects and archetypes of the divine feminine, and their stories and attributes have influenced goddess spirituality across cultures and eras. The concept also acknowledges that individuals may embody or connect with different goddesses at various times in their lives, reflecting the cyclical and multifaceted nature of the feminine divine.
“Goddess women are either the biggest category of religious nut jobs the world has ever seen or we are the leading edge of humanity holding the ancient red thread of wisdom for civilization.” – Ava Park
I’m going to go with the latter.
Parts of this article were taken from these sources:
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