Sacred Feminine Literature: Re-emergence of the Goddess (original) (raw)

Long before the Euro-centric, Judeo-Christian image of God as an elderly Father was envisioned, our ancestors imaged God as the Great Creatrix. Despite attempts to vilify and eradicate the Sacred Feminine, Her story has been kept alive in myth and ritual for over thirty-thousand years. We are currently seeing a significant paradigmatic shift back towards Her myth and resacralisation through a literary genre I have labeled as Sacred Feminine literature. Sacred Feminine literature is stimulating far more than its reader’s imaginations or curiosities; it is serving as a catalyst for personal psychological shifts with three significant thealogical implications. First, overflowing with ideas which have been repressed in Western culture for millennia, this new genre connects its readers to a time when the Great Mother Goddess reigned as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Second, this genre is making readers question known history and religious dogma. Third, through the diverse, transformational power of Sacred Feminine literature, the Goddess’ history, myth, and aspects are being reclaimed, resacralised, and reshaped. Her myth is being rewritten. Is this reclamation an intentional fallacy on the author’s part? Are these authors intentionally speaking with what Jung refers to as “a voice that is stronger than our own...a thousand voices”? Through interviews with Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon), Kevin Smith (Dogma) and Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code), it becomes clear that each author’s intent was specifically geared towards starting theological debates. Each author had personal, spiritual motives for creating her or his unique stories. The intention of this genre is to open up discussions and incite personal discovery on the nature of God and Goddess. Literature can and does affect its readers. The influence of this genre cannot be ignored. Sacred Feminine literature is not merely a genre to read for pleasure or escape; it is deeply affective, and it stimulates and incites readers beyond the words on the page. The responses vary from reader to reader, yet the salient point is that readers are responding. Seen as chronicles of Female spirituality and history, Sacred Feminine literature has the potential to reshape our mythology – to become the new myth. As each reader discovers her or his own “private myth,” our “public dream” is altered. Sacred Feminine literature potentially stands as a major catalyst to a shift in our cultural myth, our theological paradigms, and our religious schema. This is the transformational power of literature.