I confess, Dear Reader, that I stopped reading books about Wicca and Paganism years ago. Eventually, reading about spells for finding true love, attracting money, color correspondences, etc. just left me yawning. Just as it was in the ancient world, Religion and Magick are two sides of the same coin. But, unlike Goddess worship as practiced by our ancient forebears, modern paganism has always seemed rather light on Theology.
Then I read Reverend Karen Tate’s Goddess Calling, Inspirational Messages & Meditations of Sacred Feminine Thealogy, (Changemakers Books, 2014). Tate’s book is an artfully crafted paean to Sacred Feminine Liberation. She ditches the word theology in favour of thealogy, defining it thus:“The meaning of Goddess, as deity, archetype and ideal and her relationship to humanity, the planet and its species.” As clear and concise an objective as any I have read anywhere. Drawing on many ancient and modern sources, particularly scholarly papers and books, she has reconstructed and adapted ancient temple rituals for the twenty-first century. Now, that’s a damn sight more like it!
Tate deftly pulls it all together in what amounts to a Pagan version of Sermons From the Pulpit. Her book is a series of meditations and messages using “Goddess archetypes, ideals and mythology, for individuals and groups” looking for a starting point in their spiritual practice. She forthrightly informs us that “rather than trying to reinvent the wheel” she adapted the Sacred Sunday services in the Unitarian Universalist church for Goddess worship.
Reverend Tate not only wrote the inspirational messages, she has used them in her official capacity as a clergy person, guest minister at various Goddess Temples, and many conferences. So her claim that these ‘messages are fielded tested’ is no idle boast. She helpfully provides an outline for a General Ritual, with chapters devoted to a particular topic for a service, and each meditation features a particular Goddess—Sekhmet, Fortuna, Isis, and several others, including a couple that were unknown to me. This book is a must for those looking for insights into Goddess Thealogy or a new and refreshing perspective on Goddess worship!
By,
J. DHARMA WINDHAM