I have wanted to read this book for ages, so when I saw how much Z Budapest loved it and when I got the money, I bought it!
She talks about how the god-fearing religions have got us into a complete mess, how once upon a time there were many peaceful civilisations who worshipped goddess and how she thinks it may have changed into the war societies we have today. She talks about surviving goddess cultures, how the god cultures completely subverted goddess and how we can help move the world towards a global goddess adoration.
This book has really opened my eyes to explore goddess cultures of the past and proof that they exist – while I think that Jeri’s tone is trying a bit too hard to be accessible to the point that it trips itself up occasionslly, I managed to get through this book whereas When God was a Woman still sits unfinished on my bookshelf. I loved the inclusion of current goddess cultures as well, and I really believe that the human race is not inherently war-like (and it is completely beyond me that some scholars would spend their lives trying to prove that we are!). Jeri’s theory of Starvation Culture – mad, hungry people in the desert learning to fight and be selfish over food wheras previously it was all shared out – I feel has real weight to it. I loved the inclusion of Science as a god – that’s what it is! It drives me mad when militant atheists plug and preach away at their beliefs yet completely deny that science is the new religion! And I agree that we cannot stay as a god-world any longer – look what a horrible horrible mess we are in! War, super-capitalisim, selfishness, breakdown of community, taking advantage of the planet and no respect for anything not human.
She talks about how we should get everyone on the planet to switch to a loving mother goddess. Fair enough, being a goddess person, I really feel that in many ways this would be a good thing for the world. But in other ways, I don’t like it. Isn’t this exactly the righteousness that the Jehovah religions preach? Of course, Jeri doesn’t want us to kick their asses untill they submit to us, more of gently show them that our way is awesome and better for humankind. I don’t know how I feel about this. There is so much about jehovah religeons I really really think is so wrong, but usually I stay out of it as I have no intention of being an angry anti-christian/muslim and i do not want to disrespect other peoples beliefs because, frankly, most people in the my-way-is-the-right-way religions will NEVER listen to you because their-way-is-the-right-way, and as all people will respond to attack on something that means a lot to them by not listening or getting angry. There is no point. However, I strongly believe in an individual path for everyone, so saying everyone should follow a mother goddess is a bit odd for me.
Her aim is to bring global goddess conciousness to the world by 2035. I think that that is really optimistic, considering the people she would need to target are completely closed off to her message and always will be. Also, if her book is meant to be used as a tool to reach people who should switch to goddess, I don’t know how effective it would be considering it has a lot of Angry God bashing in it. Surely christians and the such are already aware of the awful consequences of some of their worse decisions? I don’t know, I have never been religeonised.
What I found strange reading this book, was me thinking, “there is no way the men of the world would go for this. Why would they want to worship a woman?” and then catching myself. Women have worshipped a man for thousands of years! There should be no problem with men mainly worshiping a woman! I will admit I do have a completely messed up view of men somehow, despite knowing many incredible, gentle, caring, super-manly men. Maybe it’s to do with living in Britain, the land of lads, booze and get your tits out for the lads. Shudder. So, I reckon I have some unresolved goddess issues to fix.
All that said, I am really glad I bought this book. I did not agree with everything in it, but it gave me loads to think about. I reckon Goddess still does need to be made more accessible and less new-age and kooky than her image is now, and part of me feels my responsibility is to do something about it to spread her awareness in the world. Maybe that just means being open about my beliefs to others, who can see that I am a normal, sane, happy person who believes in Goddess.