Origins

An article in The Atlantic Monthlyn (April 2001)
("The Scholars and the Goddess", Charlotte Allen, 1/1/01), casts doubt on the origins of Goddess Worship and Wicca, but calls into question the very right of Pagans to worship at all.  The scholarship represented does shed new light on the beginnings of Wicca and the legitimacy of claims about ancient, matriarchal cultures.  The implications for modern believers are not nearly so clear-cut.

The Goddess Culture
More than any other part of earth-centered spirituality, the beliefs surrounding the Goddess - and the society from which she supposedly sprang - have been the source of speculation and critical research for decades.  Beginning with 19th century speculation about civilization's rise, the theory that our ancient ancestors were matriarchal, peaceful tribes which worshipped a great Mother Goddess reached their height in the work of Marija Gimbutas, the expert in European archaeology whose work crystallized many of the current theories about the neolithic Goddess culture.

The culture, which is described as matrilineal, peaceful, artistic and serene, offered equal opportunities to members of both sexes.  It was presided over by female priests and shamans of the Great Goddess:

"As a supreme Creator who creates from her own substance she is the primary goddess of the Old European pantheon. In this she contrasts with the Indo-European Earth-Mother, who is the impalpable sacred earth-spirit and is not in herself a creative principle; only through the interaction of the male sky-god does she become pregnant." (Marija Gimbutas (1974) The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. Univ. of California Press, Berkeley p. 196)

The tale sounds too good to be true... and some recent scholarship may prove just that.  Recent work by archaeologist Ian Hodder at the Çatalhöyük dig in Turkey has cast doubt on it's stance as the most obvious example of the Goddess Culture.  Digs at the site in recent years have found a high infant mortality rate and a division of the sexes based on diet.  Hodder has also failed to uncover any evidence of a priest class of any type, male or female.  And many of the figurines are androgynous and located in unusual places - such as grain bins.

Hodder's work doesn't destroy the notion of the Goddess culture - but it does shed new light on the details of the Neolithic daily life.  Men ate more meat and game, women more plants - a suggestion as to division of labor.  And the finding that the people of Çatalhöyük had no specific temples doesn't necessarily mean that they had no religious leanings at all.  But the recent evidence does cast doubt on some of the more romantic versions of Neolithic life and the serene culture some had envisioned.

Wicca's Origins
Equally troubling to some members of the Wiccan faith are recent accounts of the history of their religion.  Wiccan authors and leaders have long claimed that Wicca had an unbroken line reaching as far back in history as the Neolithic Goddess culture, or more likely, to the ancient Pagan practices of central and Western Europe.  Scholarship, however, has also placed this claim in doubt.

The recorded history of the Wiccan faith begins with Gerald Gardner, a British civil servant and occult enthusiast who began his practice of organized Witchcraft in 1951 - based, he claimed, on rituals and rites taught to him by a group of hereditary Witches.  His work, and that of several of his disciples, led to the modern faith known as Wicca.

Gardner's link to 'hereditary Witches' has always been questionable.  Recent scholarship - especially the thorough work The Triumph of the Moon by respected historian Ronald Hutton -  has only widened the doubt, finding no evidence of any of the Witches mentioned by Gardner and a strong link between the practices of his Coven and the works of contemporaries Charles Leland, who 'discovered' an ancient cult of Diana in Tuscany, and occultist Alister Crowley.

Pagan Implications
So... according to recent scholarly works, the fabled 'Goddess Culture' may or may not have existed (and most likely didn't exist in the romantic terms often used by feminist activists).  And Wicca likely cannot claim an unbroken lineage to the ancient practices of prehistoric Europe.  My first instinct is to ask "so what?"

Some Wiccans are no doubt deeply concerned about the implications concerning their faith.  But Wicca is not one, homogenous faith - it is a vast menagerie of varying beliefs, traditions and histories.  This new revelation will not damage Wicca unless the faith as a whole insists on clinging to outdated or erroneous information.  And Wiccans, in my experience, are not likely to follow that path.  Their faith has always been a syncretistic blend of ancient and new traditions and beliefs - I seriously doubt that any revelations about the not-so-ancient origins of Wicca could damage the current practices.  The same practices which have progressed far from Gardner's original work.

As for the wider Pagan community, the recent information will, like so much of the scholarly work on ancient people, be debated, recreated, thoroughly researched and - if accurate - adopted.  For the number of Pagans,  who do not follow a goddess-centered tradition, the doubts cast on the Goddess Culture will mean nothing.  For others, the information may help them to understand better the Goddess which they worship.

The Goddess religions and Pagan faiths are recreated religions - in most cases, no living guides are around to tell us what this symbol means, or which prayer should be used for a particular occasion.  But our lack of a living blueprint is, in my opinion, one of our greatest strengths: it forces us to examine our beliefs about our Gods and ourselves, to search history for clues about why we do things in a certain way.  Because of our constant search for answers our faiths continue to grow, to find a blend of ancient and modern solutions to our problems in a way that established faiths do not.

That quality - the vibrant creative life of our rituals, our altars and our prayers - is what lies at the core of Paganism.  Not some dusty beliefs about where our faiths may have started.  Whether or not the Goddess began in Neolithic times, she is alive today - the faith of thousands, if not millions, of her followers has seen to that.

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