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I found another really cool article that I wanted to share with you all. I found it to be enlightening and empowering, and I hope that you will too.
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Women's Rites
by Ruth Barret
Posted by: DailyOM
From the beginning of the goddess movement to the present, women have been increasingly drawn to Z Budapest’s branch of Dianic tradition for its feminist values, its women-only rituals, and its emphasis on women’s mysteries. With the exception of Shekhinah Mountainwater’s teachings, Z Budapest’s Dianic tradition has been the only women’s mystery tradition available for women to tend to their individual souls.
Dianic tradition is simply not about men’s bodies, life passages, and cultural experiences: those are men’s mysteries. For males, the natural processes and transitions of the female body are simply outside their experience, no matter how much they might think they understand or empathize with women they have known. Conversely, women can never truly understand what men experience through their own unique biology or how
those experiences might inform their lives. It is for this simple reason that men are not included in the Dianic tradition, although some Dianics practice with their male partners or children at other times and in other Wiccan denominations. It would be as disrespectful to men’s unique needs and experiences in celebrating their mysteries if women insisted on inclusion, as it is for men seeking inclusion in rituals of women’s mysteries. It is my hope that eventually there will be as much understanding and support for women-only spiritual experiences as there is for those experiences that include only our beloved sons, brothers, and lovers.
2006 Ruth Barret, Reprinted with permission of Llewellyn publiications inc. Woodbury MN
2 comments:
Dear Hecate,
I totally agree with the content of this article. The following text is excerpted from my biography’s page in my blog:
“Reading more about Wicca, I just learnt that its most radical faction, the so called Dianic Wicca, denies any existence of male deities and believes that only women can have access to collective rituals, thanks to their direct touch with the Goddess, while men can only worship and honour Her in silence and privately, as I do. In my opinion, Dianic Wicca represents the most pure and genuine return to the worshipping of the Goddess and to the holiness of pre-Indo-European matriarchal society, not yet contaminated by the Indo-European ideas of a male deity of the sky to whom the Goddess was submitted, becoming nothing more than his faithful wife (Hera) or his daughters (Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, or Persephone).”
I believe that above all is the Goddess; below Her are women, who are a mortal manifestation of Her. However, the Goddess has Her mortal lovers (=the harvest), with whom She mates every year, but it’s important to keep in mind they are NOT gods at all. In the same way, also women have their lovers, men. That’s why men cannot have a direct touch with the Goddess, and, to get a bit closer to Her, need women’s medium.
Thank you for your response.
However, I feel that if a person is an 'eclectic' practioner of the Wiccan religion, then they are free to worship both the male AND the female aspects of the Deity, as I do.
I do not follow any one path of Wicca. I learn from all Trads and therefore create my own set of ways.
I do not have any one particular Pantheon I worship--I honor ALL the deities from ALL pantheons.
I believe it is the same way with the male population of the Wiccan/Pagan community.
Thank you again for your response and have a blessed week.
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