goddess
Sign in to savethumb|upright=1.3|Queen Nefertari being led by [[Isis, the ancient Egyptian mother goddess of magic]]
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A goddess is a female deity or divine being worshipped in religions and mythologies around the world. Goddesses matter because they have played central roles in how different cultures understand the sacred, explain natural phenomena, and express their values and beliefs about the world.
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Article
41 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Historical polytheism
- Ancient Near East
- Mesopotamia
- Ancient Africa (Egypt)
- Canaan
- Anatolia
- Pre-Islamic Arabia
- Indo-European traditions
- Indian
- Iranian
- Greco-Roman
- Celtic
- Germanic
- Pre-Columbian America
- Aztec
- Maya
- Inca
- Native North America
- Folk religion and animism
- African religions
- Chinese folk religion
- Shinto
- Indian religions
- Hinduism
- Buddhism
- Abrahamic religions
- Judaism
- Christianity
- Apotheosis of Mary
- Veneration of Mary
- Latter Day Saint movement
- Neopaganism
- Wicca
- Feminism
- Goddess movement
- Sacred feminine
- Metaphorical use
- See also
- References
- Further reading
thumb|upright=1.3|Queen Nefertari being led by [[Isis, the ancient Egyptian mother goddess of magic]]
A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all reality, is Supreme Goddess (Mahaiia) and in some forms of Tantric Shaivism, the pair of Shiva and Shakti are the ultimate principle (with the goddess representing the active, creative power of God). Meanwhile, in Vajrayana Buddhism, ultimate reality is often seen as being composed of two principles depicted as two deities in union (yab yum, "father-mother") symbolising the non-duality of the two principles of perfect wisdom (female) and skillful compassion (male). A single figure in a monotheistic faith that is female may be identified simply as god because of no need to differentiate by gender or with a diminutive. An experiment to determine the effect of psychedelics on subjects composed of leaders from diverse religious groups revealed a general experience that the divine which the subjects encountered was feminine.