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![The Blessed Damozel (detail) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti [1875-1878] (Public Domain Image)](blessed.jpg)
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Women and Religion |
All of the major world religions deprecate women to some degree. This page archives texts which relate specifically to women and religion from a female perspective. This includes historic feminist texts on the topic, texts about Goddess-oriented sprituality and Amazons, as well as texts from otherwise male-dominated religions in the same vein. As might be expected, there are far fewer of these than might be desired.
Historic texts
by Mary Wollstonecraft [1792] 518,787 bytes
The Subjection of Women
by John Stuart Mill [1869] 264,4077 bytes
Clothed With The Sun
by Anna Kingsford [1889]
The Garden of Eden; or The Paradise Lost & Found
by Victoria Claflin Woodhull [1890]
Woman, Church, and State
by Matilda Joslyn Gage [1893]
The Woman's Bible
by Elizabeth Cady Stanton [1895]
Woman and the New Race
by Margaret Sanger [1920]
Roe v. Wade
US Supreme Court Decision [1973]
Women Warriors and Heroines
by Guy Cadogan Rothery [1910]
Religious Cults Associated with the Amazons
by Florence Mary Bennett [1912]
Lives of the Greek Heroines
by Louisa Menzies [1880]
The Ancient Irish Goddess of War
by WM Hennessey, Revue Celtique, Vol. 1, pp. 27-55 [1870]
Goddesses
Goddess worship in ancient Turkey, by Lucian of Samosata. Ancient Near East
The Burden of Isis
Hymns to Isis, a primary Ancient Egyptian Goddess. Ancient Egyptian
Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes
Read about the powerful Hawaiian Fire Goddess Pele, who lives in a volcano and surfs on lava. A old Hawaiian saying: "never mistreat an old woman, she might be Pele in disguise". Polynesian
Hymn to Demeter
Classical Pagan
The Poems of Sappho
Classical Pagan; particularly her Hymn to Aphrodite
Descent of Ishtar into the Lower World.
Ancient Near East
Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches
Late European Wiccan
Hymn to the All-Mother
Aztec
Hymns to the Goddess
by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) [1913]
A collection of Hindu devotional hymns to the Goddess. India
Hymn to Kâlî: Karpûrâdi-Stotra
by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) [1922]
A Tantric hymn to the Hindu Goddess Kali. India
The Devî Gita
The Hindu religion is one of the only major world religions other than Neopaganism which today worships Goddesses. In this insightful text the Goddess (the Devî) describes her nature and means of devotion to her. Hindu
The S'rîmad Devî Bhâgawatam
The full text of the work which contains the Devî Gita is also available at this site. Hindu
Hymn to the Goddess of Dawn
Hindu
The Hopi Origin Myth
The Goddess Huruing Wuhti co-creates the world with the Sun God. Hopi
Myths and Legends of Crete and Pre-Hellenic Europe
The ancient Minoans of Crete are believed by many to have been Goddess worshippers. Ancient Crete
The Book of the Goddess
Anna Livia Plurabelle [2002]
Feminist Utopian Fiction
by Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant [1893]
A trip to Mars, to a strange society which practices equality of the sexes.
Herland
by Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman [1906]
Visit a land where women are the only gender, reproduce asexually, and worship a goddess. Classic of feminist scifi.
Other Religions
by Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer [1906]
A review of traditional stereotypical views of women. Donated by Eliza Fegley at sacredspiral.com.
Shaker Documents
The Shakers, a unique 19th Century American Christian group founded by Ann Lee, believed that God has both male and female aspects.
The Kabbalah Unveiled
Jewish mysticism is much more balanced in its treatment of male/female dualities than 'mainstream' Judeo-Christian thought. For instance, see this chapter. This translation of the Zohar by S.L. MacGregor Mathers is dedicated to Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland, the author and editor respectively of Clothed with the Sun (above).
Baha'i religion: Women