Change happens slowly, but when it finally hits, the years of individual strides and steps culminate in a burst of change. Trouble is, change doesn’t always take effect in the ways we’d hoped.

When the “goddess movement” was birthed out of feminism in the early seventies by groups of women passionate about both political and personal growth, it started with small circles of women determined to use magic as a tool for change. Leading figures during this decade included such notables as Zsuzsanna Budapest, Shekhinah Mountainwater, and Starhawk.

The Wiccan religion, which was first birthed by Gerald Gardner in the mid-twentieth century, had grown into a viable alternative religion in both Europe and America. As one of the first modern Western religions to worship a goddess as well as a god, it was a logical starting point from which feminists could build their new faith. Wicca formed the skeletal structure of the new women’s religion, including seasonal rites and the use of magic, but was altered in ways that made it truly different. Some continued to include male god imagery, but a significant variant not only focused solely on the goddess but made it a women’s mystery religion where only women attended the rites, only women were taught magic, and seasonal rites became inseparable from the cycles of a women’s body as she moved from pre-menstrual maidenhood through her post-menopausal crone years. This sect came to be known by several monikers, such as Dianic Wicca, Dianic Witchcraft, and simply “goddess religion.”

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