Dismantling the Patriarchy: The Rise of Feminist Spirituality
With the rise of spirituality and mysticism in the West, young girls are reclaiming their divine feminine power and dismantling the paradigm of the patriarchy that has subjugated the anima and overly exalted the animus of the psyche. Originating from the radical feminist movement of the 1970s, this new wave of feminism has encapsulated a far-reaching variety of esoteric practices, ranging from divination and witchcraft to neopaganism to Goddess worship. Its most quintessential manifestation in the modern era is feminist witchcraft (most notably spread and popularized through social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok), which centers around Goddess worship and seasonal rituals to commemorate the cyclical nature of life in tightly-knit groups referred to as “covens”. The impact of the feminist spirituality movement is most tangible in its individualistic practitioners -- girls who may light a candle in honor of a seasonal celebration, learn to analyze tarot cards, or manifest their desired outcomes without ever having face-to-face contact with someone else who also identifies as a witch. Feminist spirituality is defiance on a simultaneously personal and societal level against the orthodoxy of dogmatic organized religion, relativizing the patriarchy by emancipating girls from the shackles of submission.
The historical inception of the patriarchy as we know it today can be dated back a millennia/thousands of years ago with the nascent of Abrahamic religion and the consequent oppression of pagan religions, which were notably matriarchal paradigms of the belief that revolved around nature/goddess/polytheistic worship. As far back as antiquity as western religion can be traced, the supreme deity was female. The Great Goddess was not only an earth mother or an extension of a male god, she was the Source of life itself. The new male ruling class ushered in the patriarchal revolution, imposing a patrilineal kinship system that sanctified the oppression of women. It is of no surprise that the second version of the creation myth presents the creator as an omnipotent male deity, creating a male human being, from whose ribcage a woman is “born”, although every man is born from a woman’s womb. The creationist myth achieves the mythical transference of the power of creation and fertility from Goddess to God and from woman to man. The woman’s “original sin” is also held culpable for man’s fall from morality/desecration, thus justifying his dominion over her inherent sinfulness. Thus, the dichotomy of the gender binary was conceived- there was the male divine creator (spirit) and female natural creation (body) wherein other dichotomies were characterized as masculine/feminine (superior/inferior).
However, goddess worship was never completely annihilated and continues to be passed down from generation to generation. One of the most notorious manifestations of the subjugation of female power was the witch hunts of medieval Europe, which were carried over with the pilgrimage of the Puritans. There is a long history of women holding positions of power or of stepping out of the boundaries imposed by patriarchal norms being discredited and persecuted that is particularly visible in early modern British America during the Salem witch trials. Nonetheless, most of the women burned at the stake were not practitioners of witchcraft, but merely the victims of the patriarchs’ paranoid obsessions with female power. Women were deemed to be “witches” for defying gender norms imposed by Judeo-Christian doctrines. Patriarchal paradigms of thought in New England society in colonial times subjugated women by enforcing strict gender roles and casting out women who defied these social norms of chastity and subservience. Women were not valued as individuals; instead, they were valued for their capacity to perform the roles they were expected to as dutiful and faithful wives. “Fallen women” would be excommunicated from their dogmatic, Puritan families for failing to fulfill their roles in the domestic sphere. They were merely perceived as an extension of the societal roles imposed upon them, utterly stripping them of their autonomy as individuals to merely be reduced to an object.
Feminist spirituality was conceived by the reclamation of the feminine “spirit” during the second-wave feminist movement of the ’70s and gained traction in the ’80s and the ’90s. The political uprisings of the ’70s paved the path to a hopeful future liberated from patriarchal oppression and cultivated the seeds of change in a political reality that only admits incremental successes. As of recently, feminist spirituality has risen into prominence, infiltrating mainstream culture. Nevertheless, feminists in the movement realized that the root of patriarchal oppression was not the relegation of women to the realm of the body, but the dichotomy itself that fragmented reality of the spirit/body duality, with the former oppressing the latter. They realized that this results in not only the patriarchal subjugation of females, but also their exclusion from the realms of “spirit” such as religion, education, culture, and politics, to conflicts and wars between nations, to racism and the colonization of civilizations deemed as inferior, and the exploitation of the environment by mankind who seeks to dominate the untamed wilderness. The patriarchy is the "father" of oppression experienced by humanity and nature and has historically been constructed on the foundation and learned from the exploitation of women.
Feminist spirituality aims to reclaim the divine feminine power that resides within every woman, to honor the divine female role of creation and fertility, and to participate in the realm of “spirit” historically dominated exclusively by men. Spiritual feminists are determinedly eclectic, borrowing deities, meditation techniques, and spells from a wide variety of cultures across the globe. Not only does spiritual feminism strive to dismantle the foundation of patriarchy which society has been established upon, but the movement also explores the mystical knowledge of metaphysics buried in antiquity. Witchcraft is not a satanic ritual rooted in evil, rather, it is the act of tapping into the unlimited, boundless universe inside of oneself that is interconnected with the universe itself. By transforming one’s inner self through meditation, chakra alignment, and manifestation, one can unite the forces of spirit and nature to transform their reality through spiritual alchemy- the evolution of their very soul. One is not seen separate from the universe- one is the universe itself, and one’s spirit transcends the boundaries of the infinite
The sacred history of the feminist spirituality movement provides modern-day witches the historical context of their struggle against patriarchal oppression, yet also empowers them from within to fulfill their role of reinstating matriarchal values.