Sunday, November 20, 2005

Ridicule & Violence First?


Just uncovered this little nugget in Digest 1473 of the Re-Formed Gongregation of the Goddess International (rcgi):

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident" (Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860).
My question for you: is the Goddess Movement in stage one, or stage two?
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thnx to ronaldbrucemeyer.com for the foto of Mr. Schopenhauer

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reluctantly I think we are still in the first stage, what's you view Athana.

Athana said...

Well, at first blush I'd have to agree with you, ursa. My guess is that most people haven't even heard of the Goddess movement, per se, although a bunch I'm sure have heard of wicca. But even there, I doubt if most people know much about wicca -- and especially not the reality of the way it's being practiced by lots of decent, highly moral, sensitive, intelligent people.

On the other hand, I think that in some respects and in some places we might be in Stage 2. I think the rise of the new radical fundies is in part a response to their perceptions of the growing popularity and power of paganism in the West. And there's all kinds of violence going on re: the fundies, both psychological and physical, from putting women's lives in danger over abortion issues, to killing abortion doctors, to arousing such hatred of homosexuals that some of them, too, are beaten and killed.

Morgaine said...

I think we may not be visible enough to tell. I know we aren't visible enough to have an effect yet, although there are a lot of fundie churches pretending to know what Wicce and Goddess worship are about, so you could say there's a backlash to the twins - the rise of feminism and the rebirth of the Goddess movement.