The Celebration of World Goddess Day

Today has been declared World Goddess Day. As described by the organizers, it is a day for all Goddess-worshiping people worldwide to come together and openly celebrate or pay tribute to the Goddess in all her forms. The website says, “The purpose of the Project is [to] grant to the Goddess one day of visibility to share Her many myths, stories and worship diversity.”

The World Goddess Day project was founded by Brazilian author Claudiney Prieto, who has written a number of popular books on Wicca and Witchcraft. Prieto is a priest of the Dianic Nemorensis tradition in Brazil and was recently acknowledged by Z. Budapest for his spiritual work within that tradition. As he writes on the project’s website:

Nowdays, in a staggered society impaired by centuries of patriarchy, heteronormativity and sexism, the Goddess is considered by many people the only way to reunite ourselves with the true Self, with our most inner Self. She is the only way to get rid of so many years of oppression that only brought differences, prejudices and wars … So a World Goddess Day has never been such necessary as now!

The World Goddess Day project organizers chose September because it is the ninth month of the year. As Prieto explains, “The number nine is one of the most sacred to the Goddess.” In the future, World Goddess Day will always be celebrated on the first Sunday of the month. This year, the date is Sept. 7.

Through their Facebook page and website, organizers put out a call to people around the world to organize and come together on this day or for individuals to find private ways to honor the Divine Feminine. Currently, the project website lists 30 different registered World Goddess Day events happening around the world.

While most of these registered events are in Prieto’s home country of Brazil including his own event in Sao Paulo, enthusiasm did spread across borders. Wiccan Priestess Lady Majo is hosting a celebration in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Z.Budapest is sponsoring a Goddess Festival in California. There are three registered events taking place in Spain; three in the U.K.; three in the United States and one in Western Canada.

In addition, there are a number of unregistered events including one in Miami, one in Illinois, and one in Spitchwick Common in Dartmoor, England. The Reformed Druids of Gaia are gathering for a picnic in Singleton Park, in Swansea, Wales. In Toronto, Canada, people will be gathering at High Park for a “happy celebration” coordinated by Wiccan practitioner Cattarina Guanais.

The Triangle Area Pagan Alliance (TAPA), based in Durham, North Carolina, is one of the registered hosts of a World Goddess Day event in the United States. The local organization is sponsoring a public ritual in Thaumatury 777, a magic supply shop.  TAPA member Rev. Amanda Morris, a neo-Wiccan and Gnostic Witch, says:

When I found out that Claudiney Prieto was organizing an international event in honor of the Goddess, I was excited and brought the idea to my group, the Triangle Area Pagan Alliance.  We all shared personal stories of the power of the Goddess (in Her many names and faces!) in our lives, and we knew that honoring the Divine Feminine was important to us.  We really hope that others in our community would agree and join us for an open and public ritual … I’m thrilled and excited to be joining individuals and groups from literally around the world as we support World Goddess Day, and I hope we honor Her with our collective love and magick!

On the other side of the state in Hamlet, North Carolina, Deb Holmes-Roberts, a High Priestess of Hermetic Magic and a Reiki Master, is organizing a day long event that includes workshops, drumming and meditation. She says:

There are many reasons to celebrate this “World Goddess Day” but the most important to me is to be able to share the information with my daughters and other young women to embrace their femininity and flourish in the strength of it and all that it is.

To the south in Miami, Florida, Kimberly Moore, founder and Priestess of MotherHouse of the Goddess Temple, says that she is “hosting a Full Moon Goddess Feast Sunday and loving the synchronicity with World Goddess Day.” Moore has been actively working to encourage Goddess-based spirituality for years. Among her work, she helped to establish a Miami-based Dianic Women’s Temple and the Full Moon’s Women’s Circle. She says:

I am absolutely delighted to see an organized effort in establishing a World Goddess Day. Bringing the Divine Feminine in all forms to the forefront of alternative spirituality and traditional religions is absolutely vital for bringing balance to the planet and humanity. Bravo to Claudiney Prieto for lighting the torch! 

In West Yorkshire England, a group of Pagans will be celebrating in a different way. Attendees plan to meet at the Leeds City Museum in Millennium Square to view two stones that were dedicated to Brigantia, their local Goddess. Once there, organizer Gary Smith will read poetry inspired by the Divine Feminine. Smith says:

I’ve organised a small gathering of people from our Pagan Meet-up group to honour our local goddess Brigantia, as I recently came to the Goddess through my research of 30 years looking into the meaning of the Cretan Spiral Labyrinth. The Goddess is needed now to address the balance, and heal the world.

In Cornwall, the Priestesses of Kernow are hosting a celebration at Pengersick Castle, Praa Sands. Priestess Sue Edwards, founder of the Cornwall School of Mysteries, says:

The Goddess is associated with many things including earth, motherhood, fertility, love and vegetation, but also war, death, destruction as well as healing, compassion and life. As a Priestess of Kernow who follows the Goddess traditions, I feel it’s important to have one day granted to the Goddess in which we can remember her in all her forms. Women especially are looking for something which celebrates the feminine within and are turning to the way of the Goddess. She is re-entering into our modern life bringing back her vitality, power, wisdom and healing, through Pagan traditions … it is important to support the Project World Goddess day and to bring the divine feminine back into our lives , to adapt her stories for modern day and to bring balance back to our world.

In announcement after announcement, organizers are calling out to their communities to join them in dance, song, meditation, and ritual celebration of the Divine Feminine in whatever form or forms that she takes within one’s own religious tradition. On the event page for the Illinois event, organizer Ze Marie says, “The energy of this event is growing!!! Spread the word, it is going to be awesome! Everyone is welcome!!! It is time for the Goddess to be heard!!!”

While the day was launched by Prieto, a priest of the Dianic Nemorensis tradition, it was not imagined as a tradition-based or exclusive idea. Nor has its spirit be restrained in anyway.

Interestingly, however, this very first incarnation of World Goddess Day also happens to coincide with a very specific Goddess’ day. Today is Yemaya’s Feast day, a celebration with its own sacred traditions within the Lucumi (Santeria) religion. While World Goddess Day won’t always fall on Sept 7, this will happen again in the future. If the project continues to gain momentum, will the new universal honoring of the Divine Feminine detract or enhance this much older Lucumi tradition? Lilith Dorsey, a Voodoo Priestess, author and filmmaker, says:

The slippery issue here when we begin to discuss Sunday Sept. 7,2014 as World Goddess Day is that not all mother goddesses are the same. The same way not all mothers are the same. In La Regla Lucumi, also known as Santeria, Sept. 7 is the traditional feast day for Yemaya. People have already made the connection online, and since I am also a practitioner of Santeria as well, I would just like to caution that while anyone is welcome to leave an offering of pears or watermelon for Yemaya, the uninitiated must not make petitions or demands from this Orisha. The Santeria religion is a complex system that takes decades if not a lifetime of training to begin to understand.

As Dorsey suggests, not all Goddess’ are the same and their worship manifests in many ways that are often very specific to a tradition, culture and religious practice. As long as the details of the World Goddess Day celebration and its over-arching message remain respectfully fluid and open, the new day can co-exist with the Lucumi holiday. Dorsey adds, “The celebration of the Goddess is important each and every day, not only because it helps us better understand our collective cultural yesterdays and tomorrows, but also ourselves. I firmly believe this both as a Voodoo priestess and an anthropologist…. I hope everyone continues to respectfully salute the Goddess this Sunday, and every day.”

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