Semitic neopaganism

Last updated

Semitic neopaganism is a group of religions based on or attempting to reconstruct the ancient Semitic religions, mostly practiced among Jews in the United States.

Contents

Jewish neopaganism

The notion of historical Israelite or Jewish polytheism was popularized in the United States during the 1960s by Raphael Patai in The Hebrew Goddess , focusing on the cult of female goddesses such as the cult of Asherah in Solomon's Temple.[ citation needed ]

During the growth of Neopaganism in the United States throughout the 1970s, a number of minor Canaanite or Israelite oriented groups emerged. Most contained syncretistic elements from Western esotericism.[ citation needed ]

Forms of Neopagan witchcraft religions inspired by the Semitic milieu, such as Jewitchery, may also be enclosed within the Semitic neopagan movement. These groups are particularly influenced by Jewish feminism, focusing on the goddess cults of the Israelites. [1]

A notable contemporary Levantine Neopagan group is known as "Am Ha Aretz" (עם הארץ, lit. "People of the Land", a rabbinical term for uneducated and religiously unobservant Jews), "AmHA" for short, based in Israel. This group grew out of Ohavei Falcha, "Lovers of the Soil", a movement founded in the late 19th century. [2]

Elie Sheva, according to her own testimony an "elected leader of AmHA" reportedly founded an American branch of the group, known as the Primitive Hebrew Assembly. [3] [4]

Beit Asherah ("House of Asherah") was one of the first Jewish neopagan groups, founded in the early 1990s by Stephanie Fox, Steven Posch, and Magenta Griffiths. Magenta Griffiths is High Priestess of the Beit Asherah coven, and a former board member of the Covenant of the Goddess. [5] [6]

Semitic neopagan movements have also been reported in Israel [7] and in Lebanon. [8]

Kohenet movement and "Jewitches"

In 2006, rabbi Jill Hammer founded the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, which has a stated mission to "reclaim and innovate embodied, earth-based feminist Judaism", inspired by pre-Israelite Semitic religion priestesses such as Enheduanna, who was a devotee of the goddess Inanna. [9] The word kohenet is the feminine declension of kohen , the priestly lineage in Jewish tradition. The ordination of "Hebrew priestesses" has led to some consternation in the Jewish community, with some feeling that the Kohenet movement is not solely Jewish, due to the presence of aspects of paganism that are incompatible with the Torah. [10] [11] The syncretic aspects of this religious movement have been characterized as "goddess worship", though supporters say that the movement expresses a creative approach to problems posed by non-egalitarian streams of Judaism. [12] Similar organizations include the Lilith Institute (also known as Mishkan Shekhinah), an organization and community more overtly aligned with Wicca and other feminist/goddess-centered neo-pagan movements than the Kohenet Institute. [13] A related movement is "Jewitches" (sometimes styled as JeWitches), Jews – often but not exclusively women – who combine Jewish religious tradition and witchcraft, often including elements of Semitic neo-paganism. [14] [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Charge of the Goddess is an inspirational text often used in the neopagan religion of Wicca. The Charge of the Goddess is recited during most rituals in which the Wiccan priest/priestess is expected to represent, and/or embody, the Goddess within the sacred circle, and is often spoken by the High Priest/Priestess after the ritual of Drawing Down the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dianic Wicca</span> Neopagan female-centered goddess tradition

Dianic Wicca, also known as Dianic Witchcraft, is a modern pagan goddess tradition focused on female experience and empowerment. Leadership is by women, who may be ordained as priestesses, or in less formal groups that function as collectives. While some adherents identify as Wiccan, it differs from most traditions of Wicca in that only goddesses are honored.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardnerian Wicca</span> Tradition in Wiccan religion

Gardnerian Wicca, or Gardnerian witchcraft, is a tradition in the neopagan religion of Wicca, whose members can trace initiatory descent from Gerald Gardner. The tradition is itself named after Gardner (1884–1964), a British civil servant and amateur scholar of magic. The term "Gardnerian" was probably coined by the founder of Cochranian Witchcraft, Robert Cochrane in the 1950s or 60s, who himself left that tradition to found his own.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern paganism</span> Religions shaped by historical paganism

Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a term for a religion or a family of religions which is influenced by the various historical pre-Christian beliefs of pre-modern peoples in Europe and adjacent areas of North Africa and the Near East. Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan movements are diverse and as a result, they do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or texts. Scholars of religion often characterise these traditions as new religious movements. Some academics who study the phenomenon treat it as a movement that is divided into different religions while others characterize it as a single religion of which different pagan faiths are denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wicca</span> Modern syncretic pagan religion based on white magic, occultism and paganism

Wicca, also known as "The Craft", is a modern pagan, syncretic, earth-centered religion. Scholars of religion categorize it as both a new religious movement and as part of occultist Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and was introduced to the public in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. Wicca draws upon a diverse set of ancient pagan and 20th-century hermetic motifs for its theological structure and ritual practices.

Alexandrian Wicca or Alexandrian Witchcraft is a tradition of the Neopagan religion of Wicca, founded by Alex Sanders who, with his wife Maxine Sanders, established the tradition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Alexandrian Wicca is similar in many ways to Gardnerian Wicca, and receives regular mention in books on Wicca as one of the religion's most widely recognized traditions.

<i>Drawing Down the Moon</i> (book) 1979 book by Margot Adler

Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today is a sociological study of contemporary Paganism in the United States written by the American Wiccan and journalist Margot Adler. First published in 1979 by Viking Press, it was later republished in a revised and expanded edition by Beacon Press in 1986, with third and fourth revised editions being brought out by Penguin Books in 1996 and then 2006 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Curott</span> Wiccan priestess, attorney, and author

Phyllis Curott who goes under the craft name Aradia, is a Wiccan priestess, attorney, and author. She is founder and high priestess of the Temple of Ara, one of the oldest Wiccan congregations in the United States. She has been active as a leader in the Parliament of the World’s Religions since 1993 in multiple roles including co-chair of the inaugural 1993 Women’s Task Force and current Program Chair of the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. She is also author of several published volumes on modern witchcraft and Goddess spirituality.

Reclaiming is a tradition in neopagan witchcraft, aiming to combine the Goddess movement with feminism and political activism. Reclaiming was founded in 1979, in the context of the Reclaiming Collective (1978–1997), by two Neopagan women of Jewish descent, Starhawk and Diane Baker, in order to explore and develop feminist Neopagan emancipatory rituals.

Lady Rhea has been a Wiccan high priestess in the Gardnerian tradition since 1973, and since 1982 runs an occult shop in New York, with Lady Miw. In 1992, she opened Magickal Realms in Greenwich Village, later relocating to The Bronx, where she co-operates the shop with Lady Zoradia.

The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early 20th century, when it developed amongst secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon what they read of the historical witch-cult in the works of such writers as Margaret Murray. It also is based on the beliefs from the magic that Gerald Gardner saw when he was in India. It was subsequently founded in the 1950s by Gardner, who claimed to have been initiated into the Craft – as Wicca is often known – by the New Forest coven in 1939. Gardner's form of Wicca, the Gardnerian tradition, was spread by both him and his followers like the High Priestesses Doreen Valiente, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone into other parts of the British Isles, and also into other, predominantly English-speaking, countries across the world. In the 1960s, new figures arose in Britain who popularized their own forms of the religion, including Robert Cochrane, Sybil Leek and Alex Sanders, and organizations began to be formed to propagate it, such as the Witchcraft Research Association. It was during this decade that the faith was transported to the United States, where it was further adapted into new traditions such as Feri, 1734 and Dianic Wicca in the ensuing decades, and where organizations such as the Covenant of the Goddess were formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiccan views of divinity</span>

Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a Horned God, thereby being generally dualistic. In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces. In some newer forms of Wicca, such as feminist or Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is given primacy or even exclusivity. In some forms of traditional witchcraft that share a similar duotheistic theology, the Horned God is given precedence over the Goddess.

Modern paganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest modern pagan religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neopagan witchcraft</span> Group of neopagan traditions

Neopagan witchcraft, sometimes referred to as The Craft, is an umbrella term for some neo-pagan traditions that include the attempted practice of magic. These traditions began in the mid-20th century, and many were influenced by the witch-cult hypothesis; a now-rejected theory that persecuted witches in Europe had actually been followers of a surviving pagan religion. The largest and most influential of these movements was Wicca. Some other groups and movements describe themselves as "Traditional Witchcraft" to distinguish themselves from Wicca.

The American Council of Witches was an independent group founded in 1973 consisting of approximately seventy-three members who followed Pagan, Neopagan, or Witchcraft traditions; the group convened and disbanded in 1974 after drafting a set of common principles.

<i>A Community of Witches</i> Book by Helen A. Berger

A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States is a sociological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the Northeastern United States. It was written by American sociologist Helen A. Berger of the West Chester University of Pennsylvania and first published in 1999 by the University of South Carolina Press. It was released as a part of a series of academic books entitled Studies in Comparative Religion, edited by Frederick M. Denny, a religious studies scholar at the University of Chicago.

<i>Never Again the Burning Times</i>

Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revisited is an anthropological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the United States. It was written by the American anthropologist Loretta Orion and published by Waveland Press in 1995.

<i>Living Witchcraft</i>

Living Witchcraft: A Contemporary American Coven is a sociological study of an American coven of Wiccans who operated in Atlanta, Georgia during the early 1990s. It was co-written by the sociologist Allen Scarboro, psychologist Nancy Campbell and literary critic Shirley Stave and first published by Praeger in 1994. Although largely sociological, the study was interdisciplinary, and included both insider and outsider perspectives into the coven; Stave was an initiate and a practicing Wiccan while Scarboro and Campbell remained non-initiates throughout the course of their research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modern pagan views on LGBT people</span> LGBTQ topics and issues within modern pagan spiritual and religious movements

Modern paganviews on LGBT people vary considerably among different paths, sects, and belief systems. There are some popular neopagan traditions which have beliefs often in conflict with the LGBT community, and there are also traditions accepting of, created by, or led by LGBT individuals. The majority of conflicts concern heteronormativity and cisnormativity.

The Kohenet Institute, also known as the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, is a Jewish neopagan organization which trains women to be Jewish spiritual leaders. The institute was founded in November 2005 by Rabbi Jill Hammer and Holly Taya Shere. The institute held its first training program August 14–20, 2006, at the Elat Chayyim Retreat Center in Accord, New York. In July 2009, the institute ordained for the first time 11 women as kohanot (priestesses). As of early 2021 the institute has graduated almost 100 women as priestesses. Ordination requires the completion of a three-year training and program including 13 paths which explore different "female archetypes".

References

  1. ↑ Jenny Kien, Reinstating the Divine Woman in Judaism (2000), ISBN   978-1-58112-763-8.
  2. ↑ Jennifer Hunter, Magickal Judaism: Connecting Pagan and Jewish Practice. Citadel Press Books, Kensington Publishing Corp., New York, New York, 2006, pp. 18–19.
  3. ↑ Interview with Elie in Being a Pagan: Druids, Wiccans, and Witches Today, by Ellen Evert Hopman and Lawrence Bond (2001), p. 105.
  4. ↑ "Judeo-Paganism or Jewish Paganism". Witchvox. Archived from the original on February 23, 2009. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  5. ↑ Lewis, James R. (January 1, 1999). Witchcraft Today: An Encyclopedia of Wiccan and Neopagan Traditions . ABC-CLIO. p.  163 . Retrieved December 8, 2016– via Internet Archive. beit asherah.
  6. ↑ "Covenant of the Goddess - Representing Witches and Wiccans since 1975" . Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  7. ↑ Ofri Ilani. Paganism returns to the Holy Land . Haaretz, 2009.
  8. ↑ Naim, Hani (March 31, 2010). "الباطنيـون والوثنيـون فـي لبنـان: هـذه هـي معتقداتنـا". As-Safir. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute". kohenet.org. Archived from the original on June 16, 2023. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
  10. ↑ Silvers, Emma (July 11, 2013). "Kohenet institute says it helps women reclaim their role as priestesses". Jewish Telegraphic Agency . Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  11. ↑ Kustanowitz, Esther D/ (January 29, 2021). "'There's no one right way to kohenet': The Hebrew priestess movement aims to center women's voices". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  12. ↑ Grenn, Deborah (2008). "Claiming the Title Kohenet: Examining Goddess Judaism and the Role of the Priestess Through Conversations with Contemporary Spiritual Leaders". Women in Judaism. 5 (2).
  13. ↑ Grenn, D'vorah. "Welcome..." The Lilith Institute. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  14. ↑ Greene, Heather (October 25, 2021). "How some 'Jewitches' are embracing both Judaism and witchcraft". Religion News Service. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
  15. ↑ Greene, Heather (March 9, 2014). "Paganism in Israel: where the modern meets the ancient". The Wild Hunt. Retrieved August 4, 2022.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.