Cynthia Eller's Living in the Lap of the Goddess: The Feminist Spirituality Movement in America maps this fascinating cultural phenomenon which has been on the scene since the 1960s. It is a spontaneous grassroots movement with no central organization, leadership, or homogeneous membership. In order to get a handle on what's going on here, Eller talked with some of the movement's most visible spokeswomen and participated in various retreats and rituals.
She finds that most spiritual feminists are well educated and come from the middle class. Many of them had profound spiritual experiences in childhood and always felt a close connection with Mother Earth. Eller views most of these women as rugged individualists, standing outside the gates of Judaism and Christianity. Their vision and style of living has been influenced by neopaganism and New Age philosophy.
Eller outlines four essential ingredients of the feminist spirituality movement. First and foremost, these women are convinced that empowerment is both the goal and the reward of their faith and practice. Second, they believe in using new and ancient rituals for worship, celebration, personal renewal, ecstatic experience, and much more. Third, they view gender as a primary mode of religious analysis. And fourth, they see history as a struggle between the ascent and descent of matriarchal power.
Eller does a fine job presenting the interest of spiritual feminists in the goddess, the environment, the cycles of birth and rebirth, sexuality, and the stages of a woman's life. Although these women may disagree on many things, they all concur that women have a crucial and healing role to play in the future of humankind and the health of the planet. Living in the Lap of the Goddess is required reading for anyone interested in the spiritual landscape of contemporary America.