The Goddess movement is a revivalistic Neopagan religious movement which includes spiritual beliefs and practices that emerged predominantly in the Western world during the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction both against Abrahamic religions, which exclusively have gods with whom are referred by masculine grammatical articles and pronouns, and secularism. It revolves around Goddess worship and the veneration for the divine feminine, and may include a focus on women or on one or more understandings of gender or femininity.
Ancient Akkadian cylinder seal depicting the goddess Inanna resting her foot on the back of a lion while Ninshubur stands in front of her paying obeisance, c. 2334–2154 BC
Minerva and the Triumph of Jupiter by René-Antoine Houasse (1706), showing the goddess Athena sitting at the right hand of her father Zeus while the goddess Demeter sits in the background holding a scythe.
Modern depiction of the Hindu goddess Kali, shown standing atop Shiva, wearing a necklace of severed heads, in front of a fiery background
The famous Venus of Willendorf (circa 28,000-25,000 B.C.)
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a type of religion or family of religions 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.
Heathen altar for Haustblot in Björkö, Sweden. The larger wooden idol represents the god Frey.
A Heathen shrine to the god Freyr, Sweden, 2010
The Parthenon, an ancient pre-Christian temple in Athens dedicated to the goddess Athena. Strmiska believed that modern pagans in part reappropriate the term "pagan" to honor the cultural achievements of Europe's pre-Christian societies.
Samogitian Sanctuary, a reconstruction of a medieval pagan observatory in Šventoji, Lithuania used by the modern Romuvans