The Future, being born

I am Wiccan, bisexual, daughter of the Goddess and daughter of the God. Society, as it stands now, outrages me. We, my friends, are the Future. We create it, and we become it. The Future is being born now, by us. There are things that I need to make change so the Future is not one that will outrage or oppress us.

I have recently read She Lives by Judith Laura, which has rituals to celebrate the sacred milestones in people's lives. After the Bible, it's one of the more sexist books I've ever read, and I realized, after reading it, that a good number of the other Goddess-religion books are sexist as well. They want to bring back the Goddess-worshipping religion of 5,000 years ago. But everything that they tell me says that it's just as sexist as the predominant religions of now. Women were the priestesses, and men could know the Goddess only through the women. Sound familiar? Sure, there were men who served in the temples, but are there not nuns? In this book, there are three rituals for women - first menarche (period), first orgasm, and menopause. There are two rituals for men - first nocturnal emission and first time he has sex. First menarche and first nocturnal emission are the same - the person's body is ready for mating and creation of new life. After that, the women are glorified and deified, and the men are put into second place. There is no ritual for the first time the man orgasms. Does that not matter? There is no ritual for the first time that a woman has sex. Does that not matter? The ritual for the first time a man has sex actually includes in it the congratulations that he finally is able to know the Goddess through the woman since he has now had sex with that woman, and in the future, he will be able to communicate with the Goddess, but only when he has sex with a woman! Incredibly sexist. And at no point does it say anything about the man becoming wiser. And this is typical of the books and movements I see about revitalizing the old religion.

To hell with that, I say! I say we look to the future, not the past. The past is important. It teaches us many things. But in this case, it teaches us that women can be oppressors just as men can. I say don't bring back the old Goddess religion, and don't perpetuate the current God religion (whichever one you want to see). Create a new religion, here and now, one that celebrates women and men, one that makes us both equal, one that allows both women and men communicate with the divine. To hell with sexism! Men are not better than women. Women are not better than men. We are different in many ways, but we are the same in so many, many more. We are both people, and we are all children of the Divine. All of us, women and men.