The Other Goddesses

by Dr. Joanna Kujawa

Who is the other Goddess? Indeed, who is a Goddess? These two questions and my quest for the answers have preoccupied me for over a decade now.

The concept of the goddess in many forms is celebrated around the world. India has a long list of goddesses who cover nearly every area of human activity: from the Goddess of Learning (Saraswati) to the Goddess of Wealth and Good Luck (Lakshmi)–and dozens more. In other eastern spiritualities, the goddess survived as a compassionate mother, whether as Tara (in Buddhism) or in China as Guanyin, whom even Jesuit missionaries compared to the western version–the Goddess of Compassion, the Virgin Mary.

While studying the esoteric version of Hinduism and some aspects of Tantra, I noticed that these alternative traditions also celebrated the Goddess. Her sexuality, they considered an aspect of her Divinity, including the practice of sexual rituals as one of the ways of reaching heightened states of consciousness and entering the original flow of creation. I wondered why this tradition existed on the margins of mainstream religion. Only through meeting great masters, scholars, and practitioners of various traditions have I begun to understand that the original goddess tradition was transmitted orally through lineages of yoginis or dakinis (wise women and practitioners of ancient teachings). When the Brahmins (a sect of priests) recorded the traditions, they omitted this goddess-oriented tradition, which also embraced her sexuality and the Divine aspect of our human sexuality. Even worse, it was practiced by the priests for their spiritual evolution while they used women of lower status for sexual rituals.

I continued with my search for the whole goddess: the one who valued and honored her sexuality and who used this consciously as a means

of spiritual evolution for us. The 10th-century Tantric philosopher, Abhinavagupta said: 'That which produces the bliss should be worshipped since it ravishes the heart.' What ravishes the heart more than sexual rapture?

Soon after, I discovered that there existed in our deep past a womanphilosopher, Ardha-Tryambaka, who started the Kula tradition – the tradition of using our sexuality for enlightenment. The Kula tradition was taken over by male philosophers, although the remains of that tradition are still present in the worship of the Goddess Sundari and the Goddess Kali in their sensual aspects. The discovery of this tradition and its female originator inspired me to look at similar possibilities in the West. Was there a lineage of goddesses who celebrated their sensuality and were the bearers of secret wisdom? Yes, the most mysterious woman in the Christian tradition: Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene, who has traditionally been portrayed in a penitential mode and misrepresented as a prostitute, was the closest companion of Jesus, his favorite disciple–and possibly much more. In 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, new sacred texts known as the Gnostic Gospels were discovered. They give a different picture of Mary Magdalene, including significant mention in the Gospel of Philip, where she is called Jesus’ close companion or partner whom He often kissed, causing jealousy amongst the other disciples. In another source, the Pistis Sophia, Mary Magdalene asks Jesus questions of an esoteric nature, and it is clear that she has a deeper understanding of His teachings. In the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, which was discovered in 1896 also in Egypt, the disciples ask Mary Magdalene to share with them the secret teachings of Jesus. These examples show Mary Magdalene as the bearer of a secret tradition lost to Christianity, as it was not shared with Jesus’ male disciples.

Yet I was still puzzled by the even stranger assumption of Mary Magdalene's sexuality as somehow being shameful, inappropriate, or even dangerous, especially considering her special relationship with Jesus. As I delved more into Gnostic sources, I discovered other goddesses like Sophia, who were also associated with sexuality but often identified as prostitutes. This prompted a deeper inquiry: why were the Goddess Sophia and Mary Magdalene–two feminine archetypes associated with wisdom, often portrayed as prostitutes? Was there perhaps some hidden reason for this? Could their sexuality be connected to the knowledge they carried, a secret knowledge that had been lost and now misunderstood, in the same way, the knowledge of the Hindu Tantric goddesses was?

Was there any trace of other goddesses in the West who were known to carry secret knowledge of this kind? An exploration of the ancient goddesses of Sumer, Acadia, and Egypt showed goddesses whose stories had only partially been told. The unwanted but evolutionary elements they represented were either played down or coined as ‘sexually inappropriate.' Among these ancient goddesses are Ninmah, Inanna, and Isis.

The vilification of the other goddesses has left a scar on our human psyche. This has changed my life and my view on the relationship between spirituality and sexuality. I hope it will change yours as well.

Dr. Joanna Kujawa is a scholar, spiritual detective, and the author of The Other Goddess: Mary Magdalene and The Goddesses of Eros and Secret Knowledge. As an active academic for over 20 years, she uses her scholarly training to investigate topics such as: Can spirituality and sexuality be experienced as one? Who was the real Mary Magdalene? Is there a lineage of Goddesses now resurfacing in our collective experience of spirituality? joannakujawa.com