''Goddess Remembered'' is a 1989 Canadian documentary on the

Goddess movement The Goddess movement includes spiritual beliefs or practices (chiefly Modern Paganism, Neopagan) which emerged predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction to perceptions ...

and feminist theories surrounding

Goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of s ...

worship in

Old European culture Old Europe is a term coined by the Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic and Copper Age cultural horizon or civilisation in Southeastern Europe and part ...

according to

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas ( lt, Marija Gimbutienė, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of " Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, ...

, and

Merlin Stone Merlin Stone (born Marilyn Jacobson, September 27, 1931 – February 23, 2011) was an American author, artist and academic. She was an important thinker of the feminist theology and Goddess movements and is known for her book ''When God Was a ...

's 1976 book ''

When God Was a Woman ''When God Was a Woman'' is the U.S. title of a 1976 book by sculptor and art historian Merlin Stone. It was published earlier in the United Kingdom as ''The Paradise Papers: The Suppression of Women's Rites''. It has been translated into Frenc ...

''. The main theme of the film, composed by

Loreena McKennitt Loreena Isobel Irene McKennitt, (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her ...

, was released as the track "Ancient Pines" on her 1989 album ''

Parallel Dreams ''Parallel Dreams,'' released in 1989, is Loreena McKennitt's third album. Track listing All songs written by Loreena McKennitt except as noted.CD liner notes # "Samain Night" – 4:27 # "Moon Cradle" (Padraic Colum, McKennitt) – 4:29 # "Huro ...

''. ''Goddess Remembered'' is the first film in the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

's ''Women and Spirituality'' series, followed by ''

The Burning Times ''The Burning Times'' is a 1990 Canadian documentary, presenting a feminist account of the Early Modern European witchcraft trials.''Toronto Globe and Mail'', June 12, 1991 ''"Religion"'' by Jack Kapica, "Review of The Burning Times" transcri ...

'' (1990) and '' Full Circle'' (1993).

Synopsis

This poetic documentary is a salute to 35,000 years of "pre-history", to the values of ancestors only recently remembered, and to the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past. ''Goddess Remembered'' features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ,

Luisah Teish Luisah Teish ( ; also known as Iyanifa Fajembola Fatunmise) is a teacher and an author, most notably of ''Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals.''Casey, Laura. "There's magic between plants, food and beauty" ...

Starhawk Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism. In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...

Charlene Spretnak Charlene Spretnak (born January 30, 1946) is an American author who has written nine books on cultural history, social criticism (including feminism and Green politics), religion and spirituality, and art. Biography Spretnak was born in Pittsb ...

, and

Jean Shinoda Bolen Jean Shinoda Bolen is an American psychiatrist, Jungian analyst and author. She is of Japanese descent. A Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, she is ...

, who link the loss of goddess-centred societies with today's environmental crisis. They propose a return to the belief in an interconnected life system, with respect for the earth and the female, as fundamental to our survival.

Reception

Clea Notar of ''

Cinema Canada ''Cinema Canada'' (1972–1989) is a defunct Canadian film magazine, which served as the trade journal of record for the Canadian film and television sector. The magazine had its origins in the Canadian Society of Cinematographers (CSC), which beg ...

'' called ''Goddess Remembered'' empowering and energizing, describing it as an "anthropological, sociological, political, and visual treatise which succeeds without being either pedantic or boring". The films of the ''Women and Spirituality'' series have been showed many times on public television and in college classrooms. The scholar Wendy Griffin attributes them with spreading the views of the Goddess movement to a larger audience, and stresses how they exhibit the strong American character of this movement, as every person in them is from the United States except for three Canadians: the narrator,

Martha Henry Martha Kathleen Henry (née Buhs; February 17, 1938October 21, 2021) was an American-born Canadian stage, film, and television actress. She was noted for her work at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. Early life and training Martha ...

and the singer

. Griffin says it is significant that the films do not feature any critical voices, such as

Naomi Goldenberg Naomi Ruth Goldenberg is a professor at the University of Ottawa. Her regular undergraduate courses include Gender and Religion, Women and Religions, Psychology of Religion and Method and Theory in the Study of Religion. Goldenberg is best known f ...

, who is a Canadian and one of the first scholars who studied the Goddess movement. Rachel Wagner says ''Goddess Remembered'' is based on "tenuous evidence" and dampened by historical errors, but the ''Women and Spirituality'' films "produce a stirring portrait" of modern women who believe in the

Great Goddess hypothesis The Great Goddess hypothesis theorizes that, in Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and/or Neolithic Europe and Western Asia and North Africa, a singular, monotheistic female deity was worshipped. Development of the theory The theory had been first propose ...

References

External links

* * * 1989 films Canadian documentary films English-language Canadian films National Film Board of Canada documentaries 1980s feminist films Feminist spirituality Films about Wicca 1989 documentary films 1980s in modern paganism 1980s English-language films 1980s Canadian films {{1980s-Canada-documentary-film-stub

Synopsis

Reception

See also

References

Further reading

External links