Goddess Monotheism (tradition, church, theist, worship, God)

[Grian]

It's more like henotheism which in common language is an outer mystery of many deities with an inner mystery of one deity. Or maybe Monism.

[Gentoo]

I'm not sure what label it has, but it's not henotheism:

hen·o·the·ism

1.the worship of a particular god, as by a family or tribe, without disbelieving in the existence of others. - Dictionary.com

[Grian]

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism

Henotheism (Greek εἷς θεός heis theos "one god") is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a single "God" while accepting the existence of other gods. Müller stated that henotheism means "monotheism in principle and a polytheism in fact." He made the term a center of his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing conceptions of God.
Variations on the term have been inclusive monotheism and monarchial polytheism, designed to differentiate differing forms of the phenomenon. Related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism, which are typically understood as sub-types of henotheism. The latter term is an extension of "henotheism", from καθ’ ἕνα θεόν (kath' hena theon)—"one god at a time". Henotheism is similar but less exclusive than monolatry because a monolator worships only one god, while the henotheist may worship any within the pantheon, depending on circumstances. In some belief systems, the choice of the supreme deity within a henotheistic framework may be determined by cultural, geographical, or political reasons.

[charles brough]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Hey peepeloids,

I've been researching Goddess-centric religions but i'm having trouble finding extinct or extant Goddess monotheisms.

I've found that the Minoan civilisation may have had a single Goddess early on, and i was already aware of Dianic Wicca.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any other Goddess only religions, ancient or modern?

Some years ago I did a lot of research on this subject and, as you indicate, there is little that is clear and explanative. You know the Mother Goddess age last a very long time in Europe, the Mediteranean and the Near East, from something like 10,000 years ago to 4,000 years ago. It changed during that time. Religiion was animism when it began so that it seems to have centered around a lot of female dieties that combined into a fem-fertility force that governed life, death, returning from the dead and above all, fertility. Then, five thousand years ago, the patriarchal-monogamous religions in Sumer and Egypt evolved from a male-god Kurgan system. The new male-led societies were so successful in building civilzation and defending themselves from barbarians that the by then declining mother-goddess religion-based society had also evolved a polytheistic panthion and began adopting the Egyptian and Mesopotaimian culture as a sort of secular influence. This is in reference to Crete. It gradually adopted male rulers, a military, and even engaged in some human sacrifice.
The new Egyptian and Sumerian system adopted the mother-goddess system's female gods to balance its own male gods and create the balanced system that worked so well, so there were certainly a lot of female gods to adopt from the old fem-fertility system! The mythology of the area is filled with hundreds of them. Even the Celts adopted some of the fem-fertility gods, such as Apona, the horse goddess. Even in the Old Testament, there is reference to one of the female gods, the one of Ethesis.

I don't see how the old mother goddes system can at all be called a monotheism. In fact, there is not a single religion on Earth that worships only One God. There are always other "spirits" that are labeled other things so that the "monothism" label can seem to apply.

charles, http://humanpurpose.simplenet.com