The Mystery of the Goddess in the Shopping Cart

by Carolyn Lee Boyd

Just as feminism itself may change but will still always move forward, so does the powerful, liberating Sacred Feminine continue to come forth. I see Her emerging not only from the ground as archeologists unearth artifacts of Goddess-worshipping cultures, but turning up also in our toy chests, movie theaters, and bookstores, if we will only look.

Imagine my surprise when I passed a toy store display of Goddess Barbie dolls: a Moon Goddess, Sun Goddess, Grecian Goddess, Goddesses of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Arctic, and of Wisdom, Beauty, and Spring, all looking swell in gorgeous gowns. And recently, Disney began marketing their “fairy line,” featuring Tinkerbell. These not only have baditude (remember Tink’s temper?) but their own inner powers. If only I had had these when I was growing up!

Tia Dalma, though identified as Calypso in The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, clearly is more like the Goddess of Death and Rebirth to my mind. This ubiquitous Goddess, like Hinduism’s Kali, is deeply powerful, fierce and angry, overseeing death, life, and rebirth. Tia, trapped in a human body, is suddenly liberated at the end of the third movie. To watch her suddenly grow to giant-size and stir up a ship-crunching tempest in the land of the dead is to witness the power of this Goddess.

A Hecate-like gatekeeper Goddess seems to be in the book and movie of Bridge to Terabithia. In it, the boy Jess and his free-spirited friend Leslie create a fantasy world, Terabithia, where Jess can escape from his religiously-repressive family and narrow gender confines. Leslie eventually dies crossing to Terabithia over a river and Jess sets a crowned image of her adrift there after her death. To me, this is symbolic not only of her eternal life, but also of her roles as mediator between the everyday and other worlds and guide for Jess in his transformation.

Finally, I adore Fannie Flagg’s poignant and loving descriptions of the lives of ordinary Americans. Who would think you would find God as a woman among her small town hardware stores and old-time radio shows? But, in the novel Standing in the Rainbow, a character dies and meets Diety in the form of Neighbor Dorothy and her husband from the previous novels. Here Deity is both God and Goddess, the Divine with both a female and a male face. And Neighbor Dorothy – kind, nurturing, a parenting expert, everyone’s best friend – was quite recognizable to me even before this as a human version of the compassionate Mother Goddesses like Mary and Kwan Yin.

The mystery is how can these Goddess images emerge in popular culture with almost no one noticing? Perhaps it is because no one expects them to be in these places, and, most likely, the creators of these works were unaware of their resemblance to these ancient Goddesses. Yet, they are there, perhaps positively influencing those who play with, watch, or read them. To me, it is comforting to see these Goddess-like figures, a clue that perhaps my way of being is not so out of touch with the mainstream. But, perhaps they are also a back door to a kind of feminism for women who find it difficult to identify themselves as such. Perhaps they are a special path for some women to begin to think of themselves as spiritually powerful. Goddess does, indeed, work in mysterious ways.

Carolyn Lee Boyd writes stories,  poems, memoirs, and other pieces for feminist and women’s spirituality publications including SageWoman, The Beltane Papers, Matrifocus, The We’Moon Calendar, and Moondance.  Her novel, The Temple of the Subway Goddess, is scheduled for publication by Creatrix Books in the Spring of 2009.  You are invited to read more of her writings and keep up with what’s new with her at her blogsite, http://Goddessinateapot.wordpress.com.