Goddess Pilgrimage
I had never heard of goddess pilgrimage before learning about it in class. After discussing it, I realized that there are a lot of similarities between it and what we already know about other pilgrimages we have gone over so far this semester. It also helped that we could apply some of the pilgrimage models that we already knew about to help us understand some of the concepts of the pilgrimage.
Along with the definitions of pilgrimage that we were already familiar with, we also found others in the reading pertaining to goddess pilgrimage. One of those we found was pilgrimage defined as a means or method for healing. Another was for spiritual rapture and bodily pleasure. These are definitions we were not so familiar with. One that we did find that was similar to previous definitions was that it was a sacred journey to a sacred place with a sacred purpose. We learned a similar definition to this according to the Eliade model which entails that people pilgrimage in order to get away from chaos and to find a more sacred, less profane space.
We found many different elements in the Goddess Pilgrimage that we have already found in other pilgrimages. The elements of the Turner Model that we found were included in Goddess pilgrimages were travel, community, anti-structure, and a limen was also mentioned. Following the Eliade model, we found that there is sacred space, relics, and embodiment of myth included in goddess pilgrimage.
The last thing we looked into was whether goddess pilgrimage was more like western or eastern religions. We found arguments that would work both ways. You can look at it as western because it seems to be monotheistic, having one main female goddess. It can also be seen as more of an eastern religion because there can be multiple gods, and they also have praxis which is a main eastern feature. Discussing this really helped us to learn how to better analyze religions, which is something we need to master for our futures in this class, and in other aspects of our lives.