Something that really frustrates me when talking about goddesses, especially goddesses of love, is this constant rhetoric about not “sanitizing” or “limiting” them by focusing on their more feminine or gentle aspects. I’m not saying one should ignore any qualities of a goddess and many love goddesses do have serious warrior like qualities but I’m tired of the first thing said about them being “Don’t forget their warrior like aspects!!!” as if those qualities are the only ones that make them valuable and worth respecting and honoring. I’m tired of women only being seen as worthwhile if they are somehow ~tough~ and ~badass~. It’s incredibly patriarchal to value these warriorlike aspects over the soft more traditionally feminine qualities!
Love is radical as hell! Vulnerability is fucking terrifying. Being soft and kind and caring about people is SO hard and SO valuable and absolutely divine and venerable in its own right.
Violence and this really patricharchal concept of strength and valor and wisdom etc. are so fucking draining and I’m tired of people treating those aspects as so crucial to the concept of valuable womanhood.
So yes I worship love goddesses for their loving aspects! I value the lessons of gentleness! I don’t see love as meek or easy or passive and neither do they! Love is believing in people and their rights. Love is creating safe spaces. Love is taking care of people who need you. Love is volunteering your time and donating your money because you believe people and the world is worth it. Love is active. Love is hard fucking work. Love is making the effort to be a better person, to listen with compassion, to value other people’s needs. Love is self examination and healing. Love is admitting when you’re in the wrong and actively working to be better. Love is holding people accountable because you see both who they are and who they could be. Love is feeling broken and taking the time to cry and mourn and not take it out on other people. Love is feeling your feelings and processing your traumas because you care enough to want to feel ok again.
I am tired of fighting and anger and brute strength. I am tired of being told goddesses are being “watered down” if they don’t have these qualities. I am tired of love being seen as passive and easy and somehow not enough. Love is a verb, if it isn’t enough it’s because you’re not putting enough effort into it.
I very emphatically agree with the overall statement. However, I think it’s also very important to stop equating love and gentleness with femininity if we’re going to push back against the patriarchy. Because it kinda needs to be socially acceptable for non-women to not be assholes in order for them to not be assholes.
Besides that, in some some pantheons, the Love deity role is taken on by a male deity, because ancient cultures did not have the same gender roles. And they tend to also be very unappreciated or misrepresented in modern narratives for the same reasons.
So absolutely, we need to value things other than war. And this needs to apply to all genders.
Old Frater Threskiornis is feeling chipper tonight, so I’m gonna chime in. Fuck war gods. We have had enough of that bullshit. Don’t tell me you need a war god to fight against the patriarchy or capitalism. Just fuck all those war gods. I refuse to work with them. We need more love gods and goddesses and the transsexual ones as well. One of the reasons I never went full-on Thelemite is their love of Horus. Fuck Horus. Fuck Thor. Fuck Mars. Our only hope now is to bond together and watch this aeon of the fucking spoiled child go down.