Today’s civilization is moving from the patriarchal society we have lived under for thousands of years to a more gender balanced society. We are seeing a balance of the aspects known as the god and the goddess. This means that since the Goddess has been hidden from us for thousands of years, the face of the Goddess is being shown to us in many ways to remind us of the different aspects that the Goddess can portray.
Over the last two decades, we have been shown several faces of the Goddess through public figures who received enough media coverage to show the world their particular face of the Goddess.
We were shown the Goddess of Love through Princess Diana. She was the embodiment of pure, unconditional love. She spread love to everyone she met. Princess Diana touched those who were usually ignored by society – AIDS patients and starving children, for instance. Those that she touched were never the same again. Her love changed their lives forever. When Diana died, our world lost a very needed aspect of the Goddess. Ten years after her death, we still hold a place in our hearts for this Love Goddess.
The next face of the Goddess was shown to us by Terri Schiavo, the brain damaged woman whose husband fought
for many years to have her feeding tube removed. She embodied the Victim Goddess. She was victimized by her husband, the medical community and the American judicial system. Her victimization could have gone unnoticed, as many other cases are daily, but in order to show the Victim face of the Goddess, she was brought to the attention of the world who watched her die a horrible death over a two week period.
Now, we are being shown the Wild Woman Goddess through Anna Nicole Smith. Anna Nicole has always lived life to the fullest. She never cared what others thought about her. She enjoyed life in all it’s aspects. She flaunted her beauty and her sexuality. She drank too much, ate too much and took too many drugs. She did everything to excess. She loved life and all that it had to offer. She lived more in her short life than ten people usually do. Anna’s portrayal of the Wild Woman Goddess is to remind us to live life to the fullest, because it is all too short.
I am grateful for these women who agreed to portray the many faces of the Goddess through their short, traumatic lives. It is my intention to learn the lessons that these women embodied for us so their efforts were not in vain.
Thank you Diana, Terri and Anna, may you always be blessed for your sacrifices.
February 2007 Claudia McNeely