Excerpt from "The Spiral Dance," written by Starhawk

Patriarchy versus Goddess Religion

For men, the God is the image of inner power and of a potency that is more than merely sexual. He is the Undivided self, in which mind is not split from body, nor spirit from flesh. United, both can function at the peak of creative and emotional power.

In our culture, men are taught that masculinity demands a lack of feeling. They are conditioned to function in a military mode; to cut off their emotions and ignore the messages of their body; to deny physical discomfort, pain, and fear, in order to fight and conquer most efficiently. This holds true whether the field of battle be the bedroom, the battlefield, or the office.

It has become something of a cliché to say that men have been trained to be aggressive and dominant and women have been trained to be submissive and passive, that men are allowed to be angry and women are not. In patriarchal culture, both women and men learn to function within a hierarchy, in which those at the top dominate those below. One aspect of that dominance is the privilege of expressing anger. The general chews out the private, the boss yells but the assistant cannot, The boss' wife yells at her maid, not vice versa. Because women have usually been at the bottom of hierarchies, from the business world to the traditional family, they have been born the brunt of a great deal of male anger, and been the ultimate victims of violence. Anger can be seen as a response to an attack; very few men are in positions where they can afford to directly confront their attackers.

Men's anger, then, becomes twisted and perverted. It is threatening to recognize the true source of his rage, because he would then be force to recognize the helplessness, powerlessness, and humiliation of his position. Instead, he may turn his anger on safer targets; women, children, or still less powerful men. Or his anger may turn toward self-destruction: disease, depression, alcoholism, or any of a smorgasbord of readily available addictions.

Patriarchy literally means 'rule of the fathers', but in a patriarchy, very few men are allowed to enact the role of 'father' outside the limited family sphere. The structure of hierarchical institutions is pyramidal: One man at the top controls many below. Men compete for money and power over others; the majority, who do not reach the top of the chain of command, are forced to remain immature, enacting the roles of either dutiful or rebel sons. The good sons eternally seek to please the father by obedience; the bad son seeks to overthrow him and take his place. Either way, there are cut off from their own true feelings and desires.

And so our religions reflect a cosmos in which father God exhorts his 'children' to obey the rules and to do what they are told, lest they align themselves with the Great Rebel. Our psychology is one of war between sons and fathers who eternally vie for exclusive possession of the mother, who, like all women under patriarchy, is the ultimate prize for success. And progressive politics are reduced to alignments of rebel sons, who overthrow the father to enact their own sense of hierarchy.

The Horned God, however, is born of a virgin mother. He is a model of male power that is free from father-son rivalry or Oedipal conflicts. He has no father; he is his own father. As He grows and passes through his changes on the Wheel, He remains in relationship to the prime nurturing force. His power is dawn directly from the Goddess: He participates in Her.

For more on this Article, pick up a copy of "The Spiral Dance," written by Starhawk