"Goddess Bless America: My Wild and Crazy Fantasy"

"According to the New York Times, the word God was used a total of 57 times during the recent Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Just for fun, let's imagine if the word Goddess were used instead. Would the switch of one word in a very public arena change contemporary women's views of themselves and their relationship to power?

I believe it would. As the author Carol Christ wrote in her widely reprinted 1979 essay Why Women Need the Goddess: "Religious symbol systems focused around exclusively male images of divinity create the impression that female power can never be fully legitimate." Without imagery and words that reflects our female experience of the Divine, how can contemporary women see themselves in all their diversity, complexity and most powerful selves?

Let's explore a society that does have abundant representations of the Divine Feminine and how these symbols can and do inspire contemporary women. In the Hindu religion, the Goddess Shakti is considered the energizing force of the cosmos and the fundamental creative instinct for life. 

In Goddess on Earth, Karen Siff Exkorn, the author of the bestselling book The Autism Sourcebook, portrayed Shakti and described her connection to the Goddess:"

"The Goddess Durga, also from Hindu mythology, is celebrated as the destroyer of human sufferings. She is an avenging warrior -- think super hero -- and protectress against human suffering and the cruelty of war. India's first female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was often compared to this Goddess, even being hailed by the prominent Indian politician Bal Thackeray as "an avatar of Durga" in the Indian Express. In Goddess on Earth, the renowned food writer and actress Madhur Jaffrey chose to embody the Goddess Durga, writing:"

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-levart/goddess-bless-america-my-_b_1881212.html