The “Goddess” Running for President

CBS News covering Marianne Williamson’s announcement

Marianne Williamson, self-proclaimed “goddess,” “priestess,” prolific New Age author and speaker, and “F.O.O.” (friend of Oprah Winfrey)[3] has launched her bid to become the U.S. President. She is being called “a bit of a wildcard.”[4] So far the press is not giving her candidacy a lot of attention. And she seems to acknowledge she isn’t really a serious candidate. She might just be a front for Oprah running, or a sidekick for another candidate. Or maybe she hopes to garner enough political credibility for herself that she could eventually head up a newly created Peace Department. Whatever the case, she is serious about inserting her own brand of spirituality into the Progressive mix brewing up on the Democrat side. And this could be the most important takeaway from her candidacy.

Marianne Williamson, ABC News, Feb. 211, 2019 [emphases added]

It could be a volatile combination — infusing the Left’s dead Humanism with Williamson’s brand of mystical New Age “Goddess” religion. The Progressives could make use of a jolt of spirituality to jump start their planned revolution. Her New Age tenets just might make it into the Democrat Party Platform. After all, they already have one side of the plan — the Green New Deal, a radical proposal to shift the world’s economy and governing systems. But the original plan, as envisioned by leading New Agers, also called for shifting the world’s religious system. 

Jeremy Rifkin described just such a plan of of spiritual-political action in his 1978 book The Emerging Order.[5] We wrote a post about it HERE where we explained:

Jeremy Rifkin’s blueprint for another Great Awakening was based upon the controversial 1972 Club of Rome report, The Limits to Growth, which predicted dire global catastrophes such as population growth, material consumption, pollution of the environment, etc. In fact, Rifkin, in his landmark book The Emerging Order, devotes an entire chapter (Chapter 3, “Limits to Growth”) to this topic. These crises are the foundation upon which he then proposed a radical solution – creating an “emerging spiritual revolution”(p. 91) and a “massive religious awakening.”(p. 92) 


Rifkin explained that a global redistribution of wealth would “comprise only half the solution.” The earth would need a longer term “steady-state society,” an economy that would “require that each person live a much more frugal or spartan lifestyle.” In order to achieve this controversial goal, and to help people to accept these profound changes on the earth, he proposed a concurrent change in spirituality. Spirituality could appease the masses and give them new higher ideals. He called for a shift to the “spiritual and transcendent” (p. 90) in people’s values and worldviews; a “revolutionary change in myths, values, and governing arrangements;” a “metamorphosis in values and social behavior.” This new spirituality would facilitate “a qualitative leap from the end of one epoch into the beginning of another.”(p. 94-95) [Keep reading HERE]

Exhibit: Screenshot from Goddess on the Loose HERE

Embodying the “Goddess”
Marianne Williamson has encouraged women to embody (channel?) ancient pagan goddesses in their lives. For example, in her 1995 book A Woman’s Worth she devoted an entire chapter (four) to “Embracing the Goddess.”[6] She says the “Goddess” is “already within us…. [T]he Goddess is ready to correct our thinking.”(p. 58) And using biblical-sounding words she expresses the New Age belief that “The truth that sets us free is an embrace of the divine within us.” (p. 59) She advocates praying to the “Goddess” within: “Embrace the Goddess and her divine perception of you. Ask her to reveal to you the you she has in mind.”(p. 60) She specifically tells women to befriend a “Goddess”:

Find a Greek goddess or a female Indian avatar you can relate to, or any other symbol of feminine divinity, and begin a relationship with her. (p. 21)

Williamson’s style is feel-good pop psychology mixed with spiritual imagery and terminology, freely borrowing from biblical language at times. This has appealed to women and she has sold many books. In fact, Oprah is credited with jumpstarting her career. But Williamson has consistently expanded this vision to a mission for women in particular — that if they can find the “Goddess” within they can change the world.

Espousing mystical evolution, she claims, “Both women and men are in quantum fast forward. We are growing new brains. We are using new eyes.” (p. 74) She advocates the view that “sex is a sacrament”(p. 71), women can become like temple prostitutes (“hetaera,” p. 73), and that through the sexual act one can attain a “connection” with God “to experience the divine” (p. 96). Ultimately “the earth itself is reconceived.” (p. 99)  This is simply a re-hash of ancient pagan “Goddess” religion.

The “Goddess” Saves the Planet
All this “Goddess” talk only makes sense if the planet Earth is considered sacred, a deity (such as Gaia) or a divine entity. In A Woman’s Worth Williamson wrote about the “Goddess” in psycho-spiritual planetary terms:


Women must remember the sacred nature of our Goddess self, the call to glory inherent in human incarnation. We are daughters of history and mothers to a new world. (p. 118)

It is not the uterus but the heart that is our real womb. What emerges from the heart is a co-creation with God. (p. 121)

The feminine self within both men and women is waiting for conscious impregnation. The Goddess… will give birth to herself through all of us…. (p. 122) [emphases added] 

CBS News showing Marianne Williamson being interviewed on Oprah

Thus her “Goddess” teaches that we are “co-creators” in a utopian evolutionary sense that perfects the planet, a doctrine that shows up in Williamson’s bid to become president:

Exhibit: “Marianne Williamson is Oprah’s spiritual advisor. She’s also running for president,” Vox, January 30, 2019

In A Woman’s Worth Williamson claims the “Goddess’s work” is “to do what we can to give birth to a new world” (p. 124). She asserts that resurrecting the
ancient Goddess “could be a priestly conduit, a connecting link between
earth and sky” (p. 127). She wrote that “Mommy and Daddy are present.
Let all the world feel comfort now, God and Goddess are back together”
(p. 128).  In other words, the earth needs a “Goddess” revival in order to renew itself ecologically. This exemplifies the updated version of ancient pagan goddess mystery religions.

“Honoring Athena, Embracing Aphrodite”
Williamson was teaching the “Goddess” as recently as a
blog post in 2018, titled “Honoring Athena, Embracing Aphrodite.” Below
is a prime example of the type of the New Age psycho-spirituality that she has been
teaching for decades:

Many contemporary women now embody the Greek Goddess Athena, while craving a visit from Aphrodite. Yet the gods only come to where they are fully embodied. Embodying Athena, we attract worldly achievement; embodying Aphrodite, we attract love. What’s exciting about being a Western woman today is that we’re allowed to embody as many and whatever goddesses we choose. For those who seek a deeper romance, it serves to embody the goddess Aphrodite, for she is the goddess of romantic love. In order to become her, however, we must approach her with reverence and love.
“Aphrodite’s
temple” is a real psychic vortex, as is any divine space, with steps to
be climbed in order to enter. There are both external and internal
steps to climb before entering Aphrodite’s temple, and all of them can
be learned.[7][emphases added]

Consider that the woman teaching this stuff is running for president of the United States!

This “Goddess” existed in ancient goddess-based religions. But it is also the same earth goddess-centered spirituality being promoted by certain environmental movement leaders for the past three decades. Quite simply, Marianne’s candidacy may be a vehicle to reinvigorate these ancient pagan beliefs to propel momentum for the Green New Deal.

“Goddess” of the Planet
Williamson has been gearing up for political action for decades. And it has always included her earth-centered religious beliefs. For example, in her 1997 book Healing the Soul of America: she wrote a passage quoted in a recent news article about her candidacy (screenshot below):

Elle, January 29, 2019 [emphasis added]

The “Goddess” has been envisioning perfection for the planet. A few quotes from Healing the Soul of America indicate the merger of her political-spiritual New Age beliefs:

Healing the Soul of America [8]

Thus it can be seen that Marianne Williamson’s candidacy is part of a larger plan to infuse politics with New Age religion, particularly the utopian vision that the planet can attain peace and perfection through mystical spirituality.

Warren B. Smith’s book critical of Marianne Williamson was published in 2002 titled Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel. This book examined how Marianne Williamson and her cohorts were setting up a political group to further their New Age spiritual agenda. Their group was first called the Global Renaissance Alliance, but later renamed the Peace Alliance. Over the years their spiritual-political ambitions evolved and progressed. Members of the group included Neale Donald Walsch, whose radical justification of Hitler’s Holocaust fits right in with the rising Anti-Semitism of the Progressive Left. (We wrote a Herescope post about it on January 8th.) Smith gives an account of important historical details regarding Marianne Williamson’s marriage of politics with spirituality.

Consider how Marianne Williamson’s political platform could provide the spirituality needed to energize the political Left. It has been reported that “Williamson is firmly a progressive. Her campaign website covers a wide range of issues from climate change and gun control to reproductive rights.”[9] Note that the inclusion of abortion rights/rites is an important facet of the ancient pagan “Goddess” worship system.

The Reason for the Goddess Myth
Christian researcher and author Berit Kjos, in her groundbreaking 1992 book Under the Spell of Mother Earth, warned about the earth-centered “Goddess” myths. Her description in chapter 3, “Myths, Magic and Mysticism,” sheds light upon why Marianne Williamson is reinvigorating the “Goddess” myth:


Since pagan societies sought secret wisdom through magic and spiritism, they drew inspiration from the same occult source. It is not surprising that many myths from around the world simulate biblical history and resemble one another. Satan’s army of demons, hiding behind the diverse masks of man-made deities, happily supplied pagan priests with counterfeit versions of God’s revealed truth. Thus, man-made myths blended occult revelations with human imagination. Notice how this is happening all around us today.

Why are myths so important to Deep Ecology? Because, explains Thomas Berry in The Dream of the Earth, myths and their symbols “provide not only the understanding and the sense of direction that we need, they also evoke the energy….” (p. 34)

“The traditional story is dysfunctional…. We need a story that will educate us… heal, guide, and discipline us.” (p. 124)

The “traditional story” from the Bible denounces paganism as a cruel counterfeit of God’s promises. No wonder Deep Ecologists despite “the powerful myth of fundamentalists” and are determined to replace it with one that matches their visions.

“Presently we are entering another historical period… the ecological age… an indication of the interdependence of all living and nonliving systems of the earth…. These transformations require the assistance of the entire planet… not merely adaptation to a reduced supply of fuels…. What is happening is something of a far greater magnitude. it is a radical change in our mode of consciousness. Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human….” (p. 41)

Now, say Deep Ecologists, it’s up to the human species to reverse the process by creating a new picture of reality — one more powerful than the obsolete but tenacious myth of Christianity.[10]

The image of the “Goddess” Marianne Williamson campaign store

The Truth:
Berit Kjos concludes her book chapter with the following observations from a Christian perspective:

GOD’S PLAN FOR THE CARE OF HIS CREATION. God’s prescription for a healthy earth opposes pagan myths and pantheistic beliefs on every point. First, He made people not animals, in His image, so that our actions would reflect His divine love. (See Galatians 2:20; Genesis 1:26-27.) Second, He wants us to guard the earth according to His wisdom, not the spirit of Gaia….

Throughout the Bible, God shows us that people are more precious to Him than all the other marvelous parts of His creation. He made us to be His own sons and daughters, friends with whom He could share His heart, disciples who would communicate His eternal purpose, and servants who would carry out His plan here on earth….[11]

“If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him….” (Deuteronomy 13:6-8a)

Endnotes
1. Marci Gonzalez, Ashley Riegle, Marjarie McAfee, and Lauren Effron, “Meet Marianne Williamson, spiritual guru, friend of Oprah Winfrey and 2020 presidential candidate, ABC News, February 11, 2019, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/meet-marianne-williamson-spiritual-guru-friend-oprah-winfrey/story?id=60999435  
2. Marianne Williamson, A Woman’s Worth (Ballentine, 1993). All emphases added to any quotes in the text from this book appearing in this post.
3. Molly Mulshine, “Everything You Need to Know About Marianne Williamson, the Kardashian-Approved AIDS Activist Running for President,” January 29, 2019, Elle, https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a26079620/who-is-marianne-williamson-president/ Link added.
4. Ibid.
5. To understand Jeremy Rifkin’s political/spiritual agenda read our article “The Emerging Order,” October 12, 2010,  https://herescope.net/2010/10/emerging-order.html
6. A Woman’s Worth, Ibid., chapter 4. 
7. Marianne Williamson, “HONORING ATHENA, EMBRACING APHRODITE,” https://marianne.com/honoring-aphrodite/
6. These quotes can be found on page 40-41 of Warren B. Smith’s book Reinventing Jesus Christ (Conscience Press, 2002), published online at http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/f/reinventing-jesus-christ.pdf 
9. ABC News, Ibid.
10. Berit Kjos’s book Under the Spell of Mother Earth is still available on Amazon. It is also published online at her website crossroad.to. This excerpt is from Chapter 3, “Myths, Magic and Mysticism.” http://www.crossroad.to/Books/UnderSpell/3-Myth.htm Footnotes can be accessed in the original post, bold in original.
11. Ibid.

For important historical background about Marianne Williamson and her spiritual pals and their political ambitions read http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/f/reinventing-jesus-christ.pdf and http://www.spiritual-research-network.com/reinventing-jesus-christ-chapter-updates.html