In a thought-provoking interview with MysticMag, Karen Tate opens up about her fascinating journey from a curious child in the Bible Belt to a revered voice in the realm of Goddess spirituality.
With an innate curiosity that pushed the boundaries of her conventional upbringing, Tate’s path took a transformative turn upon her move to California, where she stumbled upon and wholeheartedly embraced Goddess teachings. This profound shift has since shaped her life’s mission, fueling her work as an author, speaker, and podcaster dedicated to advocating for inclusiveness, partnership, and the rich tapestry of values encapsulated in Goddess spirituality.
Through her collaboration with MysticMag, Tate eloquently articulates her vision for a society that honors diversity, equality, and the powerful potential for personal and collective transformation.
What inspired you to delve into the exploration of goddess values and their relevance in modern society?
As a kid growing up in the Bible Belt I was fortunate my family wasn’t uber-religious so I had some freedom to explore metaphysics and ancient cultures. I was particularly drawn to Egypt and mesmerized by the culture. Later, when I actually visited there several times, I became convinced this was from past lives lived there.
Then about the age of 30, I moved from Louisiana to California and stumbled into a class on Goddess and it was a slippery slope after that. It became the focus of my life, travel, writing, public speaking, and podcasting. I became an ordained inter-faith minister. I looked at Goddesses and taught about Goddess as a deity, archetype, and ideal or values because I realized what an important subject it was particularly for women, but also society and men as well if we ever want to evolve and achieve equality and justice.
I really see Goddess Spirituality as a vehicle for transformation toward a world of caring, sharing, peace, justice, beauty, equality, justice, unity, and wholeness.
How do you integrate inclusiveness and partnership into your teachings and community interactions?
Well, I believe Goddess is the “poster girl for diversity” which requires inclusiveness and partnership. I mean look at her many faces across continents, cultures, and ages. I was never one to believe this was just a spirituality for women and often challenged others who wanted to keep the spirituality small and open to just women-born women. It is too important not to be for everyone. Partnership I believe is another Goddess value. We want better than this dominator patriarchal culture in which we’re living. We want equality and justice and that includes partnership. Working together to create win-win scenarios, not winner-loser, I’m up and you’re down kind of scenarios. We need collaboration more than competition so all our boats float. We want to create a world that works for all of us to thrive and not be slaves to capitalism, patriarchy, or any other oppressive structure that makes us suffer and not reach our full, authentic potential.
As for how I integrate it, well I teach about the values of partnership and caring economics as a member of Riane Eisler’s Center for Partnership Studies. I try to share leadership whenever I can in events classes or rituals I organize. I’ve paid out of my own pocket to have what’s now the longest-running “sacred feminine” podcast on the air, since 2009, Voices of the Sacred Feminine, giving foremothers and way-showers a platform to share their wisdom. I network and collaborate. I guess you could say I live it, teach it, and encourage it. And I challenge people who want to exclude others from the Goddess Umbrella.
I think diversity in everything is so important. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go through life experiencing a delicious stew of diversity rather than just tasting a small crust of bread. To me, diversity is exciting and exhilarating, not a thing to be feared.
Can you share how your approach to justice and equality informs your work and advocacy?
Well, as a woman living in patriarchy, I can see the collective feminine wound and how it’s adversely affected all women from ancient to contemporary times. Male-dominated religions, academia, institutions, workplaces, government, and all the rest have taken a wicked toll on women and also men. I realized how women suffer more abuse and have lower status in a society where there is no feminine face of god present. Women become conditioned to submit to male authority, thinking they’re less than, that they’re not enough, that they’re here to be breeders or serve men, or are just generally disempowered – especially if the women and men have not had the benefit of much education. That results in a whole host of psychological and physical problems and trauma.
When I discovered Goddess, I opened my eyes to this disparity and saw how Goddess as archetypes and ideals was about social justice and bringing the world back into some balance.
So I use my abilities as a speaker, writer, podcaster, teacher, and minister to educate on these subjects liberating those listening, giving them alternatives and permission to take a different path, to seek out exit strategies so they might stop normalizing the abuse, misuse, and exploitation.
In fact, my last book, which came out last year, titled Normalizing Abuse; A Commentary on Our Pervasive Culture of Abuse speaks quite a lot in a somewhat mainstream tone about waking up and making healthier choices, not feeling shame for setting healthy boundaries and expecting a better quality of life.
What role does intellectual curiosity play in your ongoing exploration of spiritual and societal themes?
I think curiosity takes us far and wide, or at least it does for me. I’ll grab onto a subject and ride it down the rabbit hole until I’ve wrung out every last juicy piece of information. In fact, in Chapter 10 of Normalizing Abuse, titled Abuse in Society and Culture, I write, “Curiosity can motivate and help us overcome so much. I think it can help us overcome poverty racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Curiosity helps us push past mediocrity and think outside the box we might have grown up in. Curiosity can be inspired in someone, but I wonder if it can also be lying dormant, buried in our DNA, like trauma or vague memories of past lives, waiting to be awakened? I’m not sure of the source of my curiosity. I just know from my earliest years I was marinating in images of….”
I mean, for instance, without my curiosity, I doubt I’d have gotten out of my racist bubble, moved across the country, and out of the very limiting Bible Belt to become a feminist, social justice advocate, priestess, and alternative spirituality minister. Without curiosity, I doubt I’d be advancing thoughts within my spirituality that have me mulling over if Goddess Spirituality is a vehicle toward ascension and if Goddess is the Light?
I used to organize a Wisdom Circle with a group of thinkers for a number of years. We had the best time just talking about everything. I found it very stimulating and curiosity informs how I go about life, the choices I make, what I watch on television, what podcasts I listen to or the books I read, and the destinations I travel to. Goddess Spirituality took me across 5 continents and cultures searching Her out across time and her story. I want to know the who, what, when, where, and how. Then again, I’m an analytical Virgo. That’s probably part of my insatiable curiosity. I love to learn and love people around me who love it too.
How do your writings, public speaking engagements, and podcasts contribute to the broader conversation about transformation and empowerment?
Transformation and empowerment are the “end all and be all” of my work to help us here on this planet manifest a new normal. We can’t keep doing the same things and expect it to be different. We have to be intellectually curious, not settle, not normalize abuse, not allow ourselves to continue to be exploited, and not turn a blind eye to suffering if we’re okay.
We have to phase out the groups, institutions, and beliefs that limit us, that give license for one group to dominate another, that seek to manipulate or coerce us into manufactured consent and wage slavery. We have to not fear change and start becoming more comfortable with the unfamiliar so that we don’t just keep choosing the “devil we know” over a new and healthier path forward. And we can’t keep burying our heads in the sand, being apolitical or neutral because almost every aspect of our lives is political.
I think many women and men are out there blazing a new trail. Hekate is holding up her lantern showing us a better way. We just have to have the courage to be a little uncomfortable as a new way comes into being but I believe our collective consciousness is shifting toward a world that works for the most of us, hopefully all of us. We have to develop our own critical thinking instead of letting someone from a pulpit or golden tower dictate or translate what we want as if we’re sheeple. Think of the people who vote against their economic interests in this country simply because of their emotional attachments to racism, sexism, homophobia, or xenophobia. Think of the women who internalize misogyny. I think about growing up in New Orleans: The law came down public swimming pools had to be open to everyone and white people lost their minds.
So instead of being inclusive, curious, and tolerant, inviting in people of color, the city closed the swimming pools for everyone. That’s a pretty sad statement. But extrapolate that: Some don’t demand a strong social safety net because they’re afraid of some poor person being “on the take” but never give much thought to the rich who pay less taxes than them or corporate exploitation and white-collar crime of the wealthy that robs them blind. Average people have to come together in partnership and solidarity to really start looking at who has our collective best interests at heart for the overall Common Good. And we can’t do it with an authoritarian dictator as the leader of our country. That’s a real recipe for corruption on steroids!
Looking ahead, are there any new projects or areas of exploration you’re particularly excited about?
Well, I’m following the Divine Breadcrumbs. I’ve just recently moved from California to Southern Oregon and I’m getting to know my new state. I’m making new friends and I’ve started a monthly gathering called Women Weaving the World. I’ve been delighted at the sincere and excited interest in Goddess among the women I’m meeting. I’m planning to launch an e-book of my award-winning book, Walking An Ancient Path; Rebirthing Goddess on Planet Earth with an epilogue on the 20th anniversary of its publication. My newsletter, Toolbox for Transformation with Karen Tate is thriving. I’m reaching more people by doing more teaching via webinars and Zoom. I’m enjoying invitations to be the keynote speaker at events and I’m keeping my podcast going every Wednesday at 11 am Pacific. I invite your readers to visit me and take advantage of the free stuff at my website www.karentate.net.
As for new areas of exploration, I’m cracking open my Right Brain more and more. I’m going down the rabbit hole of New Thought. I’m curious if practicing Goddess Spirituality raises our vibration and frequency, if Goddess is the Light, Divine Intelligence, and a vehicle for humanity’s ascension, as some like to call our human evolution. I think the answer might be yes. Ancient Wisdom – New Thought.
