The White Goddess

{{title-italics}}{{paganism}}
'''''The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth''''' is a book by [[Robert Graves]], published in 1948, on the subject of poetic [[Mythology|myth]] making. Built largely upon the works of James Frazer's seminal mythic-study work, ''[[The Golden Bough]]'', ''The White Goddess'' attempts to demonstrate the power of myth within and upon society, by ''describing'' (or, more accurately, ''inventing'') a "Myth of the Goddess", an image/myth which Graves suggests permeates all religions. This deity is "The White Goddess of Birth, Love and Death".<ref group=note>Venerated in [[Neopagan]] circles as a {{wpl|Triple Goddess (neopaganism)|triple goddess|,}} each one of her aspects ("[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheHecateSisters Maiden, Mother, and Crone]") incarnating those things (note how even if triplets of deities or three-bodied goddesses have existed since Antiquity, as [[Saint Brigid#The goddess|Brigid]] or most notably [[Hecate]], in such goddesses each aspect had the same age and the Maiden, Mother, and Crone trio is a modern invention) and having as consort {{wpl|The Horned God}}, that represents nature, the wilderness, the hunt, and sexuality. (The parallel to the [[Christianity|Christian]] concept of the [[Trinity]] may or may not be a coincidence.). Other Neopagans have added a fourth one (Matriarch/Priestess) between Mother and Crone</ref> He further claims that the worship of the "Goddess", in any general form, is the purest form of [[religion]] and interestingly, the source of all good poetry.

The "uncovered"<ref group=note>Graves argues in his work that he is not ''creating'' this myth, but simply uncovering all her layers and setting them out as a single, unified myth. There is little debate in the modern [[Religious studies]] community that ''invention'' is a far better way to [[Pseudohistory|understand what he does]].</ref> and rewritten myth itself is a reworking of predominately [[Ireland|Irish]] and [[Wales|Welsh]] ("Celtic") myths, with some other western European (ie, [[Classical mythology|Greek]]) and [[Middle East]]ern mythic ideas and images tossed in here and there.

==Laura Riding, the original White Goddess==
[[File:Triple-Goddess-Waxing-Full-Waning-Symbol-filled.png|thumb|170px|right|The symbol of the Triple Goddess, as used in Neopaganism. Variants include the waxing moon being white, the full one red, and the waning one black (see [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triple-Goddess-Waxing-Full-Waning-Symbol-multicolored.png here]).]]
In fact, the concept of the White Goddess likely originated with Graves's mistress at the time, {{wpl|Laura Riding||.}} Graves's description of the personality and mythos of the White Goddess was apparently also strongly influenced by Graves's complicated relationship with Riding, which included… strong elements of the psychology of [[BDSM|dominance and submission]]. Riding has claimed that Graves stole key ideas from her work, including an essay on ''The Idea of God'' and an unpublished manuscript ''The Word `Woman'''.<ref name="Vendler">Helen Vendler, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1993/nov/18/the-white-goddess/ The White Goddess]!", ''New York Review of Books'' (Nov. 18, 1993)</ref><ref>Jason Pitzl-Waters, [http://wildhunt.org/2008/07/did-robert-graves-steal-white-goddess.html Did Robert Graves Steal the ''White Goddess''?], The Wild Hunt (2008)</ref>

Graves's depiction of the myth and ritual of the White Goddess also relates to his relationship with Riding, and his fantasies of submission to her imperious domination. ''The White Goddess'' posits an annual ritual year in which two suitors, given the [[Egypt]]ian names of Osiris and Set, compete for her affections, with Osiris (a ''Golden Bough'' style dying-and-reviving god) dying an annual death which guarantees fertility of the crops.<ref group=note>Compare this to {{wpl|Yarilo|Yarilo/Jarilo}} of {{wpl|Slavic mythology||.}}</ref> While Riding was Graves's longstanding mistress, towards the end her eye wandered. "Graves at once became subject to a new set of intensely emotional pressures, and began to depict himself in an unnaturally humble manner, condemning (for example) what he saw as his 'greed and credulity'; and imagining himself, when retelling the legend of Isis, not as Set, her new young lover, but as 'Osiris yearly drowned....' Graves was the supplicant, Laura Riding the embodiment of the goddess and dispenser of favors."<ref>Louis Simpson, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/11/books/life-with-the-real-white-goddess.html  Life with the Real White Goddess]", ''The New York Times'',  November 11, 1990.</ref>  

Riding eventually left Graves, embittered by his manipulations and his expropriations of her ideas, and married a poetry critic. Riding's assessment of the book was not kind: "Where once I reigned, now a whorish abomination has sprung to life, a [[Frankenstein]] pieced together from the shards of my life and thoughts."<ref>Grevel Lindop, ed. ''Robert Graves: The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth''. Carcanet Press, 1997.</ref> But like {{wpl|William Moulton Marston||,}} Graves spun his sex life and sexual fantasies into cultural gold.

==Graves and the Goddess Movement==
Ultimately, the book suggests that there is one single [[Goddess]] and her son, and that every religion in the world that has any form of goddess presents a form of ''The Goddess''.<ref group=note>Interestingly enough, this looks similar to the [[Easter#Alexander_Hislop's_The_Two_Babylons|Alexander Hislop's nonsense]]</ref> In making this claim, Graves sets the ground-work for what is called the [[Goddess religion|"matriarchal religion"]], an off-shoot of [[feminist]] [[theology]].

In the 1970s, Graves's work found an enthusiastic following in the [[Goddess movement]], which promoted the theory then in fashion in feminist circles. The Goddess-Movement folks quite liked Graves's intrinsic linking of all of history, poetry, and [[life]] itself to this made-up "One Goddess" — which is no damn different than the made-up "One God" of [[monotheism]] or {{wpl|Joseph Campbell||'s}} narcissistic self-portrait of an invented [[Republican Party|Republican-ass]] [[Capitalism|capitalist]] {{wpl|Hero With a Thousand Faces}} — which dovetailed very nicely with their ideology as it posited an ancient [[Golden Age]] when times were simpler, there was no war, there was no violence, and women ruled the world and 
held men as slaves
 
made men equals
 just ignored men altogether.

The idea of the White Goddess and of a female creative<ref>{{wpa|creativity}}</ref> principle relates to the older idea (surviving from the pre-Dada<ref>{{wpa|Dada}}</ref> [[The Demon-Haunted World|demon-haunted world]] before [[materialist]] [[psychology|psychologizing]] spoiled everything) of a {{wpl|Muses|muse|,}} originally a goddess or demi-goddess of poetic inspiration<ref>{{wpa|Artistic inspiration}}</ref> and later a [[secular]] figure who (by convention) inspired an artist, such as [[Dante]]'s Beatrice. Hence, the White Goddess connects with general ideas of poetic inspiration or creativity as being essentially associated with matters female — ideas which, despite their mythic origin, remained popular with male writers through the 20th century.{{cn}} The British 1960s avant-garde novelist {{wpl|B. S. Johnson}} was obsessed with the idea of the White Goddess, which biographer Jonathan Coe suggests may have been related to his mental-health problems.<ref>[http://www.walesartsreview.org/bs-johnson-fat-man-on-a-welsh-beach/ "Fat man on a Welsh beach"], Jim Morphy, ''Wales Art Review'', May 2013</ref><ref>''Like a Fiery Elephant'', Jonathan Coe, 2004</ref> {{wpl|Ted Hughes||,}} the Yorkshire poet involved in a destructive relationship with American poet {{wpl|Sylvia Plath||,}} was also greatly influenced by Graves's ideas.<ref>[https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/ted-hughes-and-mythology Ted Hughes and mythology], Andy Armitage, Discovering Literature: 20th Century, British Library.</ref>

Some authors have also claimed that the White Goddess as a triple deity formed by the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone is a male creation with origin in such views of feminity (thus empty of meaning) that restricts the roles women can take and also suggesting to replace in the Crone "death" with "wisdom"<ref>Pratt, Annis V. (1985). "Spinning Among Fields: Jung, Frye, Levi-Strauss and Feminist Archetypal Theory", in Estella Lauter, Carol Schreier Rupprecht (eds.) (1985). ''Feminist Archetypal Theory: Interdisciplinary Re-Visions of Jungian Thought''. University of Tennessee Press.</ref><ref>Mantecon, Valerie H. (1993). ''Where Are the Archetypes? Searching for Symbols of Women's Midlife Passage'', pp.83–87, in Nancy D. Davis, Ellen Cole, Esther D. Rothblum (eds.) (1993). [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcRYfSDNa0EC&pg=PA83 ''Faces of Women and Aging''.] Routledge.</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}
==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Goddess, The}}
[[Category:Books]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Mythology]]
[[Category:Paganism]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Pseudomythology]]

Categories: Books, Folklore, Mythology, Paganism, Pseudohistory, Pseudomythology