Women, Tantra & the Goddess

Catalog description

Taught by GTU. One of the most popular areas of research in the academic study of Hinduism is Goddess Studies (Sakta Studies), particularly in terms of its relationship to women's lives. The theological vision of the Divine Feminine was first put forth by a women sage/seer in canonical Rig Veda (circa 2000 BCE) in a hymn that is still important today. This course focuses on goddesses and women, and on power as feminine, in one of the oldest systematized traditions that supports women's spiritual leadership. Sakta cosmology, ontology, narrative theology, and traditions of spiritual praxis have, according to current scholarship, led to women's empowerment in historical and contemporary times. How does such a conception of the divine feminine function in various textual, historical, ritual, and social contexts? We will critically engage interdisciplinary methodologies to understand the implications of a powerful divine feminine in these milieus. The course will examine the varied constructions and conceptions of the gendered divine, and the sophisticated semiotics involved in Sakta-tantra praxis, which posits 'identity with the divine' (Sa aha?; brahmanasmi, etc.) as a central component of self-understanding and realization. We will use the doctrines and practices related to Feminine Deity in Buddhist Vajrayana, which shares many principles, practices, and approaches with Saktism, as our discursive partner in interreligious discourse on Sakta-tantra. This interdisciplinary course will use the methodologies of university disciplines such as Ritual Studies, Contemplative Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Women's Studies, and academic Hindu and Buddhist Studies. This course is taught by PhD student Laura Dunn with a Newhall Award, under the supervision of Rita Sherma.