The Goddess in Pop Culture

Last updated on: September 16, 2015 at 6:01 pm by Jen McConnel

The Goddess in Pop Culture 2015-09-16T18:01:50-04:00 Jen McConnel

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I love when magic or goddesses pop up in pop culture (which is probably one of the reasons that four of my YA novels feature various goddesses as prominent characters), and the new Indian TV show “Mahadevi” is pushing all my happy buttons. It’s got it all; a girl who’s named for a goddess she was devoted to in a past life, but who in this present life can’t really buy into the spirituality of her goddess; villains who are a carry-over from that past life; and “deceit, love and devotion of epic proportions.”

“Mahadevi” airs on Zee Kannada in India.

Seriously, sign me up! I’m hoping the show will air on the Internet at some point, but in the meantime, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic for goddesses and magic in American pop culture. Sure, there are shows like “American Horror Story”, but I’d much rather curl up with something like “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” or “Charmed”: these shows offered upbeat magic and relatively easy solutions, even when the problems are tremendous.

But what about goddesses? The only time I can think of goddesses mainstreamed in recent American pop culture is “Wonder Woman”, but it’s easy to ignore the mythological underpinnings and focus on the classic super hero (or, in this case, heroine) plot. Reading about “Mahadevi” has me seriously craving something similar over here on my corner of the globe, and if you can think of any fun instances of goddesses popping up in popular culture, please share!

Previous Post

September 14, 2015

Magical Monday: Moments of Stillness