Highly feminist Wiccan tradition, in which the Goddess is given distinctly greater importance than the God, or even supplants Him entirely. In such groups (the great majority of Dianic circles), the God is completely absent and the Goddess is worshipped as complete unto Herself.
The name springs partly from the legends of the Greek Goddess Diana (known for her independence and her frequent disdain for the company of men), and partly from the “Diana” of Charles Godfrey Leland’s Aradia. Dianic Witches don’t all (or always) worship Diana specifically; frequent favorites of theirs include Aradia, Lilith, Isis, Ishtar, Hecate, the Morrighan, Morgan Le Fay, and really, pretty much any Goddess from any culture.
The Dianic practice of omitting the God or even denying Him completely sets them apart from the rest of Neopaganism – their system is lacking in the duality/polarity that forms the cornerstone of much of the rest of Pagan belief, and is effectively monotheistic as well. The all-embracing Dianic Goddess has been described as “Yahweh in drag” by more than one commentator.
Unsurprisingly, Dianics have a reputation for lesbianism and female separatism that is greater than deserved. Some Dianic circles allow men; practically all of them allow heterosexual women as full members. Dianics also have a reputation for humorless feminism; the standard joke, “How many Dianics does it take to screw in a light bulb?” is normally answered with “That’s not funny!”, taking its cue from the mainstream anti-feminist joke.
Unlike most other Wiccan covens, Dianic groups are usually flatly anti-hierarchical; the position of High Priestess generally rotates among the coven membership from ritual to ritual, and may be absent entirely if a particular ritual can be done without one.
Dianics also tend to indulge in a special exercise of the usual Pagan disdain for scholarship by treating the Margaret-Murray-inspired “Great Golden Age of Matriarchy” hypothesis as an established fact. (Not that you won’t find it espoused by lots of other Wiccans... but for the Dianics, it’s particuarly de rigeur.)
Dianics rarely wear the pentacle as their symbol, preferring instead to wear the labrys, Cretan or Minoan labyrinth images, Lunar emblems including but not limited to crescents, and of course, any of various Goddess images.
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