“Collective Goddesses in Northern Europe, Part 1: The Matronen”

with Dawn Work-MaKinne

Thursday,  September 24, 2026 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time  

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Abstract: There is a recurring theme in the religious expression of Germanic Europe. It appears again and again over the last two thousand years. This theme is the veneration of the collective sacred female. What is this? It is the idea that deity is a sisterhood, honored as a collective. They may or may not have separate names, but their action is taken as a group, and their worship is as a group. The earliest example of this religious expression is the Deae Matronae, the matron-goddesses, from the 2nd to 4th centuries CE. They are often described as Celtic goddesses, but they also have a particularly strong veneration in Germany.

There we find temples, names and inscriptions on stone altars. The religion is truly syncretic; the goddesses’ names are Germanic or Celtic, but the religion is carried out in a Roman context. Without the Roman presence along the Rhine River, the German Matronae might never be known. My work on the collective sacred female in Germanic Europe also includes the Old Norse Norns and Disir and the Drei Heiligen Jungfrauen (three holy maidens), a collective of Roman Catholic Saints well known over Germanic Europe. We learned of them in a recent Scholar Salon on the Bethen in Salzkammergut, given by Krista Rodin.

Dawn Work-MaKinne is an independent scholar focusing on the sacred female in Germanic Europe and on animism and ancestor veneration in the U.S. Midwest. She holds a Ph.D. in Women’s Studies in Religion from the Union Institute, and her work on the collective sacred female in Germanic Europe formed the basis of her dissertation. The dissertation won the Kore Award 2010 from the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, and the Marvin B. Sussman Award from the Union Institute for excellence in dissertation scholarship. Dawn plans two additional ASWM Scholar Salons, to delve into the Norns and Disir, of old Norse religion, and the Drei Heiligen Jungfrauen, scattered over Germany, Austria and Italy. Dawn’s current research focuses on the practice of animism and ancestor religion on U.S. land gained by genocide and treaty violation. She is especially interested right now in early Germanic calendar systems. 

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Upcoming Salon

Scholar Salon 103:

Thursday, September 24 at 3 PM Eastern Time

The Land is Our Mother: The Indigenous Euro-Slavic Beliefs

with Patricia Robin Woodruff

This Salon recording will also be available to members when processed after the event.