Galli priests, often temple attendants or servants of Cybele and her female representatives, were eunuchs attired in female garb, with long hair fragrant with ointment (representing the masculine taking on the feminine, based on the story of Attis). Together with priestesses, they celebrated the Great Mother's rites with wild music and dancing until their frenzied excitement found its culmination in self-scourging, self-laceration, or exhaustion. Self-emasculation by candidates for the priesthood sometimes accompanied this delirium of worship. They would accept flagellation by women for the sins of the patriarchy (male dominance).

Other Goddesses that people worshipped throughout history were Aphrodite from Cyprus, Astarte from Phoenicia, Demeter from Mycenae, Ishtar from Assyria, Kali from India and Ostara, a Norse Goddess of fertility.

Today, many in western civilization look at such religions of old as being based on fables and mythology. Yet, many are joining New Age religions that center around the same beliefs of the Goddess religions of old, such as the worshipping of nature. Wicca is one of many earth-based religions. Traditional Wicca was founded by Gerald Gardner, a British civil servant, who wrote a series of books on the religion in the 1940's. It contains references to Celtic deities, symbols, and seasonal days of celebration. As a religion, Wicca is a reconstruction of the pre-Christian religions of Europe, especially Northern Europe (Celtic or Norse traditions), sometimes elsewhere incorporating Greco-Roman and Egyptian traditions.

Many of our western Christian Holidays were in fact founded as Goddess holidays. The Christmas holiday is an adaptation of the pagan winter solstice rites. Called Yule, it was one of the traditional Celtic fire festivals and marked the return of the light after the longest night of the year. Pagans (peasants, rustic people) in northwestern Europe conducted a yearly celebration, which is remarkably similar to the Christmas we know today. The Christmas Tree is left over from the pagan winter solstice rites. As Europe was evangelized by Christians, the pagan holiday was replaced with a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Christ. Most Biblical scholars believe that Christ was in fact born in September but since there was already a celebration in December, Christmas was substituted for Yule.

Easter is another Christian holiday that was originally based on Goddess worship. Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Easter falls in the Spring, right around the Vernal Equinox. Spring has been, and is, the season for much merrymaking and fun, much of the time with an emphasis on sexual fertility. Easter falls on the first Sunday subsequent to the first full moon after the vernal equinox (March 21). Thus, it can occur as early as March 22nd and as late as April 25th.