International Academy HAGIA for Modern Matriarchal Studies

The International Academy HAGIA was founded in 1986. It is dedicated to the exploration of the long history of matriarchal societies and cultures. Historically, matriarchal cultures have existed worldwide and continue to exist today in different continents.

It is only recently that research in matriarchy has become an international field of exploration, one that includes all of the socio-cultural sciences, and for the first time, this research has been situated within a scientific framework. Heide Goettner-Abendroth has been working in this field for all her life, and is a well-known matriarchy scholar nationally and internationally.  She has developed a coherent theoretical basis that combines the different aspects of matriarchy research, convincingly presenting it as a new socio-cultural science. In this way she has become the founding mother of Modern Matriarchal Studies.

Her own matriarchy research, and that of international guest lecturers, is presented dynamically and attractively in her seminars, as well as in international study trips offered by Academy HAGIA.

In terms of social and cultural structures, matriarchy research opens up a fundamentally different perspective than that offered by the societies many of us are living in. It makes us aware of the patterns in our own patriarchal societies and personal lifestyles; these can then be understood, confronted and changed. New ways of thinking and experience become possible, and visions can develop that shed light on the paths to the future. The study of matriarchy can touch the person as a whole, and above all, it is meant to change society as a whole.

Therefore, the activities in the Academy HAGIA are at once intellectual, political, artistic, and spiritual.  Every Academy event includes aspects of both history and society, and creates a living connection to the natural world around us.