“Fertility-cults” is the term commonly used by scholars and religious authorities to describe ancient goddess religions that included sacred sexual practices. Stone argues that this label is misleading and derogatory, as it reduces complex religious systems to their sexual components while ignoring their broader spiritual, social, and economic functions. The term implies that these religions were primarily focused on crude magical thinking aimed at increasing agricultural and human reproduction. 

Stone contends that calling these ancient faiths “fertility-cults” reflects the bias of later patriarchal religions that sought to delegitimize goddess worship by characterizing it as primitive and sexually deviant. She suggests that if ancient religions are to be labeled based on their attitudes toward sexuality, modern religions that associate shame with sexual reproduction might more accurately be called “sterility-cults.”

Matriarchy in When God Was a Woman refers to a social system in which women hold primary political power and authority, with mothers serving as heads of families and extending this leadership role into community and state governance. Stone distinguishes matriarchy from matrilineality, emphasizing that matriarchy specifically involves women wielding actual governmental and decision-making power rather than simply inheriting property through the female line. 

Stone argues that true matriarchal societies existed in various goddess-worshipping ancient cultures, where women not only controlled religious practices but also held supreme political authority. The author uses evidence from classical sources like Diodorus Siculus, who described societies in Libya and Ethiopia where women carried arms, made political decisions, and held all governmental offices while men performed domestic duties. Stone contends that matriarchal systems were systematically dismantled by patriarchal invaders from the north who sought to establish male dominance and suppress the goddess religions that supported women’s political power.

Matrilineal descent refers to a kinship system in which family lineage, inheritance, and social identity are traced through the female line from mother to daughter rather than from father to son. In the context of When God Was a Woman, Stone argues that matrilineal descent systems formed the social foundation for goddess worship in ancient societies. According to Stone’s analysis, these systems developed naturally in cultures that had not yet understood the male role in biological reproduction, leading people to view women as the sole creators of life. 

In matrilineal societies, children belonged to their mother’s clan or tribe, and property, names, territorial rights, and religious authority passed through women. Stone connects this social structure directly to religious belief, arguing that when the primary parent was female and ancestry was traced through women, it became logical for the supreme deity to also be conceived as female.

Qadishtu refers to the sacred women who served in ancient goddess temples throughout the Near and Middle East, particularly in Canaanite and other Semitic cultures. The term literally translates to “sanctified women” or “holy women” (204), emphasizing their sacred status within the religious community. These women participated in ritual sexual practices as part of their worship of the goddess, viewing sexual union as a holy act that honored the divine feminine principle of creation and fertility. 

Stone emphasizes that qadishtu were not sex workers in the modern sense but respected religious practitioners who often came from wealthy families and maintained significant social standing. The deliberate mistranslation of qadishtu as “temple prostitutes” by later scholars reflects the influence of patriarchal religious attitudes that sought to diminish and sexualize the legitimate spiritual roles these women held in ancient societies (204).

Regicide refers to the ritualized killing of temporary kings who served as consorts to high priestesses in ancient goddess-worshipping societies. Stone argues that this practice originated in Neolithic and early historic periods when male consorts were chosen annually by priestesses representing female deities on Earth. These men would participate in sacred marriage ceremonies with the high priestess, gaining temporary royal status and political authority through this union. At the end of a specified period, typically one year, the consort-king would be ritually sacrificed, often violently, while the high priestess remained in her permanent position of power. 

Stone presents evidence from various ancient civilizations, including Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, and Crete, to demonstrate that this custom was widespread across goddess-worshipping cultures. The practice eventually evolved into symbolic substitutes such as the sacrifice of effigies, animals, or human substitutes, as patriarchal Indo-European tribes gained influence and established permanent hereditary kingship systems that replaced the original matrilineal power structure.