From the notebooks: the Great Goddess

[pjthompson]

From September 24, 1995:


When I hear the way in which some people speak of the Great Goddess it makes me cranky and ill at sorts because they are using her to batter away at the ruling power structure, using her as a weapon. And she is the antithesis of a weapon.

We are all part of this male-dominated society. We can't escape its influence. We are thinking like men or we would never try to use the Earth Mother as a weapon. She abides and is bountiful; she is the life-giver; she ends life, certainly, but it is in the natural cycle of things, not in the murdering of.

Before we can truly understand her, we must teach ourselves to think in new ways. And that is the hardest trick to learn. Ultimately, how can you un-teach what you have ingested with your mother's milk? By being conscious of the Great Mother, by constantly asking yourself questions and looking at your motivations, by speaking only after consideration and not out of emotive reaction.

Comments

[wldhrsjen3.livejournal.com]

I love that.

[pjthompson]

Thank you. Sometimes I surpise myself. :-)

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

What irritates me most is that they are basing it on something that is basically guesswork with a big dollop of wishful thinking; that there was a golden age when women dominated and the Goddess was the big thing and then men spoiled it all. Yes, dating back to the Palaeolithic there is a preponderance of representations of females, probably (but not necessarily) goddess figures - but they are to a very large extent sex objects. Put it this way: when a figurine has emphatically portrayed genitalia but no face (and in many cases no head) that sends definite signals to me.

The interpretations of the Goddess as essentially benevolent also are not based on any evidence other than "anything else is obviously disinformation produced by domineering males". It might be so, but again it might not. Again, the Cretan figurine with the snakes scares the willies out of me. And I find it downright interesting that the domineering males had so many war goddesses.

I don't think the way forward is by concentrating on either a masculine or a feminine deity, as that invites a polarisation that I don't find helpful. Moreover, round where I live now, the old beliefs, that appear to go incredibly far back, focus on "t' Owd Woman" and "t' Owd Lad", and though both are powerful, and the latter manifested himself clearly as recently as the 1950s, they are both to be feared and placated more than anything else.

Sorry if I'm raining on your parade, but some years back I got an overdose of Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic representations which left me re-examining a lot of things.

[pjthompson]

I don't disagree with your about the wishful thinking--I don't particularly buy the "Golden Time of the Goddess before men spoiled it" scenario, either. There may have been a time when we were more concerned with the cycles of nature than conquering, but nobody knows, and even then there were probably disputes about who got what land. And yes, there are a great number of fearful goddesses out there which need to be appeased, but there are also some benevolent ones as well. Some true mother goddesses. Besides, I was speaking here more towards a mindset and overcoming cultural programming rather than the History of Everything Everywhere at All Times.

Put it this way: when a figurine has emphatically portrayed genitalia but no face (and in many cases no head) that sends definite signals to me.

Your reading is entirely possible, but it's just as possible that you're projecting your prejudices just as hard as the people you despise. I think the big butts and vulvas, the bulging breasts are just as likely fertility symbols, a seeking to make the earth as bountiful as a very fertile woman.

Again, the Cretan figurine with the snakes scares the willies out of me. And I find it downright interesting that the domineering males had so many war goddesses.

Again, that may be your projection. To me she represents more of a "trance goddess," gripped by some powerful narcotic or spirit or being ridden by some god, rather then some aggressive, warlike female. But I don't know any more than you do. No one does. Everybody reading into things, with no real evidence either way.

I don't think the way forward is by concentrating on either a masculine or a feminine deity, as that invites a polarisation that I don't find helpful.

I don't believe I said anything of the sort. In fact, I like to tell people I worship the Holy Hermaphrodite, that God is neither male nor female, but both in unison. Again, not the point of my post. My post was about examining one's own prejudices and overcoming cultural programming.

focus on "t' Owd Woman" and "t' Owd Lad", and though both are powerful, and the latter manifested himself clearly as recently as the 1950s, they are both to be feared and placated more than anything else.

Yes, I've read up on folkways quite extensively. You might want to be careful, though, projecting the way things are in Britain as being the absolute role model for the way things are everywhere on the planet.

Sorry if I'm raining on your parade,

I'm a grownup girl and realized some time ago not everyone thinks the way I do.

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

I highly doubt the Cretan goddess had anything to do with war as there is no archaeological evidence to suggest the Minoans were a waring people. Quite the contrary, actually. What she represents remains a complete mystery.

Interesting post, and I'm loving the discussion it inspired.

[pjthompson]

Yes about the Minoans and about not knowing. There was a good book that came out a few years back in which working archaeologists (all of them, I think, women) took on the whole Goddess issue. They examined just what hard, scientific fact we have about all these cultures as a kind of counter to the wild popular speculation. Essentially, there's just so much we don't know that anyone can pour almost any kind of speculation into the well. I wish I could remember the name of the book. Amazon didn't help me much. I'll have to go home and see if it's on the shelves or if it's still one of the ones in boxes (because I have no space for them).

[pjthompson]

The name of the book I mentioned was Ancient Goddesses, edited by Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris.

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Sweet! Thanks! I'll have to look it up.

[helios137.livejournal.com]

I worship the Holy Hermaphrodite, that God is neither male nor female, but both in unison.

What a great way of looking at it. I totally can relate. One of the reasons I got into alchemy was because of the hermaphrodite. I touched upon this topic here: Venus and Mars

And of course all of this is much more than just sexuality. But there's no explaining it. You either dig it or your don't. (Trying to dust off and revive the term "dig it", that wonderful term of yore.)

[pjthompson]

Holy Hermaphrodites cheese off some people, though, who are vested in to making God one sex or the other. Such is life.

The way I look at it is this: the divine is either both or neither. There's no such thing as a half of creation.

And yes, sexuality is just one aspect. I can not only dig it, I think it's groovy. ;-)

[helios137.livejournal.com]

It has been my personal experience that the God-Is-Male is more a Protestant thing. I went to a Catholic grammar school and the feminine aspect of God was everywhere, from the sisters who taught us, to the Virgin Mary, to the multitude of female saints. Yeah, they were technically only there to intercede, but if I prayed to Mary, mother of God and she answered my prayers, then was there really a difference between worshiping her or a pagan Goddess? Not really. As a late teen and in my twenties I became Episcopalian and then later Presbyterian. Looking back on it now, I note a marked decrease in the emphasis of Mary and the saints in the Protestant churches I belonged to. Embracing the idea of the Divine which encompasses both sexes is much easier as a result of my Catholic primary education days.

[helios137.livejournal.com]

A beautiful post. You don't have to be a woman to appreciate your words of liberation either.

[pjthompson]

Thanks--and I meant it to be inclusive of men. What inspired it in the first place, way back when, was some people using the goddess for simplistic arguments, like "Men Bad, Women Good."

There's good and bad in both sexes. Indeed, inside each and every human heart. How can we say that one half of creation is bad, vile, and base while the other is transcendent? We can't, not and be honest with ourselves and the Universe.