The Shakta Heritage

[Guest guest]

EARLIEST DIVINITY

 

Her image has graced Stone Age caves. Her idols have stood I ancient

temples. Hers was the first sacred form to be moulded by man.

 

In Japan, She was Amaterasu., the sun-goddess; in Greece, She was

Demeter, the corn-goddess; in Egypt, She was Isis, the river-goddess.

The Vikings called Her Frejya, the Eskimos called Her Sedna, the

Romans called Her Artemis. She was the Mexican Coatlicue, the Tibetan

Tara, the Babylonian Ishtar, the Indian Shakti.

 

In every place She was the same:Life-bestower, nourisher, lover,

comforter, and final killer. She was the Mother Goddess who resided

in dark caves or sat on pink lotuses surrounded by birds and beasts,

spinning the web of life and kneading the earth with life-giving sap.

 

Archeological excavations across Europe and West Asia have revealed

prehistoric paintings and carvings of women with exaggerated

feminine

features -- indicating the awe of the ancient artists with the

life-giving capacity of woman. Some figures actually show women

giving

birth.

 

The role of man in the creative process is spasmotic, momentary. It

is

the woman who nutures the fetus in the womb and nourishes the newborn

on the breast. She was therefore seen in early societies as an

extension of the Earth, another mysterious manifestation of cosmic

fecundity.

 

In the rhythmic cycles of Nature -- the rising and setting of the

sun,

the waxing and waning of the moon. the change of seasons, the dance

of

tides and the shifting fertility of women -- man sensed the unending

transformations of the Goddess: from seductive nymph through tender

matron to stern crone.

 

DOMESTICATION OF THE WILD WOMAN

 

So long as man lived in villages, in close touch with Nature, her

understood the interplay of creative and destructive forces. He

accepted the dynamism and diversity of the world around him as the

essence of the Goddess.

 

But then he began migrating and moving into cities, trying to escape

the vagaries of the natural world. Nature appeared more and more like

a chaotic force to be mastered.

 

Such nomadic and urban thoughts made man turn away from the Mother

Goddess. He sought refuge in a wise, almight Father God, a divine

warrier who would restrain the wildness of Nature and domesticate it

for the benefit of mankind.

 

And so the Mother Goddess, until then free, was given a lord, a

master, a husband. Marriage and maternity became tools to tame her.

Myths emerged of how powerful warrior gods forced wild goddesses into

submission. In Babylon, bards narrated with relish the story of how

Marduk killed the female monster Tiamat and created the Earth out of

her dead body. In Greece, the local goddesses of the plains and

valleys were reduced to nymphs whom the Olympian father god Zeus

seduced or raped.

 

Unattached, the Mother Goddess was feared. Her powers were considered

untamable, hence dangerous. She was invoked only to kill demons. But

as the consort of a male god, she was much more approachable. Her

powers were checked and put to good use.

 

The wild goddess, who continued to dwell outside human settlements,

was associated with disease, death and misfortune. She was warded

away

as a demoness or transformed into an ogress, to be despised by all.

 

This psychological shift was reflected in human society. Woman,

worshipped for her ability to create new life, became a wife. Her

freedom was curtailed. Her faithfulness was touted as the hallmark of

all feminine virtue. She because subservient to her husband's will.

Like the Earth, she became man's property.

 

REJECTION OF THE TEMPTRESS

 

Around 600 BCE there was another noticeable shift in the human psyche

-- from world affirmation to world negation. The shift took place

both

in the East and West. It was the age that saw the rise of Buddhism in

India and Orphism in Europe. No more was worldly life seen as

exciting

or worth exploring -- instead it was perceived as a mire of desire

and

delusions. The mortal, aging, disease-prone body was seen as the

prison of the blissful soul. Man sought moksha - an escape from the

vagaries of Nature, from the cycle of birth and death.

 

He rejected woman as the temptress. She represented worldly life --

children, family, and responsibilities. She was the force that

trapped

the soul on earth. Such beliefs led to further deterioration of the

social status of women and the divine status of the Mother Goddess.

 

The procreative abilities of women were now perceived as profane.

Menstruation was associated with pollution and sickness, something to

be ashamed of. Communities that once publicly celebrated the

emergence

of a child from the mother's womb now shunned the birthing rite.

Sexual symbols were no longer used to rouse the fertility of Nature;

now they aroused disgust.

 

In the monasteries, monks -- who were mostly men -- turned away from

the two principles that sustain Nature: sex and violence. Celibacy

and

non-violence became the means to break free from earthly bondage and

to acquire powers that gave mankind power over Nature itself.

Violence

was only celebrated when it helped impose the religion of the male

gods.

 

THE GODDESS IN INDIA

 

However, religions evolved differently in the East and West.The West

saw life as a constant battle between good and evil, between

materialism and spirituality. All that was undesirable came from the

evil of the flesh. It had to be rejected in favor of the pure soul.

The free, unattached, sensuous aspect of the Goddess was associated

with diabolical forces, with materialism, with evil. The mild,

virginal, chaste aspect was linked to the Divine, to the Spirit --

though she was never equated to the Supreme Divine Principle.

 

In the East, there were no absolutes -- no absolute good and absolute

evil. All that was undesirable came from ignorance; all that was

desirable came from enlightenment. Life was an attempt to harmonize

matter with spirit, the Mother Goddess with the Father God. Man had

the option to either relish the fleeting pleasures of worldly life

with awareness, or to transcend it through realization. Such an

attitude allowed the Mother Goddess cult to flourish, especially in

India, where two distinct, principle traditions evolved -- the Vedic

and the Tantric.

 

Both linked the Goddess to samsara -- the material world, the

manifest

cycle of birth and rebirth, the realm of eternal change. She was the

flow of Energy; the substance that embodies the soul and gives form

and identity to all.

 

As Shakti, the Goddess was supreme untamable Universal Energy. As

Shree, She was the supreme domesticated goddess of fortune. She was

Maya, the supreme unfathomable delusion of existence. She was

Prakriti, Mother Nature, responsible for earthly existence. From her

came material pleasures and worldly powers, kama and artha.

 

The male gods were more closely associated with unmanifest reality,

pure consciousness, the still soul or Paraatmaa. The ascetic Shiva

sought moksha, liberation, from material fetters; while the more

worldly Vishnu propounded the doctrine of dharma, detached

fulfillment

of social obligations.

 

Thus the Goddess and the God stood opposite ends of the metaphysical

spectrum. She represented material reality, her represented spiritual

reality. Together, they gave life fullness and completeness.

 

This material adapted from the book, "Devi: An Introduction" by

Devdutt Pattanaik (Vakils, Feffer & Simns Ltd., Mumbai, 2000)

 

Contributed by Devi Bhakta

[Guest guest]

I am a newcomer and have started at the beginning of these

discussions to try and understand what Skatism is all about.

Penkatali sent me here to get my questions about the Goddess

answered. I was moved by this explanation of Shakta Heritage. It

explains so much about why the Goddess was connected with Nature -

because the woman was the life giver and nurturer; why the

patriarchal societies and religious came as people moved from Nature

into the cities; why the West abandoned Goddess worship in their

dichotomy of right and wrong, and why the East was able to sustain

Goddess worship with the dichotomy of Enlightenment vs Ignorance.

How much preferable it is to fight Ignorance than to call natural

processes evil and fight those.

 

I look forward to studying with this group.

 

Lynn

[Guest guest]

Greetings Lynn

 

Welcome to Shakti Sadhana. Our meetings here is as I believe meant to

be. I hope you will stay and grow together with us under the love,

guidance and the light of Mother.

 

 

OM ParaShaktiye Namaha