The Goddess and the Serpent (Part 2)

[Guest guest]

(Continued from previous post...)

 

By contrast, the Hindu image of Nageshwari, the Serpent Goddess is

free of these negative associations. As noted in Nora's introduction

on the Group's homepage, She is an almost wholly beneficent deity.

And doesn't it just "feel" right that She should be? For probably

10,000 years of human history, the serpent was not a negative symbol;

the Old Testament -- in its zeal to wipe out the ancient Goddess

cults of Canaan -- essentially flipped the symbolism on its head.

Ancient images were given new interpretations -- but humankind's

genetic memory (Jung's "Collective Unconscious") is strong:

Intellectual redefinitions of a symbol as old as humanity cannot that

easily change our instinctive reactions. As Joseph Campbell observed:

 

"There is ... an ambivalence inherent in many of the basic symbols of

the Bible that no amount of rhetorical stress on the patriarchal

interpretation can suppress. They address a pictorial message to the

heart that exactly reverses the verbal message addressed to the

brain -- and this nervous discord inhabits both Christianity and

Islam as well as Judaism, since they too share the legacy of the Old

Testament."

 

Why did this happen? Simple: In the Bible, the "story of Eve is in

part the story of the displacing of the Mother Goddess by the Father

God," Baring and Cashford write.

 

"Demythologizing a Goddess is a subtle process whereby the [holiness]

that once belonged to Her is withdrawn and clothes another figure, in

this case Yahweh [the 'jealous God' of the Old Testament]. Insofar as

She was formerly also Creation or Nature Herself, the demythologizing

process extends to the whole of nature, which becomes, like Her,

fallen and cursed." The Goddess becomes woman, woman becomes cursed,

and woman and all of nature are given to man to possess and rule

over. Lovely, eh?

 

Of course, such an interpretation is a trap for the overly literal

and concrete mind, and much less beautiful and inspiring than a true

interpretation in keeping with the ancient symbolism. From this wider

viewpoint, the tale of Genesis becomes a fine parable describing the

first great cultural shift of humanity -- from its hunter/gatherer

origins into the first permanent agricultural civilizations. That is,

the birth of human consciousness -- the moment when the human

intellect created the duality, which enables civilizations to develop

and grow -- but which cut us off from Nature and the Unity of the

Cosmos.

 

The role of Shaktism, of Hinduism -- of virtually any mystical

religious practice on Earth -- is to reclaim that Unity; that Yoga.

 

In his book, "You Shall Be as Gods," Erich Fromm writes: "Adam and

Eve, at the beginning of their evolution, are bound to blood and

soil; they are still 'blind.' But 'their eyes are opened' after they

acquire the knowledge of good and evil. With this knowledge, the

original harmony with nature is broken. Man begins the process of

individuation and cuts his ties with nature. In fact, he and nature

become enemies, not to be reconciled until man has become fully

human. With this first step of severing the ties between man and

nature, history -- and alienation -- begins. … This is not the story

of the 'fall' of man, but of his awakening -- and thus, of the

beginning of his rise."

 

Sadhana is the practice by which we regain this lost Unity. And

Shakti Sadhana -- the mystical religious practice that places the

Goddess at its center -- is an especially powerful step toward that

goal. That is why, in Shakti Sadhana, we say that it is not

necessary -- or advisable -- to deny or reject the world in the

course of one's spiritual strivings. Whereas non-mystical forms of

Christianity and Islam tend to offer the Paradise of Unity with the

Divine only after death, Hinduism teaches that you can have it here

and now. And for that matter, Jesus -- himself a great Yogi, when

taken at his word rather than the later dogma that grew up around

him -- taught the same thing, in words that any Shakta would readily

endorse: "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold,

the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:20-21.)

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 8/5/2002 12:23:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

devi_bhakta writes:

 

> Why did this happen? Simple: In the Bible, the "story of Eve is in

> part the story of the displacing of the Mother Goddess by the Father

> God,"

>

>

 

Awww man I really love your posts! This is something I have mulled over a

great deal myself. The idea of the pictures in the Bible symbolically

speaking to the heart whereas the ideas of the church countering this ring

very true and I wish to offer my interpretation here, if I may be so bold;-)

 

In the begininng, in Eden man lives in Harmony with nature and the energy of

nature symbolized by the serpent, a symbol of life/power for all cultures and

Eve the mother...

 

A jealous god who is by no means at the very top of things (he is only

creator remember and wishes to keep us locked into matter as it were instead

of acheiving liberation) damns Adam and Eve for "becoming like Gods knowing

Good and Evil"

 

Good and Evil are opposite pillars like light/darkness creation/destruction

life/death etc. To become a living god you must transcend the law of

opposites. The Tree itself in the garden is also a powerful spiritual symbol

of life and knowledge unfolding. This we all know about.

.....

The Beginning Is Also The End! In Revelation what happens??? I see this:

 

Like a pedulum the negative current of a religion which demonizes nature and

the God within perishes! It is not "the world" that is destroyed, but the

Christian world. The two most prominent figures of Revalation are the Scarlet

woman "whore of heaven" and THE BEAST. These are the same two archetypes

which are demonized in the Bible's very beginning!

 

She appears crowned with 12 stars (zodiac) and charming the masses Hmmmm.

People worship "the dragon" as God. These are symbols for the spiritual

renaissance occuring now!

 

There is a passage which describes the earth opening and Apollyon commanding

locusts. Apollyon is another name for APOLLO the Greek Solar Deity and any

nature religion orbits about a Solar deity who stands as a key figure.

 

What I see perfectly well illustrated is a shift back to Paganism and the

religion of nature/knowledge and away from the monotheistic trend of thought

which demonizes nature and claims God is without and not within.

 

The symbolism fits very well and I am sure the church fathers would have

burned me alive for such a thought, but it is what I definitely see and

looking at current events with Christianties waning power and a return to

other forms of Spirtuality the Goddess and The Beast are certainly making a

comeback. Being a devotee of Shiva and Shakti I can only see parallels in

this and it is not Death or finality by any means, but a new Dawn-a time for

spiritual rebirth.

 

The monotheists are the only ones who speak of a final Armeggedon where

everything perishes permanently. My European ancestors with Ragnarok and

other apocalyptic myths along with the Hindusand their ideas of the Yugas

speak only of a death in a corrupt time which leads to rebirth. It is the

rigid and oppresive monotheists who perish with their limited thinking and

the religion of the Goddess which again prevails!

 

At the bibles beginning the Christian God demonizes nature worship

andhumanity entered a spiritual and creative dark age. At the end the

oppressed symbols of life return with a vengeance to show us that we can have

salvation while still alive and we enter the garden once more.

 

 

 

 

 

Aum Krim Kali

 

William

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Namaskar William!

 

*** Awww man I really love your posts! ***

 

Wow, thank you! I appreciate you kindness. And I thank you for your

excellent posts as well. Your latest raised another few thoughts in

my mind, and so I'd like to take a moment and clarify what I see as

Shaktism's attitude toward the other world faiths.

 

You write *** I see this [in the symbolism of Genesis and

Revelation]: ... It is not "the world" that is destroyed, but the

Christian world. ...These are symbols for the spiritual renaissance

occuring now! ***

 

Your analysis of the Biblical books of Genesis and Revelation is

astute. It is indeed enlightening to think of the books as

symbolizing, respectively, the creation and destruction of

the "oppositional" approach to religious dogma: i.e., light vs. dark;

male vs. female; good vs. evil; etc. But you know, I tend to read all

of it not as an objective description of what will happen to the

world, but rather a *symbolic* exploration of what will happen to the

individual who undertakes serious spiritual practice -- i.e. sadhana.

 

In my last post, I spoke of Christianity's Jesus as a yogi. But what

we think of today as institutional "Christianity" is mainly the work

of St. Paul, who wrote the most influential *interpretive* books of

the New Testament; which were then further cooked up and perverted by

medieval theologians like Augustine -- and finally we end up with a

nasty dogma, propounded and enforced by massive corporate entities

like the Catholic and Protestant churches, with a vested interest in

maintaining the status quo. Under all that weight of history and

dogma, however, the historical Jesus --a gifted Yogi whom Hindus can

understand as readily as Shankara or Ramakrishna -- can still be

heard clearly.

 

In fact, I could push my theory even further, and suggest that Jesus

was -- like any true Yogi -- speaking very precisely the language of

Shiva-Shakti. Exhibit A: Take the ancient Oxyrhynchus Manuscript of

the Gospels -- a primary source drawn upon by the ancient Church

fathers in tailoring the New Testament that has come down to us.

Asked how one reaches the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus replies as one who

truly believes (as do the Shaktas) that the Earth is divinity

incarnate and that all of Nature is holy:

 

"The fowls of the air and the beasts, whatever is beneath the Earth

or upon the Earth, and the fishes of the sea, these they are that

draw you [toward Heaven]. And the Kingdom of Heaven is within you and

whosoever knoweth himself shall find it. And, having found it, ye

shall know yourselves that ye are sons and heirs of the Father, the

Almighty, and shall know yourselves the ye are in God and God in you."

 

Now, don't be put off by the male-centric language. Trust me, I

wouldn't be quoting it here unless I had a Shakta point in mind. You

see, Jesus is simply using the male idiom of his time to explain that

humanity is the son of God, the Father -- just as Shaktism (and every

ancient Goddess religion) sees all humanity are the children of the

Mother. But Jesus was a great Yogi whose insight extended beyond the

confining Male paradigm of his time. In the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

(also rejected by the ancient Church Fathers), Jesus sounds like a

*real* Shakta when he speaks of the relationship between spirit and

matter:

 

"When you make the two one, and when you make the inner as the outer

and the outer as the inner and the above as the below, and when you

make the male and female into a single one, so that the male will not

be male and the female not be female .... then you shall enter the

Kingdom." (Logion 22)

 

And again, he offers an unforgettable image of Divine Immanence:

 

"Cleave a piece of wood, I am there; lift up the stone and you will

find Me there." (Logion 77)

 

So my belief, William, is not that any one religion is on the verge

of destruction -- but my hope is that dogma and intolerance of

opposing views is on the verge of destruction. Our focus is upon the

Divine Feminine here in this Group; but we do not condemn or

disparage any other honest and tolerant approaches to the Divine.

 

There is no need for dogmatic Christianity to disappear -- let it

remain in place for those who need it and find comfort in it. But let

us also realize that -- at the individual level -- all of these

labels of belief cease to have concerte meaning. After all, the Hindu

mystic (or Tantric), the Buddhist mystic (or Tantric), the Muslim

mystic (or Sufi), the Christian mystic (or Gnostic) -- all are

approaching the same Unity with the Divinity within, where all

oppositions and differences are burned away.

 

Aum Maatangyai Namahe