The Search for the Divine Mother by Gwenaël Verez

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The Search for the Divine Mother

(Gwenaël Verez)

 

This book looks at our religion and spirituality from a historical

viewpoint.

 

Many traditions attach great importance to the feminine dimension of

the Divine. It is She who is said to give liberation, spiritual

rebirth, that is to say Union with the Self. The most significant

example is the knowledge of the Kundalini in India.

 

We may wonder why the Western religions have attributed an

exclusively masculine, patriarchal character to the Divine. Several

thousand years ago, was not the only form of Divinity, the object of

veneration, feminine and maternal?

 

What is responsible for this neglect, this confiscation? Has the

original message of these religions been distorted to the point that

we are today unaware of the Mother-Goddess?

 

And could the Age of Aquarius, which is said to mark a change of

consciousness on a spiritual level, perhaps be the moment where

humanity is able to re-discover this awareness of the Universal

Mother?

 

This book offers answers to these topical questions.

 

 

Introduction

The search for the Divine is an eternal quest. Man is constantly

seeking. Today, perhaps more than ever before, millions search

tirelessly in bookshops and libraries, and travel the pilgrim routes

hoping to find the " Way " .

 

This growth in the number of seekers of Truth coincides with a

growing doubt about the fate of humankind.

 

At the dawn of the third millennium, this planet of ours is at its

lowest ebb. Economies are in irreversible decline, leaving millions

of people, both in the developed countries and in those described

as " developing " , without work or means of subsistence. The ecosystem

is our kilter, with global warming and pollution increasing at an

incredible rate. Most countries have reached a political stalemate.

The ageing and corrupt democracies are no longer viewed as models,

their citizens being no happier than people elsewhere. The use of

illicit substances, anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants and hypnotics

bear witness to a deep and widespread distress in the " advanced "

societies. The general disintegration of moral values is such that

younger generations have little awareness of any such thing as

morality. New diseases have appeared.

 

The West is mainly responsible for these evils, since it is the

unbridled desires of the West that have led to the unrestrained

plundering of the planet's resources, resulting in terrible

imbalances. Materialism, and rationalism based entirely on money,

have justified world-wide disasters of every ilk.

 

Throughout history there have been, of course, high points and low

points. Civilizations have declined into decadence, others have

risen. But today the situation has changed, for now problems are

suffered on a planetary scale: cultures have become world-wide. The

chances of escape are slender, for there is no strong international

authority. Selfishness and pressure groups of every complexion

prevent collective solutions to problems. No worthwhile ideology has

emerged to transform society. Democracies are incapable of producing

men with the moral status of a Lincoln, a Martin Luther King or a

Gandhi, men who could become models. The ideological and social

changes taking place whenever elected political parties replace one

another compound difficulties rather than solve them.

 

We are caught up in a maelstrom of events, which is carrying us out

of our depth.

 

But seekers of Truth see a different future. They mirror the heavenly

light, which restores balance, and establishes, at last, a Golden

Age. Would the Divine allow Creation to founder?

 

The only thing that matters is to change mankind, to bring about our

inner transformation, so that we no longer fall back into our

habitual failings. Everything suggests that we are on the threshold

of a profound upheaval. The Age of Aquarius is at hand. It has been

said that the 21st century will be spiritual or will not be, at all.

It is obvious that only a spiritual power can bring about the

transformation of those who seek progress.

 

This spiritual power is not as it is generally imagined to be. It

comes from no pope, no mullah, or rabbi, or Brahmin. For centuries

such figures have failed to improve human nature. If this power does

exist, it must be available to everyone equally. It must be

universal.

 

Spiritual traditions, particularly those of the East, seek to

demonstrate that this spiritual power is motherly by nature, and that

is exists as energy, present within each of us. In India it is known

as the " Inner Goddess " .

 

The word " Goddess " tends to take us back to the schoolroom, to evoke

the ancient Graeco-Roman Goddesses: Venus, Minerva, Athena - those

Divine figures who seem all too human. God is transcendent, the

prophets tell us; He has no human form. And yet we are also told that

God created man in His own image!

 

The manifold representations of the Virgin Mary in churches around

the world reflect a longing for the eternal feminine. The Mother of

Jesus, on whom the devotion of millions is focused, was never, of

course, officially considered to be a Goddess. The canons of the

faith are categorical about this. And yet, She ascended into heaven,

like Her Son, who was Divine. Where then was the distinction between

them? Especially since the praises addressed to Her were to the Queen

of Salvation, Regina Salutis, She who sets us free.

 

This idea of redemption, of spiritual liberation, is shared with the

most ancient traditions of the East. In India, it is She, the

Goddess, who grants this liberation. The Guru, or spiritual master,

is only the intermediary, the person who passes on this spiritual

experience. In China, it is the Goddess of compassion, Kuan Yin, who

grants salvation.

 

Why, then, have people in our part of the planet attributed

exclusively patriarchal characteristics to the Divine for the past

three thousand years? Ten thousand years ago the sole form of

Divinity, the sole object of veneration, here as elsewhere, was

feminine and maternal.

 

What has caused us to forget? Why was the original message of

Christianity distorted, leaving us ignorant of the Divine Mother? Can

we not detect in the Judeo-Christian sacred texts - and in the

countless works of art they inspire - the veiled and covert presence

of the Universal Mother, hidden in symbols, but readily decoded? Did

not the Gnostics and the early Christians, about whom so much has

come to light through the recent discovery of the " apocryphal " texts,

venerate the Goddess, and did they not also identify Her with an

inner power able to grant liberation?

 

Those who seek the Truth are rediscovering this hidden reality.

Through it the West is once more " returning " to the way of the

Goddess and, through Her, gaining access to the wonders of the New

Age. Could this age of ours, following the Age of the Father (Yahweh)

and the Age of the Son (Christ), be the Age of the Mother?

 

The Search for the Divine Mother

(Gwenaël Verez)