Is God A Woman? by Gayle S. Myers

[Guest guest]

Is God A Woman?

by Gayle S. Myers

 

Preposterous, right? If you think so it's time to sit back and review

the evidence. But be careful. You risk shaking the entire foundation

of your belief system and perhaps even worse, recognizing how badly

you've been duped. Women have demanded equal rights on the job and in

the home, but Heaven has still remained a patriarchy. Or has

it?

 

In actuality, there is a ground swell movement throughout this

country taking note of enormous archaeological evidence which

indicates that at one time, God was not thought of as male, but as a

woman. Revered for centuries, she was the Great Mother who gave birth

to all life in the universe. She was no virgin queen, but the fertile

vessel of sexuality and creativity regarded as both sacred and

central.

 

The first archaeological finds in this area were made as early as the

1800s by J. J. Bachoffen. Being both male and chauvinistic to boot,

he sloughed it off as primitive cultures exercising primitive

beliefs. Recent evidence, however, has begun to sing a different tune.

New archaeological finds reveal that far from primitive, these early

mother-worshipping societies seemed to have everything necessary for

civilization. From art to sanitation, they created, farmed,

manufactured and governed within cultures that were as advanced as the

early Greek states. In fact, only one thing was absent from their

societies; warfare. Their cities, though equipped with everything

from temples to drainpipes, had a distinct absence of defensive

walls, their gravesites a remarkable absence of weapons. By all

counts, evidence shows they were both advanced and peaceful, a

combination which may seem as startling as the concept of a feminine

god.

 

God was the Great Mother, and being a mom, the values she espoused

were ones you would expect from a good mother. Nurturing,

cooperation, and an acute reverence for life seemed to be the

foundation of these mother-centered religions.

 

The workshop of this feminine creatrix was not limited to a single

isolated geographic area. In fact, though worshipped under different

names such as Ishtar, Inanna, Isis and Kali, the Great Mother was the

central deity of vast regions encompassing Central Europe, the

Mediterranean, and India. These mother worshipping cultures were

stable and thrived for at least 2,500 years. Within them, women had

power and prestige in both government and religion. Family name and

property were passed through the lineage of the mother. Yet,

despite these facts, there is no archaeological evidence that there

was an oppression of males. Quite the contrary; the games and

activities depicted in their art indicates a valuing of both genders,

as well as an equality and trust between them. However, because they

were reflections of the Great Mother herself, women did tend to

function as the primary leadership. They seemed to do well in this

capacity; the cultures they ruled flourished.

 

Change came to these cultures between 2000 and 1000 B.C., when they

were destabilized by a series of natural disasters in the form of

earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Simultaneously, Northern nomads

began to migrate South. These warlike Indo-European tribes (also

known as Aryans), though generally less culturally advanced, were

fiercer and larger in stature than their agrarian neighbors. They

were quite advanced in warfare and weaponry, seeming to actually

worship these pursuits. Many of their religious motifs centered

around the blade, which they obviously regarded as sacred. They had

horses and war chariots as well, which gave them a lightninglike

strike capacity. Already weakened by geographic cataclysm, and

untrained as they were in warfare, the goddess societies were no

match for the invading tribes. Whole cultures were decimated by these

brutal invaders.

 

The men of the conquered cultures did not fare well with the

invaders. Generally, they were annihilated, often in torturous

manners. Women however, were badly needed by the Indo-Europeans, in

fact the need for them may have been part of their reason for

migration. Thus, many were kept alive to become wives, concubines, or

slaves to the invading tribesmen. As these two radically different

societies blended, so did their religions and mythologies.

 

The conquerors had brought a male dominated religion. The once ruling

Great Mother was reduced in stature to become the wife or consort of

the new prevailing male god. The values of the invaders, instead of

centering around nurturing, creation, and the ability to give life,

revolved around power, warfare, and the ability to take life. Death

and funeral ritual became very important in the blended cultures.

Gravesites of male warriors were elaborate, often containing the

corpses of numerous, seemingly sacrificed women as well as weapons and

possessions. A rigid class stratification emerged that had not been

in evidence in the previous mother-worshipping societies. These vast

changes, all marked by archaeological evidence, seem to have taken

place in a period of a few hundred years. The world as it had been

known was suddenly turned upside down as God the Mother became God

the Father.

 

In the new societies, family name and property were passed through

the line of the father. Since paternity can be difficult to

establish, the new system required a severe restriction of the

movement and freedom of women. They were, in fact, now regarded as

part of the man's property. New laws emerged granting few protections

or rights to women. In many of the new cultures, the penalties for

rape or assaults on women were reduced or eliminated. Often, if

penalties were exacted they were paid to the male to whom the

woman " belonged, " not to the woman herself.

 

In some cultures, the ancient symbols of the Great Mother, the

serpent and the fruit tree, became symbols of evil and man's fall.

Some historians feel this distortion of religious symbolism was

intentionally done to discourage worship of the Great Mother.

Sexuality too, which had been free and open in the mother-centered

societies, became shrouded in darkness and guilt. Woman became viewed

as the great temptress.

 

Though initially a feminine aspect was included in the new religions,

it was eventually eliminated almost completely. Of course, she

occasionally reasserted her presence through cults and mystery

groups. These usually experienced brief periods of power, only to be

resuppressed by the dominant male order. The Cult of the Virgin,

popular during medieval times, was such a re-emergence. With its

great reverence for the sacred feminine, it was the foundation of the

Age of Chivalry.

 

Despite these brief forays, the Great Mother was generally denied,

disposed of, and deposed, as were most women of wisdom and power.

This suppression of feminine wisdom may have reached its peak during

the popular witch-hunts of the Middle Ages. These shameful

persecutions even make up a chapter of our own nation's history. In

the course of a few hundred years it is estimated that over nine

million women were murdered on the accusation that they were witches.

The widespread acceptance of the belief that women were inferior

and evil made the witch-hunts merely a reflection of the prevailing

doctrine. Any woman who demonstrated exceptional ability, especially

in an intuitive, spiritual, or healing capacity, was viewed as

extremely dangerous and threatening. Of course, once accused of

witchcraft, it was almost impossible for a woman to prove herself

innocent. In one European town, the frenzied men killed all but one

woman!

 

This persecution of women under the guise of Christianity was

responsible for the death of most of the midwives and herbalists of

this period. Their absence ushered in many dark centuries in which

the mortality rate in childbirth escalated enormously. The once

natural act of giving birth became a greatly dreaded event. Countless

women died of " childbirth fever " in the unwashed hands of poorly

trained male doctors. Ignorantly moving from morgues to delivery

rooms, they unwittingly spread contagion and death. Even these deaths

may have seemed almost appropriate to the general populace, given the

prevailing belief that God himself had condemned women to suffer in

childbirth. In the final analysis, it was probably more regarded as

Eve's fault than that of the inferior medical practices of the day.

 

It is remarkably freeing for today's woman to even consider

rethinking the Adam and Eve creation story. It has functioned as a

powerful tool used by men to disempower and control women. Whether it

was intentionally set out as such or not, even into our present day it

holds millions of women in a self-image of inferiority and guilt.

What a striking contrast its image is to the archaeological evidence

of our ancient foremothers!

 

It is perhaps no coincidence that during this era of ecological

crisis, the Great Mother is reemerging in our world consciousness.

The attitude of domination and exploitation of our Mother Earth has

led humanity and our world to the brink of destruction. This attitude

toward the Earth and its species is but another reflection of the

attitude which has prevailed against women for thousands of years.

Both continue to be victims of rape.

 

Among women today, there is a new movement whose primary focus is not

social or political. It is a feminine spiritual revival. Women are

meeting in groups and workshops to rediscover their link with the

Great Mother of our ancient past. In realigning with the concept of

the Great Mother, women are recognizing both the divinity in

themselves and in their sex. Unlike in the early liberation movement,

women now recognize that their empowerment will not be found through

imitating or beating men at their own game. Nor is it found by

skewing the feminine values of motherhood and child rearing. Through

the Divine Mother, women now recognize their true power rests in

nurturing and embracing the qualities in themselves that are uniquely

feminine. Femininity and wisdom are in no way viewed as mutually

exclusive.

 

We stand at the edge of a revolution in consciousness. Out of global

necessity, in this age we may witness a return of the values of the

Great Mother with her reverence for all life. Through understanding

her, perhaps we will come to truly know ourselves and to reclaim

the power and dignity of our sex. In the values she espoused, perhaps

we can once again learn to live in peace, caring for each other and

our world. Gayle S. Myers is a mother, teacher, and writer from

Virginia Beach, Virginia, a city which still has a street named

Witchduck Road.

 

Further reading on this subject may be found in the following books:

When God Was a Woman, Merlin Stone, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976.

The Chalice and the Blade, Rianne Eisler, Harper and Row, 1976.

The Language of the Goddess, Marija Gimbutos, Thames and Hudson, 1989.

Goddesses in Everyday Woman, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Harper and Row, 1984.

Immaculate Deception, Suzanne Arms, Bantam Books, 1975.

 

Is God A Woman?

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