Is A God A Female Essay, Research Paper
IS A GOD A FEMALEHow hard would it be for religious society today to accept that the Greatbeing worshipped is not male, but female? As difficult as one can imaginefor people to see God as a woman this does not seem the way it should be. After all, it is the female gender that carries and delivers each andeveryone of us. So exists the mystery of why anyone should have troubleunderstanding, believing and finally accepting that at one point in time,many years ago, women were the ones that were worshipped. However, indiscussing this past type of worship many people either know little aboutwhere religious worship was founded, have trouble believing that a deity mayat one time been female or just will not discuss it. Consistent withsociety today, “What else might we expect in a society that for centurieshas taught young children, both female and male, that a MALE deity createdthe universe and all that is in it, produced MAN in his own divineimage–and then, as an afterthought, created woman, to obediently help manin his endeavours.” (Stone, 1976) Although this is what many, if not most,are taught, it is hard not to accept the fact, founded with much evidencesupporting it, that God was originally worshipped as Goddess. As L.R. Farnell has stated, “We may then safely conclude from the evidence so faravailable that the earliest religion of civilized Crete was mainly devotedto a great goddess.” (Stone, 1976) It is hard for many to accept thepossibility that everything surrounding us was created by a Goddess and nota God. Thus it is essential to start with whom and where religious worshiporiginated. The belief that seems to have a lot of evidence to substantiate it is thatreligious movement started with worship of the Goddess. The Goddess isdescribed as the “feminine principle of the Divine Force.” (Guiley, 1991)She “appears universally, primarily as a symbol of fertility, but inmultiple facets as the ruler of wisdom, truth, magical powers, nature, fate,the home, healing, justice, love, birth, death, time, and eternity.”(Guiley, 1991) Such definitions start off showing exactly how powerful andimportant the Goddess and worship of her were to so many cultures in thepast. As well it serves to express the vastness of the Goddess. She isknown as one with great influence in a great many different ways tocountless numbers of civilizations. Countless because those studying thefemale deity are continuously discovering new evidence of her worship aroundthe world. Her power also seems to be shown in the numerous sculpturesdepicting the Goddess. Through these, it is shown that the Goddess wasrevered as “Creator, Nurturer, and Destroyer, and almost always” was knownto be “more powerful than gods.” Another thing that seems to be believed,without question by many was Her strong and durable existence in the past. Therefore the point that becomes extremely clear is that the female deitywas indeed worshipped throughout the world and for a lengthy period of time.Next, it is important to understand that just because many of us have notexperienced or heard of Goddess worship does not mean that it did not exist. In fact, a great amount of evidence has been found all over the worldsupporting that Goddess worship did in fact exist and was a “primary powerin the mainstream religions.” (Guiley, 1991) Many of these pieces ofevidence strengthen and support the belief that religion in its’ origin isconnected to the worship of a female deity. However, this is strongly inopposition with our beliefs’ today that religion in its’ earliest stages waswith God, the male gender. Yet one example that supports such a beginningof female worship is found in the Hittite texts that indirectly suggeststhat worship was given to Mitra, Indra and Varuna. Of course there are themany different sculptures of women. Throughout many communities, manyfigurines have been found and most often they were uncovered in what waspossibly the “earliest human-made dwellings on earth.” (Stone, 1976) It ishard to doubt that Goddess worshipping existed with all the artifacts andmurals that have been uncovered. Known to many is the fact that, “templesand images that seem to have been devoted to worship of the Goddess havebeen found in almost every Neolithic and early historic archeological sitein Europe and the Near and Middle East.” (Fisher, 1991, 1994) Such great andconsistent findings indicate that “worship of a female high Goddess wasoriginally widespread.” (Fisher, 1991, 1994)There is said to have been many Goddesses in existence. Three suchGoddesses that were honoured for their contributions to society were GoddessSarasvati, the Goddess Nidaba and the Goddess Brigit. The Goddess Sarasvitiwas believed to have been the one that invented the very first alphabet. Goddess Nidaba was admired because she was believed to have developedwriting and Goddess Brigit for her development of language. The GoddessNinhursag or Ninmah who with the help of Nammu is believed to have createdthe first people. Then there is the Goddessknown as Astarte. However, this does not seem to be the only name she wasknown and worshipped under. She was also referred to as Ua Zit, “Innin,Inanna, Nana, Nut, Anat, Anahita, Ishtar, Isis, Au Set, Ishara, Asherah,Ashtart, Attoret, Attar and Hathor.” (Stone, 1976) Yet in every differentlanguage all came to note one thing about Her and that, was that She wasrevered as the Great Goddess. Theories exist, however on why and how the worship of the Goddessoriginated. One belief had to do with the connection between sex andreproduction, or birth not yet being made. The only obvious connection wasbetween the baby and the mother. Paternity and fatherhood were not evenbrought into consideration because it was the woman who both carried andgave birth to the child. Thus there was no reason to associate men to thismiracle. Thus “not only names, but titles, possessions and territorialrights,” were passed down throughout the female line. (Stone, 1976) In
support of this view it has been found that “in areas where the concept ofpaternity had not yet been understood, “and where a matrilineal way of lifewas followed, women were given much higher status. (Stone, 1976) As well,in studying primitive people it was discovered that “as the earliestconcepts of religion developed, they probably took the form of ancestorworship.” (Stone, 1976) So because it was the women that were associatedwith birth, it was the women that were recognized and revered. Women, notjust Goddesses came to hold powerful positions in society. Through all ofthis, the female gender came to be honoured as the supreme deity. Inaddition to all of this, it was the Goddesses that were given the role ofthe “dominant partner,” and it was them who ruled over their male consorts. (Stone, 1976) She was the one to pick out a partner and disposed of this”lover/son” as she chose because it was her that was in control. Love poemsthat have been found serve as proof of this power in courting. Along withHer power, came power for all women. They were “honored as priestesses,healers, agricultural inventors, counselors, prophetesses, and sometimeswarriors.” (Fisher, 1991, 1994)So what brought an end to this thriving and strong female worshippingsociety. One belief is that there was a group from northern Europe, knownas the Maglemosian culture that came down into the Goddess worshippingareas. With aggression and destruction this group overtook the peacefulGoddess centred societies. It is believed that such “conquests took placethroughoutthe third and second millennia BCE with the help of horse-drawn chariots, amore devastating war technology than any previously used.” (Fisher, 1991,1994) Also included in thinking of the possibilities of the covering up ofthe female deity, the Bible contains “contradictory passages” which, mayhave also served as a cover-up in hiding our past worship of the Goddess. (Stone,1976) Such inconsistencies seem to indicate that “the Bible andother religious literature may well be partially the result of intentionalpolitical aims as much as a record of some longstanding belief or lore.”(Stone, 1976) With all of these events taking place it is easy to see howthe Goddess was suppressed and thus women eventually were also suppressed inreligious activity and lost their superiority. In conjunction with this,”although Christ had honoured and worked with women, his later malefollowers limited the position of women within the Christian church.”(Fisher, 1991, 1994) No longer was the female aspect of religion valued orconsidered important. Goddess worshipping is not finished however. With the ever increasingamount ofknowledge concerning the Goddess it is not hard to see why women are nolonger putting up with their male counterparts pushing them down. It seemsamazing that such a comeback only started appearing in the nineteen-sixties. However, since then interest in the worship of the Goddess hasbeen growing quite steadily. Nevertheless, the timing of the resurgence isunderstandable when one realizes, that it “coincided with the women’smovement, the ecology movement, and the beginnings of the so-called New Agemovement,” (Guiley, 1991) and was “influenced by archaeologicaldiscoveries.” Increases in the comeback of Goddess worship has beenstrongly associated with “neo-paganism and neo-pagan witchcraft naturereligions.” (Guiley, 1991) Followers of such groups, “consider themselvespriests and priestesses of an ancient European shamanistic nature religionthat worships a goddess who is related to the ancient Mother Goddess in herthree aspects.” (Adler, 1979, 1986) Such groups perform different rituals,one of the more important ones is called “The Drawing Down of the Moon.”(Adler, 1979, 1986) In this specific ritual, “the priest invokes into thepriestess (or…she evokes from within herself) the Goddess or TripleGoddess.” (Adler, 1979, 1986) The Triple Goddess in her three aspects… symbolizes the moon in three different phases. The aspects consist of the”Maiden-Creatix, Great Mother, and Old Crone.” (Adler, 1979, 1986) Thethree phases of the moon that symbolize these aspects are “the waxingcrescent, the full moon, and the waning crescent.” (Adler, 1979, 1986)According to one follower, such a “practice” contained a very simple”religious aspect,” that consisting of the “worship of Mother Nature.” Finally, whether society today likes it or not, societies of the pastworshipped the Goddessas strongly, if not more strongly than our worship of our God today. Aswell, it is hard to deny the overwhelming evidence of such religiousfollowings. In studying and learning about the history of the Goddess, itis extremely difficult not to become both fascinated and overwhelmedby the sheer magnitude of her past and possibly future importance to somany. Chances are her presence will start to be felt by many. Another wayto say it, is in saying that it is unlikely we have seen the last of theGoddess and Goddess worship. One thing society should look into isdiscovering all the diverse cultures that have followed the Goddess in thepast. Then once Goddess worship is fully understood, society may be able tocome to an unbiased conclusion concerning this unknown deity. With all ofthis in mind, society can only look into the future with the possibility ofcontinuing uncertainty concerning worship of the Goddess. BibliographyAdler, Margot. Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers,and Other Pagans in America Today. Copyright 1979, 1986 by Margot Adler Published by arrangement with the Viking PressFisher, Mary Pat. Living Religions. 2nd ed. Copyright Mary Pat Fisher, 1991, 1994 Published by Prentice Hall Inc. Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & ParanormalExperience. Copyright 1991 by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Published by HarpersCollins PublishersRussell, Jeffrey B. A History of Witchcraft. Sorcerers, Heretics and Pagans. Copyright 1980 Thames and Hudson Ltd, London Published by Thames and HudsonStone, Merlin. When God Was A Woman. Copyright 1976 by Merlin Stone Published by : A Harvest Book Harcourt Brace & Company