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| Venus of Willendorf, 28,000 to 25,000 BCE |
Many statuettes of female figures have been found across Europe, dating to 28,000–22,000 years ago. We can only guess as to their purpose. Many assume that these statuettes were objects of reverence, representations of the Great Mother. When a human child asks where they came from, the answer is often "from mummy's tummy" so perhaps it is only natural to view the entire world as coming from a Great Mother. When trees spring out of the ground, are they being born from Mother Earth? When new stars are formed in the heavens, are they being born from Mother Nature? Is the entire Universe one great womb? Many religions have a "mother of the gods" who is Great Mother to a whole pantheon of deities. Some believed that all the deities were emanations or fascets of one supreme godhead.
In Hinduism, the Great Mother (Mahadevi) manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother Nature (Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms as plants, animals, and such from Herself, and she sustains and nourishes them through her body, that is the cosmos, the earth with its animal life, vegetation, and minerals. Mahadevi is the soul of the universe and the universe itself. Not all Hindus understand divinity in this way. Those who do believe in a Great Mother are called Shaktas, or practitioners of Shaktism. The Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the Goddess) is a Sanskrit text dating to 400–500 CE, which describes the philosophy of Shaktism. In eastern India, the ritual reading of Devi Mahatmya is common at several functions, particularly in death rites. In the first chapter it is said:
"All lives are conscious, but that knowledge is connected with senses. That goddess Bhagavatī, granting all kinds of prosperity, makes even the wise attracted to worldly pleasures and things forcibly with her great power of attraction. This ever-changing world with all its animate and inanimate things, is created by her. As the cause of salvation she turns into supreme spiritual knowledge, and is thus eternal; and again as the cause of bondage to worldly things she turns into things mundane and is the mistress of all, including Gods. She is eternal (and is thus beyond our knowledge) and pervades the world which may accordingly be called her form. Yet for the assistance of the lustrous souls, she appears in different forms."
Another text, the Devi Bhagavata, was compiled between 600 - 1000 CE. In this text, the Great Mother declares: "I am Manifest Divinity, Unmanifest Divinity, and Transcendent Divinity. I am Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, as well as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. I am the Sun and I am the Stars, and I am also the Moon. I am all animals and birds, and I am the outcaste as well, and the thief. I am the low person of dreadful deeds, and the great person of excellent deeds. I am Female, I am Male in the form of Shiva."
This text seems to mirror beliefs in ancient Rome, where the goddess Isis was hailed as Great Mother.
The Roman writer Apuleius recorded aspects of the cult of Isis in the 2nd century CE in his novel The Golden Ass. The Great Mother proclaims: "I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen of the ocean, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea breezes. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names ... the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true name...Queen Isis."
All of the deities in the Roman pantheon were regarded as "aspects" or "faces" of the Great Mother, Queen Isis. Her cult demanded a high level of devotion, periods of chastity, dietry restrictions, and purification rituals. In return, devotees were healed of sickness, protected from calamaties, and blessed with good fortune. Once a year there was a procession of mourning and wailing for the loss of Isis's husband Osiris. They re-enacted a search for Osiris, culminating in joyous celebration as he is found. In Rome, five days were set aside for this festival. There was no universally accepted doctrine in the cult of Isis, but rather a plurality of opinions as her many myths and legends were interpreted in various ways. Her cult spread primarily through individual devotees, rather than priestly missionaries. Inscriptions to the goddess can be found as far afield as Hadrian's Wall in Britain. There is evidence of a temple to Isis in London, where we find small bronze figurines of the goddess, dating to the first century CE.
Isis, a goddess originally from Africa, seems to remind us of our common origin. As far as we can tell, the human race first evolved in east Africa, and from there, we spread across the globe, adapting to different environments. The oldest human remains have been found in Ethiopia, dating to 2.8 million years ago. Perhaps these ancient ancestors also understood the cosmos to be a Great Mother. We can never know what they believed, but we can see how this idea has had an impact on today's religions. Hindu temples to the Great Mother flourish throughout the Indian subcontinent, and have spread across the globe.
"Only in India has the inner tradition of the Goddess endured. This is the reason the teachings of India are so precious. They offer us a glimpse of what our own ancient wisdom must have been. The Indians have preserved our lost heritage. [...] Today it is up to us to locate and restore the tradition of the living Goddess. We would do well to begin our search in India, where for not one moment in all of human history have the children of the living Goddess forgotten their Divine Mother." Linda Johnsen, The Living Goddess: Reclaiming the Tradition of the Mother of the Universe, 1999.
Goddess worship gradually re-emerged in the Western hemisphere, after being supressed by Christianity. During this time, the goddess seems to have survived under the guise of the Virgin Mary, as Queen of Heaven and Mother of God. Enthroned in heaven, she could be easily mistaken for a goddess. Some say that the Christian god can just as well be imagined in a feminine form, but the Bible clearly places women in a subservient position to men, and as such, the All Mighty can only be seen as masculine. Mary is a humble servant of The Lord, and role model to all good Christian women. The Goddess on the other hand is second to none, and her worship, under various names, is being revived by many "modern pagans" in the West today. I don't see that this practice should go against rational thinking and scientific study. Old beliefs can be adapted to new levels of understanding so that we see a fuller picture than before. With scientific evidence, we can understand better than ever, our relationship to the rest of the cosmos as Great Mother.
In Hinduism, the Great Mother (Mahadevi) manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother Nature (Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms as plants, animals, and such from Herself, and she sustains and nourishes them through her body, that is the cosmos, the earth with its animal life, vegetation, and minerals. Mahadevi is the soul of the universe and the universe itself. Not all Hindus understand divinity in this way. Those who do believe in a Great Mother are called Shaktas, or practitioners of Shaktism. The Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the Goddess) is a Sanskrit text dating to 400–500 CE, which describes the philosophy of Shaktism. In eastern India, the ritual reading of Devi Mahatmya is common at several functions, particularly in death rites. In the first chapter it is said:
"All lives are conscious, but that knowledge is connected with senses. That goddess Bhagavatī, granting all kinds of prosperity, makes even the wise attracted to worldly pleasures and things forcibly with her great power of attraction. This ever-changing world with all its animate and inanimate things, is created by her. As the cause of salvation she turns into supreme spiritual knowledge, and is thus eternal; and again as the cause of bondage to worldly things she turns into things mundane and is the mistress of all, including Gods. She is eternal (and is thus beyond our knowledge) and pervades the world which may accordingly be called her form. Yet for the assistance of the lustrous souls, she appears in different forms."
Another text, the Devi Bhagavata, was compiled between 600 - 1000 CE. In this text, the Great Mother declares: "I am Manifest Divinity, Unmanifest Divinity, and Transcendent Divinity. I am Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, as well as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. I am the Sun and I am the Stars, and I am also the Moon. I am all animals and birds, and I am the outcaste as well, and the thief. I am the low person of dreadful deeds, and the great person of excellent deeds. I am Female, I am Male in the form of Shiva."
This text seems to mirror beliefs in ancient Rome, where the goddess Isis was hailed as Great Mother.
The Roman writer Apuleius recorded aspects of the cult of Isis in the 2nd century CE in his novel The Golden Ass. The Great Mother proclaims: "I am nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen of the ocean, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are, my nod governs the shining heights of Heavens, the wholesome sea breezes. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names ... the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship call me by my true name...Queen Isis."
All of the deities in the Roman pantheon were regarded as "aspects" or "faces" of the Great Mother, Queen Isis. Her cult demanded a high level of devotion, periods of chastity, dietry restrictions, and purification rituals. In return, devotees were healed of sickness, protected from calamaties, and blessed with good fortune. Once a year there was a procession of mourning and wailing for the loss of Isis's husband Osiris. They re-enacted a search for Osiris, culminating in joyous celebration as he is found. In Rome, five days were set aside for this festival. There was no universally accepted doctrine in the cult of Isis, but rather a plurality of opinions as her many myths and legends were interpreted in various ways. Her cult spread primarily through individual devotees, rather than priestly missionaries. Inscriptions to the goddess can be found as far afield as Hadrian's Wall in Britain. There is evidence of a temple to Isis in London, where we find small bronze figurines of the goddess, dating to the first century CE.
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| The Black Rite of Isis by Samuel Edeltein |
"Only in India has the inner tradition of the Goddess endured. This is the reason the teachings of India are so precious. They offer us a glimpse of what our own ancient wisdom must have been. The Indians have preserved our lost heritage. [...] Today it is up to us to locate and restore the tradition of the living Goddess. We would do well to begin our search in India, where for not one moment in all of human history have the children of the living Goddess forgotten their Divine Mother." Linda Johnsen, The Living Goddess: Reclaiming the Tradition of the Mother of the Universe, 1999.
Goddess worship gradually re-emerged in the Western hemisphere, after being supressed by Christianity. During this time, the goddess seems to have survived under the guise of the Virgin Mary, as Queen of Heaven and Mother of God. Enthroned in heaven, she could be easily mistaken for a goddess. Some say that the Christian god can just as well be imagined in a feminine form, but the Bible clearly places women in a subservient position to men, and as such, the All Mighty can only be seen as masculine. Mary is a humble servant of The Lord, and role model to all good Christian women. The Goddess on the other hand is second to none, and her worship, under various names, is being revived by many "modern pagans" in the West today. I don't see that this practice should go against rational thinking and scientific study. Old beliefs can be adapted to new levels of understanding so that we see a fuller picture than before. With scientific evidence, we can understand better than ever, our relationship to the rest of the cosmos as Great Mother.
Annika
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts )O(