Good morning, or is it evening when you glance at my blog?
Just wondering.
The other evening some of us gathered to watch a relatively old video in the series "Goddess Remembered" (1989) created by Donna Read of Canadian Broadcasting.
This documentary is a salute to
35,000 years of the goddess-worshipping religions of the ancient past.
The film features Merlin Stone, Carol Christ, Starhawk, Luisah Teish and
Jean Bolen; all of whom link the loss of goddess-centric societies with
today's environmental crisis. This is the first part of a 3-part series
that includes The Burning Times and Full Circle.
I'll be happy to hostess a viewing of the 2 remaining films after summer solstice.
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Now there's a movement called Eco-feminism. As well as lots of other environmental groups with very positive momentum. It's needed more than ever.
So what's with studying goddess cultures that existed so long ago, before the ones of today where we find the goddess in second place in a hierarchy of deities? Name one religion today where goddesses are venerated either as primary or even equal to male deities.
They were egalitarian societies where women and men were equals. Societies that lasted thousands of years without warfare.
How can archaeologists tell this? They examined the ruins of cities without any defensive fortifications. There are no weapons besides those used to hunt and prepare foods. See Marija Gimbutus work for more information on this.
Just think. Life without warfare at all.
Nobody who greets a stranger had to worry about evil intentions. A time when Rumi's poems would truly mean you welcome all guests to your home, even without knowing who they are.
Imagine when the deities of these civilizations were female, as evident through thousands of figurines, carefully made and even placed in areas of the homes and cities suggesting rituals of some kind. There are very very few male oriented sculptures which were found. This led the early male archaeologists who found all these female forms to think only of "fertility goddesses" and that ancient men perhaps had made them with the same intentions modern men have in looking at feminine beauty.
I'm thrilled about the concept that a culture where men and women had equality would mean that women would be equal to men...and men would be equal to women. Nobody would be Top Dog. Nobody would be Bottom Dog.
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It is so hard to express the concept of true equality across to a culture (today) where there is such hierarchical competition to be the winner, to prove something is better than something else, to elect only the one candidate, and then the 49% who lost don't have any representation. We are submersed in a culture of inequality, and don't see it, just like the fish who has no concept of water until she's out of it.
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Power "over" the earth is now the most important place where we need a new way of co-existing. If we want to continue living on it, we need to recognize our symbiotic relationship with all life, the chemicals we create and discard, and how we can improve the earth rather than destroy it.
Today's Quote:
O Great
Spirit, I awake to another sun, grateful for gifts bestowed, granted one by
one.
Twylah
Nitsch
Seneca Medicine Woman
