An Exploration of The Divine Femininein Global Religion & Visual Culture

Lecturer: Dr. Pat BishopClass: History of Art & Architecture

By Nazireh Reis [ Student ID # 810001662 ]Date: 16/11/10

Email: voryvzakone@gmail.com

Contents

1 Introduction

2. Timeline

3. The Divine Feminine as perceived through time, by various cultures and religions

A. PREHISTORY B. ANCIENT EGYPTC. THE ANCIENT NEAR EASTD. ANCIENT GREECE & ROMEE. AFRICAF. INDIAG. JUDAISM H. ROMAN CATHOLICISM

5. Conclusion

6. Bibliography

1. Introduction

What is the Divine Feminine? It is divinity perceived as being feminine or having feminine

The head of Botticelli's Venus in his fresco 'Birth of Venus'

qualities. The Divine Feminine is usually perceived through a goddess figure in the divine pantheon. The belief in the feminine aspect of divinity has a long history in religion and visual culture; from the goddess Isis in Ancient Egypt, to Quanyin in China, to Shakti in India, to Yemaja and Oshun in Africa, to Asherah and Inanna in the Middle East, to the goddesses Demeter, Persephone, Athena and Venus in Ancient Greece and Rome.

The Feminine Divine has an enduring place in global spirituality and a timeless significance to the human psyche. The renowned American mythologist, writer and lecturer Joseph Campbell, known best for his work on comparative religion and comparative mythology, often said that the same essence of the Divine Feminine could be found in the religious mythology and folklore of every culture. Many of the stories are the same, yet the names and specific circumstances change according to cultural tradition.

Some modern anthropologists, sociologists, historians, feminists, etc. support the view that before the rise of the patriarchal, Abrahamic religions in the Axial Age the Divine Feminine was more widely revered and respected than the Masculine as Divinity. After the rise of the Abrahamic religions, the respect and importance of the Divine Feminine in the pantheon of the gods declined gradually until it almost disappeared under the sway of Christianity in the Dark Ages. According to some scholars, with this decline in the importance of the Feminine in Divinity came also a shrinkage and reduction in the offices of women and their importance and their role in society. However, after the decline of Christianity’s influence in Europe with political blows leveled against the Catholic church by monarchies seeking independence from the iron grip of the Vatican, more freedom was awarded in religious and spiritual thought and art. From the blossoming of occult societies in Europe during the 17thto 19th centuries to the blatant outcry of goddess spirituality in the 1950’s and 1960’s U.S.A, the Divine Feminine has gradually resurfaced in importance in the collective consciousness of the modern Western world.

The perception of the Divine Feminine in global religion varies from culture to culture. In Christianity, ‘God’ is almost universally seen as male; as ‘God the Father’, ‘Our Lord’, etc. When God is depicted in Christian art, he is usually seen as an imposing, authoritative man seated on a throne with all the regalia of royalty. However, Catholicism has preserved one of the most tangible mainstream connections to the Divine Feminine through the Virgin Mary, along with a handful of popular female saints, most famous of which in recent times is Mary Magdalene. They have been the most highly visible aspect of the feminine in organized religion for 2,000 years in the Western world. Because of that, the image of the Virgin Mary often cuts across religious boundaries as she is seen universally as a divine symbol of motherhood and femininity.

However, there are many cultures that are rich with mythology, spiritual practices, religious experiences and sacred texts that demonstrate the vivacity of the Divine Feminine. Indeed, in many parts of the world and in many diverse cultures, the Feminine as Divine has and still is being worshipped, remembered and evoked. For example in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, Orisha, Vodun, Santeria and Candomble to name a few, the feminine as divinity is very much alive and an essential and integral part of the worshipper’s view of the Divine. Most recently in the 1950’s and 60’s,there has been the rise of goddess spirituality,Neopaganism, Earth-based religions, New Age philosophies, etc. Some currents of Neopagan spirituality (particularly Wicca), have a ditheistic

concept of a single goddess and a single god, who together represent a united whole, while other traditions within Neopganism (for example Dianic Wicca) focus exclusively on the Goddess/ female aspect of the Divine to the total exclusion of the God/ male aspect of the Divine.

The Divine Feminine is also one of the least understood and most suppressed symbols in Western society, which is largely a materialist-based and patriarchal one. The views of women in Western society is often reflected in the views of the feminine in divinity, and vice-versa. Nevertheless, the Divine Feminine has managed to maintain a consistent thread through centuries of oppression and suppression in a world that has been strongly affected by Christianity’s and Western Europe’s brutal colonial and economic interests. It has survived to the present day through many different channels; from the Renaissance to Romantic period paintings of mythological themes to modern day goddess spirituality and Marian devotion. These images and movements have at certain times allowed society to breathe freely from under the iron grip of male-based organized state religions.

The choice of topic for this essay came to me during one of my many enjoyable classes with my professor, Dr. Pat Bishop. While discussing Michelangelo’s sculpture the Pieta (1499), she observed that this piece has more than just a religious purpose of depicting Mary Jesus’ mother holding her son’s crucified body: it was also a very powerful and moving representation of the archetype of ‘The Mother’ – an archetype that is found across time and throughout all the cultures of the world. She suggested to the class to look up the Greek goddess Venus, Mariology and the Divine Feminine. This topic in particular tickled my interest because the Divine Feminine is particularly prevalent in global visual culture and as artists it is important to discover and unlock the history, beliefs and stories behind many of the famous and captivating images created which are now part of our visual cultural heritage.

Particularly in the Renaissance under the rebirth of appreciation for Classical studies, the Graeco-Roman goddesses were depicted by many leading painters of the time such as Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, etc. In a society that was dominated by the Roman Catholic church this was seen as not only controversial but sacrilegious as well. However many beautiful and symbolic paintings, frescos, sculptures, etc. of the goddesses, nymphs and characters of Graeco-Roman mythology have been created that have survived to this day; most famously Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Primavera, which both depict the Roman goddess Venus as the subject of the paintings.

In Europe, especially after the Bubonic plague, a great Marian cult developed, centering around the figure of the Virgin Mary as protectoress, intercessor and redeemer of souls. Early in Christian history paintings, icons and statues of Mary and the infant Jesus became common and thereafter Mary's life became studied and revered until she became introduced into the presence of God and crowned to take her place beside Him. It was in 1950, as the famed psychologist Carl Jung approvingly noted, that there was an official recognition of the resurfacing of the long suppressed archetypal demand for the female in Deity that had been building for many hundreds of years. Jung felt that the Catholic announcement of the Assumption of Mary, in 1950, was "the most important religious event since the Reformation." This "bodily reception of the Virgin into heaven" ( meant that "the heavenly bride was united with the bridegroom," whose union "signifies the hieros gamos." [the sacred marriage]

The figure of Mary Magdalene was also of great significance among artists and sculptors of the Renaissance and ensuing periods; she was also seen as an intercessor and of special importance among the apostles of Jesus. She was known as ‘the woman with the alabaster jar’ and has been interpreted by some scholars and art historians through the ages as having a very special and intimate relationship with Jesus, and this has been made popular recently through the controversial book and movie The Da Vinci Code and also through scholarly works such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln.

In closing, I would thus like to make the point that this essay will serve to briefly explore the Divine Feminine in global religion and visual culture. It will look at the symbolism and significance of the various important goddesses and their imagery in the context of their socio-cultural environments. My hope is that it will uncover not only to me but to the reader of this humble exploration, the extent, importance and channels of the sacred feminine in human civilization.

Before continuing into the essay itself, I would like to expose to the reader a very relevant discussion, concerning the sociological perspective of women’s position in religion and how this came to be. I think it is relevant to my essay because as I stated above, often throughout history, the society’s perspective of the Divine Feminine can be coloured by the views on women, and vice-versa, in that when the Divine Feminine is respected and honoured in religion the position of women in the society will also be treated with a similar degree of respect.

Gender, Feminism and Religion

Feminist theories of religion follow Marxist theories in arguing that religion can be an instrument of domination and oppression. However, unlike Marxism, they tend to see religion as a product of patriarchy rather than as a product of capitalism. They see religion as serving the interests of men rather than those of a capitalist class.

However, such a view of religion isn’t confined to female & feminist sociologists. Anthony Giddens argues: “The Christian religion is a resolutely male affair in its symbolism as well as its hierarchy, while Mary, the mother of Jesus, may sometimes be treated as if she had divine qualities, God is the father, a male figure, and Jesus took the human shape of a man. Woman is portrayed as created from a rib taken from a man.”

The secondary and often subordinate role of women in Christian doctrine is also typical of most other religions. Although women may have made significant advances in many areas of life, their gains in most religions have been very limited. Karen Armstrong (1993) argues: “None of the major religions has been particularly good to women. They have usually become male affairs and women have been relegated to a marginal position.”

Women continue to be excluded from key roles in many religions. This is despite the fact that women often participate more in organized religion (when they are allowed to) than men.

Feminist writers are therefore interested in how women came to be subservient within most religions and how religion has been used to cement patriarchal power.

Recently, some sociologists have examined how women have begun to try to reduce the imbalance between males and females within religion.

Gender inequality in religion - The origins of gender inequality

A number of writers have noted that, historically, women haven’t always been subordinate within most religions. Karen Armstrong (1993) argues for example that in early history ‘women were considered central to the spiritual quest.’ In the Middle East, Asia and Europe, archeologists have uncovered numerous symbols of the Great Mother Goddess. She was pictured as a naked pregnant woman and seems to represent the mysteries of fertility and life.

“The Earth produced plants and nourished them in rather the same way as a woman gave birth to a child and fed it from her own body. The magical power of the earth seemed vitally interconnected with the mysterious creativity of the female sex.” ( Armstrong, 1993)

There were very few early effigies of gods as men. As societies developed religious beliefs in which there were held to be many different gods and goddesses, the Mother Goddess still played a crucial role. Armstrong says the Mother Goddess was:

“ absorbed into the pantheons of deities and remained a powerful figure. She was called Inanna in Sumer, in ancient Mesopotamia, Ishtar in Babylon, Anat or Asherah in Canaan, Isis in Egypt and Aphrodite in Greece. In all these cultures people told remarkably similar stories about her to express her role in their spiritual lives. She was still revered as the source of fertility.” (Armstrong, 1993).

Armstrong argues that an Amorite myth dating from about 1750 C marked the start of the eventual decline of the goddess. In it, the goddess Tiamat, the goddess of the sea, is replaced by the male god of Babylon, Marduk. Male gods such as the Hebrew Yahweh became increasingly important and they introduced a more “martial and aggressive spirituality.”

The final death knell of goddesses came with the acceptance of monotheism – belief in a single god rather than many. This originated with Yahweh, the god of Abraham. Furthermore, this “God of Israel” would later become the God of the Christians and the Muslims who all regard themselves as the spiritual offspring of Abraham, the father of all believers.”

2. Timeline Important dates in the history of the Divine Feminine:

2.5,000,000 – 10,000 BCE – Paleolithic period40,000 BCE – Interglacial period. Emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens40,000 – 35,000 BCE – Venus of Hohle Fels29,000–25,000 BCE - The Venus of Dolní Věstonice

24,000 – 22,000 BC – Upper Paleolithic: An abundance of corpulent female figurines made during this period22,000 BCE – Woman’s head from Brassempouy24,000 – 22,000 BCE – Venus of Villendorf22,000 – 19,000 BCE –Mother Goddess from Lausel, Dordogne, France18,000 – 15,000 BCE – Last Ice Age12,000 BCE – Human migration from Asia into Americas begins10,000 BCE – Beginning of Neolithic period

- Introduction of agriculture9000 – 8000 BCE – Domestication of wheat and barley (Near East )8000 BCE – Modern climate begins in Europe

-Foundation of Jericho -Human settlement extends to straits of Magellan

8000 – 4000 BCE – Human population increases by 1500%7000 BCE – Domestication of sheep and goats (Near East)6500 BCE – Settlement of Catal Huyuk 6500-4000 BCE – Farming spreads to Western Europe6000 BCE – Mother Goddess from Catal Huyuk5300-4100 BCE - Ubaid period in Sumeria 4100-2900 BCE - Uruk period in Sumeria4800 BCE – Clay goddess figure from Cernavoda graveyard4500 BCE – Copper smelting perfected (Near East)4000 BCE – Bronze casting begun (Near East)

-Emergence of Sumerian civilization4000-3600 BCE - Pre-dynastic Nagada/ Nagada I period in Ancient Egypt3500 – 3000 BC – Vase from Uruk, Iraq3500 BC – ‘Bird Lady’ painted terracotta figure from Predynastic Egypt3100-2900 BC – Statuette of a leonine goddess3000 C – Cycladic figure from Amorgos, the Aegean Cuniform writing begins in Sumer Cities appear in Mesopotamia Northern and Southern kingdoms of Egypt unified under first Egyptian dynasty Hieroglyphic writing appears in Egypt2900-2334 BCE -Early Dynastic period in Sumeria2500 BC – Domestication of the horse ( Central Asia)2400-2000 BC – Female figure from Mohenjo-Daro2350 BCE - Sargon (I) the Great (‘beloved shepherd of Ishtar’) founds Akkadian empire

- Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon, becomes the high priestess of Inanna and composes poetry to her, the first recorded case of known authorship: “…the crown, the throne and the scepter of kingship is yours, Inanna”

2300 BC – Indus Valley civilization2050 BCE - Sumerian account of “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta” is composed: Enmerkar and a rival king compete for the affection of the goddess Inanna and (consequently) sovereignty 2000 BC – Invasion of India by Aryans from the North1792 BC – Rise of the Babylonian empire1750 BCE - Sumerian Descent of Inanna composed

- Height of Minoan civilization; supposedly had goddess-centered religion1700 BCE - Putative date for the foundation of the Eleusinian mysteries - Babylonian Tablets of Creation written; describes how the young god Marduk slays the primordial mother goddess Tiamat in act of creation

1600 BC – Hitties sack Babylon Minoan Snake goddess from Knossos

1450 BCE – Crete invaded from mainland Greece1300 BCE – Greece invaded from North1250 BCE - Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is composed; includes the tale of Gilgamesh’s rejection of the sacred marriage with Ishtar and his search for a personal form of immortality - Egyptian stele depict moon goddess Hathor/Qadesh/Qudshe standing nude on a lion between an ithyphallic Egptian fertility god Min (Osiris) and a Syrian/Canaanite desert/storm god Resheph (Set), holding out plants to the one and serpents to the other1200 BCE – Beginning of the Jewish religion1150 BCE - Dorian invasions in Greece

- Collapse of Mycenaean civilization- Beginning of Greek “Dark Ages”- Phoenician alphabet composed

950 BCE - Taanach cultic stand in ancient Israel supposedly depicting the Semitic goddess Asherah and other pagan symbols - Early books of Hebrew scripture composed by Yahwist

900 BCE - Greek alphabet created850 – 800 BCE – Homer800 BCE – Hesiod - End of Greek Dark Ages - Greek city states founded800 – 700 BCE – Etruscan civilization begins800 – 500 BCE – Upanishads written750 BCE - Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions “To Yahweh of Teiman and to his Asherah” and “I blessed you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his Asherah”, accompanied by goddess symbolism 650 BCE – Goddess from Delos - King Manasseh in Judah reverses the reforms of his father Hezekiah, reinstating pagan worship in the Jerusalem temple, including setting up an “asherah” -Homeric Hymns record the myth of Persephone, the central myth of the mysteries (the religion of Eleusis probably existed at least this far back) - Prophet Jeremiah condemns the making of cakes for the Queen of Heaven622 BCE - Scroll alleged to have been found in temple by King Josiah’s priests, initiating the Deuteronomistic reforms 612 BCE – Sappho born 586 BCE - Babylonian captivity of Jews begins Compilation and redaction of Hebrew Bible 550 BCE - Prophet Ezekiel condemns lament for Tammuz by Jewish women546 BCE – Persian conquest of Asia Minor509 BCE – First Roman Republic500 BCE– Bhagavad Gita written

450 BCE - Herotodus identifies Isis with Demeter (Osiris with Dionysus, Horus with Apollo, etc.), an early example of Greek syncretism332 BCE – Alexander the Great conquers Egypt323 BCE - Alexander the Great dies and the Hellenistic period begins -Increased syncretism between Greek and Egyptian deities300 BCE - Growth of the Eleusinian cult after the Athenian state takes control of them150 BCE – Venus de Milo100 BCE – Yakshi on Great Stupa, Sanchi, India.88 BC –Worship of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Isis present in Rome 65 BC - An altar devoted to Isis in the Capitol in Rome was destroyed by order of the Senate. 58, 54, 50 & 40 BC - The Senate ordered the destruction of temples, altars and statues of the goddess Isis in these time periods 50 BC – The consul Emilius Paolus didn't find any worker willing to demolish the sanctuary of Isis. 43 BC – The triumviris (Mark Antony, Octavian and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus) promises to consecrate a temple to Isis at the Republic's expenses, but the promise was not kept.31 BC - After the battle of Actium and the death of Cleopatra ( 69 BC – 30 BC ) and of Mark Antony (81 BC – 30 BC) the persecutions of the Roman Senate against the Egyptian cults resumed.28 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus prohibits the cult of Isis within the sacred enclosure of the city. 21 BC - Agrippa, in the absence of the Emperor Augustus, prohibits Egyptian cults within a kilometer and a half from the city.

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8 CE - Ovid composes Metamorphoses19 CE - Tiberius (42 BC – 37 AD) ordered the temple of Isis demolished and her statue thrown in the Tiber River.30 CE – Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth38 CE – Temple of Isis built by Caligula50-60 CE - Letters of Paul, the earliest New Testament writings 57 CE - Paul challenges the making of statues of Artemis in Ephesus79 CE – Andhran female figure, India100 CE – Medici Venus134 CE – First recorded taurobolium (a ritual involving the sacrifice of a bull and the drenching of the initiate in the bull’s blood) took place at Puteoli, Rome in AD 134 in honour of Venus Caelestia150 CE - Renaissance of syncretistic and intellectualized pagan thought includes Neoplatonism, late Orphic and Pythagorean literature, Gnosticism, and the Chaldaean Oracles - Lucius Apuleius writes The Golden Ass, or Metamorphoses, describing an Isiac initiation and identifies Isis syncretisically numerous goddesses - Lucian of Samosata (not to be confused with Lucius Apuleius) writes De Dea Syria, which relates Adonis to Osiris and describes ritual prostitution160 CE - An inscription records that a certain Carpus had transported a bull's testes from Rome to Cybele's shrine at Lyon, France.

200 CE - Rome becomes the center of the religion of Isis: it became the sacrosancta civitas according to the denomination of Apuleius in the Metamorphoses. 250 CE - Porphyry and Servius first clearly articulate the concept of a Roman triune goddess: Hecate, goddess of heaven (Moon), Earth (Diana), and Underworld (Persephone) - Pistis Sophia composed, a Gnostic text which describes Sophia, the feminine aspect of divinity of Gnosticism, responsible for the creation of materiality273 CE - Adoption of December 25 as date of Christ's nativity, previously, the Roman festival, Dies Natalis Solis Invicti ("birth of the unconquered Sun") 288 CE - Mauretania, outside Setif: The ceremonial "tree-bearers" and the faithful (religiosi) restored the temple of Cybele and Attis after a disastrous fire300 CE – Tantric Buddhism developed312 CE - Conversion of Constantine to Christianity350 AD – Mother and Child wall painting in catacomb of Priscilla, Rome355-360 CE - Julian the Apostate rules as the last pagan emperor

385 AD - The cult of Isis in Rome survived until this time, when Christians destroyed the Serapeum of Alexandria, and subsequently the cult was forbidden by the edict of Thessalonica, issued by Theodosius (347-395).

392 CE - The Roman Christian emperor Theodosius decrees an end to the mysteries – Christianity becomes official religion of Eastern Roman Empire 394 AD - The last official rites were celebrated in honor of Isis in Rome. 396 CE - The sanctuary at Eleusis is sacked by the Christian Visigoths431 CE - The Council of Ephesus is held, at which Mary is declared the Mother of God (Theotokos)476 CE – Goths sack Rome: Fall of the Roman Empire in the West - Beginning of the Dark Ages497 CE – Franks converted to Christianity536 AD- The emperor Justinian (483 AD -565 AD) ordered the closing of the last temple of Isis, situated on the island of Philae on the Nile at the borders with the Nubia, and converted it to a Christian church.596 CE - Pope Gregory sends a mission to England and advises Augustine of Canterbury to respect the customs of the Anglo-Saxons, but to replace pagan festivals with feast days of saints and also to consecrate pagan sanctuaries to Christ.600 CE – The Virgin and the Child enthroned between St. Theodore and St. George, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt622 - 632 CE – The Prophet Mohammed conquers pagan tribes in the Arabian peninsula867 CE – Virgin and Child, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul1000 CE - Founding of the Holy Roman Empire1250 CE – The Zohar, a mystical commentary on the Torah, the most important work on the Kabbalah, is published in Spain; includes the Sephirot, a map of the universe which shows the way back to mystical union with God1318 - Pope John XXII declares that witchcraft is a reality and begins the witch hunts1453 - Fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire and end of the Middle Ages1455 - Gutenberg Bible printed and the printing revolution begins1462 - Ficino translates the Orphic Hymns

1460 - Leonardo di Pistoia brings the Corpus Hermeticum to Cosimo de'Medici, Hermeticism reintroduced to the West 1469 - Lorenzo de’Medici comes to power beginning the flowering of the Italian Renaissance; during the Renaissance magic again becomes associated with philosophy and science1517 - Martin Luther posts the Ninety-Five Theses and the Protestant Reformation begins; Protestants came to see the Catholic cults of the saints and the secular amusements associated with the liturgical feasts as the survival of paganism1600 - Age of Reason begins

3. The Divine Feminine as perceived by ancient civilizations and organized religion A. PREHISTORY Religions often provide lenses through which the ideas that order human societies can be observed. For example, based on evidence from religion, historians have considered how views of gender may have influenced and been influenced by transformations in social and political organization. Soon after the rise of sedentary societies, the reliance on agriculture promoted gynocentric (female-based) societies because of the importance of women in the reproduction and sustenance of society through their contributions to agricultural labour. In gynocentric societies, women played key roles in social and political life. Their knowledge about the realms of fertility and childbirth were regarded as vital to the community. The position of women was reflected in belief systems that focused on a goddess, who often symbolized the earth as a mother.

The beginnings of religion can be recognized in some of the earliest evidence of complex symbolic systems ( interpretation of the world through the use of symbols ) in Eurasia, which center around worship of a goddess in various forms. Beginning about 25,000 BCE, female images representing procreative powers are recorded in cave paintings, rock carvings and sculptures. These rounded female figures are depicted with exaggerated breasts, vulvae and buttocks. By Neolithic times (ca. 6500 BCE ) examples of these images in religious artifacts increase. In many parts of the world, goddess beliefs, which both reflected and shaped social organization in early agricultural

societies, were eventually, when protection of resources became paramount, supplanted by belief in male god-kings.

Evidence of early goddess beliefs derives from the excavation and interpretation of archaeological sites. Artifacts such as female masks and anthropomorphic vases from early sixth-millennium BCE Sesklo (in Greece) and Starveco (in Bulgaria) cultures display chevrons and triangles that are recognized as signs of the goddess. Slightly later arts of the Vinca culture (5300 BCE ) in the Balkans commonly have images of the Bird Goddess: a characteristic mask with a large nose or beak with no mouth, exaggerated buttocks and thighs, a specialized costume and incised or painted symbols.

By contrast, quite different themes are associated with the horse and ox cults of invading pastoralists from the South Russian and eastern Ukraine regions after the fifth millennium BCE. Examples of powerful female deities in the pantheons of early dynastic states after 3500 BCE, reminiscent of the Neolithic mother goddesses, suggested the persistence of elements of earlier belief systems even as religious ideas were transformed under the influence of new political and social orders. The Paleolithic period extends from 2.5 million years ago to the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 BCE. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans migrated to the Western Hemisphere before the end of the Paleolithic. It is the prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools, and covers the greatest portion of humanity's time on Earth. Several small, corpulent figures have been found during archaeological excavations of the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Willendorf, perhaps, being the most famous. These female figurines are estimated to have been carved around 24,000–22,000 BCE. Some archaeologists believe they were intended to represent goddesses, while others believe that they could have served some other purpose.

The Venus of Willendorf, also known as the Woman of Willendorf, is an 11 cm (4.3 in) high statuette of a female figure estimated to have been made between 24,000 B.C.E. and 22,000 B.C.E. It was discovered in 1908 by archaeologist Josef Szombathy at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria near the city of Krems. It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. Red ochre pigments had a very important significance in prehistoric times. It has been argued that Neolithic burials used red ochre pigments symbolically, either to represent a return to the earth or possibly as a form of ritual rebirth, in which the color symbolizes blood and the Great Goddess. Very little is known about its origin, method of creation, or cultural significance. The Venus of Willendorf was recovered in a site that contained a few amulets of Moldavite. The apparent large size of the breasts and abdomen, and the detail put into the vulva, have led scholars to interpret the figure as a fertility symbol. The figure has no visible face, her head being covered

Venus of Willendorf, Limestone, H 4.3", 24-22,000 BCE; Willendorf, Austria.

with circular horizontal bands of what might be rows of plaited hair, or a type of headdress. Since this figure's discovery and naming, several similar statuettes and other forms of art have been discovered. They are collectively referred to as Venus figurines, although they pre-date the mythological figure of Venus by millennia.

The Venus of Hohle Fels (6 cm /2.4 “) is an Upper Paleolithic Venus figurine found near Schelklingen, Germany. It is dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago, belonging to the early Aurignacian, at the very beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which is associated with the assumed earliest presence of Homo sapiens in Europe (Cro-Magnon). It is the oldest undisputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and figurative prehistoric art in general.The figurine

was discovered in September 2008 in a cave called Hohle Fels in southwestern Germany, by a team from the University of Tübingen led by archaeology professor Nicholas Conard. The

discovery of the Venus of Hohle Fels pushes back the date of the oldest prehistoric sculpture, and arguably the oldest known figurative art altogether, by several millennia, establishing that works of art were being produced throughout the Aurignacian Period. The figurine is a representation of a woman, putting emphasis on the vulva and the breasts. Consequently it is presumed to be an amulet related to fertility. It is made of a woolly mammoth tusk and had broken into fragments, of which six have been recovered, with the left arm and shoulder still missing. In place of the head, the figurine has a perforation so that it could have been worn as a pendant.

The Venus of Dolní Věstonice is a Venus figurine, a ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to 29,000–25,000 BCE, which was found at a Paleolithic site in the Moravian basin south of Brno. This figurine, together with a few others from nearby locations, is the oldest known ceramic in the world, predating the use of fired clay to make pottery. It has a height of 4.4 in, and a width of 1.7 in at its widest point and is made of a clay body fired at a relatively low temperature. The figurine was discovered on 13 July 1925 in a layer of ash, broken into two pieces. Once on display at the Moravian Museum in Brno, it is now protected and only rarely accessible to the public. The Paleolithic settlement of Dolní Věstonice in Moravia, a part of Czechoslovakia at the time organized excavation began, now located in the Czech Republic, has been under systematic archaeological research since 1924, initiated by Karel Absolon. In addition to the Venus figurine, figures of animals – bear, lion, mammoth, horse, fox, rhino and owl – and more than 2,000 balls of burnt clay have been found at Dolní Věstonice.

The Venus of Hohle Fels (6 cm/ 2.4") Upper Paleolithic period (35,000 - 40,000)

Diverse images of what are believed to be Mother Goddesses also have been discovered that date from the Neolithic period, the New Stone Age, which ranges from approximately 10,000 BCE when the use of wild cereals led to the beginning of farming, and eventually, to agriculture. The end of this Neolithic period is characterized by the introduction of metal tools as the skill appeared to spread from one culture to another, or arise independently as a new phase in an existing tool culture, and eventually became widespread among humans. Regional differences in the development of this stage of tool development are quite varied. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own patterns of development, while distinctive Neolithic cultures arose independently in Europe and Southwest Asia. During this time, native cultures appear in the Western Hemisphere, arising out of older traditions that were carried during migration. Regular seasonal occupation or permanent settlements begin to be seen in excavations. Herding and keeping of cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs is evidenced along with the presence of dogs. Almost without exception, images of what are interpreted as Mother Goddesses have been discovered in all of these cultures.

B.ANCIENT EGYPT At approximately the same time as West Asian dynastic states were expanding ( fourth and third millennium BCE ) religion and government were becoming closely tied in the emergence of Egypt in North Africa. Terracotta female figurines fashioned of Nile mud suggest the existence of fertility beliefs and possibly goddess worship in this region of North Africa during Neolithic times, but by the third millennium BCE there was a multitude of Egyptian gods and goddesses with anthropomorphic qualities. The Egyptian pantheon as it

existed by this time suggests a shift to stronger forms of male authority in tandem with a clear preference for male rulers.

Figures of bone & ivory; Predynastic, Naqada I; 4000-3600 BC; Figures of this type first appeared in Naqada I period and continued into Naqada II. Most of teh eyes of the figurines are inlaid.

The Brooklyn Museum of Art, between 1906 and 1908, sponsored an expedition that excavated early sites in southern Egypt and brought back many objects of historic and artistic value. The terracotta figurine to the left is one of the most important and recognized of those. It’s nicknamed the ‘Bird Lady’ because of the beak-like face. It’s dated to the Predynastic period, Naqada II c.3500-3400 BC and was excavated by Henri de Morgan at the village of Ma'mariya in 1907. The terracotta female figurine is the earliest work of Egyptian pottery. Ancient Egypt is known for its colorful prehistoric culture. Agricultural tribes working along the Nile developed a highly advanced pottery making art.

The standing figure is 28 centimeters tall with no hair or facial features engraved on the oval-shaped small head. The upper part of the figure is naked and painted red, with clear curves that represent a woman's body and a pair of small breasts. She wears only a long white skirt that covers her legs completely. Her bare arms extend upward in a graceful curving motion. The highly abstract statue

reflects the distinctive characters of ancient Egyptian sculpture, which placed an emphasis on viewing a figure as a whole, without focusing on particular physical details. The earliest Egyptian art, created during the pre-dynastic period (4400-3100 BC), exhibits a style that does not continue into historical, dynastic times (after 3100 BC). All of this art comes from graves that belonged to non-elite people. The objects created for these tombs might be considered folk art.

People in Nagada II and III also concerned themselves with human figures. Among the first human figures were the female figurines that the archaeologist Henri de Morgan discovered in the village of Ma'mariya in 1907. Though figurines such as the “Bird Lady” are among the most famous pre-historic sculptures from ancient Egypt, it is impossible to determine with certainty whether the figure represents a priestess, a mourner, or a dancer, though scholars interpret these figures as goddesses when they appear on pottery because they are depicted much larger than the male ‘priest’ figures shown with them.

Female Figurine 'Bird Lady'. Egypt, from Ma'mariya. Predynastic Period, Naqada II, circa 3650-3300 B.C. Terracotta. Brooklyn Museum.

ABOVE LEFT & RIGHT: Pottery dating from Nagada II period, depicting figurines similar to the 'Bird Lady' in prominent river scenes. BELOW: Closeup of painting on the pot.

Female figures similar in posture to that of the ‘Bird Lady’ occur painted on pottery contemporary with the figurines. The female figures painted on pots are prominent in river scenes that include a boat with two cabins, two male figures, and palm fronds on the shore. Some examples depict mountains beyond the riverbank abstracted to triangles. The female figure is the largest element in the composition, suggesting, as was true in historic times, that she was the most important figure. The figures, boat, palms, and mountains are in red paint on a light buff clay, typical of the Nagada II period. Though the abstract style is not typical of the later period, subject matter such as river scenes

were popular throughout ancient Egyptian history. If this is indeed a religious scene, it would be an early example of a common Egyptian subject for art.

ABOVE: Clay female figurines from Nagada I or II period. Compare these with the ‘Bird Lady’ figurine.

To the left is an example of a female figurine circa 1630-

1539 BCE. This type of "doll" figure has been found in ancient

Egypt in graves dating from Dynasties 12 to 18 (ca. 1938–1539

B.C.E.). This particular example most closely resembles

examples that have been dated to the Second Intermediate

Period (ca. 1630–1539/23 B.C.E.). These figurines, which clearly

symbolized fertility, were placed in graves to ensure the rebirth

and fertility of the deceased in the next world. The holes in the

ears of this figure would likely have contained beaded earrings at

one time, and the perforations on the top of the head were used

to attach strings of clay beads in imitation of flowing hair. The

coils of pierced clay around the neck were made to imitate heavy

necklaces.

Female figurine ca. 1630 - 1539 BCE Second Intermediate Period, Dynasties 15 to 18, Terracotta, Egypt

Isis “Oh holy and blessed Lady, the perpetual comfort of humankind who by thy bounty and grace

nourishes the whole world and bears a great compassion to the troubles of the miserable as a

loving mother would.”

-- Lucius Apuleius

Isis was an Ancient Egyptian goddess whose domain was nature, magic, motherhood and fertility. She was worshiped as the ideal mother and wife and was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, as well as listening to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers. Her worship was not only popular and significant in Ancient Egypt, but eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. Worship of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis competed in Ancient Rome with Christianity against the official Roman deities and Mithraism till its suppression and destruction by adherents of Christianity. She was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of the Overarching Sky. In later myths about Isis, she had a brother, Osiris, who became her husband, and she then was said to have conceived Horus.

Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set. Her magical skills restored his body to life after she gathered the body parts that had been strewn throughout Egypt by Set. This myth became very important in later Egyptian religious beliefs.

Isis is also known as the goddess of simplicity, protector of the dead and goddess of children from whom all beginnings arose. In later myths, the Ancient Egyptians

believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of her tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. This occurrence of his death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals.

Her origins are uncertain, but are believed to have come from the Nile Delta. First mentions of Isis date back to the Fifth dynasty of Egypt which is when the first literary inscriptions are found, but her cult became prominent late in Egyptian history, when it began to absorb the cults of many other goddesses with strong cult centers.

During the formative centuries of Christianity, the religion of Isis drew converts from every corner of the Roman

Empire. In Italy itself, the Egyptian faith was a dominant force. At Pompeii, archaeological evidence reveals that Isis worship was very much alive and prevalent in many important temples dedicated to the Ancient Egyptian goddess. In Rome, temples were built and obelisks erected in her honour. In Greece, traditional centres of worship in Delos, Delphi, and Eleusis were taken over by followers of Isis, and this occurred in northern Greece and Athens as well. Harbours of Isis were to be found on the Arabian Sea and the Black Sea. Inscriptions show followers in Gaul, Spain, Pannonia, Germany, Arabia, Asia Minor, Portugal and many shrines even in Britain.

Most Egyptian deities first appeared as very local cults and throughout their history retained those local centres of worship, with most major cities and towns widely known as the home of these deities. Isis originally was an independent and popular deity established in predynastic times, prior to 3100 B.C., at Sebennytos in the northern delta.

Eventually temples to Isis began to spread outside of Egypt. In many locations, particularly Byblos, her cult took over that of worship to the

Semitic goddess Astarte, apparently due to the similarity of names and associations. During the Hellenic era, she became the patron goddess of sailors, who spread her worship through the trading ships that circulated the Mediterranean Sea.

Temples to Isis were built in Iraq, Greece and Rome, with a well preserved example discovered in Pompeii, Italy. Pompeii, which was a thriving cultural and commercial center of the Mediterranean, Isis was viewed as the great mother goddess. Greek influence was predominant in Pompeii and Isis worship by the Greeks began after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. When the Romans conquered both Egypt and Greece itself, the worship of Isis spread throughout the Roman Empire. These temples were the sites of elaborate daily and annual rituals and were administered by an educated priesthood skilled in music and medicine. Isis worship was especially popular with women and with the new elite who gained wealth and prominence as the Roman Empire expanded. On the Greek island of Delos a Doric Temple of Isis was built on a high over-looking hill at the beginning of the Roman period to venerate the familiar trinity of Isis, the Alexandrian Serapis and Harpocrates.

At Philae her worship persisted until the sixth century, long after the rise of Christianity and the subsequent suppression of paganism. The Theodosian decree (in about 380 AD) to destroy all pagan temples was not enforced there until the time of Justinian. This toleration was due to an old treaty made between the Blemyes-Nobadae and Diocletian. Every year they visited Elaphantine and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the Blemyes for oracular purposes before returning it. Justinian sent

The Goddess Isis on a painting in the tomb of of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings c. 1360 BC

Narses to destroy the sanctuaries, with the priests being arrested and the divine images taken to Constantinople. Philae was the last of the ancient Egyptian temples to be closed.

Little information on Egyptian rituals for Isis survives, however, it is clear there were both priests and priestesses officiating at her cult rituals throughout its entire history. By the Greco-Roman era, many of them were healers, and were said to have many other special powers, including dream interpretation and the ability to control the weather, which they did by braiding or not combing their hair. The latter was believed because the Egyptians considered knots to have magical powers. Priests of Isis typically shaved their heads and wore linen garments rather than wool. Isis worship did not include a Messianic apocalyptic worldview ; however, Isis worship typically excluded other deities and approached a monotheistic viewpoint. Services occurred daily with a solemn morning opening ritual and a nightly closing ritual filled with singing . A ritual bucket for holy Nile water(the situla) and a rattle (the sistrum), were both used in worship .

Stella Maris, Carrus Navalis & the Ship of Isis (Isidis Navigium)"When I had finished my prayer .. I had scarcely closed my eyes before the apparition of a

woman began to rise from the middle of the sea with so lovely a face that the gods themselves would have fallen down in adoration of it."

Lucius Apuleius, The Golden Ass translation by Robert Graves

Isis is the Ocean Star, or Stella Maris, as Mary would later be called in Latin, the guide and protector of navigators identifying Isis with Sirius, the brightest star and main beacon point in the sky for sailors. The heliacal rising, or date when Sirius can first be seen rising in the east just before the rising of the Sun - fell each year on July 26, which historically was associated with the annual Nile flood. The Ocean Star festival was celebrated on the 5th of March. On the evening of this festival, there are ceremonies and songs on boats that blaze with lamps and colors. This day is also an important time marker. It is now 140 days, or 14 decans (10-day "weeks"), until a new flow of red water should begin the next Nile flood on July 26.

When winter storms lose their force, a ship is dedicated to Isis as a new season of sailing begins. This is the ancient Egyptian festival of Isidis Navigium (the ship of Isis), or the Ploiaphesia, which honored Isis' invention of the sail and her patronage of sailing-craft and navigation.

As part of the festivities, a parade was performed in honor of Isis. Here is one description:"Following in a procession of mummers, the priests carry emblems of Isis. The Chief Priest carries a lamp, a golden boat-shaped light with a tall tongue of flame from a hole in the center. The second priest holds an auxiliaria (ritual pot) in each of his hands, and the third carries a miniature palm-tree. The fourth priest carries a model of the left hand with the fingers stretched out, the emblem of justice as well as a golden vessel in the shape of a woman's breast. From the nipple falls a thin stream of milk. The fifth cleric carries a winnowing-fan woven with golden rods, not osiers. The final man, not a priest, carries a wine-jar.

Next in the procession comes Anubis with a face black on one side and golden on the other, and a man carrying a statue of a cow, representing the Goddess as the fruitful Mother of us all. After them walks a priest with a box containing the secret implements of Isis’ cult, and another priest carries a secret vessel in his robes.

It is a small container of burnished gold with thickly crowded Egyptian hieroglyphics and a rounded bottom, a long spout, and a generously curving handle. Along the handle is an asp raising its head and displaying its throat.

Waiting at the seashore is a beautifully built ship covered with Egyptian hieroglyphics. The sail is fashioned of white linen inscribed with large letters with a prayer for the Goddess's protection of the shipping lanes during the new sailing season, and the long mast is made of fir. The prow is shaped like the neck of Isis's holy goose, and the long keel is cut from a solid trunk of citrus-wood.

"The ship is purified with a lighted torch, an egg, and sulphur, and then hallowed and dedicated to the Goddess. All present place winnowing-fans heaped with aromatics and other votive offerings on board while pouring milk into the sea as a libation. When the ship is loaded with gifts and prayers for good fortune, the anchor cables are cut, setting the ship free."

Ship of Isis -one of the modern Carnival's more obvious predecessors. This Isis festival of the waters still survives throughout the Americas and Europe with the Virgin Mary replacing Isis. The Romans celebrated the goddess Isis as the patroness of sailors and inventor of the sail. The festival of Isis, where her image is carried to the sea-shore to bless the start of the sailing season, was called the "Carrus Navalis" ("ship cart"). Many believe this is the true origin of the word "Carnival," not the "Farewell to the flesh" from the Latin roots, carne [meat] and vale [farewell], which has been popularized. The Cult of Isis in the Graeco-Roman World

Contemporary with the Olympic pantheon, popular mystery cults centering around rebirth and regeneration flourished. The worship of Isis and other divinities imported from West Asia and Egypt blended austerity with eroticism; the Isis cult in particular attracted women, many of whom took vows of virginity in the goddess’ service. Cults, open to anyone and appealing to the individual, were rooted in the mysterious powers of nature and veneration of ancestors and taught rebirth, regeneration and immortality. They contrasted strongly with the Olympic beliefs and practices, which were communal and public, concerned with community rituals honouring one or another of the twelve immortal Olympians. Olympic worship, based on community rather than personal bonds with the gods, was for the benefit of the society , which it helped to define and unify.

The Temple of Isis in Pompeii was small but ornate. It was destroyed in an earthquake in A.D. 62 but was rebuilt shortly after that. The renovation was financed

by a freed slave in the name of his young son. There may have been political motivations for this, since freed slaves were not allowed to hold public office, and the son who was appointed as a member of the city council was only six years old. The Temple has a mixture of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architectural features. This is not surprising since Roman architecture of this period was very ornate, often used bright colors, and borrowed and mixed styles from many eras.

There were many statues in the Temple of Isis and the portico walls were covered with elaborate murals. To the left of the temple was a small roofless structure containing a tank that may have held the sacred water from the Nile, which was very important in many Isis ceremonies. In the rear of the sanctuary was a room containing a marble table where sacred meals were probably served.

After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 B.C., he and his successors the Ptolomies continued to support the cult of Isis, though in time, the different gods in the Isis pantheon were merged with Greek gods, so that Osiris became Osirus-Serapis-Pluto, and Horus became Horus-Harpocrates-Apollo.

When the Romans conquered Egypt in the first century B.C., they in turn venerated Isis. Like other agrarian peoples, the early Roman had reacted to the complexity of life by seeing hosts of gods ruling different things. There were separate gods for different places, different aspects of nature, different stages and conditions of life, and different times of year. There were also state gods that all citizens were expected to worship as a patriotic duty. Later, when Rome started to conquer more and more of her neighbors, foreign gods were also tolerated. But as more and more gods were added, and as Roman society got farther and farther away from its agrarian roots, there was a movement towards seeing the separate gods as different aspects of the same deity, and of seeking more compassionate deities. The worship of Isis was part of this trend. She became immensely popular- first with women and freed slaves, but later with the upper classes of society as well. The priests of Isis became more powerful as well.

Following the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great the worship of Isis spread throughout the Graeco-Roman world. Tacitus writes that after Julius Caesar's assassination, a temple in honour of Isis had been decreed; Augustus suspended this, and tried to turn Romans back to the Roman deities who were closely associated with the state. Eventually the Roman emperor Caligula abandoned the Augustan wariness toward what was described as oriental cults, and it was in his reign that the Isiac festival was established in Rome. According to Josephus, Caligula donned female garb and took part in the mysteries he instituted, and in the Hellenistic age Isis acquired a "new rank as a leading goddess of the Mediterranean world." Vespasian, along with Titus, practised incubation in the Roman Iseum. Domitian built another Iseum along with a Serapeum. Trajan appears before Isis and Horus, presenting them with votive offerings of wine, in a bas-relief on his triumphal arch in Rome. Hadrian decorated his villa at Tibur with Isiac scenes. Galerius regarded Isis as his protectress.

Roman perspectives on cults were syncretic, seeing in new deities, merely local aspects of a familiar one. For many Romans, Egyptian Isis was an aspect of Phrygian Cybele, whose orgiastic rites were long-naturalized at Rome.

Isis was known in Rome as ‘She of Ten Thousand Names’. Among these names of the Roman Isis, Queen of Heaven is outstanding for its long and continuous history. Herodotus identified Isis with the Greek and Roman goddesses of agriculture, Demeter and Ceres.

The male first name "Isidore" ( also "Isador" ), means in Greek "Gift of Isis" (similar to "Theodore", "God's Gift" ). The name, which became common in Roman times, survived the suppression of the Isis worship and remains popular up to the present - being among others the name of several Christian saints.

During the fourth century when Christianity was remade as the official religion of the Roman Empire, her worshippers founded the first Madonna cults in order to keep her influence alive. Many scholars have theorized that Black Madonnas images and statues hearken back to the worship of the ancient Goddesses Isis and Demeter; indeed, some of the statues themselves are believed to be pre-Christian. Certainly, the image of the divine mother and the child-god are older than Christianity, and the tendency of the Catholic Church to borrow, consciously or subconsciously, the iconography of widespread Pagan cults at the time of its founding is well known. The growing uncontrolled worship of Isis by the lower classes was the most compelling reason the Roman Empire was willing to merge their official religion, Mithraism, with Christianity to become the Roman Catholic Church. Some early Christians even called themselves pastophori, meaning the ‘shepherds or servants of Isis’ which may be where the word "pastors" originated.

Symbols and associations with foreign deities Because of the association between knots and magical power, a symbol of Isis was the tiet or tyet (meaning welfare/life), also called the Knot of Isis, Buckle of Isis, or the Blood of Isis. In many respects the tyet resembles an ankh, except that its arms point downward, and when used as such, seems to represent the idea of eternal life or resurrection. The meaning of Blood of Isis is more obscure, but the tyet often was used as a funerary amulet made of red wood, stone, or glass, so this may simply have been a description of the appearance of the materials used.

Probably due to assimilation with the goddesses Aphrodite and Venus, during the Roman period, the rose was used in her worship. The demand for roses throughout the empire turned rose production into an important industry.

In art, originally Isis was pictured as a woman wearing a long sheath dress and crowned with the hieroglyphic sign for a throne. Sometimes she was depicted as holding a lotus, or, as a Sycamore tree. One pharaoh, Thutmose III, was depicted in his tomb as nursing from a sycamore tree that had a breast. Most

often Isis is seen holding only the generic ankh sign and a simple staff, but in late images

Faience Funerary tyet-amulet. Found on Sai Island (Pharaonic Cemetery) from the New Kingdom. Displayed at the British Museum’s Sudan Exhibition.

she is seen sometimes with items usually associated only with Hathor, the sacred sistrum rattle and the fertility-bearing menat necklace.

After she assimilated many of the roles of Hathor, Isis's headdress is replaced with that of Hathor: the horns of a cow on her head, with the solar disk between them. Sometimes she also was represented as a cow, or a cow's head. Usually, however, she was depicted with her young child, Horus (the pharaoh), with a crown, and a vulture. Occasionally she was represented as a kite flying above the body of Osiris or with the dead Osiris across her lap as she worked her magic to bring him back to life.

The star Sept (Sirius) is associated with Isis. The appearance of the star signified the advent of a new year and Isis was likewise considered the goddess of rebirth and reincarnation, and as a protector of the dead. The Book of the Dead outlines a particular ritual that would protect the dead, enabling travel anywhere in the underworld, and most of the titles Isis holds signify her as the goddess who protects the dead.

The Epithets & Names of Isis in the Ancient World: Queen of Heaven Mother of the Gods Lady of Green Crops The Brilliant One in the Sky Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) Great Lady of Magic Mistress of the House of Life She Who Knows How To Make Right Use of the Heart Light-Giver of Heaven Lady of the Words of Power Moon Shining Over the Sea High Priestess of Nut "Mistress of Magic" Spirit of the world order Bearer of the Feather of Truth The Giver of Life Crone of Death

"The One Who Is All" or Isis Panthea ("Isis the All Goddess")

The term aegis is used in Egyptology to describe a broad collar surmounted by the head of a deity, in this case a goddess, possibly Isis. Representations in temples show that these objects decorated the sacred boats in which deities were carried in procession during festivals. An aegis was mounted at the prow and another at the stern. The head of the deity identified the occupant of the boat and it is likely that this example came from a sacred boat of Isis.

The eyes and eyebrows of the goddess were originally inlaid. The large eyes, further emphasized by the inlay, are typical of later Kushite art. The rectangular hole in her forehead once held the uraeus, which identified her as a goddess. The surviving part of her head-dress consists of a vulture - the wing feathers can be seen below her ears. The vulture head-dress was originally worn by the goddess Mut, consort of

Kushite, late 3rd century BC, Ornamental head of Isis

Amun of Thebes, but became common for all goddesses. The rest of the head-dress for this aegis was cast separately and is now lost, but would have consisted of a sun disc and cow's horns. The piece bears a cartouche of the Kushite ruler Arnekhamani (reigned about 235-218 BC), the builder of the Lion Temple at Musawwarat es-Sufra.

This statue was dedicated by Sheshonq, a steward of the god's wife Ankhnesneferibre, whose sarcophagus is also in The British Museum. Isis holds her wings either side of Osiris, her spouse, in a gesture of protection. She wears a modius, a crown of uraei, topped with the cows' horns and sun disc worn by many goddesses. Osiris is, as usual, mummiform, wearing the crown with the two feathers known by its Egyptian name atef. The statue is thought to come from one of two chapels which were dedicated to forms of Osiris worshipped at Karnak. These chapels were built and extended by the god's wives of Amun and the kings with whom they were associated.

Hathor

Hathor is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, fertility, foreign lands, dance, motherhood and joy. Her name means “House of Horus”. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt. Hathor was worshiped by Royalty and common people. She was also a goddess who was seen as helping women in childbirth. The cult of Hathor pre-dates the historical period and the roots of devotion to her may be a development of predynastic cults who venerated fertility and nature represented by cows. Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with horns in which is set a sun disk with a uraeus. The menat necklace also figures among her iconography. The Ancient Greeks identified Hathor with the goddess Aphrodite and the Romans identified her with their goddess Venus.

The Ancient Egyptians viewed reality as multi-layered, and deities merged together for various reasons, whilst retaining their unique attributes and mythologies. This wasn’t viewed

Isis protecting Osiris, from Karnak, Egypt, 26th (Saite) Dynasty, around 590 BC

Basalt statue of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. From the New Kingdom, 18th dynasty (reign of Amenhotep III 1388-1351BC).

The statue was commissioned by

as contradictory but complementary. In a complicated relationship Hathor is at times the mother, daughter and wife of Ra and, like Isis, is at times described as the mother of Horus. Hathor is also associated with the goddess Bast.

In tombs she is depicted as “Mistress of the West” welcoming the dead into the next life. The cult of the god Osiris promised eternal life to those deemed morally worthy. Originally the justified dead, male or female, became an Osiris but by early Roman times females became identified with Hathor and men with Osiris.

Hathor had a complex relationship with Ra, in one myth she is his eye and considered his daughter but later, when Ra assumes the role of Horus with respect to Kingship, she is considered Ra's mother. She absorbed this role from another cow goddess 'Mht wrt' ("Great flood") who was the mother of Ra in a creation myth and carried him between her horns. As a mother she gave birth to Ra each morning on the eastern horizon and as wife she conceives through union with him each day. This ‘daughter/mother/wife’ relationship that is displayed between Hathor and the god Ra, is also seen in other pantheons, such as that of the Ancient Greeks, Sumerians and Assyrians. This confusion usually occurs when the male god(s) takes ascendancy is the pantheon and the dominant female goddess is relegated to a position of wife or daughter.

Hathor along with the goddess Nut was associated with the Milky Way during the third millennium B.C. when, during the fall and spring equinoxes, it aligned over and appeared to ‘touch’ the earth where the sun rose and fell. The four legs of the celestial cow represented Nut or Hathor and was sometimes viewed as the pillars on which the sky was supported with the stars on their bellies constituting the Milky Way, on which the solar barque of Ra, representing the sun, sailed. An alternate name for Hathor, which persisted for 3,000 years, was Mehturt (also spelt Mehurt, Mehet-Weren't and Mehet-uret), meaning 'Great Flood’, a direct reference to her being the Milky Way. The Milky Way was seen as a waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun and moon deities, leading the ancient Egyptians to describe it as ‘The Nile in the Sky’. Due to this, and the name Mehturt, Hathor was viewed as being responsible for the yearly inundation of the Nile. Another consequence of this name is that she was seen as a herald of imminent birth; when the amniotic sac breaks and floods its waters, it is a medical indicator that the

child is due to be born extremely soon. Another interpretation of the Milky Way was that it was the primal snake, Wadjet, the protector of Egypt who was closely associated with Hathor and other early deities among the various aspects of the great

Basalt statue of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. From the New Kingdom, 18th dynasty (reign of Amenhotep III 1388-1351BC).

The statue was commissioned by

Head of Hathor, Porphyritic diorite, Dynasty 18, 1417-1379 B.C.E., Commissioned by Amenhotep lll, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

mother goddess, including Mut and Naunet. Hathor also was favoured as a protector in desert regions .

It was said that, with her motherly character, Hathor greeted the souls of the dead in Duat, and proffered them with refreshments of food and drink. She also was described sometimes as mistress of the necropolis. Hathor was associated with the sistrum, a musical instrument,and thus she was closely connected to music. In this later form, Hathor's cult became centred in Dendera in Upper Egypt and it was led by priestesses and priests who also were dancers, singers, and other entertainers.

The sistrum was basically a rattle comprising an arch (an inverted U-shaped section) with a handle attached. The arch had a number of cross pieces onto which were threaded metal discs. When the sistrum was shaken, the discs rattled. The top of the handle was often decorated with the head of Hathor, patron of music. The instrument, carried in tomb and temple scenes, indicated devotion to Hathor, and symbolized adoration in general. The similarity between the shape of the sistrum and that of the ankh meant that, like the ankh, it came to represent life. The sistrum was used in Egyptian festivals and was often played by temple songstresses. Shaking the sistrum probably marked the division of the phrases in adulatory hymns. It was believed that the sound of rattling also drove off malign forces, preventing them from spoiling the festival. The sistrum continued to be used in Egypt well after the rule of the pharaohs. By the time of the Greek author Plutarch, around the first or second century AD, the arch of the sistrum had come to symbolise the lunar cycle and the sistrum's bars, the elements. The Hathor heads were interpreted as Isis and Nephthys, who represented life and death respectively. In ceremonies of the Coptic period, priests extended the sistrum to the four cardinal points to indicate the power of god.

Hathor also became associated with the menat, the turquoise musical necklace often worn by women. A hymn to Hathor says: “Thou art the Mistress of Jubilation, the Queen of the Dance, the Mistress of Music, the Queen of the Harp Playing, the Lady of the Choral Dance, the Queen of Wreath Weaving, the Mistress of Inebriety Without End.”

Essentially, Hathor had become a goddess of joy, and so she was deeply loved by the general population, and truly revered by women, who aspired to embody her multifaceted role as wife, mother, and lover. In this capacity, she gained the titles of ‘Lady of the House of Jubilation’, and ‘The One Who Fills the Sanctuary with Joy’. The worship of Hathor was so popular that many festivals were dedicated to her honor than any other Egyptian deity, and more children were named after this goddess than any other deity. Even Hathor's priesthood was unusual, in that both women and men became her priests.

As Hathor's cult developed from prehistoric cow cults it is not possible to say conclusively where devotion to her first took place. Dendera in Upper Egypt was a significant early site where she was worshiped as "Mistress of Dendera". At the start of the first Intermediate period Dendera appears to have become the main cult site where she was considered to be the mother as well as the consort of "Horus of Edfu". Deir el-Bahri, on the west bank of Thebes, was also an important site of Hathor that developed from a pre-existing cow cult.

Temples (and chapels) dedicated to Hathor: The Temple of Hathor and Maat at Deir el-Medina, West Bank, Luxor. The Temple of Hathor at Philae Island, Aswan. The Hathor Chapel at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. West Bank, Luxor.

Hathor was worshipped in Canaan in the eleventh century BC, which at that time was ruled by Egypt, at her holy city of Hazor, or Tel Hazor which the Old Testament claims was destroyed by Joshua (Joshua 11:13, 21).

B. THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

Map of the Fertile Crescent and Egypt

From the early Neolithic period until the fall of Babylon, Mesopotamian religious thought appears to have been marked by the image of a goddess who incarnated the natural forces of fertility and fecundity. The most developed form of this was the image of Ishtar, who was the subject of many myths.

The Neolithic era was characterized by profound social change: populations of hunter-gatherers from the Near East formed villages and began to practice sedentary farming. As an extension of the ancient practice of gathering, the domestication of edible plants no doubt acted as a symbolic link between the fertility of the earth and the fecundity of the woman. Thus, a mythology of vitality incarnated by the female image slowly took shape. This was probably a reference to a powerful protective deity conceived of as a "mother goddess", or at any rate a principal of fecundity that guaranteed the long-term survival of the group.

With the emergence of city-states, this fertility mythology developed, and accompanied the development of society. At Uruk, for example, we see this mythology in the form of the goddess Inanna, protector of the city. Other goddesses appeared in various cities of the Sumerian world, lending shape to this fertility/fecundity principle, each of them emphasizing a particular aspect. But none achieved the prestige and lasting fame of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, who was known as Ishtar among the Akkadians. Many mythological poems were dedicated to her, making her the preeminent goddess. Combining the symbolism of fertility and the power of the warrior-woman, she was venerated by the kings of both Assyria and Babylon, and throughout Mesopotamia's long history this religious fervor never waned.

In a Babylonian version of the Sumerian creation myth, the warrior-king Marduk defeated the goddess Tiamat, who at first represented the feminine power to give birth to the world, was later identified with the forces of chaos, which were tamed by the organizing powers of male gods. A legacy of earlier views of Tiamat, and still earlier Neolithic goddesses, may be seen in the cult of the goddess Ishtar, which dates to the third millennium BCE.

Representations of Ishtar show similarities to Neolithic fertility images, including bulbous hips and prominent breasts. The cult of Ishtar reveals some of the complexities and ambiguities in the transition from Neolithic goddess cults to warrior cults associated with early dynastic states. Depending on whether she was considered the daughter of the moon god or the sky god, she was a goddess of either love or war, a dichotomy that suggests the shift in power and influence from mother to warrior.

Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked.

Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname.

Other major centers of Astarte's worship were Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. Coins from Sidon portray a chariot in which a globe appears, presumably a stone representing Astarte. In Sidon, she shared a temple with Eshmun. At Beirut coins show Poseidon, Astarte, and Eshmun worshipped together. Other faith centers were Cytherea, Malta, and Eryx in Sicily from which she became known to the Romans as Venus Erycina. A bilingual inscription on the Pyrgi Tablets dating to about 500 BC found near Caere in Etruria equates Astarte with Etruscan Uni-Astre that is, Juno. At Carthage Astarte was worshipped alongside the goddess Tanit.

Map of Ancient Israel and its Environs

Tiamat In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat is the primordial goddess of the ocean. Her consort was Abzû (the god of fresh water), with whom she bore the younger gods in the Babylonian pantheon. In the Enûma Eliš she objects to when Abzû conspires to kill their offspring, and she warns the most powerful of those, Ea, who puts Abzû under a spell and kills him.

Later when Ea's son Marduk creates problems she conspires to retaliate by creating eleven frightening monsters and erecting her son Kingu as their general, but this plot fails when Marduk slays them all including Tiamat herself.

From Tiamat's body the world is formed, land and sea.

Tiamat was known as Thalattē (as variant of thalassa, the Greek word for "sea") in the Hellenistic Babylonian Berossus' first volume of universal history. It is thought that the name of Tiamat was dropped in secondary translations of the original religious texts because some Akkadian copyists of Enûma Elish substituted the ordinary word for "sea" for Tiamat, because the two names essentially were the same, due to association.

Thorkild Jacobsen and Walter Burkert both argue for a connection with the Akkadian word for sea, tâmtu, following an early form, ti'amtum.

Burkert continues by making a linguistic connection to Tethys. He finds the later form, thalatth, to be related clearly to Greek thalassa, "sea". The Babylonian epic Enuma Elish is named for its incipit: "When above" the heavens did not yet exist nor the earth below, Apsu the freshwater ocean was there, ‘the First, the Begetter’, and Tiamat, the saltwater sea, ‘She Who bore Them All’; they were ‘mixing their waters’.” It is thought that female deities are older than male ones in Mesopotamia and Tiamat may have begun as part of the cult of Nammu, a female principle of a watery creative force, with equally strong connections to the underworld, which predates the appearance of Ea-Enki.

Illustration of an original Assyrian relief depicting the god Marduk slaying the primeval Tiamat

Harriet Crawford finds this "mixing of the waters" to be a natural feature of the middle Persian Gulf, where fresh waters from the Arabian aquifer mix and mingle with the salt waters of the sea. This characteristic is especially true of the region of Bahrain, whose name in Arabic means, "two seas", and which is thought to be the site of Dilmun, the original site of the Sumerian creation beliefs. The difference in density of salt and fresh water, driving a perceptible separation.

Tiamat also has been claimed to be cognate with Northwest Semitic tehom (the deeps, abyss), in the Book of Genesis 1:2.

Though Tiamat is often described by modern authors as a sea serpent or dragon, no ancient texts exist in which there is a clear association with those kinds of creatures. The Enûma Elish specifically states that Tiamat did give birth to dragons and serpents, but they are included among a larger and more general list of monsters including scorpion men and merpeople, none of which imply that any of the children resemble the mother or are even limited to aquatic creatures.

Within the Enûma Elish her physical description includes a tail, a thigh, "lower parts" (which shake together), a belly, an udder, ribs, a neck, a head, a skull, eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and lips. She has insides (possibly "entrails"), a heart, arteries, and blood.

Apsu (or Abzu, from Sumerian ab = water, zu = far) fathered upon Tiamat the Elder deities Lahmu and Lahamu (the "muddy"), a title given to the gatekeepers at the Enki Abzu temple in Eridu. Lahmu and Lahamu, in turn, were the parents of the axis or pivot of the heavens (Anshar, from an = heaven, shar = axle or pivot) and the earth (Kishar); Anshar and Kishar were considered to meet on the horizon, becoming thereby, the parents of Anu (the Heavens, Biblical "Shemayim") and Ki (the Earth, Biblical "Eretz" created by Elohim in Genesis 1:1).

Tiamat was the "shining" personification of salt water who roared and smote in the chaos of original creation. She and Apsu filled the cosmic abyss with the primeval waters. She is "Ummu-Hubur who formed all things".

In the myth recorded on cuneiform tablets, the deity Enki (later Ea) believed correctly that Apsu, upset with the chaos they created, was planning to murder the younger deities; and so captured him, holding him prisoner beneath his temple the E-Abzu. This angered Kingu, their son, who reported the event to Tiamat, whereupon she fashioned monsters to battle the deities in order to avenge Apsu's death. These were her own offspring: giant sea serpents, storm demons, fish-men, scorpion-men and many others.

Tiamat possessed the Tablets of Destiny and in the primordial battle she gave them to Kingu, the god she had chosen as her lover and the leader of her host. The deities gathered in terror, but Anu, (replaced later, first by Enlil and, in the late version that has survived after the First Dynasty of Babylon, by Marduk, the son of Ea), first extracting a promise that he would be revered as "king of the gods", overcame her, armed with the arrows of the winds, a net, a club, and an invincible spear.

And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts, And with his merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places.

Slicing Tiamat in half, he made from her ribs the vault of heaven and earth. Her weeping eyes became the source of the Tigris and the Euphrates. With the approval of the elder deities, he took from Kingu the Tablets of Destiny, installing himself as the head of the Babylonian pantheon. Kingu was captured and later was slain: his red blood mixed with the red clay of the Earth would make the body of humankind, created to act as the servant of the younger deities.

The Tiamat myth is one of the earliest recorded versions of the Chaoskampf, the battle between a culture hero and a chthonic or aquatic monster, serpent or dragon. Chaoskampf motives in other mythologies linked directly or indirectly to the Tiamat myth include the Hittite Illuyanka myth, and in Greek mythology, Apollo's killing of the Python as a necessary action to take over the Delphic Oracle.

According to some analyses there are two parts to the Tiamat myth, the first in which Tiamat is creator goddess, through a "sacred marriage" between salt and fresh water, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second "Chaoskampf" Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos.

Robert Graves (1955) considered Tiamat´s death by Marduk an outstanding example of how the shift in power from matriarchy to patriarchy occured. Merlin Stone in When God Was a Woman (1976) follows Graves and also links the supposed rise of Patriarchal power structures and the assumption of power by the monarchial "lugal" (Lu = Man, Gal = Big), during the Early Dynastic period of Sumerian History, and the institutionalisation of warfare.

Asherah

In Semitic mythology Asherah is a Semitic mother goddess, who appears in a number of ancient sources including Akkadian and Hittite writings. The Book of Jeremiah written circa 628 BC possibly refers to Asherah when it uses the title "queen of heaven" in chapters 7 and 44. Among her epithets were ‘Lady Athirat of the Sea’, ‘She who treads on the sea’ and ‘Creatrix of the gods (Elohim).” Among the Hittites this goddess appears as Asherdu(s) or Asertu(s), the consort of Elkunirsa (from the Ugaritic title, El-qan-arsha : "El the Creator of Earth") and she is the mother of either 77 or 88 sons.

Both the archaeological evidence and the Biblical texts document tensions between groups comfortable with the worship of Yahweh alongside

local deities such as Asherah and Baal and those insistent on worship of Yahweh alone during the monarchal period. The Deuteronomistic source gives evidence of a strong monotheistic party during the reign of king Josiah during the late 7th century BCE, but the strength and prevalence of earlier monotheistic worship of Yahweh is widely debated based on interpretations of how much of the Deuteronomistic history is accurately based on earlier sources, and how much has been re-worked by Deuteronomistic redactors to bolster their theological views. The archaeological record documents widespread polytheism in and around Israel during the period of the monarchy.

For example, a tenth century (BCE) cult stand from Taanach (a town in Northern Israel, near Megiddo) has unambiguous polytheistic implications. The stand has four levels, or registers. On the bottom register, or level four, there is a female figure with hands resting upon the heads of lions standing on either side. The female figure can be interpreted as a goddess, either Asherah, Astarte, or Anat. The third register has two winged sphinx type figures with a vacant space between them. The second level contains a sacred tree flanked on both sides by ibexes standing on their hind legs. The top register shows a quadruped (either a bovine or a horse) with a sun disk above it. It is unclear whether Taanach was under Israelite or Canaanite control when the stand was produced, and interpretations vary. If the quadruped on the top level is taken as a

bovine, it can be identified as either Yahweh or Baal. The solar disk above the quadruped is representative of either the sun god or the sky.Most authors agree that the sacred tree on the second register should be identified as an asherah, though the stylized tree is often viewed as a cult object rather than an image of a goddess. The winged sphinx type figures on the second level have been interpreted as cherubim with the space in between them representing the invisible Yahweh as "enthroned upon the cherubim" although the empty space has also been interpreted as allowing observers to view a fire or figurine inside the square stand.

Another example of polytheism in the southern Levant was the discovery of a combination of

iconography and inscriptions at a religious center/lodging place for travelers at Kuntillet Ajrud, in the northern Sinai desert that dates to the 8th century BCE. Among various other artifacts was a large storage jar that has attracted much attention. The side of the jar contains iconography showing three anthropomorphic figures and an inscription that refers to "Yahweh … and his asherah". The inscription lead to some early identifications of two standing figures in the

foreground as representing Yahweh and his consort Asherah, but later work identified them as Bes figures. A number of scholars, including William G. Dever, and Judith Hadley continue to interpret the inscription in a way that it refers to Asherah as an Israelite goddess and consort of Yahweh.

Contemporary illustration of the Taanach cult stand, 10th century BCE

Archaeologists and historical scholars use a variety of ways to organize and interpret the available iconographic and textual information. William G. Dever contrasts "official religion/state religion/book religion" of the elite with “folk religion” of the masses. Rainer Albertz contrasts "official religion" with "family religion", "personal piety", and "internal religious pluralism". Jacques Berlinerblau analyzes the evidence in terms of "official religion" and "popular religion" in ancient Israel. In a book described by William G. Dever as a "landmark study", Patrick D. Miller has broadly grouped the worship of Yahweh in ancient Israel into three broad categories: orthodox, heterodox, and syncretistic (Miller acknowledges that one man’s orthodoxy is another man’s heterodoxy and that orthodoxy was not a fixed and unchanging reality in the religion of ancient Israel).

“The idolatry of the people of Judah was not a departure from their earlier monotheism. It was, instead, the way the people of Judah had worshipped for hundreds of years.” —Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed

According to the documentary hypothesis, the majority of the forty references to Asherah in the Hebrew Bible derive from the Deuteronomists and are always in a hostile framework. The Deuteronomists evaluate the kings of Israel and Judah according to how rigorously they uphold Yahwism and suppress the worship of Asherah and other deities. King Manasseh, for example is said to have placed an Asherah pole in the Holy Temple, and was therefore one who "did evil in the sight of the LORD" (2 Kings 21:7); but king Hezekiah "removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah", (2 Kings 18.4), and was noted as the most righteous of Judah's kings before the coming of the reformer Josiah, in whose reign the Deuteronomistic history of the kings was composed. In addition to the authors of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Kings, and Judges, the prophets Isaiah (Isaiah 17:8, 27:9), Jeremiah (Jereimiah 17:2), and Micah (Micah 5:14) also condemned worship of Asherah and praised turning from this idolatry to worship Yahweh alone as the true God.

The Hebrew Bible uses the term asherah in two senses, as a cult object and as a divine name. As a cult object, the asherah can be "made", "cut down" and "burnt", and Deuteronomy 16:21 prohibits the planting of trees as asherah, implying that a stylised tree or lopped trunk is intended. At other verses a goddess is clearly intended, as, for example, 2 Kings 23:4-7, where items are being made "for Baal and Asherah".The references to asherah in Isaiah 17:8 and 2:8 suggest that there was no distinction in ancient thought between the object and the goddess.

William G. Dever has suggested that Asherah was worshiped as the Queen of Heaven and that the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival.

Figurines identified with Asherah are strikingly common in the archaeological record, indicating the popularity of her cult from the earliest times to the Babylonian exile. A rudely carved wooden statue planted on the ground of the house was Asherah's symbol, and sometimes a clay statue without legs. Her cult images were found also in forests, carved on living trees, or in the form of poles beside altars that were placed at the side of some roads. Asherah poles are mentioned in the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Judges, the Books of Kings, the second Book of Chronicles, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah. The term often appears as merely Asherah; this is

translated as "groves" in the King James Version and "poles" in the New Revised Standard Version, although there is disagreement about the translation of the ancient Hebrew as "poles."

Asherah poles An Asherah pole is a sacred tree or pole that stood near Canaanite religious locations to honor the Ugaritic mother-goddess Asherah, consort of El. The relation of the literary references to an asherah and archaeological finds of Judaean pillar-figurines has engendered a literature of debate. The asherim were also cult objects related to the worship of the fertility Goddess Asherah, the consort of either Ba'al or, as inscriptions from Kuntillet‘Ajurd and Khirbet el-Qom attest, Yahweh, and thus objects of contention among competing cults.

The role of the Asherah reflected in the texts was likely rewritten and reinterpreted by the followers of Ezra, upon the return of the Jews from captivity and the writing of the Priestly text. Though there was certainly a movement against goddess-worship at the Jerusalem Temple in the time of king Josiah, it did not long survive his reign, as the following four kings "did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh" (2 Kings 23:32, 37; 24:9, 19). Further exhortations came from Jeremiah. The traditional interpretation of the Biblical text is that the Israelites imported pagan elements such as the Asherah poles from the surrounding Canaanites; the modern scholarly interpretations suggests instead that the Israelite folk religion was always polytheistic, and it was the prophets and priests who denounced the Asherah poles who were the innovators.

The Hebrew Bible suggests that the poles were made of wood. In the sixth chapter of the Book of Judges, God is recorded as instructing the Israelite judge Gideon to cut down an Asherah pole that was next to an altar to Baal. The wood was to be used for a burnt offering.

Deuteronomy 16:21, (NIV) states that God hated Asherim whether rendered as poles— "Do not set up any [wooden] Asherah [pole] beside the altar you build to the Lord your God"— or as living trees— "You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God which you shall make". That Asherahs were not always living trees is

shown in Jeremiah 7:12: "their asherim , beside every luxuriant tree". The record indicates, however, that the Jewish people often departed from this ideal. King Manasseh for example is said to have placed an Asherah pole in the Holy Temple. (2 Kings 21:7) King Josiah's reforms in the late 7th century BC included the destruction of many Asherah poles. (2 Kings 23)

Exodus 3413: “Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.”

Some Biblical archaeologists have suggested that until the 6th century BC the Israelite peoples had household shrines, or at least figurines, of Asherah, which have been found in profusion in archaeological excavations.

Ishtar

Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess

Astarte. Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the

planet Venus". Ishtar was above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Uruk was called the "town of the sacred courtesans"; and she herself was the "courtesan of the gods". Ishtar had many lovers; however, as Guirand notes,

"Woe to him whom Ishtar had honoured! The fickle goddess treated her passing lovers cruelly, and the unhappy wretches usually paid dearly for the favours heaped on them. Animals, enslaved by love, lost their native vigour: they fell into traps laid by men or were domesticated by them. 'Thou has loved the lion, mighty in strength', says the hero Gilgamesh to Ishtar, 'and thou hast dug for him seven and seven pits! Thou hast loved the steed, proud in battle, and destined him for the halter, the goad and the whip.'”

Even for the gods Ishtar's love was fatal. In her youth the goddess had loved Tammuz, god of the harvest, and—if one is to believe Gilgamesh—this love caused the death of Tammuz.

Ishtar was the daughter of Sin or Anu. She was particularly worshiped at Nineveh and Arbela (Erbil).

One of the most famous myths about Ishtar describes her descent to the underworld. In this myth, Ishtar approaches the gates of the underworld and demands that the gatekeeper open them:“If thou openest not the gate to let me enter, I will break the door, I will wrench the lock, I will smash the door-posts, I will force the doors. I will bring up the dead to eat the living. And the dead will outnumber the living.”

The gatekeeper hurried to tell Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld. Ereshkigal told the gatekeeper to let Ishtar enter, but "according to the ancient decree". The gatekeeper lets Ishtar into the underworld, opening one gate at a time. At each gate, Ishtar has to shed one article of clothing. When she finally passes the seventh gate, she is naked. In rage, Ishtar throws herself at Ereshkigal, but Ereshkigal orders her servant Namtar to imprison Ishtar and unleash sixty diseases against her.

Statue of the Goddess Ishtar, Louvre Museum

After Ishtar descends to the underworld, all sexual activity ceases on earth. The god Papsukal reports the situation to Ea, the king of the gods. Ea creates an intersex creature called Asu-shu-namir and sends him-her to Ereshkigal, telling him-her to invoke "the name of the great gods" against her and to ask for the bag containing the waters of life. Ereshkigal is enraged when she hears Asu-shu-namir's demand, but she has to give him-her the water of life. Asu-shu-namir sprinkles Ishtar with this water, reviving her. Then Ishtar passes back through the seven gates, getting one article of clothing back at each gate, and is fully clothed as she exits the last gate.

Here there is a break in the text of the myth. The text resumes with the following lines: “If she (Ishtar) will not grant thee her release, To Tammuz, the lover of her youth, Pour out pure waters, pour out fine oil; With a festival garment deck him that he may play on the flute of lapis lazuli, That the votaries may cheer his liver. [his spirit] Belili [sister of Tammuz] had gathered the treasure, With precious stones filled her bosom. When Belili heard the lament of her brother, she dropped her treasure, She scattered the precious stones before her, "Oh, my only brother, do not let me perish! On the day when Tammuz plays for me on the flute of lapis lazuli, playing it for me with the porphyry ring. Together with him, play ye for me, ye weepers and lamenting women! That the dead may rise up and inhale the incense."

Formerly, scholars believed that the myth of Ishtar's descent took place after the death of Ishtar's lover, Tammuz: they thought Ishtar had gone to the underworld to rescue Tammuz. However, the discovery of a corresponding myth about Inanna, the Sumerian counterpart of Ishtar, has thrown some light on the myth of Ishtar's descent, including its somewhat enigmatic ending lines. According to the Inanna myth, Inanna can only return from the underworld if she sends someone back in her place. Demons go with her to make sure she sends someone back. However, each time Inanna runs into someone, she finds him to be a friend and lets him go free. When she finally reaches her home, she finds her husband Dumuzi (Babylonian Tammuz) seated on his throne, not mourning her at all. In anger, Inanna has the demons take Dumuzi back to the underworld as her replacement. Dumuzi's sister Geshtinanna is grief-stricken and volunteers to spend half the year in the underworld, during which time Dumuzi can go free. The Ishtar myth presumably has a comparable ending, Belili being the Babylonian equivalent of Geshtinanna.

Like Ishtar, the Greek Aphrodite and Northwestern Semitic Astarte were love goddesses who were "as cruel as they were wayward". Donald A. Mackenzie, an early popularizer of mythology, draws a parallel between the love goddess Aphrodite and her "dying god" lover Adonis on one hand, and the love goddess Ishtar and her "dying god" lover Tammuz on the other. Some scholars have suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric times by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western Semites, the Semitic title 'Adon', meaning 'lord', having been mistaken for a proper name. Joseph Campbell, a more recent scholar of comparative mythology, equates Ishtar, Inanna, and Aphrodite, and he draws a parallel between the Egyptian

goddess Isis who nurses Horus, and the Babylonian goddess Ishtar who nurses the god Tammuz.

The Ishtar Gate was the eighth gate to the inner city of Babylon. It was constructed in about 575 BC by order of King Nebuchadnezzar II on the north side of the city. It was dedicated to Ishtar. The gate was constructed of blue glazed tiles with alternating rows of bas-relief sirrush (dragons) and aurochs. The roof and doors of the gate were of cedar, according to the dedication plaque. Through the gate ran the Processional Way, which was lined with walls covered in lions on glazed bricks. Statues of the deities were paraded through the gate and down the Processional Way each year during the New Year's celebration. Originally the gate, being part of the Walls of Babylon, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the world until, in the 6th century AD, it was replaced by the Lighthouse of Alexandria. A reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way was

built at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin out of material excavated by Robert Koldewey and finished in the 1930s. It includes the inscription plaque. It stands 47 feet high and 100 feet wide. The excavation ran from 1902-1914, and, during that time, 45 feet of the foundation of the gate was uncovered. A smaller reproduction of the gate was built in Iraq under Saddam Hussein as the entrance to a museum that has not been completed. Damage to this reproduction has occurred since the Iraq war.

The Ishtar Gate in Babylon, Iraq.

Contemporary depiction of how the Gate of Ishtar in Babylon may have looked in its time.

A brief history of the origins and uses of the title ‘Queen of Heaven’ in Antiquity ‘Queen of Heaven’ was a title given to a number of goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, in particular Anat, Isis, Innana, Astarte and possibly Asherah by the prophet Jeremiah. In Greco-Roman times Hera, and her Roman aspect Juno bore this title. Forms and content of worship varied. The title ‘Queen of Heaven’ was later used by some Christians in reference to Mary.

IsisApuleius wrote about the Queen of Heaven referring to the Ancient Egyptian

goddess Isis. Isis was venerated first in Egypt. As per the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century B.C.E., Isis was the only goddess worshiped by all Egyptians alike, and whose influence was so widespread by that point, that she had become completely syncretic with the Greek goddess Demeter. It is after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, and the Hellenization of the Egyptian culture initiated by Ptolemy I Soter, that she eventually became known as 'Queen of Heaven'. Lucius Apuleius confirmed this in Book 11, Chap 47 of his novel known as The Golden Ass, in which his character prayed to the "Queen of Heaven". The passage says that the goddess herself responded to his prayer, in which she explicitly identified herself as both the Queen of Heaven and Isis.

“ Then with a weeping countenance, I made this orison to the puissant Goddess, saying: O blessed Queen of Heaven...

Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertile Arabia, disdained not with her divine voice to utter these words unto me: Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers has moved me to succor thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven... and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis.”

Inanna Inanna was the Sumerian Goddess of love and war. Despite her association with mating and fertility of humans and animals, Inanna was not a mother goddess, and is rarely associated with childbirth. Inanna was also associated with rain and storms and with the planet Venus.

Queen of Heaven is a title used for goddesses central to many religions of antiquity. Inanna's name is commonly derived from Nin-anna "Queen of Heaven" (from Sumerian NIN "lady", AN "sky"). In some traditions Inanna was said to be a granddaughter of the creator goddess Nammu or Namma. In Sumer Inanna was hailed as "Queen of Heaven" in the 3rd millennium BC. In Akkad to the north, she was worshipped later as Ishtar. In the Sumerian Descent of Inanna, when Inanna is challenged at the outermost gates of the underworld, she replies

“I am Inanna, Queen of Heaven, On my way to the East.”

Her cult was deeply embedded in Mesopotamia and among the Canaanites to the west.

Astarte The goddess, the “Queen of heaven” whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been possibly Astarte. Astarte is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions, cognate in name, origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts. Another transliteration is ‘Ashtart; other names for the goddess include Hebrew Ashtoreth, Ugaritic ‘Athtart/Atirat, Akkadian Astartu and Etruscan Uni-Astre (Pyrgi Tablets). According to scholar Mark S. Smith, Astarte may be the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) incarnation of the Bronze Age (to 1200 BC) Asherah.

Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname.

Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and in Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival). Worship of a "Queen of Heaven" is recorded in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, circa 628 BC, in the context of the Prophet condemning such religious worship as blasphemy and a violation of the teachings of the God of Israel.

"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." - Jeremiah 7:18:

In Jeremiah 44:15-18: "Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

It should be remembered in this context that there was a temple of Yahweh in Egypt at that time that was central to the Jewish community at Elephantine in which Yahweh was worshipped in conjunction with the goddess Anath (also named in the temple papyri as Anath-Bethel and Anath-Iahu).

The goddesses Asherah, Anath and Astarte first appear as distinct and separate deities in the tablets discovered in the ruins of the library of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria), although some Biblical scholars who have not explored the earlier documented evidence tend to jumble all these goddesses together.

While speaking about the Divine Feminine in the Near-East, it would be foolish to ignore the practice of hierodules and sacred prostitution. While the modern reader may be repulsed at the thought of the word ‘prostitution’, in the Ancient world, sacred prostitution and sacred sexuality in general was one of the many ways of achieving union with and knowledge of the Divine. The Divine was often perceived as consisting of two parts; the male and female/ masculine and feminine. It was through the interaction and union of these two parts that creation became engendered. This is similar to the Far Eastern concepts of Tantra and Yin and Yang.

Sacred prostitution, temple prostitution, or religious prostitution is a practice of worship that includes hieros gamos or sacred marriage performed as a fertility rite and part of sacred sexual ritual.

In the Ancient Near East along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples or "houses of heaven" dedicated to various deities documented by the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus in The Histories where sacred prostitution was a common practice. According to Samuel Noah Kramer in The Sacred Marriage Rite, in late Sumerian history kings established their legitimacy by taking part in the ceremony in the temple for one night, on the tenth day of the New Year festival Akitu. It came to an end when the emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD destroyed the goddess temples and replaced them with Christianity. The practice is sometimes disputed, claiming that the sources have been misunderstood.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus was the first to state that the ancient Mesopotamians practiced temple prostitution: “The foulest Babylonian custom is that which compels every woman of the land to sit in the temple of Aphrodite and have intercourse with some stranger once in her life. Many women who are rich and proud and disdain to mingle with the rest, drive to the temple in covered carriages drawn by teams, and stand there with a great retinue of attendants. But most sit down in the sacred plot of Aphrodite, with crowns of cord on their heads; there is a great multitude of women coming and going; passages marked by line run every way through the crowd, by which the men pass and make their choice. Once a woman has taken her place there, she does not go away to her home before some stranger has cast money into her lap, and had intercourse with her outside the temple; but while he casts the money, he must say, “I invite you in the name of Mylitta” (that is the Assyrian name for Aphrodite). It does not matter what sum the money is; the woman will never refuse, for that would be a sin, the money being by this act made sacred. So she follows the first man who casts it and rejects no one. After their intercourse, having discharged her sacred duty to the goddess, she goes away to her home; and thereafter there is no bribe however great that will get her. So then the women that are fair and tall are soon free to depart, but the uncomely have long to wait because they cannot fulfill the law; for some of them remain for three years, or four. There is a custom like this in some parts of Cyprus.”

Sacred prostitution was common in certain Ancient Near Eastern cultures as a form of "Sacred Marriage" or Hieros gamos between the king of a Sumerian city-state and the High Priestess of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility, and warfare. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers there were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The temple of Eanna, meaning "house of heaven" in Uruk was the greatest of these. The temple housed priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos or sacred marriage, celebrated during the annual Akitu (New Year) ceremony, at the spring Equinox.

LEFT: A woodcut from an alchemical treatise depicting the hieros gamos or alchemical wedding between the male and female elements in Nature.RIGHT: The Major Arcana card ‘The Lovers’ in the Tarot, depicting the heiros gamos or union between the masculine and feminine elements in the Universe. Various symbols connected with the Masculine and Feminine surround them, such as the Sun and the Moon, the elements of water and fire, the Lion and the Unicorn.

Hieros gamos or Hierogamy (Greek for "holy marriage") refers to a sexual ritual that plays out a marriage between a god and a goddess. Usually it’s enacted in a symbolic ritual where human participants represent the deities. It is the harmonization of opposites.The notion of hieros gamos does not presuppose actual performance in ritual, but is also used in a purely symbolic or mythological context, notably in alchemy and hence in Jungian psychology.

The ancient texts celebrate the sacred nature of human sexuality. The Song of Songs is a book of the Hebrew Bible that explores an important religious dimension to sexuality, the love between a man and woman who are not married. In the Hebrew Zohar there were four fallen angels of prostitution, the wives of archangel Samael. They were Lilith, Eisheth Zenunim, Agrat Bat Mahlat and Naamah. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, priestess Shamhat tames wild Enkidu after "six days and seven nights."

* Sumerian and Akkadian Entu or EN were top-ranking priestesses who were distinguished with special ceremonial attire and held equal

status to High Priests. They owned property, transacted business, and initiated the hieros gamos ceremony with priests and kings. * Nadītu served as priestesses in the temples of Inanna in the ancient city of Erech. They were recruited from the highest families in the land and were supposed to remain childless, owned property and transacted business. * In the Hebrew Bible, Qedesha or Kedeshah, were temple prostitutes usually associated with the goddess Asherah. * The male equivalent of a qedesha is a qadesh.

* Quadishtu served in the temples of the Sumerian goddess Qetesh. * Hierodules served as assistants to the priestess. * Ishtaritu specialized in the arts of dancing, music and singing and served in the temples of Ishtar.

llustration of the 'Song of Solomon' depicting the King Solomon and his Beloved

In Mesopotamian mythology, Lilitû is called the handmaiden of the goddess Inanna or "hand of Inanna." The Sumerian texts state that "Inanna has sent the beautiful, unmarried, and seductive prostitute Lilitû out into the fields and streets in order to lead men astray." That is why Lilitû is called the "hand of Inanna." Babylonian texts depict Lilith as the sacred prostitute of the goddess Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna.

The Hebrew Bible uses two different words for prostitute, zonah and kedeshah . The word zonah simply meant an ordinary prostitute or loose woman, ‘kedeshah’ literally means "consecrated (feminine form)", from Semitic meaning "holy" or "set apart". Qedesha also became the Canaanite name for their goddess of sex (or perhaps a title for either the goddess Astarte or the goddess Asherah in this role), adapted into Egyptian as Qetesh or Qudshu.

Whatever the cultic significance of a kedeshah to a follower of the Canaanite religion, the Hebrew Bible is quick to connect the term with a common prostitute. Thus Deuteronomy 23:17-18 warns followers: “None of the daughters of Israel shall be a kedeshah, nor shall any of the sons of Israel be a kadesh. You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute (zonah) or the wages of a dog (keleb) into the house of the Lord your God to pay a vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.”

Even closer is the association in the one other usage, the story of Tamar at Genesis 38, where the two words seem to be being used effectively interchangeably.

The Canaanite equivalent of Ishtar was Astarte, and according to the contemporary Christian writer Eusebius temple prostitution was still being carried on in the Phoenician cities of Aphaca and Heliopolis (Baalbek) until closed down by the emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD.

In Ancient Greece, known cases of "Sacred prostitution" were in Sicily, in the Kingdom of Pontus Cyprus, in Cappadocia, and the city of Corinth where the temple of Aphrodite housed a significant number of servants at least since the classical antiquity. In 464 BC a man named Xenophon, a citizen of Corinth who was an acclaimed runner and winner of pentathlon at the Olympic Games, dedicated one hundred young girls to the temple of

the goddess as a sign of thanksgiving. We know this because of a hymn which Pindar was commissioned to write (fragment 122 Snell), celebrating "the very welcoming girls, servants of Peïtho and luxurious Corinth". During the Roman period, Strabo states that the temple had more than a thousand sacred slave-prostitutes (VIII, 6, 20).

A contemporary Tantric painting depicting Kali in union

There are many instances of surviving visual representations in Christian churches and cathedrals that are difficult to explain using Christian theology. One such example is the Sheela na Gig, a stone carving found in Romanesque Christian churches scattered throughout Europe. The figures are found in Ireland, Great Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium and in the Czech Republic. They are figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva. It is said that they are there to keep evil spirits away . They are often positioned over doors or windows, presumably to protect these openings. Their meaning is not clearly identifiable as Christian, and may be a concept that survived from ancient forms of yoni worship and sacred prostitution practiced in the goddess temples that the churches replaced.

In Tantric Buddhism, yab-yum is the male deity in sexual union with his female consort. The symbolism is associated with Anuttarayoga tantra where the male figure is usually linked to compassion and skillful means, and the female partner to insight .

The symbolism of union and sexual polarity is a central teaching in Tantric Buddhism, especially in Tibet. The union is realized by the practitioner as a mystical experience within one's own body. Yab-yum is generally understood to represent the primordial (or mystical) union of wisdom and compassion.

Maithuna is a Sanskrit term used in Tantra most often translated as sexual union in a ritual context. It constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra known as Panchamakara, Panchatattva, and Tattva Chakra.

Maithuna refers to male-female couples and their union in the physical, sexual sense. Just as neither spirit nor matter by itself is effective, but both working together bring harmony, so is maithuna effective only when the union is consecrated. The couple becomes divine for the time being: she is Shakti and he is a Shakta, or worshipper of Shakti. The scriptures warn that unless this spiritual transformation occurs, the union is carnal and sinful.

Divine courtesans or Apsaras who adorned the court of Indra, lord of the firmament, entertained

the gods by dancing merrily to the accompaniment of music by Gandharvas. Urvashi, peer amongthe Apsaras is said to have been born on earth as a devadasi and imparted the divine knowledge of dance and music to human beings. The devadasi institution was established all over India. The Chinese pilgrim Hieun Tsang who visited India in the 7th century, testified to the existence of a well established institution of temple dancers. After the advent of Muslim rule, devadasis disappeared from the scene in North India but the practice continued in the South until the beginning of the 20th century.

A contemporary Tantric painting depicting Kali in union

Devadasi and musicians by a Tanjore artist, c.1800

In their heyday, under the generous patronage of the Pallava, Chola, Pandya and Nayaka Kings, devadasis were honoured with titles and gifts and their names are even mentioned in temple chronicles and inscriptions. They were trained from childhood in the arts of dance and music and were also taught classical literature in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. Devadasis commanded respect in society and were treated as symbols of good luck. The exchange of devadasis between the temple and the court was an accepted practice. Though married to the temple deities, some of them gifted with rare beauty and accomplishments became royal courtesans and consorts of kings.

Devadasis from Andhra dominated the cultural scene in South India. The classic example was the celebrated devadasi Muddupalani who adorned the royal court of the Nayaka King of Tanjore, Partapsimha (1739-1763), a great patron and lover of music, literature and the arts. He honoured and rewarded Muddupalani not only for her accomplishments in performing arts but also for her scholarly achievements as a learned poet being well-versed in Telugu and Sanskrit. At that time, Tanjore court was one of the few surviving Hindu patrons of the arts in India and therefore attracted the best talents from other parts of the country.

In Shaktisim, Devi is the supreme being and is synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine. She is the female counterpart without whom the male aspect, which represents consciousness or discrimination, remains impotent and void. As the female manifestation of the supreme lord, she is also called Prakriti, as she balances out the male aspect of the divine Purusha. In Hindu philosophy, according to Tantra, the yoni is

the origin of life and an abstract representation of Shakti and Devi, the creative force that moves through the entire universe. The lingam is the creative power of nature and represents the god Shiva. The lingam stone is placed in the yoni and represents the abstract form of creation. Yoni is the Sanskrit word for female genitalia, the source of all life. It is also the divine passage, womb or sacred temple. The word covers a range of meanings, including: place of birth, source, origin, spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable. (Monier-Williams). In Shaktism the yoni is celebrated and worshiped during the Ambubachi Mela, an annual fertility festival held in June, in Assam, India The Sanskrit term ‘Ambubachi’ literally means “the issuing forth of water”, referring to the swelling of the Earth’s waters from the onset of monsoon. Outsiders often mistakenly think that this festival is a celebration of Kamakhya’s menstruation, but in fact it is the menstruation of the entire Mother Earth, and as Kamakhya is the seat of Her yoni, it

becomes the focal point for related festivities. Being the yoni of Devi, and the Goddess here being intimately connected to the matriarchal tribes of these hills for thousands of years, it’s no wonder that this powerful and uniquely female cycle would be celebrated and venerated here. For devotees, especially amongst Tantrics at the temple, Ambubachi is a time of tremendous power and celebration. During the festival, for three days Mother Earth Herself menstruates, and all the temples in the region are closed to devotees. Inside the temple, the image of the goddess Kamakhya is bathed and dressed

Menstruating Goddess at the Sri Kamakhya Temple, India

daily, and given a red silk cloth in consideration of Her menstrual flow, and also given fruit and light worship. Families who live near the temple cover their own shrines and offer fruit and simple worship to Devi, preferring to let Her rest.

C. ANCIENT GREECE & ROME

Early Greece was a composite of both Indo-European and Mediterranean influences. Between 1200 & 900 BCE, contemporary with invasions of the Indus Valley civilization in South Asia, various Indo-European peoples invaded the Aegean basin, where they conquered and co-opted centers of earlier Mediterranean culture such as Knossos on the island of Crete and Mycenae on the Greek mainland. The Minoan (Cretan) and Mycenaean cultures had much in common with those of early West Asia and North Africa, such as the belief in the great goddess of universal mother. Like the Neolithic female images, this anthropomorphic conception of divinity symbolized fertility, controlled the heavens and also ruled the underworld and afterlife.

Minoan Goddess Belief – Figurines from the palace at Knossos earing dresses that expose and emphasize the breasts represent priestesses of the great earth mother and fertility goddess of the eastern Mediterranean. The Minoan goddess was paired with a male god, usually thought to be subordinate to her, and she was believed to be the mother of Zeus, the most powerful of the subsequent Olympians, the twelve gods and goddesses dwelling on Mount Olympus and presided over by Zeus.

Marble statue of Demeter 350-330 BC, found in the sanctuary of Demeter at Knidos

Demeter is shown seated on a throne. The lower arms are lost, together with the hands, at least one of which probably held a libation bowl or torch. The head was carved separately from the body. The goddess is portrayed as a paradigm of Greek womanhood, serene, mature, motherly and modestly veiled. A statue of her daughter Persephone (now lost) was perhaps shown standing beside her.

Cybele

1st century BC marble statue of Cybele from Formia, Campania

"Together come and follow to the Phrygian home of Cybele, to the Phrygian forests of the goddess,

where the clash of cymbals ring, where tambourines resound,

where the Phrygian flute-player blows deeply on his curved reed, where ivy-crowned maenads toss their heads wildly."

- Catullus, poem number 63

ABOVE: Map showing the Ancient Mediterranean world, with Phrygia located. Phrygia was famous in antiquity for:•The city of Troy (Ilium) where the Trojan horse story takes place •the city of Gordium, where the legendary Gordian knot was tied •the home of King Midas, who turned everything he touched to gold

Cybele was the Phrygian deification of the Earth Mother. She was similar to the Greek goddess Gaia (the "Earth") and the Minoan goddess Rhea in that he embodied the fertile Earth. She was the goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature and wild animals (especially lions and bees).

The goddess was known among the Greeks as: "Mother" "Mountain-Mother" Idaea, as she was supposed to have been born on Mount Ida in Anatolia, which was viewed

as sacred by the Greeks. Dindymene or Sipylene, a name associated with her sacred mountains Mount Dindymon

(in Mysia) or Mount Sipylus. In Ancient Rome, she was called Magna Mater or "Great Mother" or Magna Mater deorum

Idaea ("great Idaean mother of the gods"), in recognition of her Phrygian origins. Her Ancient Greek title, Potnia Theron, also associated with the Minoan Great Mother,

alludes to her Neolithic roots as the "Mistress of the Animals". She is associated with her lion throne and her chariot drawn by lions.

Later, Cybele's most ecstatic followers were males who ritually castrated themselves, after which they were given women's clothing and assumed female identities, who were referred to by one third-century commentator, Callimachus, in the feminine as Gallai, but to whom other contemporary commentators in ancient Greece and Rome referred to as Gallos or Galli. There is no mention of these followers in Classical references although they related that her priestesses led the people in orgiastic

ceremonies with wild music, drumming, dancing, and drinking. She was associated with the mystery religion concerning her son, Attis, who was castrated, died of his wounds, and resurrected by his mother. The dactyls were part of her retinue. Other followers of Cybele, the Phrygian kurbantes or Corybantes, expressed her ecstatic and orgiastic cult in music, especially drumming, clashing of shields and spears, dancing, singing, and shouting—all at night.

Her cult moved from Phrygia to Greece from the 6th to the 4th century BCE. In 203 BCE, Rome adopted her cult as well. Cybele's cult in Greece was closely associated with, and apparently resembled, the later cult of Dionysus, whom Cybele is said to have initiated and cured of Hera's madness. They also identified Cybele with the Mother of the Gods Rhea.

Greek mythographers recalled that Broteas, the son of Tantalus, was the first to carve the Great Mother's image into a rock-face. At the time of Pausanias (2nd century CE), a sculpture carved into the rock-face of a spur of Mount Sipylus was still held sacred by the Magnesians. At Pessinos in Phrygia, an archaic image of Cybele had been venerated as well as the cult of Agdistis, in 203 BCE its aniconic cult object was removed to Rome.

Various aspects of Cybele's Anatolian attributes probably predate the Bronze Age in origin.

The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük (Archaeological Museum, Ankara) found at the Anatolian settlement of Çatalhöyük, dating about 6000 BCE, is generally conceded to depict a corpulent and fertile Mother Goddess in the process of giving birth while seated on her throne, which has two hand rests in the form of feline (leopard or panther) heads. The similarity to later iconography of the Anatolian Mother Goddess is striking.

In Archaic Phrygian images of Cybele of the sixth century, already betraying the influence of Greek style, her typical representation is in the figuration of a building’s façade, standing in the doorway. The façade itself can be related to the rock-cut monuments of the highlands of Phrygia. She is wearing a belted long dress, a polos (high cylindrical hat), and a veil that falls over her shoulders and down her back. In Phrygia, her usual attributes are the bird of prey and a small vase, and she is seen with attendant lions in early Phrygian art. Later, the lions are shown drawing her chariot, which may be related as the sun traversing the sky daily.

The goddess appears alone during the 8th–6th centuries BCE but is later joined by Attis, a vegetation spirit who was born and died each year and was the son of Nana and the consort of Cybele.Cybele in jealousy drove him mad after he married Sangarius, and he in an ecstasy, castrated himself and subsequently died. Grieving, Cybele brought him

The Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük, Archaeological Museum, Ankara, found at Çatalhöyük, 6000 BCE

back to life as a fir tree. The evergreen tree and violets were sacred in the cult of Cybele and Attis. Attis later became a solar deity.

Some ecstatic followers of Cybele, known in Rome as the galli, willingly castrated themselves in imitation of Attis. For Roman devotees of Cybele who were not prepared to go so far, the testicles of a bull, one of Cybele’s sacred animals, were an acceptable substitute, as many inscriptions show.

The worship of Cybele spread from the inland areas of Anatolia and Syria to the Aegean coast, thence to Crete and other Aegean islands and from there to mainland Greece. Her cult was particularly popular in Athens.

LEFT: The two most common features in images of Cybele are the turret-like crown that she wears (in one version of the myth, while chasing Attis in a jealous rage, she lifts up the walls of Pessinus and puts them on her head), and her two lions (sometimes she's pulled in a chariot by two lions). Under Hellenic influence along the coastal lands of Asia Minor, the sculptor Agoracritos, a pupil of Pheidias, produced a version of Cybele that became the standard one. It showed her seated on a throne but now more decorous and matronly, her hand resting on the neck of a perfectly still lion and the other hand holding the circular frame drum, similar to a tambourine, (tymbalon or tympanon), which evokes the full moon in its shape and is covered with the hide of the sacred lunar bull.

In Ancient Egypt at Alexandria, Cybele was worshiped by the Greek population as "The Mother of the Gods, the Savior who Hears our Prayers" and as "The Mother of the Gods, the Accessible One". Ephesus, one of the major trading centers of the area, was devoted to Cybele as early the 10th century BCE, and the city's ecstatic celebration, the Ephesia, honored her.

The goddess was not welcome among the Scythians north of Thrace. From Herodotus we learn that the Scythian Anacharsis (6th century BCE), after traveling among the Greeks and acquiring vast knowledge, was put to death by his fellow Scythians for attempting to introduce the foreign cult of Cybele.

According to Livy in 210 BCE, an archaic version of Cybele, from Pessinos in Phrygia, that embodied the Great Mother was ceremoniously and reverently moved to Rome, marking the official beginning of her cult there. Rome was embroiled in the Second Punic War at the time (218 to 201 BCE). An inspection had been made of the Sibylline Books and some oracular verses had been discovered that announced that if a foreign foe should carry war into Italy, that foe could be driven out and conquered if the Mater Magna were brought from Pessinos to Rome. The Romans also consulted the Greek oracle at Delphi, which also recommended bringing the Magna Mater "from her sanctuary in Asia Minor to Rome." Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica was ordered to go to the port of Ostia, accompanied by all the matrons, to meet the goddess. He was to

receive her image as she left the vessel, and when brought to land he was to place her in the hands of the matrons who were to bear her to her destination, the Temple of Victory on the Palatine Hill. The day on which this event took place, 12 April, was observed afterwards as a festival, the Megalesian.

Under the emperor Augustus, Cybele enjoyed great prominence thanks to her inclusion in Augustan ideology. Augustus restored Cybele's temple, which was located next to his own palace on the Palatine Hill. On the cuirass of the Prima Porta of Augustus, the tympanon of Cybele lies at the feet of the goddess Tellus. Livia, the wife of Augustus, ordered cameo-cutters to portray Cybele with her likeness. The cult seems to have been fully accepted under Claudius as the festival of Magna Mater and Attis are included within the state’s religious calendar. At the same time the chief priest of the cult (the archigallus) was permitted to be a Roman citizen, so long as he was not a eunuch.

Under the Roman Empire the most important festival of Cybele was the Hilaria, taking place between March 15 and March 28. It symbolically commemorated the death of Attis and his resurrection by Cybele, involving days of mourning followed by rejoicing. Celebrations also took place on 4 April with the Megalensia festival, the anniversary of the arrival of the goddess (i.e. the Black Stone) in Rome. On the 10th April, the anniversary of the consecration of her temple on the Palatine, a procession of her image was carried to the Circus Maximus where races were held. These two dates seem to be incorporated within the same festival, though the evidence for what took place in between is lacking.

The most famous rite of Magna Mater introduced by the Romans was the taurobolium, the initiation ceremony in which a candidate took their place in a pit beneath a wooden floor. A bull was sacrificed on the wooden floor so that the blood would run through gaps in the slats and drench the initiate in a symbolic shower of blood. This act was thought to cleanse an initiate of sin as well as signify a 'rebirth' and re-energisation. A cheaper version, known as a criobolium, involved the sacrifice of a ram. The first recorded taurobolium took place at Puteoli in AD 134 in honour of Venus Caelestia.

Roman devotion to Cybele ran deep. Not coincidentally, when a Christian basilica was built over the site of a temple to Cybele to occupy the site, the sanctuary was rededicated to the Mother of God, as the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. However, later, Roman citizens were forbidden to become priests of Cybele, who were eunuchs like those of their Asiatic Goddess.

The worship of Cybele was exported to the empire, even as far away as Mauretania. The popularity of the Cybele cult in the city of Rome and throughout the empire is thought to have inspired the author of Book of Revelation to allude to her in his portrayal of the mother of harlots who rides the Beast. Cybele drew ire from Christians throughout the Empire; famously, St. Theodore of Amasea is said to have spent the time granted to him to recant his beliefs, burning a temple of Cybele instead.

In Roman literatureIn Rome, her Phrygian origins were recalled by Catullus, whose famous poem (number 63) on the theme of Attis includes a vivid description of Cybele's worship: "Together come and follow to the Phrygian home of Cybele, to the Phrygian forests of the goddess,

where the clash of cymbals ring, where tambourines resound, where the Phrygian flute-player blows deeply on his curved reed, where ivy-crowned maenads toss their heads wildly."

In the second book of his De rerum natura, Lucretius appropriately uses the image of Cybele, the Great Mother, as a metaphor for the Earth. His description of the followers of the goddess is thought to be based on autopsy of the celebration of her cult in Rome.

In his Aeneid, which was written in the first century BCE (between 29 and 19 BCE), Virgil described Cybele as the mother of the gods. In his late version of the legendary story, the Trojans are in Italy and have kept themselves safe in a walled city, following Aeneas's orders. The leader of the Rutuli, Turnus, then ordered his men to burn the ships of the Trojans. At this point in the new legend, there is a flashback to Mount Olympus years before the Trojan War: After Cybele had given her sacred trees to the Trojans so that they could build their ships, she went to Zeus and begged him to make the ships indestructible. Zeus granted her request by saying that when the ships had finally fulfilled their purpose (bringing Aeneas and his army to Italy) they would be turned into sea nymphs rather than be destroyed; so, as Turnus approached with fire, the ships came to life, dove beneath the sea, and emerged as nymphs.

Of course, Cybele was a powerful goddess who had existed long before the "birth" of Zeus, and she would have been worshipped in that area from antiquity, so this new legend may contain elements of much older myths that have been lost — such as the trees that turned into sea nymphs.

Minoan Snake Goddess Minoan Snake Goddess describes a number of figurines of a woman holding a snake in each hand found during excavation of Minoan archaeological sites in Crete dating from approximately 1600 BCE. By implication, the term 'snake goddess' also describes the chthonian deity depicted,although little more is known about her identity apart from that gained from the figurines. The first 'Snake Goddess' figurines to be discovered were found by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in 1903. The figurines found by Arthur Evans used the faience technique, for glazing earthenware and other ceramic vessels by using a quartz paste.This material symbolized in old Egypt the renewal of life,therefore it was used in the funeral cult and in the sanctuaries. After firing this produces bright colors and a lustrous sheen.

Two famous figurines are today exhibited at the Herakleion Archeological Museum in Crete and possibly they represent the mother goddess and her daughter.Both illustrate the fashion of dress of Minoan women.The larger of these figures has snakes crawling over her arms up to her tiara. The smaller figure holds two snakes in her hands and a small animal is perched on her head.[1] Evans and M. Nilsson believed that her chthonic form is one of the aspects of the Mother Goddess.

While the idol's true function is somewhat unclear, her exposed and amplified breasts suggest that she is some sort

of fertility figure. The serpent is often symbolically associated with the renewal of life because it sheds its skin periodically. In the Pelasgian myth of creation the dead return to earth as snakes. Barry Powell suggested that the snake goddess reduced in legend into a folklore heroine was Ariadne (utterly pure or the very holy one) who in classical Greece was often depicted surrounded by Satyrs and Maenads. Some scholars connect the snake goddess with the Phoenician Astarte (virgin daughter). She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality and her worship was connected with orgiastic cult. He became the goddess Aphrodite and her cult from Crete was transmitted to Cythera and then to Greece. This theory is supported by the myth of Europa ( meaning "wide-eyes or face" in Greek ),the Phoenician princess who Zeus abducted and carried to Crete. Astarte is sometimes identified as Europa in ancient sources.

Evans tentatively linked the snake goddess with the Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet or Wadjut ('Eye of the moon' and later 'Eye of Ra') but did not pursue this connection. Statuettes similar to the "snake goddess" identified as priest of Wadjud and magician were found in Egypt. Wadjut was associated with the city known to the Greeks as Aphroditopolis (the city of Aphrodite) and she was also the goddess of fertility.

Both goddesses have a knot with a projecting looped cord between their breasts. Evans noticed that these are analogous to the sacral knot. Numerous such symbols sometimes combined with the symbol of the double-edged axe or labrys (symbol of matriarchy) were found in Minoan and Mycenaean sites. It is believed that the sacral knot was the symbol of holiness and it was probably connected with ecstatic dances and rites[6] This can be compared with the Egyptian ankh (eternal life) which is used to represent the planet Venus, or better with the tyet (welfare/life) a symbol of Isis (the knot of Isis) which is thought to represent the idea of eternal life and resurrection.

The image has been adopted by some contemporary feminists and Goddess worshipers as representing the psychic and spiritual power of women.

.

D. AFRICA

In African and African diasporic religions,

goddesses are often syncretized with

Marian devotion. Ezili Dantor is often

identified with the Black Madonna of

Częstochowa and Erzulie Freda with the

Mater Dolorosa.

An Orisha is a spirit/deity that reflects one of the manifestations of Olodumare (God) in the Yoruba spiritual or religious system. Through the enslavement of Africans by the Europeans to work in New World estates, this religion has found its way throughout the world and is now expressed through its various forms as: Candomblé, Lucumí/Santería, Shango in Trinidad, Obeah, Vodun and a host of others. These varieties or spiritual lineages as they are called are practiced throughout areas of Nigeria, Brazil, Cuba,

Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Venezuela, etc.

Santeria (or Lucumí) is a set of related religious systems which use Catholic saints as a mask to hide traditional Yoruba beliefs. Saints and other Catholic religious figures are

The dark green parts highlighted in the above map illustrate the location of West Africa

used as disguises for Orishas. However, this process should not be confused with syncretism, as the Catholic saints were never worshiped.

The Loa are the spirits of the voodoo religion practiced in Louisiana, Haiti, Benin, etc. They are also referred to as Mystères and are seen as intermediaries between Bondye (or ‘Bon Dieu’; meaning Good God)—the Creator, who is distant from the world—and humanity. Unlike saints or angels however, they are not simply prayed to, they are served. They are each distinct beings with their own personal likes and dislikes, distinct sacred rhythms, songs, dances, ritual symbols and special modes of service. As a way to keep their European masters from interfering, and to appease the authorities who prevented them from practising their own religions, the African slaves in Haiti syncretised the Loa with the Roman Catholic saints - so Vodoun altars will frequently have images of Catholic figures displayed. In a ritual the Loa are summoned by the Houngan (Priest), Mambo (Priestess) or Bokor (Sorcerers) to take part in the service, receive offerings and grant requests. The Loa arrive in the peristyle (ritual space) by mounting (possessing) a ‘horse’ (ritualist) - who is said to be "ridden." This can be quite a violent occurrence as the participant can flail about or convulse before falling to the ground, but some Loa, such as Ayizan, will mount their horses very quietly. Certain Loa display very distinctive behaviour by which they can be recognised, specific phrases, and specific actions. As soon as a Loa is recognised, the symbols appropriate to them will be given to them. For example Erzulie Freda will be given a mirror and a comb, fine cloth or jewelry; Legba will be given his cane, straw hat and pipe; Baron Samedi will be given his top hat, sunglasses and a cigar. Once the Loa have arrived, been fed, served and possibly give help or advice to ritualists, they leave the peristyle. Contrary to the Western perception of possession, a Loa has no need to remain in the horse (possessed ritualist). Certain Loa can become obstinate, for example the Ghede are notorious for wanting just one more smoke, or one more drink, but it is the job of the Houngan or Mambo to keep the spirits in line while ensuring they are adequately provided for.

ABOVE: A contemporary painting depicting Bois Caiman, which was the site of a voodoo ritual that occurred on August 14th 1791. It was presided over by Dutty Boukman. The ritual’s intent was to overthrow French rule.

A Voodoo altar on display at the Tropenmuseum. Catholic icons, the ritual paraphernalia, Florida water, coca cola, rum (offerings to the spirits), candles are all elements on this altar.

Oshun

Oshun in the Yoruba religion, is the goddess of love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy. Ọṣhun is beneficent, generous and very kind. However, she is known to have a horrific temper, one which she seldom ever loses but which causes untold destruction whenever she does. In Cuban Santería, Oshun is an Orisha of love, maternity and marriage. She has been syncretized with Our Lady of Charity (La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre), Cuba's patroness. She is associated with the color yellow, the metal brass, peacock feathers, mirrors, honey and anything of beauty.

Oshun has had many husbands. Different tales attribute husbands to her, including the spirits Erinle, Oshosi, Orisha Oko and Aje'-Shaluga. She is also the sexual partner of Shango and Ogun at different points.

According to the Yoruba elders, Oshun is the "unseen mother present at every gathering", because she is the Yoruba understanding of the cosmological forces of water, moisture and attraction. Therefore, she is believed to be omnipresent and omnipotent. Her power is represented in another Yoruba proverb which reminds us that "no one is an enemy to water" and therefore everyone has need of and should respect and revere Oshun, as well as her followers.

Oshun is the force of harmony. Harmony which we see as beauty, feel as love, and experience as ecstasy. She, according to the ancients, was the only female Irunmole amongst the original 16 sent from the spirit realm to create the world. As such, she is revered as "Yeye" - the great mother of us all. When the male Irunmole attempted to subjugate Oshun due to her femininity, she removed her divine energy from the process of the creation of the world and all subsequent efforts at creation were in vain. It was not until visiting with the Supreme Being Olodumare, and begging for Oshun's pardon (as advised by Olodumare) that the world could continue to be created.

Oshun is known as Iyalode, the "chieftess of the realm." She is also known as Laketi, she who has ears, because of how quickly and effectively she answers prayers. When she possesses her followers, she dances, flirts and then weeps- because no one can love her enough and the world is not as beautiful as she knows it could be.

Yemanja Yemanja is an orisha, originally of the Yoruba religion, who has become prominent in many Afro-American religions. Africans from what is now called Yorubaland brought Yemaya and a host of other deities with them when they were brought to the shores of the Americas as captives. She is the ocean, the essence of motherhood and a protector of children. Her name is a contraction of Yoruba words: "Yeye emo eja" which means "Mother whose children are like fish." This represents the vastness of her motherhood, her fecundity and her reign over all living things. Because the Afro-American religions were transmitted as part of a long oral tradition, there are many regional variations on the goddess's name. She is represented with Our lady of Regla and Stella Maris.

In Yorùbá mythology, Yemanja is a mother goddess; patron deity of women, especially pregnant women. Other stories would say that Yemaya was always there in the beginning and all life came from her, including all of the orishas. The Umbanda religion worships Yemanja as one of the seven orixás of the African Pantheon. She is the Queen of the Ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight.

Yemanja is viewed as an aspect of the catholic Virgin Mary ‘Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes’ (Our Lady of Seafaring). Sometimes, a feast or celebration can honor both. In Salvador, Bahia, Iemanjá is celebrated by Candomblé adherants on the very day consecrated by the Catholic Church to Our Lady of Seafaring . Every February 2nd thousands of people line up at dawn to leave their offerings at her shrine in Rio Vermelho. Gifts for Iemanjá usually include flowers and objects of female vanity (perfume, jewelry, combs, lipsticks, mirrors). These are gathered in large baskets and taken out to the sea by local fishermen. Afterwards a massive street party ensues.

Iemanjá is also celebrated every December 8th in

Salvador, Bahia. The Festa da Conceição da Praia

A contemporary painting of Yemanja, the type that is popularly sold in shops

(Feast to Our Lady of Conception) is a city holiday dedicated to the catholic saint and also to Iemanjá. Another feast occurs this day in the Pedra Furada, Monte Serrat in Salvador, Bahia, called the Gift to Iemanjá, when fishermen celebrate their devotion to the Queen of the Ocean.

On New Year's Eve in Rio de Janeiro, large masses of people of all religions, dressed in white gather on Copacabana beach to greet the New Year, watch fireworks and throw flowers and other offerings into the sea for the goddess Yemanja in the hopes that she will grant them their requests for the coming year. Some send their gifts to Yemanja in wooden toy boats. Paintings of her are sold in Rio shops, next to paintings of Jesus and other catholic saints. They portray her as a woman rising out of the sea. Small offerings of flowers and floating candles are left in the sea on many nights at Copacabana.

In São Paulo State, Iemanjá is celebrated on the two first weekends of December on the shores of Praia Grande city. During these days many vehicles garnished with Iemanjá icons and colors roam from the São Paulo mountains to the sea littoral, some of them traveling hundreds of miles. Thousands of people rally near Iemanjá's statue in Praia Grande beach.

It is very interesting to compare Yemanja and her modern day seaside festivals and celebrations in Brazil and elsewhere with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Isis under her title as ‘Stella Maris’ (‘Star of the Ocean’) and her Carrus Navalis festival where her image is carried to the sea-shore to bless the start of the sailing season as well as the Isis Navigium in which a ship was dedicated to Isis. This could hint at common origins for the Western African Yoruba goddess Yemanja and the North African, Ancient Egyptian Isis. It is also an example of the prevalence of the archetype of the mother, across cultures, and the linking of the ocean and water with femininity and maternity.

ABOVE: Offerings to Yemanja are put into a styrofoam boatin Bahia, Bazil.

Above: A statue of Yemanja surrounded by flowers in Bahia, Brazil.

Erzulie

ABOVE LEFT: Erzulie Freda depicted as the Virgin Mary. Note the numerous rings on her fingers, and the opulence and abundance of jewelry surrounding her.ABOVE RIGHT: The verve (symbol) representing Erzulie

In Vodou religious beliefs, Erzulie is a family of loa, or spirits. Erzulie Fréda Dahomey, the Rada aspect of Erzulie, is the spirit of love, beauty, jewelry, dancing, luxury and flowers. Gay men are considered to be under her particular patronage. She

wears three wedding rings, one for each husband - Damballa, Agwe and Ogoun. Her symbol is a heart, her colours are pink, blue, white and gold, and her favourite sacrifices include jewelry, perfume, sweet cakes and liqueurs. Coquettish and very fond of beauty and finery, Erzulie Freda is femininity and compassion embodied, yet she also has a darker side; she is seen as jealous and spoiled and within some vodoun circles is considered to be lazy. When she mounts a serviteur she flirts with all the men, and treats all the women as rivals. In Christian iconography she is often identified with the Mater Dolorosa. She is conceived of as never able to attain her heart's most fervent desire. For this reason she always leaves a service in tears.

In her Petro nation aspect as Erzulie Dantor, she is often depicted as a scarred and buxom black woman, holding a child protectively in one hand and a knife in the other. She is a warrior and a particularly fierce protector of women and children. Her colours are red, gold and navy blue, her symbols are a pierced heart, knives and her favourite sacrifices include black pigs, fried pork and rum. She is often identified with lesbian women. It is believed that a common depiction of Erzulie Dantor has its roots in copies of the icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, brought to Haiti by Polish soldiers fighting on both sides of the Haitian Revolution from 1802 onwards.

A contemporary mural painted on a wall on Haiti depicting Erzulie Dantor. Such images are quite popular in Haiti.

A contemporary depiction of Erzulie Dantor using Photoshop

ABOVE: The Black Madonna of Czestochowa Queen of Poland - In the basilica of the Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa, 6th - 14th century (?) 122.2x82.2x3.5 cm.

F. INDIA

Hinduism is a complex of various belief systems that sees many gods and goddesses as being representative of and/or emanative from a single source, Brahman, understood either as a formless, infinite, impersonal monad in the Advaita tradition or as a dual god in the form of Lakshmi-Vishnu, Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Shakti in Dvaita traditions. Shaktas, worshippers of the Goddess, equate this god with Devi, the mother goddess. Such aspects of one god as male god (Shaktiman) and female energy (Shakti), working as a pair are often envisioned as male gods and their wives or consorts and provide many analogues between passive male ground and dynamic female energy.

For example, Brahma pairs with Sarasvati. Shiva likewise pairs with Parvati who later is represented through a number

Popular Hindu art depicting the conjoined image of three manifestations of the Hindu

of avatars (incarnations): Sati and the warrior figures, Durga and Kali. All goddesses in Hinduism are sometimes grouped together as the great goddess, Devi.

A further step was taken by the idea of the Shaktis. Their ideology based mainly on tantras sees Shakti as the principle of energy through which all divinity functions, thus showing the masculine to be dependent on the feminine. Indeed, in the great shakta scripture known as the Devi Mahatmya, all the goddesses are shown to be aspects of one presiding female force, one in truth and many in expression, giving the world and the cosmos the galvanic energy for motion. It is expressed through both philosophical tracts and metaphor that the potentiality of masculine being is given actuation by the feminine divine. Local deities of different village regions in India were often identified with "mainstream" Hindu deities, a process that has been called "Sanskritization". Others attribute it to the influence of monism or Advaita which discounts polytheist or monotheist categorization.

While the monist forces have led to a fusion between some of the goddesses (108 names are common for many goddesses), centrifugal forces have also resulted in new goddesses and rituals gaining ascendance among the laity in different parts of Hindu world. Thus, the immensely popular goddess Durga was a pre-Vedic goddess who was later fused with Parvati, a process that can be traced through texts such as Kalika Purana (10th century), Durgabhaktitarangini (Vidyapati 15th century), Chandimangal (16th century) etc.

Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism.[1] Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as 'The Great Divine Mother' in Hinduism. On the earthly plane, Shakti most actively manifests through female embodiment and fertility, though it is also present in males in its potential, unmanifest form.

Not only is the Shakti responsible for creation, it is also the agent of all change. Shakti is cosmic existence as well as liberation, its most significant form being the Kundalini Shakti, a mysterious psychospiritual force. Shakti exists in a state of svātantrya, dependence on no-one, being interdependent with the entire universe.

In Shaktism, Shakti is worshiped as the Supreme Being. However, in other Hindu traditions of Shaivism and Vaishnavism, Shakti embodies the active feminine energy Prakriti of Purusha, who is Vishnu in Vaishnavism or Shiva in Shaivism. Vishnu's female counterpart is called Lakshmi, with Parvati being the female half of Shiva.

Yakshi under a flowering asoka tree. Sunga, 2nd-1st century BC, India

YAKSHIS – belonged to the complex religious beliefs that preceded, coexisted with and were destined to outlast Buddhism in India. A yakshi is a female earth spirit, accepted as a symbol of fertility, beauty, love and the earth by the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain faiths. She is

Popular Hindu art depicting the conjoined image of three manifestations of the Hindu

usually portrayed as a wide-hipped, voluptuous woman, who can cause a tree to bear fruit simply by touching it with her foot. The figure portrayed here is cleverly incorporated into the form of a column, the capital of which takes the form of a leafy tree. Her upper hand grasps a branch of the tree, a traditional gesture in sculptures of yakshi. This posture is one of giving birth, allowing the pull of gravity (the earth receiving) to assist in the delivery of life. The yakshi's three-bend pose (tribanga), bending at her neck, waist, and hips, is a stance that suggests a sensuous liveliness and maternal energy. This representation also shows the figure adorned with jewelry and the suggestion of a transparent skirt, revealing an abundantly endowed female body that symbolizes the fertility of the earth.

A yakshini is the female counterpart of the male yaksha, and they both attend on Kubera (also called Kuber), the Hindu god of wealth who rules in the mythical Himalayan kingdom of Alaka. They both look after treasure hidden in the earth and resemble that of fairies. Yakshinis are often depicted as beautiful and voluptuous, with wide hips, narrow waists, broad shoulders, and exaggerated, spherical breasts. In the Uddamareshvara Tantra, thirty-six yakshinis are described, including their mantras and ritual prescriptions. A similar list of yakshas and yakshinis is given in the Tantraraja Tantra, where it says that these beings are givers of whatever is desired. Although Yakshinis are usually benevolent, there are also yakshinis with malevolent characteristics in Indian folklore.

The list of thirty-six yakshinis given in the Uddamareshvara Tantra is as follows:1.Vichitra (The Lovely One)2.Vibhrama (Amorous One)3.Hamsi (Swan)4.Bhishani (Terrifying),5.Janaranjika (Delighting Men)

6.Vishala (Large Eyed)7.Madana (Lustful)8.Ghanta (Bell)9.Kalakarni (Ears Adorned with Kalas)10.Mahabhaya (Greatly Fearful)11.Mahendri (Greatly Powerful)12.Shankhini (Conch Girl)13.Chandri (Moon Girl)14.Shmashana (Cremation Ground Girl)15.Vatayakshini, Mekhala (Love Girdle)16.Vikala, Lakshmi (Wealth)17.Malini (Flower Girl)18.Shatapatrika (100 Flowers)19.Sulochana (Lovely Eyed)20.Shobha21.Kapalini (Skull Girl)22.Varayakshini23.Nati (Actress)24.Kameshvari25.Unknown26.Unknown27.Manohara (Fascinating)28.Pramoda (Fragrant)29.Anuragini (Very Passionate)30.Nakhakeshi

Second century AD (Kushan dynasty), Red sandstone, h. 88 cm, Kate S. Buckingham Endowment, 1995.260

31.Bhamini32.Padmini33.Svarnavati34.Ratipriya (Fond of Love)

The three sites of Bharhut, Sanchi, and Mathura, have yielded huge numbers of Yakshi figures, most commonly on the railing pillars of stupas. These show a clear development and progression that establishes certain characteristics of the Yakshi figure such as her nudity, smiling face and evident (often exaggerated) feminine charms that lead to their association with fertility. The yakshi is usually shown with her hand touching a tree branch, and a sinuous pose, Sanskrit tribhanga.

The ashoka tree is closely associated with the yakshini mythological beings. One of the recurring elements in Indian art, often found at gates of Buddhist and Hindu temples, is a Yakshi with her foot on the trunk and her hands holding the branch of a stylized flowering ashoka or, less frequently, other tree with flowers or fruits. As an artistic

element, often the tree and the Yakshi are subject to heavy stylization.

Some authors hold that the young girl at the foot of the tree is based on an ancient fertility symbol of the Indian Subcontinent. Yakshis were important in early Buddhist monuments as a decorative element and are found in many ancient Buddhist archaeological sites. They became Salabhanjikas (sal tree maidens) with the passing of the centuries, a standard decorative element of both Indian sculpture and Indian temple architecture.

The sal tree (Shorea robusta) is often confused with the ashoka tree (Saraca indica) in the ancient literature of the Indian Subcontinent. The position of the Salabhanjika is also related to the position of Queen Māyā of Sakya when she gave birth to Gautama

Buddha under an asoka tree in a garden in Lumbini, while grasping its branch.

Sculptures of yakshi are often seen in elaborate architectural motifs on the façades of temples and stupas. These figures, often seen as "mother-goddesses," date back to the Indus Valley civilization (2500 - 1750 B.C.), the earliest known urban culture of India. As spirits of the trees and streams they were worshipped by the Dravidians, who had peopled India before Aryan invaders arrived from the North in the second millennium BC. Aryans brought with them a pantheon of ‘higher’ deities not unlike those of the Greeks personifying the great elemental forces worshipped without images or temples, notably Indra, god of the atmosphere and thunder , and Surya, the sun god – cousins as it were, of Zeus and Apollo. These gods were celebrated in the famous Vedic hymns, composed between about 1500 and 800 BC in Sanskrit, a language akin to the dialects of the Greek, Celtic and German peoples who moved into Europe also in the second millennium BC.

Yakshi bracket figure from E. Gateway, Great Stupa, 1st C. BCE

This elegant terra-cotta image of a goddess or semidivine yakshi, created to be a free-standing image on its own plinth, is an engaging figure with naturally shaped breasts, a pinched waist, and broad hips whose girth is emphasized by a wide hip belt made of three strands of beads. Her elaborate jewelry includes rows of heavy bracelets, anklets, body chains, and earrings with huge curved pendants. Her diaphanous lower garment swings out at her ankles and an outer cloth that reaches to her knees is decorated with rows of ornamented tassels. A fan-shaped headdress and the fabric band that decorates her hair complete her accessories. This terra-cotta sculpture was probably created from a mold but the detailed carving of drapery folds and tassels clearly show that they were added after firing. Clay images such as this, while less expensive to produce than those carved from stone, nevertheless reflect a prosperous urban society.

The worship of a mother goddess as the source of life and fertility has prehistoric roots, but the transformation of that deity into a Great goddess of cosmic powers was achieved with the composition of the Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the goddess), a text of the fifth to sixth century, when worship of the female principle took on dramatic new dimensions. The goddess is not only the mysterious source of life, she is the very soil, all-creating and all consuming.

The goddess Kali makes her 'official' debut in the Devi-Mahatmya, where she is said to have emanated from the brow of Goddess Durga

(slayer of demons) during one of the battles between the divine and anti-divine forces. Etymologically Durga's name means "Beyond Reach". She is thus an echo of the woman warrior's fierce virginal autonomy. In this context Kali is considered the 'forceful' form of the great goddess Durga.

Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her only clothing is a girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband.

Kali's fierce appearances have been the subject of extensive descriptions in several earlier and modern works. Though her fierce form is filled with awe- inspiring symbols, their real meaning is not what it first appears- they have equivocal significance:

Kali's blackness symbolizes her all-embracing, comprehensive nature, because black is the color in which all other colors merge; black absorbs and dissolves them. 'Just as all colors disappear in

India, state of West Bengal, Chandraketugarh, ca. 100. Gray terra-cotta. Lent by a private collection

black, so all names and forms disappear in her' (Mahanirvana Tantra). Or black is said to represent the total absence of color, again signifying the nature of Kali as ultimate reality. This in Sanskrit is named as nirguna (beyond all quality and form). Either way, Kali's black color symbolizes her transcendence of all form.

A devotee poet says:

"Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion?

She appears black because She is viewed from a distance;

but when intimately known She is no longer so.

The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by

and you will find that it has no colour.

The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance,

but when you go near and take it in your hand,

you find that it is colourless."

... Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86)

Kali's nudity has a similar meaning. In many instances she is described as garbed in space or sky clad. In her absolute, primordial nakedness she is free from all covering of illusion. She is Nature (Prakriti in Sanskrit), stripped of 'clothes'. It symbolizes that she is completely beyond name and form, completely beyond the illusory effects of maya (false consciousness). Her nudity is said to represent totally illumined consciousness, unaffected by maya. Kali is the bright fire of truth, which cannot be hidden by the clothes of ignorance. Such truth simply burns them away.

She is full-breasted; her motherhood is a ceaseless creation. Her disheveled hair forms a curtain of illusion, the fabric of space - time which organizes matter out of the chaotic sea of quantum-foam. Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of knowledge and wisdom. She wears a girdle of severed human hands- hands that are the principal instruments of work and so signify the action of karma. Thus the binding effects of this karma have been overcome, severed, as it were, by devotion to Kali. She has blessed the devotee by cutting him free from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth are symbolic of purity (Sans. Sattva), and her lolling tongue which is red dramatically depicts the fact that she consumes all things and denotes the act of tasting or enjoying what society regards as forbidden, i.e. her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's "flavors".

Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of creation and destruction, which is contained within her. She represents the

A replica of the Dakshineswar Bhavatarini Kali ina temple in California, U.S.A.

inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the cosmos. Her right hands, making the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, represent the creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding a bloodied sword and a severed head represent her destructive aspect. The bloodied sword and severed head symbolize the destruction of ignorance and the dawning of knowledge. The sword is the sword of knowledge, that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false consciousness (the severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom with this sword, having cut the eight bonds that bind human beings. Finally her three eyes represent the sun, moon, and fire, with which she is able to observe the three modes of time: past, present and future. This attribute is also the origin of the name Kali, which is the feminine form of 'Kala', the Sanskrit term for Time.

Another symbolic but controversial aspect of Kali is her proximity to the cremation ground:

“O Kali, Thou art fond of cremation grounds;

so I have turned my heart into one

That thou, a resident of cremation grounds,

may dance there unceasingly.

O Mother! I have no other fond desire in my heart;

fire of a funeral pyre is burning there;

O Mother! I have preserved the ashes of dead bodies all around

that Thou may come.

O Mother! Keeping Shiva, conqueror of Death, under Thy feet,

Come, dancing to the tune of music;

Prasada waits With his eyes closed.”

... Ramprasad (1718-75)

Kali's dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the five elements (Sanskrit: pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion and worship, this denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this burning takes place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit: gyanagni), which Kali bestows.

The image of a recumbent Shiva lying under the feet of Kali represents Shiva as the passive potential of creation and Kali as his Shakti. The generic term Shakti denotes the Universal feminine creative principle and the energizing force behind all male divinity including Shiva. Shakti is known by the general name Devi, from the root 'div', meaning to shine. She is the Shining One, who is given different names in different places and in different appearances, as the symbol of the life-giving powers of the Universe. It is she that powers him. This Shakti is expressed as the i in Shiva's name. Without this i, Shiva

becomes Shva, which in Sanskrit means a corpse. Thus suggesting that without his Shakti, Shiva is powerless or inert.

Kali is a particularly appropriate image for conveying the idea of the world as the play of the gods. The spontaneous, effortless, dizzying creativity of the divine reflex is conveyed in her wild appearance. Insofar as kali is identified with the phenomenal world, she presents a picture of that world that underlies its ephemeral and unpredictable nature. In her mad dancing, disheveled hair, and eerie howl there is made present the hint of a world reeling, careening out of control. The world is created and destroyed in Kali's wild dancing, and the truth of redemption lies in man's awareness that he is invited to take part in that dance, to yield to the frenzied beat of the Mother's dance of life and death.

O Kali, my Mother full of Bliss! Enchantress of the almighty Shiva!

In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together!

Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys

...Ramakrishna Paramhans

Kali and her attendants dance to rhythms pounded out by Shiva (Lord of destruction) and his animal-headed attendants who dwell in the Himalayas. Associated with chaos and uncontrollable destruction, Kali's own retinue brandishes swords and holds aloft skull cups from which they drink the blood that intoxicates them. Kali, like Shiva, has a third eye, but in all other respects the two are distinguished from one another. In contrast to Shiva's sweet expression, plump body, and ash white complexion, dark kali's emaciated limbs, angular gestures, and fierce grimace convey a wild intensity. Her loose hair, skull garland, and tiger wrap whip around her body as she stomps and claps to the rhythm of the dance.

Many stories describe Kali's dance with Shiva as one that "threatens to destroy the world" by its savage power. Art historian Stella Kramrisch has

noted that the image of kali dancing with Shiva follows closely the myth of the demon Daruka. When Shiva asks his wife Parvati to destroy this demon, she enters Shiva's body and transforms herself from the poison that is stored in his throat. She emerges from Shiva as Kali, ferocious in appearance, and with the help of her flesh eating retinue attacks and defeats the demon. Kali however became so intoxicated by the blood lust of battle that her aroused fury and wild hunger threatened to destroy the whole world. She continued her ferocious rampage until Shiva manifested himself as an infant and lay crying in the midst of the corpse-strewn field. Kali, deceived by Shiva's power of illusion, became calm as she suckled the baby. When evening approached, Shiva performed the dance of creation (tandava) to please the goddess. Delighted with the dance, Kali and her attendants joined in.

This terrific and poignant imagery starkly reveals the nature of Kali as the Divine Mother. Ramaprasad expresses his feelings thus:

“Behold my Mother playing with Shiva,

lost in an ecstasy of joy!

Drunk with a draught of celestial wine,

She reels, and yet does not fall.

Erect She stands on Shiva's bosom,

and the earth Trembles under Her tread;

She and Her Lord are mad with frenzy,

casting Aside all fear and shame.”

... Ramprasad (1718-75)

Kali's human and maternal qualities continue to define the goddess for most of her devotees to this day. In human relationships, the love between mother and child is usually considered the purest and strongest. In the same way, the love between the Mother Goddess and her human children is considered the closest and tenderest relationship with divinity. Accordingly, Kali's devotees form a particularly intimate and loving bond with her. But the devotee never forgets Kali's demonic, frightening aspects. He does not distort Kali's nature and the truths she reveals; he does not refuse to meditate on her terrifying features. He mentions these repeatedly in his songs but is never put off or repelled by them. Kali may be frightening, the mad, forgetful mistress of a world spinning out of control, but she is, after all, the Mother of all. As such, she must be accepted by her children- accepted in wonder and awe, perhaps, but accepted nevertheless. The poet in an intimate and lighter tone addresses the Mother thus:

“O Kali! Why dost Thou roam about nude?

Art Thou not ashamed, Mother!

Garb and ornaments Thou hast none;

yet Thou Pridest in being King's daughter.

O Mother! Is it a virtue of Thy family that Thou

Placest thy feet on Thy husband?

Thou art nude; Thy husband is nude; you both roam cremation grounds.

O Mother! We are all ashamed of you; do put on thy garb.

Thou hast cast away Thy necklace of jewels, Mother,

And worn a garland of human heads.

Prasada says, ‘Mother! Thy fierce beauty has frightened

Thy nude consort.’ ”

... Ramaprasad

The soul that worships becomes always a little child: the soul that becomes a child finds God oftenest as mother. In a meditation before the Blessed Sacrament, some pen has written the exquisite assurance: "My child, you need not know much in order to please Me. Only Love Me dearly. Speak to me, as you would talk to your mother, if she had taken you in her arms."

Kali's boon is won when man confronts or accepts her and the realities she dramatically conveys to him. The image of Kali, in a variety of ways, teaches man that pain, sorrow, decay, death, and destruction are not to be overcome or conquered by denying them or explaining them away. Pain and sorrow are woven into the texture of man's life so thoroughly that to deny them is ultimately futile. For man to realize the fullness of his being, for man to exploit his potential as a human being, he must finally accept this dimension of existence. Kali's boon is freedom, the freedom of the child to revel in the moment, and it is won only after confrontation or acceptance of death. To ignore death, to pretend that one is physically immortal, to pretend that one's ego is the center of things, is to provoke Kali's mocking laughter. To confront or accept death, on the contrary, is to realize a mode of being that can delight and revel in the play of the gods. To accept one's mortality is to be able to let go, to be able to sing, dance, and shout. Kali is Mother to her devotees not because she protects them from the way things really are but because she reveals to them their mortality and thus releases them to act fully and freely, releases them from the incredible, binding web of "adult" pretense, practicality, and rationality.

I. ABRAHAMIC RELIGIONSMonotheist cultures, which recognise only one central deity, generally characterize that deity as male, implicitly by grammatically using masculine gender, but also explicitly through terms such as "Father" or "Lord". In all monotheistic religions, however, there are mystic undercurrents which emphasize the feminine aspects of the godhead, e.g. the Collyridians in the time of early Christianity, who viewed Mary as a goddess, the medieval visionary Julian of Norwich, the Judaic Shekinah and the Gnostic Sophia traditions.

JUDAISM According to Zohar, Lilith is the name of Adam's first wife, who was created at the same time as Adam. She left Adam and refused to return to the Garden of Eden after she mated with the demon Samael. Her story was greatly developed, during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar and Jewish mysticism.

The Zohar tradition has influenced Jewish folkore, which postulates God created Adam to marry a woman named Lilith. Outside of Jewish tradition, Lilith was associated with the Mother Goddess, Inanna – later known as both Ishtar and Asherah. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh was said to have destroyed a tree that was in a sacred grove dedicated to the goddess Ishtar/Inanna/Asherah. Lilith ran into the wilderness in despair. She then is depicted in the Talmud and Kabbalah as first wife to God's first creation of man, Adam. In time, as stated in the Old Testament, the Hebrew followers continued to worship "False Idols", like Asherah, as being as powerful as God. Jeremiah speaks of his (and God's) displeasure at this behavior to the Hebrew people about the worship of the goddess in the Old Testament. Lilith is banished from Adam and God's presence when she is discovered to be a "demon" and Eve becomes Adam's wife. Lilith then takes the form of the serpent in her jealous rage at being displaced as Adam's wife. Lilith as serpent then proceeds to trick Eve into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge and in this way is responsible for the downfall of all of mankind. It is worthwhile to note here that in religions pre-dating Judaism, the serpent was known to be associated with wisdom and re-birth (with the shedding of its skin).

Judaism is a Patriarchal religion, with emphasis being placed on God as having creating Adam in his own image. Eve is a secondary addition to creation, having been created from Adam's rib. God is referred to as "He" and family lines through Abraham are followed in a Patrilinear fashion. The concept of a Goddess seems to be absent from all but the original Creation myth which some scholars say appears have roots in the nearby Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elis.

The following female deities are mentioned in prominent Hebrew texts:• Agrat Bat Mahlat• Anath• Asherah• Ashima• Astarte• Eisheth• Lilith

In Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, the indwelling aspect of God, also known as Shekinah, is considered to be the feminine aspect of God. Kabbalists also know the soul as "She". Consider this petition to the divine from the tradition of mystical Judaism: "My soul aches to receive your love. Only by the tenderness of your light can she be healed. Engage my soul that she may taste your ecstasy."

CHRISTIANITYMary, the Mother of Jesus & Marian devotion

Mary the Dawn, Christ the perfect Day;Mary the Gate; Christ the heavenly way.

Mary the Root, Christ the mystic vine;Mary the Grape; Christ the sacred wine.

Mary the Wheat-sheaf, Christ the living Bread;Mary the Rose tree; Christ the Rose blood-red.

Mary the Font; Christ the cleansing Flood;Mary the Chalice; Christ the saving Blood.

Mary the Temple, Christ the temple’s Lord.Mary the Shrine, Christ God adored.

Mary the Beacon, Christ the Haven’s Rest;Mary the Mirror, Christ the Vision blest.

Medieval Hymn

In Christianity, worship of any other deity besides the Trinity was deemed heretical, but veneration for Mary,

The statue of the Virgin Mary from the Stella Maris Lighthouse, Church and Carmelite Monastery built in 1836 in Haifa, in modern day Israel. The statue is carved from Lebanese cedar.

the mother of Jesus Christ, as an especially privileged saint— though not as a deity— has continued since the beginning of the Catholic faith. Marian devotion similar to this kind is also found in Eastern Orthodoxy and sometimes in Anglicanism, though not in the majority of denominations of Protestantism.

The Virgin Mary first appears in Western art in a grave site, a Roman catacomb of the second century of the common era (CE). She is nursing the infant Jesus while a male figure next to her points to a star. The painting tells the story of Jesus’ birth as told in the Gospel according to Matthew (1:9-12). It suggests that the dead shall eventually be reborn, because Jesus was the Messiah who has come to save people from their sins. (Matt 1:20 -21).

To ordinary Romans, who believed in the old gods and hadn’t read the Gospels or other Christian literature, an image of a mother nursing her baby wouldn’t have suggested rebirth or resurrection. They would have seen it as a representation of a woman who had died in childbirth along with her child. It’s wouldn’t have reminded them of goddesses like Demeter/ Ceres or Hera/ Juno because in Greek and Roman art mother goddesses aren’t shown with infant children. And in Greek myth, the most powerful goddesses, Athena and Artemis, have no children at all.

The closest analogy in ancient religion to the image of Mary as mother comes from the Egyptian goddess Isis, whose cult was popular in Rome in the early centuries of the common era. In Egyptian art, Isis is shown holding or suckling her infant son Horus. His father Osiris, had been murdered by his enemy Set, but Isis found Osiris, breathed life into him, and in the process conceived Horus. So the image of Isis with Horus is meant to remind the onlooker of the existence of life after death.

The Virgin had gained increasing importance in Christian thought since 431 AD, when the Council of Ephesus declared her to be the Mother of God. She came to be regarded as the great intercessor for mankind and from the sixth century, was sometimes given the prominence hitherto reserved for Christ alone by being represented with the Child in the conch above the high altar. The earliest surviving example is of c. 550 AD at Porec, Croatia. After the Iconoclastic period this became normal in Byzantine churches.

It’s highly probable that women outnumbered men in the early Christian churches. Some of them came from high-ranking families, unlike the men, and chastity was valued by them as a supremely Christian ideal with set them apart from the pagan world. There may even have been nuns before there were monks, as early as the third century. It’s against this background and that of the councils of Nicaea (AD 315) and Ephesus (AD 431), which defined the Virgin Mary’s divine maternity and declared her to be the Mother of God, that early images of the Virgin should be seen.

Even in pagan Rome, chastity had been acknowledged as a virtue: the Vestal Virgins, for example, enjoyed legal and other privileges. But when ancient philosophers wrote about it, they did so s part of a wider discussion concerning self-control and the passions, the mystery of the soul over the body. Early Christian teacher conceived the matter differently. They saw it in the context of the Fall and original sin, of the guilt of Eve. It was through the Virgin Mary, theologians declared, that the fall of Eve might be

reversed. Formerly, women had been the ‘gateway to the Devil’, now, by maintaining their virginity, they could be redeemed.

Mary’s virginity was central to Christian doctrine from the fourth century onwards for without it there could be no ‘son of God’ and Jesus would have been a man like other men. The Councils that defined the special nature of the Virgin Mary were held at Nicaea and Ephesus where she was declared to have been not just ‘Christ bearer’ but ‘God bearer’ or Theotokos, the Mother of God. Ephesus was the supposed burial place of Mary and also, equally if not more significantly, the place where the great temple of Artemis or Diana, as she was known in Rome, had stood for many centuries. The cult of Artemis had only recently been officially suppressed but still survived in practice which prompts the question as to whether the incipient cult of the Virgin Mary was an instance of the recurrence of an ancient archetype to which Artemis-Diana, Cybele and other manifestations of the immemorial mother-goddess all belong. Early Christianity with its ‘feminine’ ideals of compassion and non-violence would have made such a recurrence all the more readily acceptable amid the turmoil and bloodshed of fifth century Rome, which was more than one sacked during these years by the Vandals.

The emphasis on Mary’s humanity in early representations suggests that her cult didn’t originate in Near-Eastern or Greco-Roman religion. Rather, the notion that she was superior to other women developed gradually within the Christian community. Christians needed to show that she was different from other women, free from the bodily pollution that was their legacy from their ancestor Eve. As the antithesis of Eve, Mary was portrayed in the early literature of the church as obedient to God’s will, especially at the moment of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was o bear God’s son. (Luke 1:38)

Later Christians put even greater emphasis on the notion of Mary’s purity. Writers in the East told how Mary remained a virgin after Jesus was born (Proevangelium of

James 19:3) and that she herself was conceived without sin (Prot 4:1-5). She acquired some of the feminine aspects that had been attributed to God in Hellenistic Judaism: God as Midwife (Psalm 22:9-10), as a comforting mother (Isaiah 49:15) as a mother in labour (Isaiah 42:146). These were descriptions that originally referred to Sophia, the spirit of Divine Wisdom, and they soon became incorporated into Mary’s liturgy (Ecclesiasticus 24:19-22). After the fourth century, Christians began to believe that Mary didn’t die. Unlike Eve, who was deprived of immortality by God because of her disobedience, Mary was taken from her deathbed and brought to heaven by her son.

Meanwhile as Christianity spread out into the pagan world, Mary also began to bear a closer resemblance to Isis and the Eastern mother goddess known to the Greeks as Artemis of Ephesus. She became the central figure in paintings of her and her infant son. In the fifth century, prayers were addressed to her, and pictures of her were carried into battle by the soldiers on their chariots. In a Greek hymn of thanksgiving, it’s Mary rather than Demeter who’s praised for bringing the harvest (Baring and Cashford, pp 550-51). The Partheon, the temple of Athena the war goddess in Athens, as consecrated to Mary’s name. (Baring and Cashford, pp 550-51). In a Roman painting of the sixth century, Mary is shown seated on a throne wearing a crown and dressed in a gown covered with jewels, like the eastern goddess Cybele.

The following are some of the many titles of the Virgin Mary:

Adam's Deliverance

Advocate of Eve

Advocate of Sinners

All Chaste All Fair and Immaculate

Co-Redemptrix

Court of the Eternal King

Created Temple of the Creator

Crown of Virginity

David's Daughter

Dwelling Place of the Spirit

Earth Unsown Earth Untouched and Virginal

Eastern Gate Ever Green and Fruitful

Ever Virgin Exalted Above the Angels

Flower of Carmel

Flower of Jesse's Root

Formed Without Sin

Deliverer From All Wrath

Deliverer of Christian Nations

Destroyer of Heresies

Dispenser of Grace

Dwelling Place for God

Bride of Christ Bride of Heaven

Bride of the Canticle

Bride of the Father

Comforter of the Afflicted

Aqueduct of Grace

Ark Gilded by the Holy Spirit

Ark of the Covenant

Blessed Among Women

Bridal Chamber of the Lord

Forthbringer of God

Forthbringer of the Tree of Life

Fountain of Living Water

Fountain Sealed

Free From Every Stain

Full of Grace Garden Enclosed

Gate of Heaven

God's Eden God's Olive Tree

God's Vessel Handmaid of the Lord

Healing Balm of Integrity

Health of the Sick

Immaculate Heart

Immaculate Mother

Immaculate Queen

Immaculate Virgin

Incorruptible Wood of the Ark

Inventrix of Grace

King's Mother Lady Most Venerable

Lady of Charity

Lady of Counsel

Lady of the Golden Heart

Lady of Good Help

Lady of the Holy Souls

Lady of Mercy Lady of Peace Lady of Perpetual Help

Lady of Providence

Lady of Ransom

Lady of the Rosary

Lady of Sorrows

Lady of Tears

Lady of Victory

Lamp Unquenchable

Life-Giver to Posterity

Lily Among Thorns

Living Temple of the Deity

Loom of the Incarnation

Mediatrix Mediatrix and Conciliatrix

Mediatrix of All Grace

Mediatrix of Salvation

More Beautiful Than Beauty

More Glorious Than Paradise

More Gracious Than Grace

More Holy Than the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Entire Angelic Hosts

Morning Star

Most Venerable

Mother Most Admirable

Mother Most Amiable

Mother Most Pure

Mother of Christians

Mother of Divine Grace

Mother of God Mother of Jesus Christ

Mother of Our Creator

Mother of Our Savior

Mother of the Church

Mother of the Mystical Body

Mother of Wisdom

Mother Undefiled

Mystical Rose

Never Fading Wood

Paradise Fenced Against the Serpent

Perfume of Faith

Queen of Angels

Queen of Martyrs

New Eve Paradise of Innocence and Immortality

Preserved From All Sin

Queen of the Apostles

Queen of Peace

Nourisher of God and Man

Paradise of the Second Adam

Protectoress From All Hurt

Queen of Creation

Queen Unconquered

Olive Tree of the Father's Compassion

Paradise Planted by God

Star of the Sea

Queen of Heaven

Refuge in Time of Danger

Only Bridge of Patroness and Queen of All Queen of Refuge of

God to Men Protectoress Saints Heaven and Earth

Sinners

Rich in Mercy Rose Ever Blooming

Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit

Scepter of Orthodoxy

Seat of Wisdom

Second Eve Spotless Dove of Beauty

Star of the Sea

Suppliant for Sinners

Surpassing Eden's Gardens

Surpassing the Heavens

Surpassing the Seraphim

Sweet Flowering and Gracious Mercy

Temple Indestructible

Temple of the Lord's Body

Tabernacle of God

Temple Divine Theotokos Throne of the King

Tower of David

Tabernacle of the Word

Tower of Ivory Tower Unassailable

Treasure House of Life

Treasure of Immortality

Treasure of the World Undefiled

Undefiled Treasure of Virginity

Undug Well of Remission's Waters

Unlearned in the Ways of Eve

Unplowed Field of Heaven's Bread

Unwatered Vineyard of Immortality's Wine

Vessel of Honor

Victor Over the Serpent

Virgin Most Faithful

Virgin Most Merciful

Virgin Most Powerful

Virgin Most Prudent

Virgin Most Pure

Virgin Mother Virgin of Virgins

Workshop of the Incarnation

Wedded to God

Woman Clothed With the Sun

Sophia

“By those who love her she is readily seen,And found by those who look for her...in every thought of theirs, she comes to meet them.” -Wisdom of Solomon 6:12 and 16

Sophia (fem. Gk. for "wisdom") is a complex biblical figure described variously as a divine attribute, a distinct hypostasis of God, a goddess-like co-partner with God, and

sometimes even as synonymous with God. She arises in the later texts of the Jewish tradition, first simply as wisdom with a capital "W," and then, in the Book of Proverbs, personified in a female form. The writings of early Christianity frequently draw on Sophia as a metaphor for Christ. The texts that include references to Sophia have only been canonized in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, but many contemporary feminists have turned to her as a general model for feminist spirituality. In some Christian traditions (like the Orthodox tradition), Sophia is the personification of either divine wisdom (or of an archangel) which takes female form. She is mentioned in the first chapter of the Book of Proverbs. In Mysticism, Gnosticism, as well as some Hellenistic religions, there is a female spirit or goddess named Sophia who is said to embody wisdom and who is sometimes described as a virgin. In Roman Catholic mysticism, Hildegard of Bingen celebrated Sophia as a cosmic figure both in her writing and art. 16th Century German Christian mystic Jakob Böhme, also speaks of Sophia in works such as The Way to Christ.

According to one Gnostic myth the shaping of the material world was the result of Sophia, who was often described as an emanation of eternal light, an "immaculate mirror of God's activity," and as "the spouse of the Lord." Through her desire to "know the Father", she was cast out of the Pleroma (the gnostic heaven) and her desire gave birth to the God who created the material world. Although she was eventually restored to the Pleroma, bits of her divinity remain in the material world.

Her personality is riddled with contradictions. She is at once creator and created; teacher and that which is to be taught; divine presence and elusive knowledge; tempting harlot and faithful wife; sister, lover and mother; both human and divine. Her very existence thus deconstructs all traditional binary relationships, as if she were the creation of Hélène Cixous or another postmodern feminist theorist. Frequently Sophia defies the feminine norm established by society. As Virginia Mollenkott writes in The Divine Feminine, Sophia "is a woman but no lady." We see her crying aloud at street corners, raising her voice in the public squares, offering her saving counsel to anybody who will listen to her. Wisdom's behavior runs directly counter to the socialization of a proper lady, who is taught to be rarely seen and even more rarely heard in the sphere of public activity.

The following is an excerpt from the Nag Hammadi library, it describes the Divine Feminine and Sophia as perceived by the Gnostics.

The Thunder, Perfect MindTranslated by George W. MacRaeThe Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990.;edited by James M. Robinson “I was sent forth from the power, and I have come to those who reflect upon me, and I have been found among those who seek after me. Look upon me, you who reflect upon me, and you hearers, hear me. You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves. And do not banish me from your sight. And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing. Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard! Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am <the mother> and the daughter. I am the members of my mother. I am the barren one and many are her sons. I am she whose wedding is great, and I have not taken a husband. I am the midwife and she who does not bear. I am the solace of my labor pains. I am the bride and the bridegroom, and it is my husband who begot me. I am the mother of my father and the sister of my husband and he is my offspring. I am the slave of him who prepared me. I am the ruler of my offspring. But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday. And he is my offspring in (due) time, and my power is from him. I am the staff of his power in his youth, and he is the rod of my old age. And whatever he wills happens to me. I am the silence that is incomprehensible and the idea whose remembrance is frequent. I am the voice whose sound is manifold and the word whose appearance is multiple. I am the utterance of my name. Why, you who hate me, do you love me, and hate those who love me? You who deny me, confess me, and you who confess me, deny me. You who tell the truth about me, lie about me, and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me. You who know me, be ignorant of me, and those who have not known me, let them know me. For I am knowledge and ignorance. I am shame and boldness. I am shameless; I am ashamed. I am strength and I am fear. I am war and peace. Give heed to me. I am the one who is disgraced and the great one. Give heed to my poverty and my wealth. Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth, and you will find me in those that are to come. And do not look upon me on the dung-heap nor go and leave me cast out, and you will find me in the kingdoms. And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who are disgraced and in the least places, nor laugh at me. And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.

But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel. Be on your guard! Do not hate my obedience and do not love my self-control. In my weakness, do not forsake me, and do not be afraid of my power. For why do you despise my fear and curse my pride? But I am she who exists in all fears and strength in trembling. I am she who is weak, and I am well in a pleasant place. I am senseless and I am wise. Why have you hated me in your counsels? For I shall be silent among those who are silent, and I shall appear and speak, Why then have you hated me, you Greeks? Because I am a barbarian among the barbarians? For I am the wisdom of the Greeks and the knowledge of the barbarians. I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians. I am the one whose image is great in Egypt and the one who has no image among the barbarians. I am the one who has been hated everywhere and who has been loved everywhere. I am the one whom they call Life, and you have called Death. I am the one whom they call Law, and you have called Lawlessness. I am the one whom you have pursued, and I am the one whom you have seized. I am the one whom you have scattered, and you have gathered me together. I am the one before whom you have been ashamed, and you have been shameless to me. I am she who does not keep festival, and I am she whose festivals are many. I, I am godless, and I am the one whose God is great. I am the one whom you have reflected upon, and you have scorned me. I am unlearned, and they learn from me. I am the one that you have despised, and you reflect upon me. I am the one whom you have hidden from, and you appear to me. But whenever you hide yourselves, I myself will appear. For whenever you appear, I myself will hide from you. and take me to yourselves from understanding and grief. And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin, and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness. Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;

and out of shamelessness and shame, upbraid my members in yourselves. And come forward to me, you who know me and you who know my members, and establish the great ones among the small first creatures. Come forward to childhood, and do not despise it because it is small and it is little. And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses, for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses. Why do you curse me and honor me? You have wounded and you have had mercy. Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known. And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away [...]. I am the knowledge of my inquiry, and the finding of those who seek after me, and the command of those who ask of me, and the power of the powers in my knowledge of the angels, who have been sent at my word, and of gods in their seasons by my counsel, and of spirits of every man who exists with me, and of women who dwell within me. I am the one who is honored, and who is praised, and who is despised scornfully. I am peace, and war has come because of me. And I am an alien and a citizen. I am the substance and the one who has no substance. Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me, and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me. Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me, and those who are far away from me are the ones who have known me. On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me, and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you. [...] I am control and the uncontrollable. I am the union and the dissolution. I am the abiding and I am the dissolution. I am the one below, and they come up to me. I am the judgment and the acquittal. I, I am sinless, and the root of sin derives from me. I am lust in (outward) appearance, and interior self-control exists within me. I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone and the speech which cannot be grasped. I am a mute who does not speak, and great is my multitude of words. Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness. I am she who cries out, and I am cast forth upon the face of the earth. I prepare the bread and my mind within. I am the knowledge of my name. I am the one who cries out,

and I listen. [...] You who are vanquished, judge them (who vanquish you) before they give judgment against you, because the judge and partiality exist in you. If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you? Or, if you are acquitted by him, who will be able to detain you? For what is inside of you is what is outside of you, and the one who fashions you on the outside is the one who shaped the inside of you. And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you; it is visible and it is your garment. Hear me, you hearers and learn of my words, you who know me. I am the hearing that is attainable to everything; I am the speech that cannot be grasped. I am the name of the sound and the sound of the name. I am the sign of the letter and the designation of the division. [...]. And I will speak his name. Look then at his words and all the writings which have been completed. Give heed then, you hearers and you also, the angels and those who have been sent, and you spirits who have arisen from the dead. For I am the one who alone exists, and I have no one who will judge me. For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins, and incontinencies, and disgraceful passions, and fleeting pleasures, which (men) embrace until they become sober and go up to their resting place. And they will find me there, and they will live, and they will not die again.”

Mary Magdalene

Alexander Ivanov. The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene. 1834-1836. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Often referred to as a prostitute, though never explicitly called one in the New Testament, Mary Magdalene is honored as one of the first witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus, and received a special commission from him to tell the Apostles of his resurrection (John 20:11–18). Mary's role as a witness is interesting due to the fact women at that time could not be witnesses in legal proceedings. Because of this, and because of her subsequent missionary activity in spreading the Gospel, she is known by the title, "Equal of the Apostles". The Church's presentation of Mary Magdalene as a whore was a convenient counter-type to Mary the virgin. Like Eve, Mary Magdalene was associated with the dangers of the flesh. In this form, she typified the prevailing attitudes towards women and sex.

Mary Magdalene may be recognized as a figure of very ancient, pre-Christian origin. Her most conspicuous symbol, the ointment jar or pot, is an especially potent symbol, and one which we recognize as belonging also to Psyche and to Pandora. Its association with the ancient mythic female principle is perhaps one of the clues to the enduring appeal of Mary Magdalen; and it is also the unacknowledged motif around which have been shaped the various myths and legends that have been attached to this woman over the centuries.

Christian Mysticism and many New Age faiths, venerate Mary Magdalene as the Bride of Christ, an avatar of Sophia, and even the Co-Messiah with Jesus Christ, or simply combine all three. Some modern writers have come forward with claims that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus. These writers cite Gnostic writings to support their argument. Sources like the Gospel of Philip depict Mary Magdalene as being closer to Jesus than any other disciple, Jesus' consort, whom he loved and loved to kiss. The Gospels of Thomas and of Mary also show the conflict between some of the apostles and Mary Magdalene, with Jesus defending her in Thomas. In the Gospel of Mary she is

teaching the apostles after his death, at the request of some and over the protest of others, of what she had learned from him in her private moments with him.

ABOVE: Jan van Scorel. Mary Magdalene. 1529. Oil on wood. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

TOP LEFT - Pandora by John William Waterhouse, 1896; Oil of Canvas; Private collection

TOP RIGHT - Psyche opening the golden box by John William Waterhouse; 1903; Oil on Canvas; 74 cm x 117cm; Private Collection

Various authors and scholars (for example Margaret Starbird and Kathleen McGowan) have related the legacy of Mary Magdalene to religious, artistic and political movements in Southern France from the Medieval period, for example the Cathars. Starbird writes of the troubadours praising the virtues of their “Dompma”(or Lady, inspired by Mary Magdalene according to her). This is a similar claim to that made by McGowan who claims that the Cathars of Southern France were “ancient followers of Mary Magdalene.” In addition, John Lamb Lash, "an independent, eclectic scholar” who has written several

books and maintains a website similarly says on page 133 that Southern

LEFT: Mary Magdalene has been seen especially recently as having a special relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. In this contemporary artistic depiction, she is seen conversing with Jesus, possibly after his resurrection after the crucifixtion. Mary Magdalene has been honoured with being the frst to witness his resurrection.

RIGHT: In a supreme act of devotion and humility, Mary Magdalene washes and anoints the feet of Jesus with her hair.

France’s “cult of romantic love,” its “Cult of Amor,” was celebrated through troubadour poetry dedicated to “a mysterious pious woman, the Lady addressed as Domna, a shortening of the Latin domina, feminine form of ‘lord, master.’” He also claims that the romances of this tradition, especially “Tristan” – allegorically celebrated the love between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Going beyond Southern France, Starbird also links the Magdalene tradition to the British Isles, the Pre-Raphaelites and their “glorious images” of, and poems honoring, Mary Magdalene. Starbird also relates the Jesus-Mary Magdalene relationship to the “hieros gamos” or “sacred marriage” symbolism that can be traced from the very ancient Fertile Crescent to the times of the prophets of the Old Testament.

But even if there is no historical connection, there is definitely a connection to be made. It is an a-historical connection. The Mary Magdalene-Jesus mythmaking has common themes with the sacred marriage rites of the ancient world in that an intimate relationship is suggested between a god and his consort. The new materials on Mary now available stem from the same Gnostic tradition that inspired the Cathars. Those devoted to courtly love, the troubadours, were devoted to an unreachable feminine ideal

personified by a living lady, but some feel these living women were symbols that stood for the real object of their adoration, the Lady Mary Magdalene.

The French tradition of Saint Lazare of Bethany is that Mary, her brother Lazarus and Maximinus, one of the Seventy Disciples and some companions, expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at the place called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near Arles. Mary Magdalene came to Marseille and converted the whole of Provence. Magdalene is said to have retired to a cave on a hill by Marseille, La Sainte-Baume ("holy cave", baumo in Provencal), where she gave herself up to a life of penance for thirty years. When the time of her death arrived she was carried by angels to Aix and into the oratory of Saint Maximinus, where she received the viaticum; her body was then laid in an oratory constructed by St. Maximinus at Villa Lata, afterwards called St. Maximin.

In 1279, when Charles II, King of Naples, erected a Dominican convent at La Sainte-Baume, the shrine was found intact, with an explanatory inscription stating why the relics had been hidden.

In 1600, the relics were placed in a sarcophagus commissioned by Pope Clement VIII, the head being placed in a separate reliquary. The relics and free-standing images were scattered and destroyed at the Revolution. In 1814, the church of La Sainte-Baume, also wrecked during the Revolution, was restored, and in 1822, the grotto was consecrated afresh. The head of the saint now lies there and has been the centre of many pilgrimages.

Conclusion

I must firstly say that for me, this essay has opened new doors and avenues of further personal research. Many of the topics raised in this essay have more than piqued my interest in various subject matters, for example, what was the history, causes and effects of Indo-European invasions in Europe and Asia? How much was the worship of Isis and the Virgin Mary syncretized? What is the history of the Black Madonnas in Europe and what do they represent? What was the early history of Christianity after the death of Jesus of Nazareth? How many changes were instituted before and during the Nicaean council? I can go on and on, but for the sake of brevity I shall stop dropping the tantalizing morsels of inquiry right there. The world history is one gigantic Gordian knot, and it is up to the historians, artists, writers, scientists, anthropologists, psychologists, etc. to assist in unraveling it, strand by strand. Also, many of the topics raised in this essay deserve even further explanation and exploration and the brief mention they were given in this essay don’t do them justice. The Hieros gamos or sacred marriage; the symbolism of the yoni and the chalice or ‘Holy Grail’; sacred sexuality, etc. are all topics that any books can be written about.

Also, I must apologize sincerely and humbly to the reader for omitting (not willingly) other important cultures such as that of the Pre-Columbian Americas, China and East Asia; and also the role and importance of women in Islamic spirituality and religion. For the sake of brevity and the time limit on the essay, I decided I would deal with those topics in another essay, hopefully very soon in the future, as I see that in semester two, our Art history class will be dealing with, among others, the visual arts of the Islamic, Pacific and East Asian cultures. But I will mention briefly that in Islam, the Divine Feminine is very much prevalent; particularly in Shia Islam, much emphasis is placed on the Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace be Upon him) daughter, Fatima Al-Zahra. Zainab Al-Kubra, his grand-daughter is also a very important and revered woman; it was she who started the first majalis ( meetings in which elegies of the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali are recited). These majalises are now a central and integral feature of Shia Islam. Also, in Sufism, God is often referred to as ‘She’ and ‘The Beloved’ in many of the rubaiyat of the most celebrated Sufi poets and mystics such as Hafez Shirazi, Shams Al Tabriz and Rumi, to name a few. God is seen in Islam as being comprised of male and female elements and being neither male nor female. In the Arabic statement of Bismillahir Ramhanir Raheem, ‘Al-Rahman’ and ‘Al-Raheem’ are both feminine names and attributes of God and share in Arabic, the root word for ‘womb’.

During my research for this essay, my eyes have been opened concerning many facts and distortions surrounding the Divine Feminine in the history of visual culture and religion. I believe I could have written much more, but as the page count of this essay is pushing one hundred pages, I shall stop here for now. But I must reiterate that the material presented in this essay is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg – indeed, vast libraries can be written on the subject of the Divine Feminine in visual culture and religion, and that has precisely been done.

Through almost one hundred pages of tantalizing information, I saw very distinct continuous threads connecting related and unrelated information. They seemed to summarize very basic and important information central to the history of the Divine Feminine:

1. At some point in human history and existence, the principle of the Divine Feminine was of more immediate significance and even superior to, that of the male principle.

2. Due to changes in the society’s mode of production (to use Marx’s term), or from devastating wars and foreign invasions, these societies gradually became more patriarchal and this eventually lead to a decline in the importance of the Divine Feminine.

3. With the coming of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) the Divine Feminine was almost completely eclipsed, except for a few pieces here and there.

Indeed, the above points are not unique to me, but have been conclusions for thousands of scholars, psychologists, anthropologists, historians, etc. in their process of research on similar subject matter. I believe that further research and attention should be given to topics such as this, because ultimately, the societal benefits of such research can be a ‘healing’ in the society of the negative effects of male domination and patriarchal structures of religion, family, relationships. I believe that such research can empower women and others to have more confidence in themselves and see their value and place in the larger scheme of things.

The Divine Feminine plays a very important part in the mythologies and spiritualties of many religions and it has resurfaced in the Western world after nearly two thousand years of the Vatican’s domination. It can only grow in increasing importance now, with the rise of the feminist movement, New Age religions and spiritual movements such as Neopaganism and Wicca.

In closing, I would like to emphasize the point that the Divine Feminine is a truly global force to be reckoned with in visual culture and global religion. She exists everywhere, under many guises and with many names, but the essence behind the mask is still the same.

Bibliography

Websites

Louvre Museum Official Website - http://www.louvre.fr/

Blood, Gender and Power in Christianity and Judaism

http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Projects/Reln91/shell.html

The Art Institute of Chicago: Art Access - http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/index.shtml

The Gnostic Society Library: Sources on Gnosticism and Gnosis -

http://www.gnosis.org/library.html

Interfaith Mary Page - http://www.interfaithmarianpilgrimages.com/index.html

American Neopaganism - http://www.americanneopaganism.com/

Margret Starbird – The sacred union in Christianity - http://www.margaretstarbird.net/

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp

The British Museum - http://www.britishmuseum.org/default.aspx

Books

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Marija Gimbutas, Joseph Campbell The Language of the Goddess,

Susan Haskins Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, 1993

Translated by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project of the Institute for Antiquity

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manuscripts), 1990.

Sergius Bulgakov, translated by Boris Jakim The Bride of the Lamb, Wm. B. Eerdmans

Publishing Company , 2001

Sergius Bulgakov, translated by Thomas Allan Smith The Burning Bush: On the Orthodox

Veneration of the Mother of God, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company , 2009

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Jungian Psychology Analysts, vol. 32; 1997

Barbara G. Walker The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, 1983 by

by Barbara G. Walker The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, 1988

Margaret Starbird Magdalene's Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and the Sacred Union in

Christianity, 2003

Jean Markale The Church of Mary Magdalene: The Sacred Feminine and the Treasure of

Rennes-le-Chateau, 2004

Merlin Stone When God Was a Woman, 1978

Riane Eisler The Chalice and the Blade, 1988

Anne Baring and Jules Cashford,The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, 1991

Virgil ( trans. from Latin by West & David ),The Aeneid, Penguin Putnam Inc. 2003

Margaret Starbird The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy

Grail,1993

Margaret Starbird, Mary Magdalene, Bride in Exile, 2005

Joan Norton,14 Steps to Awaken the Sacred Feminine: Women in the Circle of Mary

Magdalene, 2009

Margaret Starbird, The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine,1998

Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories

and Hymns from Sumer, Harper Perennial, 1st edition; 1983

Irene de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology, Shambhala,1 edition;1997

Demetra George, Mysteries of the Dark Moon: Healing Power of the Dark Goddess,

HarperOne, 1992

Margaret Starbird The Feminine Face of Christianity, 2003