Crete is the Cradle of a Culture of Peace – Part One by Laura Shannon

These are difficult days. We awaken daily to the ongoing horror of senseless killing. My heart is filled with a yearning for peace. Now is the time to dream of peace, to choose peace, to practice peace – within our selves, with those we love, in our communities and in our world.

But what might a peaceful world look like? It can be hard to even imagine – not only because we live in a world filled with war, but because we have been taught to believe, as Carol Christ explains, that “patriarchy and with it war and domination are universal and inevitable.” However, she goes on, “this is a myth perpetrated by those who do not want to give up the power and privilege the patriarchal system has accorded to them.” War is not inevitable. Peace is possible.

Evidence for a peaceful world comes from pre-patriarchal Bronze Age Crete, which flourished from ca. 3000-1100 BCE. Commonly known as ‘Minoan’, this remarkable civilisation displayed extraordinary sophistication in architecture, craftsmanship, social organisation, and widespread trade, with no evidence of kings, armies, violence, slavery, or war. The art and archaeology of the early Cretans reveal delight in nature, reverence for trees and the Goddess, and the importance of music, dance, and ritual. 

People gathered at ceremonial centres, made offerings at cave and mountain shrines, and worshipped the Goddess in sacred trees and stones. 

Resources were shared, and everyone had plenty to eat. Women held religious and secular power, with no evidence of gender oppression. According to Marija Gimbutas, Riane Eisler, Carol P Christ, Joan Cichon and others, Bronze Age Crete was the last surviving egalitarian matriarchy of Old Europe: in Marija Gimbutas’ definition, a “matrilineal, partnership society in which women are honored but do not subjugate men.”

Minoan culture perfectly embodied the ‘world of beauty for beauty’s sake’ which Carolyn Lee Boyd describes in a recent post:

‘Imagine a world where beauty is revered just for bringing pleasure and joy; where buildings abound in graceful, naturalistic, lively renderings of animals and plants; where the human body is magnificent art; where everyday objects for all are ornamented with complex, graceful imagery. Imagine a world where “beauty” is … a revelation of life’s joy created by all, an expression of delight in the Earth, and a bridge to the worlds within us….’ 

Ancient Crete was that beautiful, peaceful world. It survived a thousand years after Indo-European incursions in the rest of the Balkans and Near East had imposed a patriarchal culture based on hierarchy, inequity, male gods, gender oppression, violence, and war. The Indo-European ‘new order’ eventually reached Crete too, with the ingress of the Myceneans, but the transition was far less brutal than in other places. The large coastal ceremonial centres fell into disuse, most likely as a result of earthquakes, and the people retreated inland, but they were not wiped out. Essential values and core symbols of this society of peace live on in the extraordinary culture of generosity, hospitality, wild nature, and love of life.

This is why, more than 30 years ago, Carol Christ initiated her Pilgrimage to the Goddess: to offer women a deeper understanding of ancient Cretan culture as a way to engage in the inner and outer work of creating a culture of peace. On the Goddess Pilgrimage  – which I am continuing in Carol’s name, as she asked me to do – we learn about a historical culture notable for the absence of war, and at the same time, we get to experience the presence of peace. 

On regular visits to the island since the 1990s, I have witnessed how the heart of peace of ancient Crete has been preserved, chiefly in women’s arts and traditions. Despite the patriarchal overlay of the last 3,000 years, key aspects of the original, peaceful, sustainable, Bronze Age worldview have survived as a living lineage, kept safe and passed on from ancient times to the present day. This hidden message can be discerned in a variety of ways.

The first place we can observe this – and, for me, most significant – is the dance circle. Archaeological finds provide evidence of circle dance, for instance in this group of terracotta figures depicting women dancers and a female musician. Today, traditional dance and music continue to flourish as a vital part of people’s lives in an unbroken line from Neolithic and Bronze Age civilisations of Old Europe.

In the dance circle, my own research shows, the pre-patriarchal values of ancient Goddess culture come alive. Communal circle dance offers ‘an embodied experience of community, equality, mutual support, shared leadership, respect for the mother and the female principle, reverence for nature and the cycles of life, and a sense of responsibility to nurture life and assure a sustainable future. As archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has shown, all of these qualities are associated with the original Old European civilizations which honoured the Goddess (7000-4000 BCE).’ (Laura Shannon, ‘Women’s Ritual Dances and the Nine Touchstones of Goddess Spirituality‘) 

Part Two of this article will explore ways in which Old European values survive today in Cretan women’s dances, traditions, and folk arts, including pottery, textiles, baskets, and bread. All of these art forms serve as containers or cradles which carry and nurture the seeds of peace from the depths of time to the present day. We can learn from them how to plant and tend these seeds of peace, in our own lives and in our world.