Goddess Prominence & Nature Participation through time
Today I reflect on the presence or absence of the goddess in religion and society, and how we view humanity and participate in nature as a result.
This post is inspired by “The Myth of the Goddess. Evolution of an Image” by Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, and especially by its final chapter “The Sacred Marriage of Goddess and God: the Reunion of Nature and Spirit.” This dance of integration of apparent opposites is essential to my work.
Role of the Goddess in mythology
The book begins with an outline of palaeolithic and neolithic mother goddesses of sky, earth and water. Then there are several chapters that delve into regional specifics of Crete, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, or centre around archetypal initiations. These include the cycle of life-death-regeneration, the mother goddess and her lover-son, journey through the underworld, and the sacred marriage in many forms and manifestations.
Baring and Cashford link the journey of the goddess to the evolution of consciousness. They ask how consciousness tells its story through these images, and what it means that there is currently no formal goddess myth in western culture.
This is something I’ve long pondered, missing a female presence in the sober protestant church I grew up in. I often wondered if I had been better able to embrace Christianity if I’d grown up in a Catholic family, in which Mary has a much more prominent role and the practice of sensory rituals has been kept alive.
I had to actively un-learn praying to god the father only, and it took me about 13 years to feel comfortable to address my prayers to god the mother, or simply mother, or goddess.
Four Phases
Baring and Cashford describe the presence of the female divine principle in four subsequent phases in Goddess mythology.
1)
In the first phase, the world and everything in it is considered sacred, and animated with soul. This world is born from the Great Mother – all by herself. All beings come from, and are part of, her divine body, including nature, humanity, and other gods. There are no apparent dualities, as everything is considered part of the same identity.
This seems to have been the case in paleolithic and neolithic times, and also in bronze-age Crete. In contemporary indigenous cultures this view is still prevalent.
I imagine that this cosmology of a solo-life giver originally emerged because the process of semen fertilising the egg remained mysterious for a long time – since not every intercourse results in pregnancy.
2)
The narrative then shifts to the interaction between the Mother Goddess and the God. Born as her son, in time he grows up to become her lover and consort. Everything is still considered alive and sacred, but now there is a perception of change, of time, a difference between eternal and temporal, of seasonal growth and decay. This is when duality comes in, of “that which endures and that which changes” (p. 660). This leads to a differentiation between energy and form, and later to distinctions of spirit and nature, mind and matter, soul and body.
Some examples of this phase are the myths of Inanna and Dumuzi (Sumeria), Ishtar and Tammuz (Babylonia), Isis and Osiris (Egypt), Aphrodite and Adonis (Greece), Cybele and Attis (Anatolia).
I’m curious, how many of you have heard of the respective consorts? It appears to me that they are much less well known, which would still place the goddess centre-stage. The creational, life-giving process results from the meeting of the sacred couple. This seems to me closest to the process in nature and in our own bodies.
3)
At some point, the Mother Goddess is killed by the God, who then creates the world from her dead body and sometimes the human race from the blood of the dismembered consort.
For example, the body of Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess of the Bronze and Iron Age, was split to create heaven and earth. Here, creation becomes separate from the creative source.
Creation also follows destruction, and there is a shift to power over rather than power from within. The world is no longer seen as alive and sacred, but as inert, inanimate matter that can only be organised by spirit which is considered sovereign.
I am a little confused here, because it seems that either the lover-god turns self-destructive, or such myths introduce a third, impersonified god who didn’t have anything to do with the original couple. That would be more akin to phase 4 below.
4)
In the final stage, it is a male god who is self-sufficient. He creates the world without any female involvement, coming full circle after the first phase that only recognised a goddess. There are several examples of this, often connected to sound or word.
The Egyptian Atum copulates with himself. The tongue of the Egyptian Ptah “translated the thoughts of his heart” (p.661). The Hebrew Yahweh-Elhom “made heaven and earth in the beginning and saw that it was good” (p.661).
The Christian version (a sub stream in the fourth phase) separates the world even further from the original creative and sacred source. Adam is first made from inanimate clay, so not from a divine body. He only comes alive when “spirit is breathed into him” (p.661). Eve is then shaped from one of his ribs.
In this view, humans are animated by a disembodied, pure and transcendent spirit. However, animals, plants or minerals don’t receive this (questionable!) honour and remain inanimate. They are referred to as ‘it’, and considered inferior to the spiritual nature of humanity — which at least had been breathed to life by the disembodied god essence.
In the Hebrew, Islamic and Christian traditions, the mother goddess plays no role in creation, and has mostly disappeared into the shadows (apart from a symbolic role of Mary, which fluctuates in the many different Christian doctrines).
More to come!
In a future post I will dive deeper into the effects of this changing role of the goddess for nature participation and the evolution of consciousness. For now I would love to hear your reflections! What stage(s) do you most resonate with? Which are similar to your own experience and practice? Are there any other doors that opened through this reflection on Baring and Cashford’s inspiring work?
Credits
- Baring, Anne and Jules Cashford (1991) The Myth of the Goddess. Evolution of an Image. London: Viking (Penguin Group).
- Image phase 1 Venus of Laussel, by Eline Kieft. Musée de l’Homme, Paris. Arts and Prehistory Exhibition from 16.11.22 to 22.5.23
- Image phase 2 Isis and Osiris, by Eline Kieft. British Museum, London. Feminine Power: the divine to the demonic Exhibition from 19.5.22 to 25-9.22
- Artwork phase 3 Divine Alchemy: From Tiamat to Gaia, by Enkidu Alkanaan, January 2024. Connect via Instagram to see more of his amazing art!
- Artwork AND Image phase 4 Sound In-Forms by Eline Kieft, July 2020.
Events
Monthly Qi Gong Practice – FIRST ONE TOMORROW! You like to move and but can’t commit to a weekly class. Stay in tune with the seasons with 10 mini-workshops that you can join live on almost every first Saturday of each month, or watch as replays in your own time. Enjoy the deep juice of following the elements from Traditional Chinese Medicine (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal) – Read more here.
Personal Ceremony – Call back your precious soul piece through this incredible healing process that can increase your energy, make you feel more alive and vibrant, and provide a sense of coming home to yourself. You will feel clearer, stronger in your decision-making and action taking, and more empowered in your life in general. Read more here.
Bio
Eline Kieft danced from a young age, including rigorous classical and contemporary training to become a professional dancer. She then studied anthropology, deepening her fascination with worldwide similarities between indigenous traditions regarding intangible aspects of reality and other ways of knowing, including embodied epistemologies and shamanic techniques.
She completed her PhD in dance anthropology at Roehampton University, trained in depth with the Scandinavian Centre for Shamanic Studies and the School of Movement Medicine. Eline worked at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University for five years, where she created a Somatics Toolkit for Ethnographers, and pioneered soulful academic pedagogy. Her recent book Dancing in the Muddy Temple: A Moving Spirituality of Land and Body was well received as a unique blend of theory and practice and a medicine for our times.
She is now a full-time change-maker and facilitates deep transformation through coaching and courses both online and in person. Her approach The Way of the Wild Soul offers a set of embodied, creative, and spiritual tools to re-connect with inner strength and navigate life’s challenges with confidence.
Website: https://www.elinekieft.com Also on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
Discover more from Feminism and Religion
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Feminism and Religion 
Praise her!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to try to leave out my theoretical ideas and intellectual concepts here and just go with what I actually experience in my body when I’m outside. What comes home to me very strongly is that the same life force that flows through me, is flowing through each tree and blade of grass AND, strange though it may seem to some, each stone or pebble. I think this probably puts me in Phase 1.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You nailed it!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wonderful! Long may this life force flow through you and through the world around you in AbunDance
LikeLiked by 1 person
So many directions to go in a response, but I’ll just toss out a less examined experience. I was raised Roman Catholic by my mother. I believe the layout of this middle class church was standard, there is a Joseph statue on the congregation’s left side of the main aisle, and a Mary on the right side. We always sat on the Mary side.
As a child, the only transcendent presence that I perceived in the space was coming from Mary. Not that I knew what I was supposed to feel. The paraphernalia at the altar was meaningless, the man in the black robe was an irritant that I couldn’t wait to stop hearing. But the connection with the figure of Mary was visceral, and was always there, prior to any kind of words or understanding about Christian doctrine or even what is supposed to be good and bad for a Catholic girl.
I interpret that experience of church – my mother only ever sitting in front of Mary – as a direct continuation of the Italian women who were her mother and grandmothers going back long before they were branded with a national/political identity. She was not an especially reflective person, just a good simple one; she never talked about religious doctrine. We just felt safe and welcome where we sat.
Looking back, I’m seeing a straightforward example of what was once a circle of myth explaining ritual and ritual explaining myth without the need for intellectual justification, hollowed out and superimposed with a conquerer’s message. I realize there is much more in the tradition for so many other people, this is just one child’s experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true, and poignant Laurie. I think direct experience is always the most powerful and important. What a great ‘heritage’ you received through your female lineage….
LikeLike
My Roman Catholic mother always took us to church, and we always sat on the Mary side of the building. That is, the right side, versus the Joseph side to the left of the main aisle.
The only experience of transcendence that I ever had and there was emanating from the Mary statue. The man who never stopped talking in the black robe was an irritant, the paraphernalia he moved around was meaningless. But we felt safe and welcome in front of Mary.
My mother never spoke of Catholic ideas, but did try to get me to behave by those rules. Looking back, what I see is a remnant of a compelling circle of myth explaining ritual and ritual explaining myth, going back directly through all my grandmothers to a time before political identities and doctrines, where no intellectual justification was needed for what they were doing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My mother hated Catholics even though she married one and I was apparently so desperate for a mother figure that the goddess first presented herself to me as Mary who I discovered at five years old. On my way home from school I used to sneak into the monastary and it was in Mary’s Garden that I first learned of her! Ironically it was Mary that returned me to the sanctity of all nature – the ROOT of our religious practices no matter how distorted today.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh that’s a great bridge Sara. Mary’s garden sounds wonderful – a true sanctuary!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes!
LikeLike
This is an excellent post that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. You portray, I think accurately, the degeneration of the goddess as culture shifted…In the beginning, of course, there was an intimate relationship between humans and nature and out that relationship the original goddess was born…”In the first phase, the world and everything in it is considered sacred, and animated with soul” you write… I think that what we see here is the origin of all religions that began with worshipping animals. The bear was worshipped in caves 50, 000 years ago… long before the first goddesses appeared. Even today in the Northern Hemisphere ” Bear’s Day” is still honored/celebrated by Indigenous Peoples who believe the Bear is sacred and represents the powers of death and rebirth… When the bears go into the underworld in the fall as they enter their dens… mothers give birthday in late January, and are awake nurturing and feeding their cubs, not emerging until spring. Males on the other hand do emerge on warm winter days and this is origin of Bear’s Day, or in the US Groundhog Day. Bear’s Day was later humanized into goddesses like the Irish Brigid whose feast days are upon us. My point here is that you are describing the breakdown of our relationship with nature through the figures of the goddess and later her consorts, and the final takeover by patriarchy. It is no coincidence that the breakdown of the goddess mirrors the breakdown of a global culture whose patriarchal death force is destroying the earth as we know it. The Good News is that the earth will live on…will the goddess return? Perhaps, if humans survive. And even if we do not the goddess will live on as Nature rebirthing herself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Deep thoughts Sara! I love reading about Bear day and Groundhog Day – had no idea! Yes Bear is a powerful figure – for many cultures she represents the great mother. I feel the goddess never left, it’s us who’ve done the leaving… But that may be a very personal experience, which I have returned to many a time over 30 years since leaving home! The moment I turn to her, reach out to her, she’s always there and reassures me she never left. I’m feeling carried through life on the streams of an underground river (which in metaphorically feels like a conveyor belt, or one of those long belts at air ports). It feels like it’s my responsibility to ‘remember’ that every step of the way…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think you are right – we have done the leaving – that force is always present ready to listen when we need help – we have to shut the door to leave her.
LikeLike
and… we can always reconnect! What grace!
LikeLike
Brilliant! The Baring/Cashford tome is part of our reading list for my Women’s Wisdom Group: Sophia. The Spiritual Autobiography is part of our work together in the group. Your beautiful summary will be very helpful Eline. My heart thanks you for this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Terry, that’s great, I’m sure you’ll have wonderfully stimulating explorations together!
LikeLike
Metaphysics tells us that God is both divine father and divine mother, both. Girls and women do not need to argue for our worth/existence, I am done with that! We are cells of God, everything is God, love is all there is, that’s it. Matter and spirit are one.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Absolutely Cate!
LikeLike