“The Goddess is Nature and the Earth itself, pulsating with the
seasons, bringing life in spring and death in winter. She also represents the
continuity of life as a perpetual regenerator, protectress, and nourisher…” / Marija
Gimbutas
One morning, while sitting on the patio, my husband and I observed a
dove on the power line who was cooing loudly as though trying to interrupt our
thoughts. Near it landed another one. Immediately, the bird began fighting over
what it perceived as its territory and forced the other dove to fly off. Was it perhaps its mate? Or was it simply a
younger dove? Each species has a particular way of subdivision and the urge to
fight about something.
Edward O. Wilson, a pioneer of Evolutionary Biology, said that almost
all vertebrates "conduct their lives according to precise rules of land
tenure." Biologists call this territoriality. It is a particular way of
divvying up land. This impulse to control everything about one’s possessions is
highly universal. Could this also explain the wars among humans? Maybe the
answer is in our DNA.
Delving into the vortexes of humanity's past, we found well-documented
evidence of an Ancient European civilization without war. It was a civilization
whose governance had multiple centers of decision-making. It didn't possess
weapons for waging war or fortifications for defense. The architecture was
articulated through small households built on the plains, near the source of
rivers. Lithuanian-born archaeologist and anthropologist, Marija Gimbutas,
spent most of her life researching this ancient culture through archaeological
digs and studying artifacts found by her team and many others. She found that they did not use distinctions
of rank in their burials, a strong indicator that they lived by respecting each
other as equals. The artifacts and symbols that she examined gave an undeniable
description of a family unit that was strictly Goddess-oriented and had a Great
Mother's concept. It revolved around the Bountiful Mother Earth, the Nourisher
of Life, and Receiver of the Dead for Rebirth. All creatures acknowledged Her
as the Personification of the Power of Space, Time, and Matter. Within those
bounds, all beings arise and die, and everything has form, name, and purpose.
According to Gimbutas’ research paper, “The Kurgan Culture and the
Indo-Europeanization of Europe: Selected Articles from 1952 to 1993 (Journal of
Indo-European Studies Monograph), and her book, “The Goddesses and Gods of Old
Europe”, this Goddess culture ended as a result of an invasion by the Kurigans
in about 4400 BCE. In these writings, Gimbutas repeated that Neolithic communities in
Southeastern Europe lived in harmony, with a high degree of economic, social,
and sexual equality. Women ran the temples and held prominent positions, while
men performed physical chores such as hunting, building, and industry. The
deities these people worshiped were overwhelmingly female, emphasizing
nonviolence and reverence for nature. It was marauding Indo-Europeans, the
forerunners of Western civilization, who destroyed these societies. They were the bearers of the
Kurgan culture of the Black Sea, the Caucasus, and west of the Urals. They were
violent, indifferent to nature, and dominated by men. This accounts for today’s
Western civilization with its destruction and crises, which are increasingly
threatening the entire planet.
In almost every religion and culture, we can
feel this influence and its detriment in the family unit. Women's roles have
become suppressed and identified with child-bearing and looking after family
needs, as well as being expected to be breadwinners. Thomas Berry writes that
“...in their relations with men, women were to be either utilitarian or
ornamental. Public decision-making in all major fields—religious, political,
economic, and educational—became the exclusive role of men. Both in the public
life of the community and the private realm of the family, all important
affairs were regulated by them. This distorted appropriation by men of all
major dimensions of human life produced ever-increasing difficulty.” While it
is true that we have examples of female Presidents and Prime Ministers today,
they are faced with living up to the expectations established in a patriarchal
society. They have to balance being female, in a male-structured world… It is
like “dancing on knives”!
Similar dynamics exist in communities and
churches, where members are forbidden to pray to the Holy Mother. Religions
force worship of only the Father. Every ceremony associated with honoring and
celebrating Mother Earth, which is an intuitive aspect of female energy,
unfortunately, and pathetically, is looked upon as "communication with the
demons". Most likely, it is a preserved belief from the Middle Ages, where
a female was chased as a witch. Burning and dunking of them was almost
exclusively done to women.
When events and mindsets exist in one part of the world, the influence
is felt everywhere. The changes that took place in Europe were not isolated
events. When one revisits prehistoric China, the Americas, Africa, and the
South Pacific, peaceful matriarchal civilizations once flourished. The change
to a patriarchal mindset was a universal event. This is confirmed by new research looking into the
evolution of human genetics, which indicates that human genes have continued to
evolve even after the split from our prehistoric ancestors. Applying the
concepts and wisdom of the Neolithic Matriarchal Period does not endorse some
type of feminist power structure. We believe that on a collective, global
scale, something more occurred that brought an end to the Goddess Culture. It
is a long-standing piece of wisdom “that where two are fighting, the third
party is the winner”.
So, if our civilization wants to bloom, be
wealthy, and be healthy in its spirit, it needs to apply the concepts and
wisdom of our predecessors. This means full responsibility for creating
positive mind patterns for ourselves and our communities. Also, it is important
to understand that everything in this world comes in dualities and has a
polarity, so the Mother Goddess's role, together with Father God is essential.
"Mother of Everything and All" exists in every facet of our life,
because it is the Universal principle of our existence. This is documented in
every ancient religion and ideology. Let me cite Marija Gimbutas once
again, “female snake, bird, egg, and fish played parts in creation myths and
the female goddess was the creative principle. The Snake Goddess and Bird
Goddess create the world, charge it with energy, and nourish the earth and its
creatures with the life-giving element conceived as water. The waters of heaven
and earth are under their control…” The female, primary energy concept is truly
everywhere. She is the Queen Bee who directs the activities of the drones and
worker bees in the hive. The Queen Ant, who is in charge of the colony, and is
generally the mother of all its ants. In the animal kingdom, it is the male who
strives to please the female and is adorned with brighter colors and exercises
behaviors, such as mating rituals to attract the female.
In the Neolithic and early Bronze Age cultures, only the elder females
participated in healing circles. They possessed the knowledge of Mother
Nature’s healing power and were responsible for communicating with the Highest
Spirits. Later, the entire family was involved in these rituals. A more recent
example is the traditional “Ho’oponopono Practice of Reconciliation and Forgiveness” used by
Indigenous Hawaiian elder female healers. You can find this practice in the HAC article "Concept of Healing".
Exist and many other spiritual traditions around the world
that use sacred rituals to worship the Life-Giving Goddess or Mother Earth.
This includes those used by Contemporary or Neopagan religious groups, the New Age movement, Hindus
and Bantu people, and other sacred communities. Despite tremendous diversity among these
approaches to the sacred, these practices have a strong thread of continuity.
We learn from Mother Nature and Father Creator how to heal ourselves and
harmonize our inner feminine/masculine energies, by becoming whole. On the
other hand, it is truly not important what we trust or believe, the God
Mother/Father is Oneness. This Creative and Sacred energy is everywhere, and as
most old scripts say, we are children of that Source. It is important to be
conscious of this vital fact because it is absolutely necessary to our
well-being and identification!
Yours sincerely,
Irmina
