Through history from the beginnings of times, we have archeological evidence of the interest, beliefs, of a divine Mother. It was not long after movement between tribes and cultures that a male God, a supreme being, took hold and those who believed such, attempted to erase all evidence of the feminine equivalent of a Divine Mother. The more globally aware we become, the more we were instilled with the idea of male being superior and the male God ideology. Today, I, for one, longed for a sense of a feminine nurturer. I began, many many years ago, to research the goddesses of ancient cultures. I did not replace my following of a male God, I added the partnership of the myths of the goddesses as grandmothers, mother, aunts, sisterhood of compassion. Yes, that was what I was searching for a feminine compassionate energy.
We are still under the influence that goddesses were nothing more than male ideologies of big breasted, big-hipped, armless, faceless feminine icons, for the most part. We are offered the icon of the “Willendorf Venus”, as the main icon for feminine deities. Most women, who are interested in the goddess, have not chosen to see her as the playboy ideology of the Divine Mother. We seek compassion yes, compassion, from a feminine higher being, a mother ideology.
The Divine Feminine followers went underground for thousands of years, as Christianity attempted to erase all evidence of feminine goddesses. But, even in Biblical times, women hid the figurines and had secret icons that represented the loving nature of a higher feminine being. She became representative in the forms of Nature being Mother; life giving, components and symbolization of Mother Nature and agriculture. The Moon and the lunar aspects became accepted ways of speaking of the feminine being(s). The main feminine higher power was, eventually, named Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, or Asherah in the Fertile Crescent; Isis in Egypt; Gaia, Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Hera in Greece; Cybele in Anatolia and Rome. Most of these earlier cultures saw the feminine goddess as in partnership with a male deity in some form.
Many of the earlier cultures made icons of the feminine equivalent to a male God and were matrilineal in that leaders were the women, and women were given highest respect as those leaders. They were aware that, without women, humanity could not survive. The roles of men and women were equal and archeological findings show that the cultures were not depicted as being warlike, more apt to equality in rank, wealth, and status. The balance of the feminine idea of a Higher Being included the belief that weapons were used for gathering meat for the people. When art began to flourish, it was typically men who were the artists, the artistic historians, and the sacred became more sexualized. Still, there are the women who knew how rooted they were in Mother Earth and Grandmother Moon, continued to attempt to understand the infinite energy. We are reclaiming the understanding of the Feminine Energies that surround us, reclaiming our sense of equality in power, love, and the life force of creating, in order to keep alive, the divine nature of all things feminine.
Those of us who seek the compassionate higher being; the giving, the loving, the healing, the restoration of natural feminine qualities, seek the balance of knowing and trying tot understand the influence of the deep feminine, the Divine Feminine, within. We seek the balance of feminine in music, art, myths, and gatherings of women who are also interested in reclaiming the understanding and care and nurturing influence of a Divine Feminine.
I will blog, now and again, information that I know about the goddesses. I research the Sacred Feminine to stand along side the masculine Deity that we have been focused on all our lives. They are not separate to me any more. The have become more genderless. This follows the ideology of the First Nations’ ways of understanding a \higher Being…genderless; neither male nor female, but sacred energy, genderless spirit, genderless soul within and above, around, beneath us. I no longer suppress nor seek to deny that this could be so. I am open-souled. The divine Feminine inspires me, gives me comfort, nurtures me in ways I have never felt before. I am more connected to my own spirituality/soul. I go to the Divine Feminine when I feel lonely, in need of soulful nurturing and support. Spirituality is not a separate thing in me. It is embedded in my everyday life. I include the knowledge I have gained through gaining sacred knowledge of the ides that a bit of God is within me, but that my gift of co-creation is a balanced part of me. I encourage you, who feel lost, lonely, in need of feminine nurturing, to seek your own understandings of the Divine Feminine(s). Like me, you will begin to feel the influences of feminine energies in your life.
My daughter knows me well. For my birthday, she gave me this symbol of the “Willendorf Venus”; a stone replica made of tiger eye, necklace. I wear it daily. She has become my touchstone, one my hand naturally goes to when I need the feminine energy that I understand to be. I wish you the blessings of this knowledge as well.
©Carol Desjarlais 9.13.21
**Note: October will be blog theme of The Goddesses and my small bits of knowledge I have.
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