Oh, My Goddess, Another Creation Story

 

 

Sally Swain wrote and illustrated this delightful little book.  In it, is a picture album of the Great Goddess Lineage, a hilarious look of the lineage of the Great Goddess right from beginnings through Eve, to Virgin Mary, to the goddesses of today.  I am sharing the opening, “A few words from the Great Goddess”:

“I don’t like to brag, but I gave birth to the world

 

No need for applause.

I had that in my heyday, quote a few years back.

From about 6000 to 30000 years ago, I was a star.

More of a moon, actually.

They paid more attention to the moon back then.

They, also, respected the bodies and souls of women, the Earth and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

 

I birthed the world from the darkness of my womb.

From my own body, I created the Earth which was my body…”

 

What we know of genealogy beginning from the beginning, through writings and artifacts found:

 

 

40 000 B.C.E.

Paleolithic

 

30 000 B.C.E.

Earth Mother Willendorf

 

20 00 B.C.E.

Earth Mother of Laussel

 

Great goddess worshipped for a long long time

 

6 000 B.C.E.

Fish Mother

 

5 000

Crowned Snake goddess

 

Waves of patriarchal invasions

Gradual suppression

And

Dilution of Goddess beliefs

 

Maltese Goddess

Isis

 

2 000 B.C.E.

Inanna

“The great mother whom we call Innana gave a gift to woman that is not known among men, and this is the secret of blood. The flow at the dark of the moon, the healing blood of the moon’s birth - to men, this is flux and distemper, bother and pain. They imagine we suffer and consider themselves lucky. We do not disabuse them.” -Swain

In the Red Tent, the truth is known. In the Red Tent, where days pass like a gentle stream, as the gift of Innana courses through us, cleansing the body of last month’s death, preparing the body to receive the new month’s life, women give thanks — for repose and restoration, for the knowledge that life comes from between our legs, and that life costs blood.”
― Anita Diamant, The Red Tent

 

Ishtar

Astarte

Creton Snake goddess

 

500 B.C.E.

Ashera

Demeter

Hecate

Cybele

Venus

 

Birth of Christ

Eve

 

Goddess Temples Closed

 

500 C.E.

Black Virgin

Mary Magdalene

Queen of Heaven

Virgin Mary

 

1500 B.C -

Witches Burned

Film Star Sex Goddesses

 

Reflowering of Goddess Knowledge

 

 

Swain goes on with a list of new goddesses we worship:

goddesses of appliances

goddesses of home improvement

goddesses of housework and purity

goddesses of float tank

goddesses of tranquilizers

goddesses of accessories

goddesses of fashion

goddesses of romantic fiction

goddesses of tampons

goddesses of babies

goddesses of recycling

goddesses of pest management

goddesses of supermarkets

Goddesses of banking

Goddesses of commuting

Goddesses of aerobics

Goddesses of tea

Goddesses of soap operas

Goddesses of lists

Goddesses of the phone

 

(“We have been lost to each other for so long. My name means nothing to you. My memory is dust. This is not your fault, or mine. The chain connecting mother to daughter was broken and the word passed to the keeping of men, who had no way of knowing.”
― Anita Diamant, The Red Tent_)

 

What a sad state of affairs that mothers are not passing down their knowledge and the next generation misses out because we have not taught our daughters. Now, they do not teach their daughters and down and down and the goddesses will be slot again in history because we have forgotten to honor the divine feminine.

 

We need to try as best we can to learn about the goddesses.  Someone needs to leave behind some writing or some artifacts proving we did not let it all die.

 

INTENTION:  I intend to do a quick summary of the main goddess and touch on how they influence us, how we might recognize their movement in our life.

 

©Carol Desjarlais 10.19.22