The Enchanted Tarot

Astrology

Enchantments

Alchemy

ShareThis

The worship of either the Great Mother Goddess or God the Father and the desire to predict the future are as inseparable today as they were when woman first conceived of a Supreme Creative Force. The Judeo/Christian Bible is based on prophecies and their fulfillment; Mohammed is also known as the Prophet; and the immense population of China has the philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism as the basis for their ethical and legal systems, both of which are based on the I Ching or Book of Changes, the oldest oracle system known.

The conception of a male Supreme Being found in these and other patriarchal religions so permeates nearly every aspect of present day culture that it is easy to assume that things have existed this way since the dawn of time. Yet there is growing evidence that the concept of the Supreme Being as a male is a relatively recent development.

To understand the herstory of The Goddess we must return to the earliest days of human life on Earth, back to the very long period of time when God was conceived of as a woman, The Goddess.

Our distant ancestors lived in a world more dangerous and stressful than we can imagine. Fierce animals threatened them every day. They were completely dependent on the forces of nature for their survival. Our race was able to survive and prosper not only because of growing intellectual abilities but because we were able to grow emotionally as well. To do this, our ancestors needed desperately to feel a bit of the security they had felt as children in their mothers' arms. Life would have appeared meaningless and hopeless without it.

Their daily connection to the cycle of birth, life, and death suggested that there was a Force that had given birth to the sky, the earth, the water, the plants, and all who lived upon it. They wanted to communicate with this Force and obtain its protection and guidance.

It was obvious that life issued forth only from the female of every species. Logic as well as growing historical evidence indicates that when people first prayed to the Supreme Being who had created their world, they worshipped Her as The Goddess, Mother of All Things.

The earliest carved image found thus far, known as the "Venus of Willendorf," is thought to be a devotional statue of The Goddess. This small stone figure is of a pregnant woman with large, nurturing breasts and, like many ancient images of The Goddess, no feet.

The Goddess's pregnant form symbolized the fertility our ancestors so desperately needed in the form of children, a plentiful supply of the animals they depended on for food, and the fertility of the Earth (which gave them edible plants, water, and shelter from the elements). The Goddess's missing feet are thought to be symbolic of Her inseparable connection to the Earth.

The Moon and The Goddess

It is not hard to imagine our ancestors creating these devotional art objects in order to establish a personal connection with the immense, unpredictable forces that so dominated their lives. They must have prayed for the ability to predict the change of the seasons and the return of the migrating herds so that their survival might better be ensured.

Their prayers were literally answered by the Moon. Unlike the unchanging Sun, the Moon changed shape every night. The first conception of Time came with the realization that there was a predictable pattern to these changes. Every twenty-eight days the Moon changed from being completely absent to completely full. Every thirteen moons - or months as we now call them - the herds returned from their migrations, and every three months and seven days the seasons could be expected to change. It was no wonder that the Moon, as the creator of Time itself, was glorified throughout the ancient world as the symbol of The Goddess - the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of Life, while the Sun was universally regarded as Her consort and child.

The Waxing Moon was seen as a slender maiden, a young huntress with a curved bow. The Full Moon was viewed as a rounded, pregnant woman, mature and full at the moment of her greatest capacity to give Life. The Waning Moon was seen as an older woman, mysterious and wise, bearing knowledge of the death that was to come in the blackness of the New Moon and the reincarnation that would inevitably follow.

The already exalted nature of the childbearing female of our species was greatly amplified when it was first realized that a woman's "magical" menstrual blood began to flow every twenty-eight days - the same period as the Moon's cycle.

Women were held sacred (from the Latin sacer meaning "untouchable") as nothing less than living symbols of The Goddess. Women enjoyed a privileged status that enabled them to make many discoveries from their observation of the natural world. It is thought that pottery, herbal medicine, agriculture, the domestication of animals, astrology, and even religion itself may have been the discovery and the exclusive province of women. My psychic abilities confirm this. It was the matriarchs in families who ruled tribes and clans and societies whose sexually assigned roles and customs bore little resemblance to those we take for granted today.

This form of social organization lasted for many thousands of years. There is evidence that war was virtually unheard of when women first ruled. This peaceful period lasted up until the time when the success of the peaceful, agrarian, Goddess worshipping, matriarchal societies produced large populations. As larger groups of people dwelt together, their occupations became more diverse and specialized. The working of the Earth was no longer such an intimate part of daily existence for many, exactly the way things are today in our culture. Commerce and trade became more important and the simplicity of a life that sought only the basic needs of existence gave way to all sorts of pursuits. There came a time when The Goddess and her close agricultural associations did not seem so important.

The needs of the less materially successful tribes, cities, and nations started to be met by conquest and not by the hard work, technological advancement, and general cooperation of the sexes that had characterized the civilizations who had worshipped The Goddess. As conquest rather than defense became an important goal, more power came into the hands of the aggressive males who had not been allowed equal access to the mysteries of pottery, agriculture, medicine, religion, politics, weaving and other "woman's work". Male Gods were slowly allowed to share the aggressive qualities that had previously been the province of The Goddess (in the form of the Warrior Goddess, defender of the tribe). The worship of these new, fierce, and unforgiving Warrior Gods justified and sanctified the wars of conquest.

Until then, the myths associated with any male Gods had largely reflected the role played by the men chosen to play "Sacred-King" by the ruling, semi-divine Queen of the tribe. They were made King, acting as fecundating consort and protector to the Queen, for as long as she wanted them to be. They were removed, sometimes violently, at her command.

Naturally, some men resented this treatment and desired to enjoy the privileges of leadership uninterrupted. The imbalances between women and men that had been allowed to develop in matriarchal societies backfired when the Sacred-Kings and their fighting men, emboldened by the symbolic Warrior Gods created to fortify their courage, extended their conquering to the temples of The Goddess, Herself.

For many centuries the forces of The Great Mother Goddess and the Warrior God clashed furiously with each other. The more rigid, cruel, and violent ways that were at the very heart of the patriarchal religions and the men who fought for them enabled them to suppress worship of The Goddess and usurp Her myths, rites, and nearly every other aspect of the Old Ways - at least officially. Since all of the teachings of The Goddess were based on the desire to live in harmony with Mother Nature (the form of The Great Mother Goddess that has survived until this very day), the result caused a fundamental separation between man and Nature that has caused countless problems for millennia.

There is much in the teachings of most of the founders of the patriarchal religions that is the equal in goodness and power to the teaching of The Goddess. However, much suffering and the deaths of countless millions could have been avoided had the proponents of the various patriarchal religions not decided to wage the first and bloodiest "brand-name war" to ensure that theirs was the only religion allowed.

The fanatical proselytizers of the patriarchal religions made it their business to erase all worship of The Goddess, Mother Nature, and natural energies — especially sexual energies — by branding them as pagan (from the Latin pagus meaning "country" — they were afraid of the common sense of simple country people!) They employed the most ruthless methods imaginable, inventing the Devil, the idea of an everlasting Hell, the living Hell of the Inquisition, the slaughter of any "non-believers", and the persecution of witches, midwives, and powerful women that persists to this day.

Luckily, they were never completely successful in eliminating the ancient ways of the simple country-dwellers whose life kept them in touch with Mother Nature's rhythms, cycles, and teachings. The old ways of The Goddess took refuge in midwifery, herbal healers, wicca, the Tarot cards, astrology, alchemy, and more. All the practitioners of these ancient arts faced death at the hands of the religious fanatics who had taken over the role of spiritual "Shepard" of the masses, death and torture just for trying to keep knowledge alive.

To make the new patriarchal religions acceptable, the "mothers" of their founders were made semi-divine. Women were also glorified as non-human objects of the romantic love of men. In truth, the everyday life for women became anything but romantic. Because women had formerly been viewed as earthly manifestations of The Goddess, Herself, the suppression of Her religion was echoed in the lawfully decreed and religiously sanctified domination of women by men.

By thus denying the equality of the spiritual significance of women and men, alienating people from their sense of unity with the divine in themselves and Nature, and violently suppressing all studies and teachings that did not agree with their dogma, the patriarchal religions did much to bring on the Dark Ages from which we are now still emerging. I do not say that to be literary, I sincerely believe that even a cursory examination of our culture reveals numerous ways that the superstition and violence and fear and the desire to have power over a mass of people not believed fit to rule themselves are all living proof that the Dark Ages have not fully left us here in the Age of Aquarius. It is something to be watched and pointed out at every turn.

The influence that centuries of male-dominated religions has had on all of us can be easily seen in many of our fundamental assumptions about ourselves and our world. For most people, the word God invokes the image of an all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful Supreme Being, while the word Goddess implies a quaint myth of antiquity, of little importance to our everyday experience.

The phrase used in the opening paragraph of this essay, "...when woman first conceived of a Supreme Creative Force" sounds presumptuous, even to most women.

But substitute the word "man" for "woman" and it will be accepted without question. You may just think it a literary convenience, but it is a reinforcement of the culturally subordinate position of women to use the word man to identify our species as a whole. It is symbolic of woman's plight today. This and innumerable other daily reminders have helped to rob generations of women of their birthright as truly equal partners in the world with men. And it is not just Muslim and orthodox Jewish women who, in my opinion, have in many ways bonded with men whose absolute power over them makes them their captors. This is a phenomenon well understood by psychologists and referred to popularly as "Stockholm Syndrome" because of the bonding that took place between captives and captors in that tragic hostage situation many years ago. For even some of the most open-minded women, growing up in a culture dominated by men from God on down has produced a level of cultural conditioning that is so insidious as to be almost invisible, even to most women.

The belief that "Man was created in God's image" leaves many women feeling vaguely uneasy, resentful, and downright angry at their situation. Men would not dream of putting a nearly all-woman government in a position to tell them what they could or could not do with their bodies, their lives, or their children's lives. Yet this is the daily experience for most of the world's female population. It is a level of simple unfairness that no man who calls himself a man should be willing to support in any way, shape, or form. I saw clearly this sorry state of affairs even as a young child and although things have gotten a bit better since the 1950’s, there is far to go.

It should be remembered that until the early part of the twentieth century, the 1920’s for Goddess’ sake(!), women were not allowed to vote in the United States of America and were in fact legally regarded as the property of their husbands. Far worse is the fact that the situation today, for billions of women around the world, is not much better than that suffered by women in the Dark Ages. It is our belief that the problems that now threaten our very survival as a species are in many ways the cumulative result of many centuries of war fought, not between nations, but between the sexes.

Amy’s art and my writing, especially of our many Goddess-themed creations, has been dedicated to the development of new feminine archetypes so that women and men can balance their male and female sides to create a new partnership that will heal us and our world. There is no time to lose.

For example, our Oracle of The Goddess contains the wisdom of twelve different Goddesses whose names and legends span the boundaries of time, nation, and race to offer their special wisdom to us today. We present the historical myths associated with them by their present day cultures to enhance your understanding, along with rituals to further invoke their power for your use. Each Goddess also corresponds to one of the twelve astrological signs of the zodiac. We have included these correspondences under each of the Goddesses' personal histories here in the Enchantments section of our Mystery School to allow you to make further associations between yourself and The Goddess.

In our ancient herstory The One Goddess became many, split into the various facets of women's needs and cultural interests. Today, these manifold Goddesses have not completely disappeared; they have become absorbed into each woman and man. They are the internal archetypes that live deep in our subconscious.

Inside us, women and men, dwells Hekat the High Priestess, Artemis the Healer, Atlantia the Revolutionary, Freyja the Creator, Romi Kumu the Activist, Diviana the Nurturer, T'ai Yuan the Soul Mate, Aphrodite the Enticer, Pasowee the Tough Businesswoman, and many, many more. They are all there to be called upon to help us weave our life's tapestry.

While these attributes represent the importance of one theme or one course of action, it is important to remember that they are all unique expressions of The One Goddess. It is even more important to remember that just as all the Goddesses that have ever existed are merely individual expressions of The One Goddess, all the Gods and Goddesses ever worshipped are merely symbols of the un-nameable Force that created and continues to create everything. To impose a gender on It is to make It more comprehensible and accessible. We are all children of these same loving Parents.