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By the Emerson Group - presented by Jean
Weaver
July 9, 2001
Introduction
Joseph Campbell states, “Myths of the Great Goddess teach compassion
for all living things. There you come to appreciate the real
sanctity of the earth itself, because it is the body of the
Goddess.”
Many religions have existed where the mother is the source.
Symbolically, the mother is more immediate. One is born to the
mother and one’s earliest experience is of the mother. The father
may be unknown to you, and you frequently have to go in quest of
your father in mythology.
Themes
The goddess represented “feminine” archetypes, such as mother,
nurturer, bringer of food, and wisdom. Some common themes found in
cultures throughout the world include:
*Water, especially oceans and earth, and occasionally sky; breast
milk and menstrual blood figure in many myths associated with
creativity
*Healing
*Creation
*Primordial source
*Explanations of the sun/moon cycles perceived by people on earth
(she swallows the sun and then it passes through her and exits again
in a cycle); her husband coming to her is the eclipse; goddess of
the underworld (Isis, Inanna)
*Mother of the gods
*Virgin birth
*Magic
*Fertility – reverses drought and famine
*Poetry
*Livestock, wild animals, plants
*Persuasion & deceit
*Passion
Ultimate value
Mythological stories generally were passed on orally from generation
to succeeding generation. Each tale, embellished and "corrupted"
through the re-tellings, was probably a reasoned explanation of the
facts as seen by unsophisticated and uneducated eyes. Most scholars
today divide the subject into three categories: pure myth (primitive
science and primitive religion – attempts to understanding the world
through perceived experience), heroic saga (primitive history –
tradition of passing down information about important events,
people, and things), and folklore (fictional stories – usually to
make a point or teach a moral).
Mythical figures and situations
A common motif in the hero’s life: The boy says, “Who is my father?”
and the mother says “he’s in such and such a place” and the boy goes
on the father quest. The father, then, is finding your own character
and destiny. The mother is coming to know and understand your
source, your connectedness to all things.
Campbell says mythology is a sublimation of the mother image. We
talk of Mother Earth. Egypt has the Mother Heavens, the Goddess Nut,
who is represented as the whole heavenly sphere. Archetypes, or
patterns that are common throughout the world, are represented in
many cultures through mythology. Myths are represented by simple
explanations of the world as well as by rich allegory and metaphor.
The goddess was especially prevalent in agricultural societies.
There exists the common analogy of the human woman giving birth and
the earth giving birth to plants. She gives nourishment, as the
plants do. So woman magic and earth magic are the same. The goddess
was a major figure in Mesopotamia and the Egyptian Nile, and in
earlier planting culture systems, archeological evidence indicates
that the Goddess is the dominant mythic form. Some early European
Neolithic figures feature the Goddess almost exclusively compared to
male figures. When males were included, they were depicted as
animals. In some of these cultures, the Goddess was the only
visualized divinity at that time.
When the Goddess is the creator, her own body is the universe. The
Goddess swallows the sun at night and it passes through her body.
Even today, there are religions of India where the Goddess is
dominant. She is Maya, or time and space, and the mystery beyond her
is beyond all pairs of opposites. It isn’t male or female. But all
is within her, so everything is a product of the Goddess.
Moyer cites a verse from the Upanishads that is frequently quoted by
Campbell: “Thou art the dark blue bird, and the green parrot with
red eyes. Thou hast the lightning as thy child. Thou art the season
and the seas. Having no beginning, thou dost abide with immanence,
whereof all things are born.”
In India, the most common ultimate symbol is of the lingus and the
yoni, or the phallus and the vagina, coming together. In
contemplating this symbol, you are contemplating the generating
moment itself of all life.
The birth of western civilization occurred in the great river
valleys, the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Indus and later the
Ganges. The river Ganges is the same of a goddess.
The hunter cultures were then about killing, and the warrior gods,
like Zeus or Yahweh invaded with images of the sword and death
instead of fertility. Artifacts of the goddess were destroyed by
Romans and Jews, according to their own texts.
Campbell mentions the key archetypal event, where the mother goddess
is overthrown. The male mythologies became dominant and the Mother
Goddess becomes more of a grandmother. There is still reference to
Mother Earth, but the religious doctrine is based on the more recent
male focus. Annihilation of the god or goddess that went before has
been common throughout human history, and continues today. It is an
evolution of framing according the people’s experience and the
metaphors they use to explain their world.
Tribes operated with in-groups and out-groups, where you protect
your own and kill or rape the others. Campbell argues that today
there is a movement away from “out-groups” so the problem of a
modern religion is to have compassion work for the whole of
humanity.
The Hebrews attempted to wipe out the goddess, called “The
Abomination” in the Old Testament. Hebrew kings were condemned for
worshipping on the mountaintops because that is where the goddess
temples were located. Indo-European mythologies do not include
strong accent against the Goddess. Instead, the gods tend to marry
the goddesses and then the 2 play together.
Campbell states that 3 situations are seen over time: a) the early
focus on the Goddess, b) the reverse, when the male takes over her
role, and then c) the stage where the 2 are in interaction, as they
are, for example, in India. The attitudes of the people stem from
their beliefs, which are shaped by how they explain the world.
Virgin births exist in many traditions. Campbell suggests they
represent the birth of spiritual man out of the animal man. The
woman is the source in these myths, just as women or Mother Earth is
seen as the source.
The Chinese yin/yang symbol stresses that while we have different
facets, within each is a piece of the other, represented by the
light spot on the dark fish symbol and a dark spot on the light one.
It represents participation and relationship rather than the idea of
God as the Absolute Other.
Today there is increased focus on nurturing, creativity, and
collaboration, which are traditionally considered of the heart
chakra or feminine. Even the Bible speaks of wisdom as “she.”
Campbell: At some point you realize how small and insignificant you
are, and then, in the next moment, you recognize your oneness with
all, you partake of your connectedness to all there is. The Goddess,
mother of the universe and of us all, teaches compassion for all
living beings. The earth is sanctified, because it is the body of
the Goddess.
Examples of goddess figures from around the world:
Africa
Asase Yaa
Ghanaian creator of humanity and the mother of the gods.
Ala
Earth mother of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria. She is creator of the
living, queen of the dead, and goddess of fertility.
Abuk
The first woman, according to the Dinka people of Africa. She is the
patron goddess of women and gardens. Her emblem is a little snake.
Buk
(Sudan) Goddess of rivers and streams, and the source of life.
Eseasar
(Africa) An earth goddess married to the sky god, Ebore.
Nana Buluku
(Fon) The primordial mother.
Yemonja
(Nigerian Yoruba) She is one of the great goddesses of Africa. She
was said to be the daughter of the sea into whose waters she
empties. Her breasts are very large, because she was mother of so
many of the Yoruba gods. She is also the mother of waters (Mama
Watta) who gave birth to all the world's waters. Even as she slept,
she would create new springs, which gushed forth each time she
turned over. She was the sister/wife of Aganju, the soil god, and
mother by him of Orungan, god of the noonday sun. She is known by
different names in many localities; As Yemoja (Yemayah) she is the
power (orisa) of the ocean and motherhood. She is long-breasted, the
goddess of fishes, and wears an insignia of alternating crystal and
blue beads. She has a strong, nurturing, life-giving yet furiously
destructive nature. She is considered the Great Witch, the ultimate
manifestation of female power, as Yemanja (Imanje) in Brazil she is
ocean goddess of the crescent moon, as Ymoa in West Africa she is
the river goddess who grants fertility to women, in Cuba she is
Yemaya (Yemaya Ataramagwa, wealthy queen of the sea - Yemaya Achabba,
stern goddess - Yemaya Oqqutte, violent goddess - Yemaya Olokun,
dream goddess), she is Agwe in Haiti. And finally as Yamoja, a
contraction of the sentence "Iyamo eja," meaning "our mother" or "my
mother of fishes."
Native American
Geezhigo-Quae
(Ojibwa) She was the sky mother, a manitou (great spirit) who dwelt
in the heavens and watched over her people from there. She was the
creator of humanity; she created the earth by descending into the
primal soup to find land under the waves and fashioning it into the
hills and valleys and the mountain ranges of the earth.
Ikas
(Algonquin) Mother Earth.
Kokyan
(Hopi) Creator goddess; she created humans, plants, and animals.
Maja
(Sioux) Earth mother.
Minnehaha
(Blackfoot) Savior of her people from starvation. The story: The
hunters of the tribe would drive a buffalo herd over a cliff; the
women would cut up and collect the meat from the dead animals. This
particular time the buffalo herds would turn away before going over
the edge. This continued until the people were in dire straits and
on the verge of starvation. One morning Minnehaha was at the bottom
of the cliff when she noticed a large herd above. In desperation she
yelled out that she would marry one of them if they jumped off the
cliff. Some of them jumped, others followed and soon the whole herd
was over the cliff. When the rest of the tribe came to the cliff
they found plenty of meat, but no Minnehaha. Her footprints showed
that she had left with an old buffalo.
Rukko
(Mandan) The creator goddess. She makes human bodies and her male
counterpart adds the souls.
White Buffalo Woman
(Oglala) This sacred woman brought secret knowledge to the Oglala.
It was said that she first appeared to two young men as a white-clad
lady whose clothing was lavishly embroidered with porcupine quills
in exquisite patterns. One of the young men was overtaken by lust,
but the second recognized that she was no earthly woman. The first,
although warned, could not contain himself; he rushed open-armed
toward the woman. She smiled, and a soft white cloud descended to
cover their embrace. When it passed, the woman stood alone with the
young man's skeleton at her feet. Smiling, she told the second man
that the dead man had been awarded just what he sought. She
instructed the man to return to his village and set his people to
building a huge sacred tent. Then she entered the village, and the
people were enraptured by her presence. Walking seven times around
the central fire, she spoke to them, giving them a bag containing a
sacred pipe and teaching them the ceremonies that went with these
objects. She reminded them of the mysteries of their mother, the
earth. Urging them always to honor her, she disappeared in the shape
of a white buffalo.
Asian
Aditi
(Hindu) Supreme creator of all that has been created. Variously
described as the mother, wife, and/or daughter of Vishnu mother of
the gods, and all heavenly bodies.
Ama-terasu
(Japan) The sun goddess (queen of the universe). Amaterasu Omikami,
the Sun Goddess, is considered the founder of the Japanese nation.
Ammavaru
(India) An ancient goddess of India who existed before the beginning
of time. She laid an egg that hatched into the divine trinity of
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Dewi Shri
The rice goddess of Bali. Goddess of both the underworld and the
moon, she has both earthly and celestial powers. Although she rules
life, through her control of the foodstuffs of the earth, she also
controls death, which returns us to her bosom.
Kali
(India) Cult name of the goddess Durga. Wife to Shiva. A
bloodthirsty fertility goddess to whom the Thugs (Under the title
Bhavani, she was invoked by this secret brotherhood of murderers.)
sacrificed their victims. Her idol is black, is smeared with blood,
has huge fang-like teeth, and a protruding tongue that drips with
blood. She wears a necklace of skulls, earrings of corpses, and is
girdled with serpents. She usually has four arms, symbolizing
absolute dominion over all finite things. One hand holds a sword,
the second holds a severed human head, the third is believed by her
devotees to be removing fear, and the fourth is often interpreted as
granting bliss. Kali-omnipotent, absolute, and all-pervasive-is
beyond fear and finite existence and is therefore believed able to
protect her devotees against fear and to give them limitless peace.
Finally, as absolute night, devouring all that exists, she is
sometimes depicted as standing on the corpse of Shiva, which, like
the garland of skulls, symbolizes the remains of finite existence.
Kali's worshipers reportedly appeased her in the past with human
sacrifices. She is propitiated today with the blood of mammals.
Australia
Eingana
The Australian natives call her Mother Eingana, the world-creator,
the birth mother, maker of all water, land, animals, and kangaroos.
This huge snake goddess still lives, they say, in the Dreamtime,
rising up occasionally to create yet more life. "Dreamtime" refers
to the mythological past for the aborigine peoples of Australia.
This primordial snake had no vagina; as her offspring grew inside
her, the goddess swelled up. Eventually, tortured with the
pregnancy, Eingana began to roll around and around. The god Barraiya
saw her agony and speared her near the anus so that birth could take
place as all creatures now give birth. She is also the death mother.
They say Eingana holds a sinew of life attached to each of her
creatures; when she lets it go, that life stops. If she herself
should die, they say everything would cease to exist.
Europe
Adsagsona
Celtic goddess of the underworld and of magic.
Cerridwen
(Wales) Cerridwen is the goddess of dark prophetic powers. She is
the keeper of the cauldron of the underworld, in which inspiration
and divine knowledge are brewed.
Cessair
(Irish) A great magician, she became the first queen of Ireland. She
and her band of female followers inhabited the land after the Great
Flood.
Brunhild, Brünnehilde or Brynhild
(Germanic) A mighty female warrior, one of the Valkyrie. She defied
Odin and in punishment he imprisoned her within a ring of fire on
earth, decreeing that there she would remain until a brave hero
rescued her. Enter Siegfied (Sigurd). He braved the fire, broke her
charmed sleep, and fell in love with her. He gave her the ring,
Andvarinaut, unaware of its curse. Eventually she kills herself when
she learns that Sigurd had betrayed her with another woman (Gudrun),
not knowing he had been bewitched into doing so by Grimhild.
Dag
(Scandinavian) Goddess of the day; daughter of Nat, goddess of the
night. Dag rides across the heavens on her horse, Skenfaxi, whose
mane shines so brightly that it lights heaven and earth.
Eir
Eir is the goddess of healing. She taught her art and the secret
powers of herbs only to women, the only physicians in ancient
Scandinavia.
Baba Yaga (Jezi Baba)
(Slavic/Russian) The grandmother of the devil, and a cannibal; a
hideous man-eating female demon. Her mouth is said to stretch from
earth to the gates of hell.
Myesyats
(Slavonic) The moon deity. In some myths HE is the cold, bald-headed
uncle of the sun god Dazhbog. In other myths SHE is a beautiful
woman, the consort of Dazhbog and mother by him of the stars.
Zemyna
(Lithuanian) Because all life came from her, this Lithuanian earth
goddess was honored at the birth of every child, when the soil was
tenderly kissed both morning and evening; food offerings were laid
in front of piled stones, tied to tree boughs, or cast into flowing
water to thank Zemyna for the new life. Her special area of concern
was all plant life. Plant and human life were believed to flow
together, with souls taking up residence after death in trees.
Myth and "Reality"
by Jan Cameron-Kragt
Myth and "Reality" are more alike than different.
You know when people say: "That's JUST myth; THIS is reality."
1. Recently, I read a criticism of myth by a surgeon. He chronicled
the myths that have held back medicine --myths rooted in a belief in
something MORE than the physical.
His conclusion was that as science fills in the gaps in our
knowledge,
there will be no need for God anymore or for this imaginative way of
thinking--and good riddance!
I agree. A God-of-the-Gaps---a god we use to temporarily fill in the
gaps in our knowledge---is not worth holding on to. And using
religion or myth as a defense against truth is certainly
unacceptable.
But the answer is not less, but MORE imagination, MORE myth, MORE
religious sensibility, MORE searching for truths that transcend. Our
spirits soar beyond the physical. Human imagination is our highest
expression!
2. Furthermore, religion is nothing if it not an attempt to take in
all that is--EVERYTHING.
The opposite of the god of the gaps---a God of Transformation---is
what we need.
The Trickster god (Celtic, Native American, German, Oriental,
African) expresses this need to change, to break out of limiting
structures.
The Trickster is often known as the "Shape-Shifter": If you want
your question answered you have to hold on to the Trickster WHILE he
or she transforms. Because, according to the trickster, as soon as
you think you've found the answer.....you get stuck....stuck in a
particular story or way of looking at things. Like telling a joke
that everyone takes very seriously, repeats over and over, but no
one "gets."
Einstein didn't say when all else fails use the imagination. He
said, "We cannot solve our problems at the same level at which we
created them. IMAGINATION is greater than reality."
So, What is Myth? What is Reality? Appearance often fools.
--Skit: (Two farmers hoeing in fields on either side of a road...a
god approaches wearing a huge hat. Farmers look up as he passes,
then look back down at their work. The god then turns around, but
also turns his hat from front to back and goes back the way he came.
Farmers look up again.) (Later in town, each farmer describes what
he or she saw. One is absolutely sure she saw a red hat; the other
saw a blue. They argue more and more heatedly until finally the
Trickster intervenes, shows them the blue AND red hat, and takes
blame. "I did it! Spreading strife is my greatest joy!")
The trickster reminds us that all images, all systems of
thought--and language itself-- all are temporal and limited.
1. According to Heraclitus: change, or strife, is the Creator of all
things.
Whether we like it or not: Strife, struggle, chaos, chance---these
are the means through which life is realized.
2. (Hold up image/icon of Hindu god, Shiva) Shiva, Lord of the Dance
of the Universe--Source of All Movement--expresses the trickster
with the added message that it is in such strife we can find our
greatest joy--our bliss.
In Shiva's hair are a skull and the new moon: death and rebirth at
the same moment.
In one hand, the ticking drum of time that shuts out an awareness of
eternity.
But the opposite hand holds a flame, to burn away the veil of time
and open our minds to see beyond appearance. And a circle of flames
surrounds the whole: Eternity breaking through to the field of time!
Myths are "MASKS of eternity," according to Joseph Campbell. We
can't grasp eternity. We need the masks to clothe truth--bring it to
life! --And what we call "reality" also is a mask. Myth and
"reality" are more alike than different.
As soon as we think we know it all--except for a few gaps--the
Trickster arrives:
"I am not ULTIMATE reality. Look through me!"
No system, no viewpoint--no reality--can contain Boundless LIFE!
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