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POWER
OF MYTH
by the Emerson Group
July 9, 2001
Faces
of the Goddess
Myth and "Reality"
Faces
of the Goddess
Presented by Jane Weaver
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.
Boldogasszony
(Hungary) Virgin goddess who protected mothers and children.
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!
--The END
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