DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

by Aine MacDermot

These are good times for some perceptual changes in human systems of belief and thought, and the general human frame of mind. We can start by recognizing the beautiful open-minded holistic feminine goddesses whose existence in pre-Indo-European cultures precedes that of the patriarchal “old men” - the old white bearded masculine gods.

It is wrong to say that this is just a woman’s culture, that there was just a Goddess and there were no Gods. There is a balance between the sexes throughout, in religion and in life. In all mythologies, for instance in Europe, Germanic or Celtic or Baltic, you will find the Earth Mother or Earth Goddess and her male companion or counterpart next to her.

However, more than ninety percent of the Neolithic figurines found in Bulgaria are female. Of the two hundred fifty figurines from Marija Gimbutas’ excavation at Sitagroi, northern Greece, “not one can be clearly identified as male.” Interestingly, before cemeteries came into use, c. 5000 BC, adult male burials are conspicuously rare in settlements in southeast Europe during the Early Neolithic period (7th-6th millennia BC), though women and girls have been found buried in the floors of their homes. Houses, therefore, functioned as abodes for the living as well as for the ancestors.

This is not feminist bias seeping into non-scientific neopagan goddess-centered archaelogy; this is the evidence we have at hand.

From very early on [upper Paleolithic], there already were different types of goddesses. So are these different Goddesses or different aspects of one Goddess? This is a very difficult question to answer, although the earliest artifacts tend to show three types of Goddess: a) the Goddess with large breasts, buttocks, and belly, b) the snake Goddess, and c) the bird Goddess.

These cultural beliefs existed for so long and so deep into the human psyche that they cannot reasonably be seen as uninfluential to our thinking today. What is true is true, and what is true will remain. Indeed, the Goddess has not disappeared completely, even in modern religious belief.

The Virgin Mary is still extremely important in Catholicism, for example. She is the inheritor of many types of Goddesses, actually. She represents the one who is giving life, she is also the regenerator and earth mother together.

Adam’s first wife was Lilith. And who was Lilith? She was a bird of prey, the Vulture Goddess of Death and Regeneration. She was the one who later became demonized as the witch, so she was very powerful. In the days of the Inquisition, she is described as really dangerous… threatening to male-dominant patriarchy. She flew away. He could not control her. So, of course, he needed a second wife who would be more obedient. Lilith, the Vulture Goddess, became akin to Satan, a monster.

This image is still with us. In each country she is more or less preserved. In the Basque, she is still there and very much alive. She is a bird goddess, a vulture, she lives in caves… the womb of the world. Patriarchal culture had to make people afraid of her, so they would abandon her. But she was only doing what she was supposed to be doing. She could not allow things to grow forever; she is the regenerator of the world of nature, the cycle of birth, life, and death.

The Goddess cultures, which view time as cyclical, bring us to some harmony with nature where we can learn to value things… as opposed to a culture like ours which sees time as linear, progressing towards some waiting future ending.

The patriarchy has been around for about five thousand years compared to the Goddess culture which was around for possibly millions. But remember, nature _is_ cyclical.

“I reject the assumption that civilization refers only to androcratic warrior societies. The generative basis of any civilization lies in its degree of artistic creation, aesthetic achievements, nonmaterial values, and freedom which make life meaningful and enjoyable for all its citizens, as well as a balance of powers between the sexes.” - Marija Gimbutas, 1991