When God was a Woman
And we worshipped the moon
There has been some scholarly discussion in Feminism that a great deity or goddess was a woman, in prehistory. This form of revisionism is unsettling, aiming to prove, by mythology, the existence of an all-empowering female role. And it contradicts a main ethos of Feminism, that until very recently women suffered, and until this generation, women suffered in silence, and that within Feminism there is an elitism: this is a Western club, avant tout.
However, ignoring the many advanced or nature-oriented classical cultures with women Goddesses iterates a lack of interest or awareness of other sociological models. Ancient societies worshipped feminine forms of God — typically as mother, earth, nature, and the Holy Spirit, or as deities who personified feminine attributes. And there are many Goddesses.
There are a fair number of Goddesses of the Moon, (as opposed to a sun-like male deity) in societies or civilisations that were arguably more accomplished and advanced than ours, for their time:
- Goddess Huitaca (Chibcha mythology)
- Goddess Menily (Cahuilla mythology)
- Goddess Chia (Colombian mythology)
- Goddess Mama Quilla (Incan mythology)
- Goddess Ka-Ata-Killa (Incan mythology)
- Goddess Yoolgai Asdza´a´ (Diné Bahane’/Navajo)
- Goddess Pah (Pawnee mythology)
- Goddess Jaci (Tupi mythology)
- Goddess Coyolxauhqui (Aztec mythology)
- Goddess Metztli (Aztec mythology)
- Goddess Awilix (K’iche’ Maya mythology)
- Maya moon goddess (Maya mythology)
- Goddess Ilargi (Basque mythology)
- Goddess Artume (Etruscan mythology)
- Goddess Losna (Etruscan mythology)
- Goddess Kuu (Finnish mythology)
- Goddess Achelois (Greek mythology)
- Goddess Phoebe (Greek mythology)
- Goddess Artemis / Diana (Greco-Roman mythology)
- Goddess Selene / Luna (Greco-Roman mythology)
- Goddess Hecate / Trivia (Greco-Roman mythology)
- Goddess Kazza (Arturian mythology)
- Goddess Bendis (Thracian mythology)
- Goddess Arianrhod (Welsh mythology)
- Goddess Chup Kamui (Ainu mythology)
- Goddess Chang’e (Chinese mythology)
- Goddess Ratih (Indonesian mythology)
- Goddess Silewe Nazarate (Indonesian mythology)
- Goddess Mayari or ‘Bulan’ (Philippine mythology)
- Goddess Dae-Soon(Korean mythology)
- Goddess Neang Vimean Chan(Cambodian mythology)
- Goddess Gleti (Dahomean mythology)
- Goddess Yemaya (Yoruba mythology)
- Goddess Hina (Polynesian mythology)
- Goddess Lona (Hawaiian mythology)
- Goddess Mahina (Polynesian mythology)
- Goddess Anumati (Hindu mythology)
What does this tell us? First, that the woman was not relegated to the role of Mother Mary, or given a role of prostitute, and second that quite a few of these Goddesses were around for longer than the Christian or Muslim God has been.
Arguably, a shift away from female deities started not with Jesus, but with Zoroaster, who existed, it is thought, at least 1,600 before Christianity, and who first explored the concept of a heaven and a hell. Zoroaster lived in the area of what is now Iran or Afghanistan, and only some of his teachings, the Avestas, survive, many having been destroyed. Indeed, the only direct connection with modern day life is the Zoroastrian concept of God: Ahura Mazda, now a car of course.
The base of Zoroastrianism, still practiced in parts of Iran and India, was the highly-nuanced and vaguely-translatable seeking of aša, truth, and thus by default the avoidance of lies, druj. This could be said to be a masculine trait if we apply it in context. Just think war.
Personally, I see some connections between Zoroastrianism and the God Ashur of the Assyrian people, now being persecuted in Iraq, and now of course Christians.
But if truth be told, there is also a direct line between Christianity and Zoroastrianism, and by inference a direct line between much of the world and the Middle East, where all of Abrahamic religion sprung from — and here male deities were always the norm.
Both Gods were said to be sun deities, and Christianity surely also finds it’s origins in sun worship. The halo and bright light behind Jesus in much iconography certainly points to this.
But what if we, in our modern day civilisation had opted for say Anumati, Indian Goddess from the Hindu religion, or the Mayan Moon Goddess, with her associations with sexuality, or the attractive notion of the Polynesian moon Goddess Mahina. Or perhaps if the Vikings had taken on a stronger role in North America our modern day Goddess would have been Moon Goddess Mani, and what a more gentle society it might have been — assuming the God Thor would have retired of course, and we accordingly would have had no Thursday, thus a four-day week…
beautiful women
in your breasts
all of nature
