Yesterday, paxton (who is Christian) said this: “…[I]n your estimation the Goddess is only important inside a person's head, or inside a social structure…. It's just unusual to me, you understand. (Worshiping, as I do, a God who makes frequent and forceful claims of actually being a real Person and a specific Thing, a God who Does and Is)….” To which I reply:
Paxton, I’ve posted about this before. I wish I could put my finger on that earlier post. What I wrote was this: I look at the Goddess behind two different sets of eyeglasses: a social-scientist set and a personal set. As a social scientist I see the war gods dumping enormous pain and poverty onto the human race, and feminine spirituality gifting us with enormous healing and wealth.
But I also have a personal relationship with the Goddess. Although I don’t bring that personal side to this blog very often, if you want a post that does, see my Jan. 1 ‘06, post: “NEW YEAR'S Blessing.”
Lately I’ve found it easier to pound on war gods than praise the Goddess. Partly this is because of the recent political situation, in which the war gods held America hostage. (Now that Daddy’s taken the T-bird away from Dubya, I feel able to relax a little, and hopefully my posting will relax too.)
On the other hand, as you suggest, a wide canyon yawns between your deity and mine. The Goddess brings very little pressure, no jealousy, and no fear. Yaj brings – well, you know what I think of Yaj (for you just tuning in, ‘Yaj’ is the war god Yahweh-Allah-Jehovah; in my opinion he’s not three gods, but one).
The Goddess just a ‘state of mind’? Not for most. Most Goddess people hold vivid pictures in their minds of specific deities, deities springing from the historical record – Isis, Macha, Diana, Brigit, Hecate, Innana, and others. Personally, I have a hard time with historical deities -- to one extent or another they’ve all been toyed with by the war-gods. After the war-god people conquered the old Goddess peoples, they said, “Okay, your Goddesses can sit next to our Gods – if they lick the Gods’ boots.” Unlike me, most Goddess people seem able to see through the patriarchal layers shrouding these historical Goddesses, into their deep core, their original divinity.
When I picture the Goddess, I like to zoom back to pre-patriarchal days. Years ago, my brother visited the Greek islands and brought me an early Bronze-Age Goddess statue. She’s about four inches high, bronze, and She’s folding Her arms across Her chest. She’s graced my home for over fifteen years now.
My favorite image, however, is my blog logo, shown above. On June 30 ’05, I posted this about Her:
“I have a wild weakness for this image. Thirty-five centuries ago, an ancient Minoan genius on the Mediterranean Island of Santorini felt the Goddess swim in her sinews, and, using paint, taxied Her to a plaster wall. You are now eyeing the actual plaster and paint deposited over 3,500 years ago.
“This is the un-reconstructed Goddess that the Goddess below was drawn from (the June 28 Goddess on the three-part throne). Notice Her necklaces -- of blue ducks and burnt-orange dragonflies....
“But it's her eyes, her posture that hold me in chains.
“This is the eye of Deity, of Far-Sight, the posture of Peace over fear. Of Other-Concern simultaneous with self-concern. Of Power-in-Being versus power-over. It is Self-Love without self-aggrandizement, Tenderness without weakness, Suppleness over stiffness. It is Love never-ending, never-bending, no signs of strings attached.
“Bless You All, Forever and Ever,
“Athana”
3 comments:
Paxton - Goddess is not just in our heads. She IS and She DOES. Everything I touch, everything I am, was, will be, could be, never was, never will be, is a part of Her. I am a cell in Her body. I walk upon Her back. Life on this planet is born from Her Womb, the ocean. The great tragedy of the human race is that we don't honor our Source and work with Her special cycles, energies, and resources. We could live in paradise if we'd just let Her be that.
The difference in Goddess and god religions is that god religions want to set man up above Nature. Claiming "dominion" has lead to the rape of our forests, water and air pollution, mass extinctions of species, slavery, violence and war.
When we recognize that we are one body, and that everything we do, we do to ourselves, we will have returned to Goddess. Jesus said words to the effect that "whatever you do for the least among you, you have done for me also." (I know that's not exact) I think this is what he was trying to say. If you hurt anyone, or anything, you hurt everyone and everything, including the Divine. Eventually, we will understand that kindness, charity, and love are the best ways to serve our own self-interests.
This is so well said morgaine that I feel like putting it up on a poster or something and posting it all over the place.
paxton, you may say "We Christians believe in kindness, charity and love too," but. But. You run much of the world. Does the world look kind and loving to you?
Why not? I think it has to do with your Model of how a person should be: Jehovah. Jehovah isn't kind and loving. He's what Dawkins says he is: "...arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
And that's why the world is a mess. That list up there looks exactly like the world today. The world today IS filled with people just like Yahweh: petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freaks; vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleansers; misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bullies.
Sure you have Jesus as a model too. But he seems to be no match for Yahweh; Yaj is totally overshadowing Jesus in the world today.
Most of us are past believing that the earth cares for us. We think we should care for the earth. In ancient times folks worshipped the Goddess because they could feel her care. It was far more than establishing one Judaic tribe as sole owners of the universe.
Post a Comment