The Earliest Societies and Religions were Matriarcal

A few thousand years ago many Goddess oriented civilizations were destroyed by aggressive Indo-European tribes who worshipped a aggressive sky god, and thus females lost their sacredness. These newer world religions were monotheist, Judaism, Islam and Christianity, with one god who was male. Some fathers of the early Christian church even argued that women had no souls. Goddess cultures tended to be egalitarian, earth-centred and non-violent.

Goddess Religions Suppressed

The Goddess religions were suppressed and the female principle was gradually driven out of religion. Women were reduced to a level inferior to men. The God, King, Priest and Father replaced the Goddess, Queen, Priestess and Mother. The role of women became restricted. A woman's testimony was not considered significant in Jewish courts; women were not allowed to speak in Christian churches; positions of authority in the church were limited to men. Young women are often portrayed in the Bible as possessions of their fathers. After marriage, they are generally viewed as possessions of their husbands.

Greatest Harm

Some of the greatest harm patriarchy has done to our society
has been 'stifling' women's powers. Patriarchy deceitfuly
teaches us that our pre-patriarchal Ancestors
were "immoral savages."
Patriarchy blocks us from our
own blood-line and her-history,
cutting off millions of year of creative evolutionary energy.

Patriarchy Lies

Patriarchy lies to us about who we are
by telling us lies about who we were -
it changes us from magical to sinful -
in order to make us believe we need patriarchy
to "save us" from ourselves.

The patriarchal god has only one commandment,
punish life for being what it is.
The Goddess has only one commandment,
love life for it is what it is.
Until we can visualize and accept
the "Sacred Female" we cannot be whole
and society cannot be whole.

Male Monotheism

Male monotheism has been so taken for granted in Christian culture.
The imaging of God solely through the male gender has not been
recognized for what this really means.
Such an image indicates a sharp departure
from all previous human consciousness....

Male monotheism reinforces the social hierarchy
of patriarchal rule through its religious system
in a way that was not the case with
the paired images of God and Goddess.

God is modeled after the patriarchal ruling class
and is seen as addressing this class of males directly,
adopting them as his "sons."
They are his representatives, the responsible
partners of the covenant with him.
(with the cutting of the foreskin)

Women as wives now become symbolically repressed
as the dependent servant class.
Wives, along with children and servants, represent
those ruled over and owned by the patriarchal class.
They relate to man, as he relates to God.
A symbolic hierarchy is set up: God-male-female.
Women no longer stand in direct relation to God;
they are connected to God secondarily, through the male.
This hierarchical order is evident in the structure
of patriarchal law in the Old Testament,
in which only the male heads of families
are addressed directly. Women, children,
and servants are referred to indirectly through
their duties and property relations to the patriarch.

In the New Testament this hierarchical "order"
appears as a cosmic principle:

But I want you to understand that the head of
every man is Christ, the head of a woman
is her husband, and the head of Christ is God....
For a man ought not to cover his head,
since "he is the image and glory of God,"
but the woman is the glory of man.
(I Cor. 11:3, 7)

Male monotheism becomes the vehicle of
the male ruling class in its relationship
to surrounding reality. Whereas ancient myth
had seen the Gods and Goddesses as within
the matrix of one physical-spiritual reality.

fe-MALE
MEN-opause
MEN-struation
MEN-ses
wo-MAN
wo-MEN
HIS-story
hu-MAN
MEN-tor
Sports-MAN-ship
speci-MEN
o-MEN
MAN-ners
a-MEN
HE-ro

The End of the Goddess Age

The beginning of the Hebrew religion with its
God Yahweh marked the end of the Goddess Age,
this was between 1800-1500 BC when
the prophet Abraham lived in Canaan.
The Christian Church, and especially the
Roman Catholic Church, has fought hard to
suppress or root out all Goddess worship.
The Goddess along with all pagan deities were labeled as evil.
Even though the Church attempted to completely abolish
Goddess worship it never successfully did so.

Remanents of the Goddess remained within the hearts of the people.

Goddess of Ephesus

Goddess Diana
An example of such devotion to the Goddess was
seen within the actions of the people during
the Church Council of Ephesus (432 AD).
Until Christianized, Ephesus had been a sacred city
where the Divine Mother was worshiped by "all Asia and the world"
Acts 19:27
Her most famous Ephesus image had a torso
covered with breasts, showing her ability
to nurture the whole world. The people rioted
in the streets demanding the worshipping of the Goddess be restored.

Once a year, special ceremonies were held at Ephesus in honor of the goddess Diana. These attracted great numbers of people from all parts of the province. Throughout this period, festivities were conducted with the utmost pomp and splendor.

Goddess Diana

The prime candidate was Mary,
the Virgin and Mother of Christ.
The bishops conceded so far in allowing
Mary to be called the Mother of God,
but forbade her to be called Mother Goddess or Goddess.

Sophia Goddess of Wisdom

Sophia is found throughout the wisdom books of the Bible. There are references to Her in the book of Proverbs. She is Wisdom Incarnate, the Goddess of all those who are wise.

Proverbs 8

1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
2 She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.
3 She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
4 Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.
5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.
7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

The Great Goddess appears in the Bible
as Ashtoreth, Anath, Asherah ... the Queen of Heaven.

Queen of Heaven

……..all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt…saying
We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our OWN mouth, to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then had we PLENTY of victuals, and were well, and SAW NO EVIL.
But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
And when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?

Jeremiah 44:15-19

She was known as Ashtoreth in the “promise land.”
In Egypt she was known as the Goddess Isis or Hathor.

Hebrew Goddesses

Jezebel's Goddess

Lilith-Adam's First Wife

Burn Witch!

She is Getting What She Deserves

Women: You are the Devil's Gateway

Goddess Symbols in Bible

~Serpent~ - Cobra
-worn on forehead as the eye of wisdom
-a symbol of mystic insight and wisdom
-hieroglyphic sign for the word Goddess
-associated with healing and medicine

~Tree~ – Tree of Good and Evil
Deu 16:21
-called the sycamore or fig
-referenced with the Goddess Hathor of Egypt
-Referred to in the bible as the Goddess Ashtoreth (2 Kings 23:6)

~High Places~
-Built for Ashtoreth (II Kings 23:13)

~Groves~ - Garden
-Ordered to be cut down (Exodus 34:13)
-Yet Abram planted (Genesis 21:33)

Goddess Names in Bible

Ashtart – Judges 2:13
Ashtoreth – I King 11:5, 33
Ashtaroth – Judges 2:13, I Samuel 12:10
Queen of Heaven – Jeremiah 44:17
Diana/Artemis - Acts 19:24

Her Canaanite names were Asherah, Astarte, Ashtoreth. The people of the Old Testament, like everyone else in the near east, practiced Goddess worship. The Old Testament is the record of the conquest and massacre of these people by nomadic patriarch Hebrew tribes, followers of a male sky/thunder/lightening God, who then set up their own bible God in the place of the Ancient Goddess.

Reference Books:

When God was a Woman - Merline Stone
Mother Worship - James J. Preston
The Great Cosmic Mother - Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor
The Once & Future Goddess - Elinor W. Gadon
Lady of the Beasts -
Ancient Images of the Goddess
and Her Sacred Animals - Buffie Johnson

Next~Afrikan Religions/Queens

Priestesses~Back

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