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Mother goddess
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Mother goddess
A mother goddess is a goddess, often portrayed as the Earth Mother, who
serves as a general fertility deity, the bountiful embodiment of the earth.
As such, not all goddesses should be viewed as manifestations of the mother
goddess.
This goddess is depicted in Western traditions in many variations, from the
rock-cut images of Cybele to Dione ("the Goddess") who was invoked at
Dodona, along with Zeus, until late Classical times. In the Homeric Hymns
(7-6 century BC) there is a beautiful hymn to the mother goddess called
"Hymn to Gaia, Mother of All". The Sumerians wrote many erotic poems about
their mother goddess Ninhursaga (Sex & Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature,
G, Leick, Routledge, 2003). An example of the erotic goddess in the Western
and Eastern traditions is seen in the poem The Mother Goddess
Contention
Deities fitting the modern conception of the "Mother Goddesses" as a type
have clearly been revered in many societies through to modern times. James
Frazer (author of The Golden Bough) and those he influenced (like Robert
Graves and Marija Gimbutas) advanced the theory that all worship in Europe
and the Aegean that involved any kind of mother goddess had originated in
Pre-Indo-European neolithic matriarchies, and that their different goddesses
were equivalent.
Although the type has been well accepted as a useful category for
mythography, the idea that all such goddesses were believed in ancient times
to be interchangeable has been discounted by modern scholars, most notably
by Peter Ucko [1].
Paleolithic figures
Several small, corpulent figures have been found during archaeological
excavations of the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Willendorf being perhaps
the most famous. Many archaeologists believe they were intended to represent
goddesses, while others believe that they could have served some other
purpose. These figurines predate the available records of the goddesses
listed below as examples by many thousands of years, so although they seem
to conform to the same generic type, it is not clear if they were indeed
representations of a goddess or that there was any continuity of religion
that connects them with Middle Eastern and Classical deities.
Examples of the mother goddess type
There is no dispute that many ancient cultures worshipped female deities
which match the modern conception of a "mother goddess" as part of their
pantheons. The following are examples:
Sumerian, Mesopotamian and Greek goddesses
Tiamat in Sumerian mythology, Ishtar (Inanna) and Ninsun in Mesopotamia,
Asherah in Canaan, `Ashtart in Syria, and Aphrodite in Greece, for example.
Celtic goddesses
The Irish goddess Anu, sometimes known as Danu, has an impact as a mother
goddess, judging from the Dá Chích Anann near Killarney, County Kerry. Irish
literature names the last and most favored generation of gods as "the people
of Danu" (Tuatha de Dannan).
Norse goddesses
Amongst the Germanic tribes a female goddess was probably worshipped in the
Nordic Bronze Age religion, which was later known as the Nerthus of Germanic
mythology, and possibly living on in the Norse mythology worship of Freya.
Her counterpart in Scandinavia was the male deity Njord. Other female
goddesses in different pantheons may also be considered mother goddesses.
Also Yggdrasil, the World Ash, is often understood to be a mother goddess.
Some scholars also argue that the figure of Grendel's mother, from the poem
Beowulf, may have been based upon a goddess from Norse mythology.
Greek goddesses
In the Aegean, Anatolian, and ancient Near Eastern culture zones, a mother
goddess was worshipped in the forms of Cybele (revered in Rome as Magna
Mater, the 'Great Mother'), of Gaia, and of Rhea.
The Olympian goddesses of classical Greece had many characters with mother
goddess attributes, including Hera and Demeter.[1] The Minoan goddess
represented in seals and other remains, whom Greeks called Potnia theron,
"Mistress of the Animals", many of whose attributes were later also absorbed
by Artemis, seems to have been a mother goddess type, for in some
representations she suckles the animals that she holds. The archaic local
goddess worshiped at Ephesus, whose cult statue was adorned with necklaces
and stomachers hung with rounded protuberances[2] who was later also
identified by Hellenes with Artemis, was probably also a mother goddess.
The Anna Perenna Festival of the Greeks and Romans for the New Year, around
March 15, near the Vernal Equinox, may have been a mother goddess festival.
Since the Sun is considered the source of life and food, this festival was
also equated with the Mother Goddess.
Roman goddesses
Aphrodite's counterpart in Roman mythology, Venus, was eventually adopted as
a Mother Goddess figure. She was seen as the mother of the Roman people,
being the mother of Rome's ancestor, Aeneas, and the ancestress of all
subsequent Roman rulers, and by the time of Julius Caesar's era, she was
dubbed "Venus Genetrix" (Mother Venus).
Magna Dea is Latin for "Great Goddess" and can refer to any major goddess
worshipped during the Roman Republic or Roman Empire. Magna Dea could be
applied to a goddess at the head of a pantheon, such as Juno or Minerva, or
a goddess worshipped monotheistically. The term "Great Goddess" itself can
refer to a mother goddess in contemporary Neopagan and Wiccan religions
Turkic Siberians Mother Goddesses
Umai, also known as Ymai or Mai, is the mother goddess of the Turkic
Siberians. She is depicted as having sixty golden tresses, that look like
the rays of the sun. She is thought to have once been identical with Ot of
the Mongols.
It is interesting to note that Shiva's consort is called Parvati and also
Uma. And in India the mother worship is also called Devi Maa or Maya.
Mother goddess concepts in Hinduism
In the Hindu context, the worship of the Mother entity can be traced back to
early Vedic culture, and perhaps even before. The Rigveda calls the divine
female power Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which literally means Mother
Earth. At places, the Vedic literature alludes to her as Viraj, the
universal mother, as Aditi, the mother of gods, and as Ambhrini, the one
born of Primeval Ocean. Durga represents the empowering and protective
nature of motherhood. An incarnation of Durga is Kali, who came from her
forehead during war (as a means of defeating Durga's enemy, Mahishasura).
Durga and her incarnations are particularly worshipped in Bengal.
Today, Devi is seen in manifold forms, all representing the creative force
in the world, as Maya and prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine
ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos. She is not merely
the Earth, though even this perspective is covered by Parvati (Durga's
previous incarnation). All the various Hindu female entities are seen as
forming many faces of the same female Divinity.
Shaktism
This form of Hinduism, known as Shaktism, is strongly associated with
Vedanta, Samkhya and Tantra Hindu philosophies and is ultimately monist,
though there is a rich tradition of Bhakti yoga associated with it. The
feminine energy (Shakti) is considered to be the motive force behind all
action and existence in the phenomenal cosmos in Hinduism. The cosmos itself
is Brahman, the concept of the unchanging, infinite, immanent and
transcendent reality that is the Divine Ground of all being, the "world
soul". Masculine potentiality is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied
in multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately reconciled in one.
The keystone text is the Devi Mahatmya which combines earlier Vedic
theologies, emergent Upanishadic philosophies and developing tantric
cultures in a laudatory exegesis of Shakti religion. Demons of ego,
ignorance and desire bind the soul in maya (illusion) (also alternately
ethereal or embodied) and it is Mother Maya, shakti, herself, who can free
the bonded individual. The immanent Mother, Devi, is for this reason focused
on with intensity, love, and self-dissolving concentration in an effort to
focus the shakta (as a Shakti worshipper is sometimes known) on the true
reality underlying time, space and causation, thus freeing one from karmic
cyclism.
Mother goddess concepts in Christianity
Most Christians regard Mary, the Theotokos, as a "spiritual mother", since
she not only fulfills a maternal role but is often viewed as a protective
force and divine intercessory for humanity, but she is not worshiped as a
divine "mother goddess." The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches identify
"the woman" described in Revelation 12 as the Virgin Mary because in verse 5
this woman is said to have given "birth to a son, a male child, destined to
rule all the nations with an iron rod" whom Catholics identify as Jesus
Christ. Then, in verse 17 of Revelation 12, the Bible describes "the rest of
her offspring" as "those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to
Jesus." These Christians believe themselves to be the other "offspring"
because they try to "keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus," and
thus they embrace Mary as their mother. They also cite John 19:26-27 where
Jesus entrusts his mother to the Apostle John as evidence that Mary is the
mother of all Christians, taking the command "behold your mother" to apply
generally.
The Virgin Mary receives many titles in Catholicism, like Queen of Heaven
and Star of the Sea, that are familiar from earlier Near Eastern traditions.
Due to this correlation, Protestants often accuse Catholics of viewing Mary
as a goddess, but the Catholic Church has always condemned worship of the
Virgin Mary. Part of this accusation is due to the Catholic practice of
prayer as a means of communication rather than as a means of worship.
Catholics believe that the dead who followed God have eternal life, and can
hear prayers in heaven from people here on earth.
The Bible refers to the personified Heavenly Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in
feminine terms. Most Christians are Catholic and believe that God the Father
is masculine and that Jesus was a man. The Church is the female counterpart
of God and is the Bride of Jesus. Some Christians ignore this long-standing
teaching and assert that God subsumes and transcends both masculinity and
femininity. From their point of view the grammatical gender used to address
him is a mere convention, and the masculine designations for the persons of
the Trinity characterize a relationship and not actual gender. However, this
is a recent invention by Christians influenced by the desire to bring
feminist (non-Christian) ideas into Christianity. For most of the existence
of Christianity, this belief would have been considered heresy.
Some of the Black Madonna icons are believed by some to derive from
depictions of ancient goddesses, in particular the Egyptian Goddess Isis
with her child Horus sitting on her lap.
In many languages such as Syriac the word for "spirit" takes the feminine
gender. In early Christian literature in these languages, the Holy Spirit is
therefore discussed in feminine terms, especially before c.400.[3] Some
scholars argue that it was based upon an original goddess figure that was
minimized in later traditions.Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons)
infer the existence of a Heavenly Mother based on tangential doctrine, but
do not emphasize this belief. Some members have been chastened for praying
to this goddess rather than to God the Father.
Neopaganism
The Mother Goddess, amalgamated and combined with various feminine figures
from world cultures of both the past and present, is worshipped by modern
Wiccans and others (see Triple Goddess). The mother goddess is usually
viewed as Mother Earth by these groups.
Wiccans and other Neo-Pagans worship the Mother Goddess. Most commonly she
is worshiped as a Triple Goddess; usually envisioned as the Maiden, Mother,
and Crone archetypes. She is associated with the full moon and with Earth.
Many ancient Pagan religions had mother goddesses; it has been argued that
the figure of Mary the mother of Jesus is patterned on these. Even among
those who are not Pagan, expressions such as Mother Earth and Mother Nature
are in common usage, personifying the Earth's ecology as a fertile and
sustaining mother.
Earth Mother
The Earth Mother is a motif that appears in many mythologies. The Earth
Mother is a fertile goddess embodying the fertile earth itself and typically
the mother of other deities, and so are also seen as patronesses of
motherhood. This is generally thought of as being because the earth was seen
as being the mother from which all life sprang.
The Rigveda calls the Female power Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which
literally means Mother Earth.
In Fiction
In Gore Vidal's ironic dystopia "Messiah", a new death-woshipping religion
sweeps the world and wipes out Christianity. Yet at the conclusion of the
book, a woman names Iris who was among the new religion's founders starts to
be worshipped as a new manifestation of the Mother Goddess, though there was
no such concept when the religion was founded. Vidal's point was clearly to
show that worship of the Mother Goddess is an immemorial institute and would
find a manifestation within whatever religion emerges.
Notes
1. ^ "The goddesses of Greek polytheism, so different and complementary,"
Walter Burkert has observed, in Homo Necans (1972) 1983:79f, "are
nonetheless, consistently similar at an earlier stage, with one or the other
simply becoming dominant in a sanctuary or city. Each is the Great Goddess
presiding over a male society; each is depicted in her attire as Mistress of
the Beasts, and Mistress of the Sacrifice, even Hera and Demeter."
2. ^ The description of them as multiple breasts or bull testicles seem
mistaken: see Temple of Artemis.
3. ^ Women in the Syrian Tradition: Part 2 - Holy Images. The Syriac
Orthodox Christian Digest Volume 2, Issue 9 (August , 2006). Retrieved on
2007-03-15.
Further reading
* Neumann, Erich. (1991). The Great Mother. Bollingen; Repr/7th edition.
Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. ISBN 0-691-01780-8.
* J.F. del Giorgio. The Oldest Europeans. A.J. Place (2006). ISBN
980-6898-00-1
* Goldin, Paul R. (2002) "On the Meaning of the Name Xi wangmu,
Spirit-Mother of the West." Paul R. Goldin. Journal of the American Oriental
Society, Vol. 122, No. 1/January-March 2002, pp. 83-85.
* Knauer, Elfried R.(2006)"The Queen Mother of the West: A Study of the
Influence of Western Prototypes on the Iconography of the Taoist Deity." In:
Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World. Ed. Victor H. Mair. University of
Hawai'i Press. Pp. 62-115. ISBN-13: ISBN 978-0-8248-2884-4; ISBN-10: ISBN
0-8248-2884-4
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