"Abstract:
Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source to the universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess.
The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist,Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the fem
inine is being expressed in all areas of life.
Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on the archetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art,mythology and dreams.
In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in every human psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This conceptal so belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess.
The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness.
The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from the dawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today."
"
International Journal of Arts and Sciences
3(3)
: 67 - 76 (2009)CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934© InternationalJournal.org
The Re-emergence of the Great Mother Goddess
Louis LaganÃ
, University of Malta, Malta
Abstract:
Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. Withthe way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source tothe universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the MotherGoddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist,Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is beingexpressed in all areas of life. Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddessreligion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on thearchetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art,mythology and dreams. In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in everyhuman psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This conceptal so belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess. The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness.
The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from thedawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today.
1.1
Introduction - Archaeological Representations of Gods and Goddesses
In the ancient past, we find representations of Gods and Goddesses related to water,like the Bird and the Snake Goddess, i.e. Mistresses of Waters (Gimbutas, 1974). Duringthe Neolithic period, with its wide expansion of vegetation symbolism, we discover gods and goddesses associated with the agricultural cycle and its seasonal progressions,manifesting the eternal archetype of death and rebirth. In Neolithic Malta the most interesting archaeological aspect is the great number of figurines and statues that were found in different temple sites on the archipelago.
Many interpretations were given for these ‘goddesses’ and ‘gods’ and today a definite answer is still lacking for a clear interpretation. Surely, sculptural art was used to express religious conceptions and had also a psychological explanation for the first farmers living on the islands of Malta and Gozo. Here I want to point out that so far I am only looking at one side of certain interpretations of symbols as expressed by groups of archaeologists, historians, mythologists and many feminist groups who are of the opinion that a Matriarchal pastexisted. Most of them are also attracted to and accept the idea of the existence of aMother Goddess religion in the prehistoric past.Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. There are people, especially women, who have become interested in very old religions, myth,ancient art, archaeology and other subjects, which are related to the role of the female in past and present societies.
This was partly triggered not only by the feminist movement in general – equal rights and the position of women in the private and public sector – butalso by the urgent need to create awareness in the current ecological crises the world is passing through.
With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthlyand cosmic source to the universe, some women found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from anarchaeologist, Marija Gimbutas. In the 1970’s Gimbutas, in her works, focused on theprehistoric cultures of south-east Europe, and was an authority to the story of the goddess religion (Goodison, Lucy, and Morris, Christine, 1998).
Elinor Gadon commented on thisin her writing about the re-emergence of the Goddess:In the late twentieth century there is a growing awareness that we are doomed as aspecies and planet unless we have a radical change of consciousness.
The re-emergence of the Goddess is becoming the symbol and metaphor for this transformation of culture. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is being expressed in all areas of life.
There is a re-evaluation of the female principle in religion, in psychology, in the arts, and in the quality and relationship of humanity to the planet we live on. We are in the midst of a social evolution that will ultimately change how we see everything, as radically transformative as the smashing of the atom (1989, 229-230).Major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. These include among others Carol Christ, Charlene Spretnak, Mary Daly,Marija Gimbutas, Cristina Biaggi, Riane Eisler, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Christine Downing,and Starhawk.
The Goddess became the centre of a new earth based spirituality invoking the full acceptance of the archetypal female in its positive and negative powers.
For some modern women, a small minority, identification with the archetypal Goddess figures provides insight into inner conflicts and can be healing (1989, 229).
1.2
The Archetype of the Great Mother Goddess
From a Jungian point of view, the Goddess is an archetypal image at work within the human psyche and finds expression in ritual, mythology, art, and also in dreams (Jung,1959, 9). Without doubt, one of the earliest scholars to work on the idea that the human psyche reveals archetypal patterns related to the Mother Goddess, is C.G. Jung. Hestated:
The concept of the Great Mother belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of mother-goddess. The concept itself is of no immediate concern to psychology, because the image of a Great Mother in this form is rarely encountered in practice, and then only under very special conditions.
The symbol is obviously a derivate of the mother archetype (1959, 9.)So Jung is of the opinion that the Great Mother Goddess is part of the ‘mother archetype’that resides in every human being and like other archetypes this archetype appears in a variety of aspects.
This archetype is also associated with fertility and productivity. Jungargues that the Mother Archetype is a symbol of protection and is associated with hollow objects such as ovens and cooking vessels and of course, the uterus, yoni , and anything of a like shape. Added to this list there are many animals, such as the cow, hare, and helpful animals in general (1959, 15).
Hence, the Mother Archetype further provides a better understanding of the Great Mother Goddess. The primordial human has a long history of venerated Goddesses from long before the appearance of Venus of Willendorf (Fig. 01) and theMaltese Mother Goddess (also known as the Fat Lady) (Fig. 02) carved out of limestone.
This long history contains a vast library of rituals from which the modern individual can find out examples of how to directly engage the mother archetype.Jungian, analytical psychologist Erich Neumann elaborated at length on the theme of the Great Mother.
He published an exhaustive book on the subject and explained atlength on how to understand this dominant archetypal symbol of the human psyche(1963). First he analysed the psychology of the feminine in general and then he formed the structural elements of the Great Mother archetype. He observed that the earliest form of creation in myths is that of the circle, the Great Round, or the sphere, the womb of the Great Mother goddess as the universal vessel of the world.
This contains in itself the entire existence of early man and so becomes the Archetypal Feminine (1963, 42).Neumann refers to the feminine functions as powerful, protective sources to the human being.
Only when we have considered the whole scope of the basic feminine functions -the giving of life, nourishment, warmth, and protection - can we understand why the Feminine occupies so central a position in human symbolism and from the very beginning bears the character of “greatness.”
The Feminine appears as great because that which is contained, sheltered, nourished, is dependent on it and utterly at its mercy. Nowhere perhaps is it so evident that a human being must be experienced as “great” as in the case of the mother. A glance at the infant or child confirms her position as Great Mother (1963, 43).
Neumann continued to give more symbolic meaning to the importance of the feminine.He referred to the woman as the ‘vessel’ in which life forms. Her body is transformed into the safest place where the unborn child is sheltered. Her body is the vessel.
He illustrated that if we combine this body-world equation of early man in its first unspecific form with the fundamental symbolic equation of the feminine: woman = body = vessel,we arrive at a universal symbolic formula for the early period of mankind (1963).Woman and earth both give forth life and as such are sacred.
Their bodies contain new life inside. Both are vessels just as the earth contains new life that springs forth in the summer. The woman and the earth have the sole aim of creating new biological life. Sheis sacred; her body is sacred as well. They are not just myths or historical entities, “but psychological realities whose fateful power is still alive in the psychic depths of present day man (1963, 44). Mircea Eliade elevates the sacredness of the body of the woman.
Hestated:Woman, then, is mystically held to be one with the earth, childbearing is seen as avariant, on the human scale, of the telluric fertility. All religions experiences connected with fecundity and birth have a cosmic structure
. The sacrality of woman depends on the holiness of the earth. Feminine fecundity has a cosmic model – that of Terra Mater, the universal Genetrix (1957, 144).So the female body is being acknowledged and revered as the holy alchemical vessel of creation and transformation.
The body of the woman becomes as a sacred metaphor of the earth. Lippard wrote: “Women can, and do, identify the forms of our bodies with the undulations of the earth – hills and sacred mountains which were the first gardens and the first temples” (1983, 42).
That is why this strengthens the hypothesis that the Maltese prehistoric temples (and other temples around the world) were built in the shape of a woman (the goddess).The female archetype as expressed in a symbolical way by Neumann, shows its importance and why the early humans depended on the earth for all things, food, shelter,and life itself. They noticed that all life was created within the bodies of females and so it was natural for them to see an all-powerful creator as female too.
The result was that for thousands of years, the majority of our ancestors worshipped a Divine and powerful Mother-Goddess. She was honoured as the Mother of all life. Neumann developed the argument of the Great Mother Goddess into an elaborate theory of human spiritual development, in which the goddess stood for “the archetypal unity and multiplicity of the feminine nature” and even now determines “the psychic history of modern man and of modern woman” (1963, 336). Apart from using a psychological standpoint, he also based most of his arguments on the data assembled by archaeologists who had developed the notion of the Great Goddess."
Source and Full Article
https://www.academia.edu/214064/The_Re-emergence_of_the_Great_Mother_Goddess
Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source to the universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess.The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist,Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the fem
inine is being expressed in all areas of life.
Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on the archetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art,mythology and dreams.
In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in every human psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This conceptal so belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess.
The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness.
The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from the dawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today."
"
International Journal of Arts and Sciences
3(3)
: 67 - 76 (2009)CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934© InternationalJournal.org
The Re-emergence of the Great Mother Goddess
Louis LaganÃ
, University of Malta, Malta
Abstract:
Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. Withthe way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthly and cosmic source tothe universe, some women have found refuge in the symbolical image of the MotherGoddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from an archaeologist,Marija Gimbutas. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is beingexpressed in all areas of life. Other major women writers and exponents of the Goddessreligion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. In this paper I will also focus on thearchetypal image of the Great Mother Goddess which is expressed in rituals, art,mythology and dreams. In Jungian parlance the Mother Archetype resides in everyhuman psyche and is a symbol of protection and fertility and regeneration. This conceptal so belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of the mother-goddess. The discussion of ‘Feminist Archetypal Psychology’ shows that the Great Mother Goddess archetype is activated and is returning to consciousness.
The Great Mother Goddess archetype was very important in the Western world from thedawn of prehistory throughout the pre-Indo-European time periods, as it still is in many traditional cultures today.
1.1
Introduction - Archaeological Representations of Gods and Goddesses
In the ancient past, we find representations of Gods and Goddesses related to water,like the Bird and the Snake Goddess, i.e. Mistresses of Waters (Gimbutas, 1974). Duringthe Neolithic period, with its wide expansion of vegetation symbolism, we discover gods and goddesses associated with the agricultural cycle and its seasonal progressions,manifesting the eternal archetype of death and rebirth. In Neolithic Malta the most interesting archaeological aspect is the great number of figurines and statues that were found in different temple sites on the archipelago.
Many interpretations were given for these ‘goddesses’ and ‘gods’ and today a definite answer is still lacking for a clear interpretation. Surely, sculptural art was used to express religious conceptions and had also a psychological explanation for the first farmers living on the islands of Malta and Gozo. Here I want to point out that so far I am only looking at one side of certain interpretations of symbols as expressed by groups of archaeologists, historians, mythologists and many feminist groups who are of the opinion that a Matriarchal pastexisted. Most of them are also attracted to and accept the idea of the existence of aMother Goddess religion in the prehistoric past.Today, great interest in the Ancient Goddess cult is still being revived. There are people, especially women, who have become interested in very old religions, myth,ancient art, archaeology and other subjects, which are related to the role of the female in past and present societies.
This was partly triggered not only by the feminist movement in general – equal rights and the position of women in the private and public sector – butalso by the urgent need to create awareness in the current ecological crises the world is passing through.
With the way the Goddess manifests herself as symbolizing an earthlyand cosmic source to the universe, some women found refuge in the symbolical image of the Mother Goddess. The impetus towards the Goddess movement came from anarchaeologist, Marija Gimbutas. In the 1970’s Gimbutas, in her works, focused on theprehistoric cultures of south-east Europe, and was an authority to the story of the goddess religion (Goodison, Lucy, and Morris, Christine, 1998).
Elinor Gadon commented on thisin her writing about the re-emergence of the Goddess:In the late twentieth century there is a growing awareness that we are doomed as aspecies and planet unless we have a radical change of consciousness.
The re-emergence of the Goddess is becoming the symbol and metaphor for this transformation of culture. With the return of the Goddess, the new power of the feminine is being expressed in all areas of life.
There is a re-evaluation of the female principle in religion, in psychology, in the arts, and in the quality and relationship of humanity to the planet we live on. We are in the midst of a social evolution that will ultimately change how we see everything, as radically transformative as the smashing of the atom (1989, 229-230).Major women writers and exponents of the Goddess religion expressed the self-transformation and empowerment and various aspects of feminist social vision of women in their work. These include among others Carol Christ, Charlene Spretnak, Mary Daly,Marija Gimbutas, Cristina Biaggi, Riane Eisler, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Christine Downing,and Starhawk.
The Goddess became the centre of a new earth based spirituality invoking the full acceptance of the archetypal female in its positive and negative powers.
For some modern women, a small minority, identification with the archetypal Goddess figures provides insight into inner conflicts and can be healing (1989, 229).
1.2
The Archetype of the Great Mother Goddess
From a Jungian point of view, the Goddess is an archetypal image at work within the human psyche and finds expression in ritual, mythology, art, and also in dreams (Jung,1959, 9). Without doubt, one of the earliest scholars to work on the idea that the human psyche reveals archetypal patterns related to the Mother Goddess, is C.G. Jung. Hestated:
The concept of the Great Mother belongs to the field of comparative religion and embraces widely varying types of mother-goddess. The concept itself is of no immediate concern to psychology, because the image of a Great Mother in this form is rarely encountered in practice, and then only under very special conditions.
The symbol is obviously a derivate of the mother archetype (1959, 9.)So Jung is of the opinion that the Great Mother Goddess is part of the ‘mother archetype’that resides in every human being and like other archetypes this archetype appears in a variety of aspects.
This archetype is also associated with fertility and productivity. Jungargues that the Mother Archetype is a symbol of protection and is associated with hollow objects such as ovens and cooking vessels and of course, the uterus, yoni , and anything of a like shape. Added to this list there are many animals, such as the cow, hare, and helpful animals in general (1959, 15).
Hence, the Mother Archetype further provides a better understanding of the Great Mother Goddess. The primordial human has a long history of venerated Goddesses from long before the appearance of Venus of Willendorf (Fig. 01) and theMaltese Mother Goddess (also known as the Fat Lady) (Fig. 02) carved out of limestone.
This long history contains a vast library of rituals from which the modern individual can find out examples of how to directly engage the mother archetype.Jungian, analytical psychologist Erich Neumann elaborated at length on the theme of the Great Mother.
He published an exhaustive book on the subject and explained atlength on how to understand this dominant archetypal symbol of the human psyche(1963). First he analysed the psychology of the feminine in general and then he formed the structural elements of the Great Mother archetype. He observed that the earliest form of creation in myths is that of the circle, the Great Round, or the sphere, the womb of the Great Mother goddess as the universal vessel of the world.
This contains in itself the entire existence of early man and so becomes the Archetypal Feminine (1963, 42).Neumann refers to the feminine functions as powerful, protective sources to the human being.
Only when we have considered the whole scope of the basic feminine functions -the giving of life, nourishment, warmth, and protection - can we understand why the Feminine occupies so central a position in human symbolism and from the very beginning bears the character of “greatness.”
The Feminine appears as great because that which is contained, sheltered, nourished, is dependent on it and utterly at its mercy. Nowhere perhaps is it so evident that a human being must be experienced as “great” as in the case of the mother. A glance at the infant or child confirms her position as Great Mother (1963, 43).
Neumann continued to give more symbolic meaning to the importance of the feminine.He referred to the woman as the ‘vessel’ in which life forms. Her body is transformed into the safest place where the unborn child is sheltered. Her body is the vessel.
He illustrated that if we combine this body-world equation of early man in its first unspecific form with the fundamental symbolic equation of the feminine: woman = body = vessel,we arrive at a universal symbolic formula for the early period of mankind (1963).Woman and earth both give forth life and as such are sacred.
Their bodies contain new life inside. Both are vessels just as the earth contains new life that springs forth in the summer. The woman and the earth have the sole aim of creating new biological life. Sheis sacred; her body is sacred as well. They are not just myths or historical entities, “but psychological realities whose fateful power is still alive in the psychic depths of present day man (1963, 44). Mircea Eliade elevates the sacredness of the body of the woman.
Hestated:Woman, then, is mystically held to be one with the earth, childbearing is seen as avariant, on the human scale, of the telluric fertility. All religions experiences connected with fecundity and birth have a cosmic structure
. The sacrality of woman depends on the holiness of the earth. Feminine fecundity has a cosmic model – that of Terra Mater, the universal Genetrix (1957, 144).So the female body is being acknowledged and revered as the holy alchemical vessel of creation and transformation.
The body of the woman becomes as a sacred metaphor of the earth. Lippard wrote: “Women can, and do, identify the forms of our bodies with the undulations of the earth – hills and sacred mountains which were the first gardens and the first temples” (1983, 42).
That is why this strengthens the hypothesis that the Maltese prehistoric temples (and other temples around the world) were built in the shape of a woman (the goddess).The female archetype as expressed in a symbolical way by Neumann, shows its importance and why the early humans depended on the earth for all things, food, shelter,and life itself. They noticed that all life was created within the bodies of females and so it was natural for them to see an all-powerful creator as female too.
The result was that for thousands of years, the majority of our ancestors worshipped a Divine and powerful Mother-Goddess. She was honoured as the Mother of all life. Neumann developed the argument of the Great Mother Goddess into an elaborate theory of human spiritual development, in which the goddess stood for “the archetypal unity and multiplicity of the feminine nature” and even now determines “the psychic history of modern man and of modern woman” (1963, 336). Apart from using a psychological standpoint, he also based most of his arguments on the data assembled by archaeologists who had developed the notion of the Great Goddess."
Source and Full Article
https://www.academia.edu/214064/The_Re-emergence_of_the_Great_Mother_Goddess
Pisces Rising: Return of the Goddess' by Maria Kay Simms
"(From the NCGR Journal - Winter 1987-1988 (Philosophy Issue))
What is God? Although some of the descriptive details might differ in the ideas of various religions, one of the most obvious similarities in world view for the past 2000 years is this: God is He-with a capital H-male.It was not always so. In the 200
0 or so years before, God was She - Mother, Creatress, Giver of Life, Provider of all food from Her earthly abundance. Now, in the thoughts of many, the image of God is changing again.
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Their brothers and uncles protected the women - especially when they were pregnant or caring for small children. Sexual activity was considered a natural function - a gift ofthe Divine Mother, meant for pleasure. Since the line of descent came from the mother, it really didn't matter who the father was.
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All this was during the time that we call the Age of Taurus-earthy, sensual, peace-living Taurus. Taurus, we are taught, is a "feminine" sign.
Around 2000 years ago the Age of Aries (a "masculine" sign) began. Slowly, one by one, the culturally developed, urban, Goddess-worshiping civilizations fell under the domination of conquering Aryan (or Indo-European) tribes with a new point of view.
The moon was long revered as the Goddess who gave birth each day to the sun, and whose changing phases timed all the cycles of life that were necessary for survival. How in the world did this fertile and powerful Virgo get transformed into a barren and nit-picking old maid?
Virgo has suffered from being the opposition to the sign of our age. If Pisces is God, then Virgo must be not-God. The virgin, in this age, is mortal. A lowly mortal maiden gave birth to the Messiah. A patriarchy then told the world that the main attribute of this virgin maiden is her chastity.
Since Leo and Cancer were at the zenith at the warmest time of the year where Ptolemy lived, he assigned the Sun and the Moon as their rulers.
Think about this: throughout this age, whenever anyone has reported a vision of the divine, almost always it is Mary. Many miraculous healings have taken place at shrines built at the sites of her appearances.
In the current revival of interest in the Goddess, Mary is so far not prominent. She is still misunderstood and too closely connected with her chastely pristine image within the patriarchal church. In thinking of her only as the mortal virgin, we hold her and ourselves with her, away from full realization of our spiritual potential in Pisces.
Mystical, visionary Pisces is synthesis - all in one whole. It is the promise of resurrection - the deep soul-connection of each of us with all others and with the divine one whole. "Love thy neighbor as thyself' - because in that divine synthesis we are our neighbors.
Jesus is a man and also God. Mary is Virgo, but she is also Pisces. Understanding her in a new image that fully encompasses all aspects of the feminine principle may be an important part of learning to understand ourselves, our times, our culture - past, present, and future. Our Lady of the Seas may even emerge as Goddess - when Pisces rises.
Notes
1 James Finley & Michael Pennock, Your Faith and You, Notre Dame, IN, Ave Maria Press, 1978, pps 62-73.
2 2700 AD as the approximate beginning of the Age of Aquarius is based on a ratlo of the number of years in each Great Age to the number of degrees in its corresponding oonstellation. This theory of measurement is explained in my book, Twelve Wings of the Eagle, forthcoming from ACS Publications in early 1988. Also, see Rob Hand's Essays on Astrology:, "The Age and Constelladon of Pisces, Rockport, MA, Para Research, 1982.
Recommended Reading
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1983.
Merlin Stone, When God was a Woman, San Diego, Harvest/HBJ, 1976. Carol P. Christ & Judith Paskow, ed.,
Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1979. "
0 or so years before, God was She - Mother, Creatress, Giver of Life, Provider of all food from Her earthly abundance. Now, in the thoughts of many, the image of God is changing again.
The Goddess is ascending, and with Her a new movement toward a matrifocal social structure.have you ever thought how profoundly our entire social and political structure is influenced by this one simple concept - God as male, or God as female?
Ancient Goddess-worshiping civilizations were peaceful.
Ancient Goddess-worshiping civilizations were peaceful.
Primary occupations were gathering, and later agricultural. People were very conscious of their dependence on Mother Earth, and they respected Her deeply.
Human mothers were the center of society. Lines of descent were traced through the mother line. Inheritance of property and position passed from mother to daughter. Councils of women had the final say on most decisions that affected the welfare of their groups.
Women were priestesses and healers.
Their brothers and uncles protected the women - especially when they were pregnant or caring for small children. Sexual activity was considered a natural function - a gift ofthe Divine Mother, meant for pleasure. Since the line of descent came from the mother, it really didn't matter who the father was.
All children were cherished, protected by the entire clan.
All this was during the time that we call the Age of Taurus-earthy, sensual, peace-living Taurus. Taurus, we are taught, is a "feminine" sign.Around 2000 years ago the Age of Aries (a "masculine" sign) began. Slowly, one by one, the culturally developed, urban, Goddess-worshiping civilizations fell under the domination of conquering Aryan (or Indo-European) tribes with a new point of view.
Their God was masculine, and was symbolized in various forms of fire. Their leaders were men, their social-political structure patriarchal. Because descent and inheritance from the father was important to them, very strict sexual mores had to be enforced for women. How else could the men be sure who fathered each child? Women became the property of their fathers to be sold to their husbands.
With great religious zeal the Aryans slaughtered the matrifocal societies into submission. This change in world view did not happen overnight, or even in a century. Throughout the entire Age of Aries the migrations and invasions went on.
By the dawn of the Age of Pisces, though, the transformation was nearly complete. Only a few cultures, like the Celts, still clung to the Goddess. Throughout the civilized world the vast majority of people referred to God as He. That there had ever been another way to think was all but forgotten.
The macho, all powerful, stern, punishing Aryan God, who was given to appearances in fiery pillars or atop rumbling volcanoes, had been modified by emerging Piscean concepts. He was now to be called "Father", and while Father may be stern and just, He was also loving and forgiving. But the social-political structure had become firmly patriarchal. Generations had forgotten that women had ever been more than property. Men made all the decisions.
Nearly 2000 years more have now gone by. The pendulum is slowly swinging back to a matrifocal society. The struggle is much less violent than before, but it is persistent - and inevitable. Why is this so?
As above, so below! That's a familiar concept to all of us. We know so little about how and why it works, yet life on earth does reflect the patterns in the cosmos. Individuals and nations respond to the cosmic clock, even when they have no conscious awareness of its existence. We astrologers know this is true. We prove it to ourselves with every chart we study.
Most of the time, though, like everyone else, our focus is limited to our own lifetime and our current problems. That's natural. Why should we be concerned about where we are in a cycle of thousands of years?
The macho, all powerful, stern, punishing Aryan God, who was given to appearances in fiery pillars or atop rumbling volcanoes, had been modified by emerging Piscean concepts. He was now to be called "Father", and while Father may be stern and just, He was also loving and forgiving. But the social-political structure had become firmly patriarchal. Generations had forgotten that women had ever been more than property. Men made all the decisions.
Nearly 2000 years more have now gone by. The pendulum is slowly swinging back to a matrifocal society. The struggle is much less violent than before, but it is persistent - and inevitable. Why is this so?
As above, so below! That's a familiar concept to all of us. We know so little about how and why it works, yet life on earth does reflect the patterns in the cosmos. Individuals and nations respond to the cosmic clock, even when they have no conscious awareness of its existence. We astrologers know this is true. We prove it to ourselves with every chart we study.
Most of the time, though, like everyone else, our focus is limited to our own lifetime and our current problems. That's natural. Why should we be concerned about where we are in a cycle of thousands of years?
We have enough to contend with in our own lives. For today, though let's look at the whole, the forest, instead of just the individual trees.
Let's see how very much we are influenced by our place within the cycle of the ages. Let's see how this cycle has affected our views about ourselves, where we are, where we are going - and even our concepts of astrology.
To summarize: The collective concept of God reflects the cycle of the precessional ages. To say that again, a bit more simply, for emphasis:
To summarize: The collective concept of God reflects the cycle of the precessional ages. To say that again, a bit more simply, for emphasis:
The way people think of God, and of themselves in relation to God, is deeply influenced by the Great Ages. This is true - it happens - even if the people have no idea what a Great Age is - even if they've never heard of astrology.
The peaceful, agrarian, earth-centered, matrifocal cultures of Taurus reflected Taurus not only in their values, but also in their sacred symbols.
The peaceful, agrarian, earth-centered, matrifocal cultures of Taurus reflected Taurus not only in their values, but also in their sacred symbols.
Think of the sacred cattle of India, the bull God Apis of Egypt, the Minotaur of Crete. Throughout the civilized world bulls, cow, oxen - or the opposition Scorpio symbols such as serpents, phoenix, eagles and Selket the Scorpion Goddess, were important religious symbols.
The Aryan invaders of the Age of Aries introduced a competitive, warring, patriarchal culture. God was represented in fire. Apis of Egypt was supplanted by Amon the Ram God. Athena, born of her father, wore a helmet with ram's horns. The Hebrews escaped from Egypt, sacrificed the bull as a sin offering, and consecrated their altar and priestly vestments with the blood of a ram.
As the Age of Aries drew to a close the Lamb of God was sacrificed to atone for sin, and rose to introduce the Age of Pisces and a new religion. Pisces is a 'feminine" sign, and the god- concept softened to a compassionate, forgiving, parent figure who loved everyone unconditionally. The followers of the Fisher of Men identified themselves by the sign of the fish. The leaders of the new religion adopted fish-head hats, and their supreme pontiff is said to wear the "shoes of the Fisherman".
The Aryan invaders of the Age of Aries introduced a competitive, warring, patriarchal culture. God was represented in fire. Apis of Egypt was supplanted by Amon the Ram God. Athena, born of her father, wore a helmet with ram's horns. The Hebrews escaped from Egypt, sacrificed the bull as a sin offering, and consecrated their altar and priestly vestments with the blood of a ram.
As the Age of Aries drew to a close the Lamb of God was sacrificed to atone for sin, and rose to introduce the Age of Pisces and a new religion. Pisces is a 'feminine" sign, and the god- concept softened to a compassionate, forgiving, parent figure who loved everyone unconditionally. The followers of the Fisher of Men identified themselves by the sign of the fish. The leaders of the new religion adopted fish-head hats, and their supreme pontiff is said to wear the "shoes of the Fisherman".
The status of women had sunk to an all-time low in the dawn of this age, but still the virgin mother of Jesus was elevated to Queen of Heaven and called the Mother of God.
Slowly, slowly social mores and political structures are changing to reflect the Piscean vision of God. A new paradigm is born, but old habits of thinking die very hard.
An astrological model that reflects the struggle for a new world view is our so-called "natural zodiac". Aries rises. It represents cardinal east. The ancients called the cardinal points the "four Corners of the world" - only then the eastern corner was Taurus.
Slowly, slowly social mores and political structures are changing to reflect the Piscean vision of God. A new paradigm is born, but old habits of thinking die very hard.
An astrological model that reflects the struggle for a new world view is our so-called "natural zodiac". Aries rises. It represents cardinal east. The ancients called the cardinal points the "four Corners of the world" - only then the eastern corner was Taurus.
We have seen evidence of that. Old religious art from sphinx statuettes of Egypt to representations of the apostles of the four New Testament gospels, tell us that the four corners of the earth were the bull, the eagle, the lion, and the man. In Job we are told that the train of the zodiac was led by Aldebaran.
The brightest star in the constellation Taurus, Aldebaran is known as the "bull's eye". The most renown ancient astrologers, the Babylonians, measured the zodiac from the opposition axis of Aldebaran and Antares, brightest star in Scorpio.
The cardinal points changed by formal designation when the classical Greeks started the system known as tropical astrology.
They created twelve equal sectors of the ecliptic, named them for the constellations that lay approximately in each sector, decided that the reference point for measurement should be the vernal equinox, and called it zero degree Aries. The constellation Aries rose with the Sun at vernal Equinox. Rising heliacally - just before the sun - was Pisces, symbol of the new age.
Now, in our astrological system, we say the whole has three qualities. We attribute the qualities of action to the cardinal signs. Aries, here, represents that quality, Pisces is of the mutable quality. It is a changing, teaching, disseminating mode. Taurus, now well below the horizon, represents the fixed, stable, always there, sustaining quality. There's a close link, here to numerology and to theological concepts. Follow closely:
Before the beginning was nothing. The circle, zero, or nothing, contains the potential for everything (in our numerical cycle), symbolized by 9. For reasons we do not know, everything-contained-within-nothing, divided into itself - condensed into a seething center, and with a "Big Bang" (we are told) became One.
Now, in our astrological system, we say the whole has three qualities. We attribute the qualities of action to the cardinal signs. Aries, here, represents that quality, Pisces is of the mutable quality. It is a changing, teaching, disseminating mode. Taurus, now well below the horizon, represents the fixed, stable, always there, sustaining quality. There's a close link, here to numerology and to theological concepts. Follow closely:
Before the beginning was nothing. The circle, zero, or nothing, contains the potential for everything (in our numerical cycle), symbolized by 9. For reasons we do not know, everything-contained-within-nothing, divided into itself - condensed into a seething center, and with a "Big Bang" (we are told) became One.
This was creation - the beginning. The One was Three. It had three qualities. It was always there (in potential) - eternal, fixed, past. In the present, it acted, created, was cardinal. Now it had the capacity tochange - it was future, mutable. Three aspects, you see, of one whole.
One is three. What happened to two? Two--duality or opposition - may be only an illusion of our world of time and space. It is a necessary illusion for physical experience.
One is three. What happened to two? Two--duality or opposition - may be only an illusion of our world of time and space. It is a necessary illusion for physical experience.
Only that which exists can be perceived. We cannot perceive good unless we have some perception of bad to contrast it with. We cannot see light unless we know what darkness is. We have no conception of quiet unless we know what it is to be noisy.
The only problem with two is that it can only be expressed as separation: II The very perception of duality prevents us from truly being whole - it keeps us separated from oneness with God.
Christianity, the keynote religion of the Age of Pisces, expresses God as triune - the triangle - the trinity - Three in One. The three aspects of God are three-in-one and one-in-three - all equal and of the same substance. That which is currently called Father represents that which was always there,before the beginning - infinite, eternal, sustaining.
The only problem with two is that it can only be expressed as separation: II The very perception of duality prevents us from truly being whole - it keeps us separated from oneness with God.
Christianity, the keynote religion of the Age of Pisces, expresses God as triune - the triangle - the trinity - Three in One. The three aspects of God are three-in-one and one-in-three - all equal and of the same substance. That which is currently called Father represents that which was always there,before the beginning - infinite, eternal, sustaining.
The Son is called the Word. He changed our concept of God, heralding a new age and hope for the future in resurrection.The Holy Spirit acts in our lives - is present everywhere. Remember now, all three are one - equal and the same - a trinity of trinities. All three are eternal (fixed), all three are active (cardinal), all three evolve and change (mutable), as new concepts of the Word are revealed.
I think that all of the twelve zodiac signs have all three qualities, too. Aries was not always cardinal. In the Age of Aries, Taurus was cardinal east - the sign of spring equinox. Aries rose before the sun. It represented the changing concept of God -the new Word to be disseminated. Hundreds and hundreds of years of struggle passed before the ingrained patterns of how people acted gave way to change. As Aries became the cardinal ascendant, Pisces was given to the world as a new vision, a new Word - but Aries, then, reflected the accepted mode of action.
The new vision was Piscean, but the decisions on what actions should be taken to establish the new religion were left solely to the men, who were products of Arian patriarchal conditioning. Ideals were of the nature of the feminine - but females had no voice within the social-political structure. I need not elaborate for anyone remotely aware of the atrocities of early church history, how very Arian were the methods by which the fathers of the church sought to enforce acceptance of the new religion. Where were the simple teachings of Jesus to love thy neighbor?
Let's compare a little more theology with astrology. The Holy Spirit, said to act in our lives, is symbolically expressed in three elements, fire, wind, and water. (The previous sentence came straight from a Catholic religious education text-book, and is based on Biblical references.)1 As the three-in-one acts and descends into matter...matter? Mater... ma.. .ma-ma? Mother Earth!...the three-in-one becomes three plus one: four! The cross of our suffering!
God, the whole (God manifest in the world) is now four: fire, air, water, and earth. And each of the elements has three qualities: eternal, sustaining fixed; initiative action, cardinal; ever changing and evolving mutable. Four trinities. And the four times the three are 12, and the 12 is 3, and the three is one. God in the Universe - one whole.
We, in the physical universe, however, are still obsessed with dualism. To continue: Earth, theologians and astrologers agree, is feminine: Mother Earth and Mother Church, bride of God on earth. The other three elements - fire, wind, water - the Holy Spirit, the church calls masculine. Unfair, church fathers! At least on this point, astrology "balances the scales" with two elements masculine and two feminine.
It is interesting that in early church councils great arguments ensued over whether the Holy Spirit was masculine or feminine.
I think that all of the twelve zodiac signs have all three qualities, too. Aries was not always cardinal. In the Age of Aries, Taurus was cardinal east - the sign of spring equinox. Aries rose before the sun. It represented the changing concept of God -the new Word to be disseminated. Hundreds and hundreds of years of struggle passed before the ingrained patterns of how people acted gave way to change. As Aries became the cardinal ascendant, Pisces was given to the world as a new vision, a new Word - but Aries, then, reflected the accepted mode of action.
The new vision was Piscean, but the decisions on what actions should be taken to establish the new religion were left solely to the men, who were products of Arian patriarchal conditioning. Ideals were of the nature of the feminine - but females had no voice within the social-political structure. I need not elaborate for anyone remotely aware of the atrocities of early church history, how very Arian were the methods by which the fathers of the church sought to enforce acceptance of the new religion. Where were the simple teachings of Jesus to love thy neighbor?
Let's compare a little more theology with astrology. The Holy Spirit, said to act in our lives, is symbolically expressed in three elements, fire, wind, and water. (The previous sentence came straight from a Catholic religious education text-book, and is based on Biblical references.)1 As the three-in-one acts and descends into matter...matter? Mater... ma.. .ma-ma? Mother Earth!...the three-in-one becomes three plus one: four! The cross of our suffering!
God, the whole (God manifest in the world) is now four: fire, air, water, and earth. And each of the elements has three qualities: eternal, sustaining fixed; initiative action, cardinal; ever changing and evolving mutable. Four trinities. And the four times the three are 12, and the 12 is 3, and the three is one. God in the Universe - one whole.We, in the physical universe, however, are still obsessed with dualism. To continue: Earth, theologians and astrologers agree, is feminine: Mother Earth and Mother Church, bride of God on earth. The other three elements - fire, wind, water - the Holy Spirit, the church calls masculine. Unfair, church fathers! At least on this point, astrology "balances the scales" with two elements masculine and two feminine.
It is interesting that in early church councils great arguments ensued over whether the Holy Spirit was masculine or feminine.
I think it is a reasonable conjecture that the decision to declare the Holy Spirit male may have been prejudiced by the fact the only males were allowed to debate.
In truth, of course, God the Whole is One and must be androgynous - the resolution and unity of all opposites. Impaled as we are on our cross of time and space, we perceive opposition. Male and female we are, and male and female we have personified our gods.
In this age, which dawned at the same time as the origin of our present zodiacal system, we have called our cardinal rising Aries, and God is male. In the Age of Aries the cardinal rising was Taurus and the Goddess reigned...until She was gradually suppressed by the changing world view.
The great fiery wheel of the zodiac is never static. It is constantly turning. Only the head of the western fish of the constellation Pisces now rises before the sun at vernal equinox. Soon, in just afew hundred years, the fish will be lost in the blinding rays of the rising sun, leaving Aquarius as the helically rising sign of the new age. Pisces then be cardinal east, our new cardinal ascendant. Will the Goddess reign again?
Lookaround! You can see Her rising now! The changing roles of women are a major issue of our time. Most urban areas now have women's centers, often with emphasis on the feminist spiritual movement that includes a reworking of ancient rituals based on the lunar cycle. The roles of men are changing, too.
In truth, of course, God the Whole is One and must be androgynous - the resolution and unity of all opposites. Impaled as we are on our cross of time and space, we perceive opposition. Male and female we are, and male and female we have personified our gods.
In this age, which dawned at the same time as the origin of our present zodiacal system, we have called our cardinal rising Aries, and God is male. In the Age of Aries the cardinal rising was Taurus and the Goddess reigned...until She was gradually suppressed by the changing world view.
The great fiery wheel of the zodiac is never static. It is constantly turning. Only the head of the western fish of the constellation Pisces now rises before the sun at vernal equinox. Soon, in just afew hundred years, the fish will be lost in the blinding rays of the rising sun, leaving Aquarius as the helically rising sign of the new age. Pisces then be cardinal east, our new cardinal ascendant. Will the Goddess reign again?
Lookaround! You can see Her rising now! The changing roles of women are a major issue of our time. Most urban areas now have women's centers, often with emphasis on the feminist spiritual movement that includes a reworking of ancient rituals based on the lunar cycle. The roles of men are changing, too.
Society is in a state of crisis over changing ideas on careers, child care, marriage, mothers without husbands, sexual mores, contraception, abortion, environmental protection, disarmament.
The momentum is steadily and persistently toward a reawakening and reestablishment of the values associated with the feminine principle. We are returning to a matrifocal social-political structure.
The Goddess is Ascending!
Even highly patriarchal Christianity begins to bend as demands are considered to alter the wording of prayers and scriptures to remove references to God as male. Recent Catholic publications have included discussions of the concept of God as Mother.
Our understanding of our own symbolic language of astrology is changing, too, right along with the changing world view.
Very slowly, to be sure. I know some of you are thinking already, "How can she say Pisces is becoming cardinal? That would really mess up all we've been taught." Ideas are changing, though...some in ways that many of you may already take for granted. Think about aspects, for example.
Aspects are based on numbers. According to number philosophies that were formalized in the Arian Age, one, the monad, is masculine. God is male, He came first, remember?
Our understanding of our own symbolic language of astrology is changing, too, right along with the changing world view.
Very slowly, to be sure. I know some of you are thinking already, "How can she say Pisces is becoming cardinal? That would really mess up all we've been taught." Ideas are changing, though...some in ways that many of you may already take for granted. Think about aspects, for example.
Aspects are based on numbers. According to number philosophies that were formalized in the Arian Age, one, the monad, is masculine. God is male, He came first, remember?
In the Genesis creation myth, probably written by men who were determined to justify the patriarchy, Adam is created first, and then Eve is formed from his rib.
She is two, and two is said to be feminine. One, the masculine, represents action and initiative. Two is supposed to be passive and responsive.
Poor Eve - she just didn't fit the mold. Not content to be the passive creature that females are supposed to be, she wanted to act, to learn, to know.
Poor Eve - she just didn't fit the mold. Not content to be the passive creature that females are supposed to be, she wanted to act, to learn, to know.
So she ate the apple, and found that to separate - to act on one's own individual will is to oppose passivity. To perceive anything is to know its opposite. To live - to die. If to live is good, then its reverse, death, is evil. Blame it on Eve!
She tipped the Libran scales out of balance and has been blamed by mankind ever since the time of the Arian patriarchs. Mankind has preferred her to remain passive, taking the action principle onto itself.
To continue with our numbers, three (remember the trinity) is masculine and good. Four, the number of earth, the cross and suffering, is feminine and evil. Astrology used to be very firm on the meanings of aspect.
To continue with our numbers, three (remember the trinity) is masculine and good. Four, the number of earth, the cross and suffering, is feminine and evil. Astrology used to be very firm on the meanings of aspect.
The conjunction based on one, was powerful and positive. The opposition was bad. Trines were benefic-wonderful. Squares were malefic-awful. Now, like masculine and feminine roles, the interpretations are becoming blurred and meanings are changing. Now we consider oppositions and squares to be not bad, but rather challenging. The words "benefic" and "malefic" are out of fashion. We now speak of "hard" and "soft" aspects.
The hard aspects (derived from the feminine, remember) are said to represent action. They make things happen. lf we didn't have them we'd sit on our posteriors and not get anything done. We wouldn't grow.
The soft aspects represent a state of being. They are called passive, easy flow. And they are not always "good" anymore. Now our textbooks tell us that a grand trine might not be so wonderful after all. That easy flow of energy can get us into trouble.
Can it be that the principle of action is changing? Is it passing symbolically as well as culturally from the masculine to the feminine? Hundreds of years remain before the transition is complete.
Can it be that the principle of action is changing? Is it passing symbolically as well as culturally from the masculine to the feminine? Hundreds of years remain before the transition is complete.
The vernal point will not precess into Aquarius until about 2700 A.D.(2) What new religion might emerge in this new Age of Aquarius with Pisces rising? Aquarius, an airy intellectual sign, will surely present us with the ideal of universal truth.
I do not think that a single new Messiah or even a second coming of Christ will herald Aquarius. Rather, numerous great teachers will emerge, with roots in all religions and all ethnic groups. They will be men and women, of various races.
They will merge to prove to the world that all gods and goddesses are One. The Christ will be revered, but understood to be not a god-man forever set apart from sinful humanity, but instead, the potential within every human to transcend the physical body and become one with the One.
The Aquarian word will be taught, yet still the new world religion will be established according to actions initiated by people long conditioned by Pisces - now cardinal ascendant. As always, through
the ages, the masses will personify the divine. It seems to be the nature of humanity to create symbols. With Pisces rising, the most popular personification of deity will be a Goddess.
What might She be, the Piscean Goddess? For ideas let's consider the Mother of God of our age - how she has been understood and misunderstood and why. The archetypal goddess of the zodiac is the Virgin - Virgo.
The Aquarian word will be taught, yet still the new world religion will be established according to actions initiated by people long conditioned by Pisces - now cardinal ascendant. As always, through
the ages, the masses will personify the divine. It seems to be the nature of humanity to create symbols. With Pisces rising, the most popular personification of deity will be a Goddess.
What might She be, the Piscean Goddess? For ideas let's consider the Mother of God of our age - how she has been understood and misunderstood and why. The archetypal goddess of the zodiac is the Virgin - Virgo.
She is pictured with the wheat and corn of the harvest, symbols of the fruitful bounty of Mother Earth. Often she is pictured standing upon the moon.
The moon was long revered as the Goddess who gave birth each day to the sun, and whose changing phases timed all the cycles of life that were necessary for survival. How in the world did this fertile and powerful Virgo get transformed into a barren and nit-picking old maid?Virgo has suffered from being the opposition to the sign of our age. If Pisces is God, then Virgo must be not-God. The virgin, in this age, is mortal. A lowly mortal maiden gave birth to the Messiah. A patriarchy then told the world that the main attribute of this virgin maiden is her chastity.
Forever untouched by man, pure and obedient, she is placed on a pedestal as the ultimate example for all women. How convenient for the purposes of the patriarchy! A nearly unreachable ideal of chastity - a perfect excuse to heap guilt and inferiority on all women who fall short of the ideal.
Before this age, however, the word "virgin" was not synonymous with "chaste". It used to mean a woman who was independent - who did not belong to any man. The temple virgins of Goddess cultures were called temple prostitutes by their patriarchal conquerors.
A close reading of the gospels suggest ideas that the church has suppressed or forgotten. Consider the choice of the name Mary for the mother of Jesus - any the very predominance of Mars - even to the three Marys at the tomb of Jesus.
Before this age, however, the word "virgin" was not synonymous with "chaste". It used to mean a woman who was independent - who did not belong to any man. The temple virgins of Goddess cultures were called temple prostitutes by their patriarchal conquerors.
A close reading of the gospels suggest ideas that the church has suppressed or forgotten. Consider the choice of the name Mary for the mother of Jesus - any the very predominance of Mars - even to the three Marys at the tomb of Jesus.
The pre-Christian Man was the Goddess of the Sea, clothed in blue robe and pearl necklace as symbols of the sea. Sometimes she was the Great Fish who gave birth to the gods; and sometimes the Mermaid. Her latin name, Maria, means "the seas". Evidence of that remains.
The dry seas of the moon are called marias. Mar is the root word for the sea in many languages - think of the costal city names that end with "del Mar".
As for the triple Mary at the tomb, the pre-Christian trinity was the triple Goddess: Virgin, Mother, Crone - representing the age cycle of the feminine.
The gospels are full of symbolism that was no doubt quite deliberately put there by very early Christian Gnostics with a background in the esoteric mysteries and in astrology and numerology.
The church is not the only culprit. Our Virgo has been shortchanged by astrology, too. Our present system of rulerships was set up by Ptolemy back at the dawn of this age.
The gospels are full of symbolism that was no doubt quite deliberately put there by very early Christian Gnostics with a background in the esoteric mysteries and in astrology and numerology.
The church is not the only culprit. Our Virgo has been shortchanged by astrology, too. Our present system of rulerships was set up by Ptolemy back at the dawn of this age.
Since Leo and Cancer were at the zenith at the warmest time of the year where Ptolemy lived, he assigned the Sun and the Moon as their rulers.
From then on around the circle in either direction, he assigned planetary rulers in their order out from the Sun. That is how Virgo got Mercury. It was a purely arbitrary arrangement.
Sterile, sexless Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, was to be the ruler of the Goddess of bountiful harvest?
The rulers thus assigned, delineations were made to fit, and Virgo was decreed to be barren, and then further demeaned into her critical, sterile new image. (It is interesting that the virgin Mary of the gospels was also given her new role by a winged messenger of God.)
Recently many astrologers have finally become dissatisfied with this state of affairs and have sought a new, more appropriate ruler for Virgo among the asteroids. I submit that the artists who have portrayed the Virgin standing upon the Moon have the right idea. Virgo, the only Goddess figure in the zodiac, belongs with the Moon.
When one compares Christian symbols and gospel stories with knowledge of astrology and of the precessional ages, it's clear that the links are numerous and deliberate. The fact that present day biblical scholars disclaim the link doesn't mean it isn't there. History undergoes great transformations in 2000 years. One only needs to compare history books written generations apart to prove that.
Mary is obviously a composite of Pisces/Virgo symbolism. No matter what the actual facts might be of the lives of Mary and her Son, the stories about them are woven with symbols of the new age. St. Paul, the true founder of Christianity, whose letters reveal a fear and dislike of women, declared Jesus to be God. It is Mary, though, who lives deep in the consciousness of the masses.
Recently many astrologers have finally become dissatisfied with this state of affairs and have sought a new, more appropriate ruler for Virgo among the asteroids. I submit that the artists who have portrayed the Virgin standing upon the Moon have the right idea. Virgo, the only Goddess figure in the zodiac, belongs with the Moon.
When one compares Christian symbols and gospel stories with knowledge of astrology and of the precessional ages, it's clear that the links are numerous and deliberate. The fact that present day biblical scholars disclaim the link doesn't mean it isn't there. History undergoes great transformations in 2000 years. One only needs to compare history books written generations apart to prove that.
Mary is obviously a composite of Pisces/Virgo symbolism. No matter what the actual facts might be of the lives of Mary and her Son, the stories about them are woven with symbols of the new age. St. Paul, the true founder of Christianity, whose letters reveal a fear and dislike of women, declared Jesus to be God. It is Mary, though, who lives deep in the consciousness of the masses.
Think about this: throughout this age, whenever anyone has reported a vision of the divine, almost always it is Mary. Many miraculous healings have taken place at shrines built at the sites of her appearances.In the current revival of interest in the Goddess, Mary is so far not prominent. She is still misunderstood and too closely connected with her chastely pristine image within the patriarchal church. In thinking of her only as the mortal virgin, we hold her and ourselves with her, away from full realization of our spiritual potential in Pisces.
Mystical, visionary Pisces is synthesis - all in one whole. It is the promise of resurrection - the deep soul-connection of each of us with all others and with the divine one whole. "Love thy neighbor as thyself' - because in that divine synthesis we are our neighbors.
Jesus is a man and also God. Mary is Virgo, but she is also Pisces. Understanding her in a new image that fully encompasses all aspects of the feminine principle may be an important part of learning to understand ourselves, our times, our culture - past, present, and future. Our Lady of the Seas may even emerge as Goddess - when Pisces rises.
Notes
1 James Finley & Michael Pennock, Your Faith and You, Notre Dame, IN, Ave Maria Press, 1978, pps 62-73.
2 2700 AD as the approximate beginning of the Age of Aquarius is based on a ratlo of the number of years in each Great Age to the number of degrees in its corresponding oonstellation. This theory of measurement is explained in my book, Twelve Wings of the Eagle, forthcoming from ACS Publications in early 1988. Also, see Rob Hand's Essays on Astrology:, "The Age and Constelladon of Pisces, Rockport, MA, Para Research, 1982.
Recommended Reading
Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1983.
Merlin Stone, When God was a Woman, San Diego, Harvest/HBJ, 1976. Carol P. Christ & Judith Paskow, ed.,
Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1979. "
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