Ancient roots of Goddess culture

Susana Sidhe Aguilar

The question about the roots of Goddess culture in the past may be
access in different ways. We can have an academic past approach,
which leads to history and archaeology studies that can be a source of
inspiration for modern Goddess loving people and there is a present
or actual approach based in the believe that some native cultures and
traditions kept a trace of a spiritual past.
As Goddess spirituality is a recent occidental phenomena it is evident
that one of the principal access to the roots of ancient culture come
through ancient Greek and ancient Latin though. Texts from authors
like Ovid, Orpheus, Calimaco constitute the lyric source and access to
the Goddess of antiquity.

NIGHT, parent goddess, source of sweet repose, From whom at first both
Gods and men arose, Hear, blessed Venus, deck'd with starry light, 3 In
sleep's deep silence dwelling Ebon night! (Orphic hymn II
To Night)

Ancient sources for Goddess spirituality are not just found in ancient
Greece. In Sumerian literature we found some important lyrical inspiration
from Enheduanna, a Priestess dedicated to the god Nanna, who wrote
beautiful poetry in honour to Inanna.
She is not also an inspiration because she wrote about a Goddess, but
because, her life was an example of what a priestess was in the past.
Enheduanna had a very good education in mathematic and astronomy.
Priestesses in ancient Sumer had the role to keep and administrate food and
supplies for the city for all the year. This was a very important political
role, beside the religious role to perform the sacred marriage with the king
of the land.

Sumerian, Acadian and Canaanite Goddesses are at the background of one

of the most influential religions in the west. The Hebrew Goddess appeared
to be kept in Jewish mysticism and brought to us as the Shekinah, the
feminine divine in Jewish Kabbalah. Authors as Raphael Patai and Sorita
dEste mention Her presence.
Similar to this is the Egyptian cult of Goddesses as Isis, Hathor, etc. Isis
cult, called Aset by Egyptians, extended through Europe, arriving even to
the British Islands.

If there is two ways of transferring information from the past till now,
there is also two ways to recover it. Even by reading or by the interpretation
of images and symbols or by listening to oral traditions. Oral traditions are
stronger in native cultures that did not developed scripture. Different to
archaeological findings or ancient texts, oral traditions are alive, they
coexist with us, and then they are nor primitive, nor ancient: they are actual.
But this actuality is perhaps connected with the past with the thread of
tradition. Tradition is the way each generation honoured the passed
generation. To keep a tradition is to keep a piece of ancestor knowledge,
and to do it without written language or long-lasting sculptures or pieces
of arts needs cooperation, education, communication and will. This is the
most impressive about old traditions, old ways of knitting, cooking, pray,
etc, have been transmitted that way by men and women around the world.

Among the more influential oral traditions on Goddess modern worship

we can find the modern cults of Orixas and African deities or feminine
spirits, the Native American culture, some folk traditions from Europe and
eastern religion like Hindu and Tibetan Buddhism. Even if it is hard to
prove that those traditions kept an origin far in the past, it is hard not to
identify them as similar to some ancient cultures described on texts. The
benefit of this kind of inspiration is that those religious practices are alive.
The disadvantage is that most of them are wrapped in different kind of
patriarchal influences.

Par example in Tibetan Buddhism, important female figures used to be

replaced by male. Drikung Kagiu Linage begins with Yigten Sumgong. He
is the father of the lineage, but the protector of the lineage is her
grandmother, Achi Choki Drolma, whose practice is considered extremely
powerful and can be done just with authorization. Achi was a woman born
on a miraculous way, the way that many illuminated teachers in Tibetan
Buddhism are born. It is quite straightforward, that Achi is not only the
grandmother of Yighten Sumgong, she is probably the real starting point
and ancestor of the lineage. The fact that she was later converted in a deity,
but her grandson remain as a teacher or yogi, is a sign of how woman are
sublimated into something symbolic without presence. Judith Campbell
makes a deeper study in the female symbolic role of woman in Tibetan
Buddhism in the book Traveller in space.
At this point, the only thing pointed out is about how we access to this
ancient roots, but the question about the nature of this roots is not answered.
What are this roots? Were roots very different depending on time,
geography, and language? They probably were and we can perhaps identify
in our modern rituals and activities the most important influences through
other kind of studies of language and symbolism.

One of the important root that is actually very popular is the relationship
of menstruation and moon phases. It is possible that the first calendars
came from counting menstruation cycles, as it is the case for the Ishango
bone. This is part metaformic theory, promoted by Judy Grahn, which
explain that al our primitive concepts about nature come from rituals
related to menstruation. Today many women gather in full moon or new
moon to celebrate moon lodges, sometimes inspired in this ancient
relationship between the cycles of the moon and menstrual bleeding. Part
of metaformic theory is based on women seclusion during menstrual time,
women stayed apart from society during the bleeding. This idea was an
inspiration for books like the Red Tent that tells the tale of women
gathering during biblical times.

The idea of the circle is also part of the inspiration of many Goddess
spirituality movements. The circle was always a problematic idea in
ancient times. Ancient Greek thinkers could not calculate the perimeter of
a circle. Circle was problematic, compared to the square. The easy way to
approximate the perimeter of a circle in times of Euclides was fitting a
square inside or outside of the circle. After a long time it was found that
in fact the perimeter of a circle is given by a number that is impossible to
define exactly: Pi. The number is infinite and it has no definite period.
Circles are so, ancient symbols of cycles and chaos, of indefinable, they
are until now, and they are use as a symbol of circulation, movement,
change, all related to the Goddess.

Similar things occurred with spirals and labyrinths. They were found in
different cultures: ancient Greece, in Native American, mediaeval Jewish,
etc. We can find labyrinth in dance in Palestine, Britain and Etruscan
tradition.
 Another great influence is the existence of priestess or other kind of
woman who worked as religious. Different kind of those women of power
are found in Sumerian or Babylonian religion and also in ancient Greece
and Rome. Those roles are diverse depending on time and culture. They
related most of the time to one Goddess in particular. Priestesses used to
live in the temple or in a building that was next to it, and they serve there
giving oracle or in ceremonies. In ancient Sumerian culture, Hieros Gamos
or the sacred marriage was one of the ceremonies a priestess could carry
out with a king in order to ensure the fertility of the land. Other priestesses
the Vestals were virgin and gave their life to the Goddess of the sacred
flame. Priestess had political power or status in society, most of the time
they had a privilege education and they were skilled in many arts or crafts.

Familiar to the image of the Priestess, woman spirituality often looks upon
the shaman figure. Shaman is a modern Siberian word, and it has been
attributed to modern native people. A shaman is a healer, a spiritual leader
who comes in contact with the world of the spirit. The difference between
shamans and priestess is not clear, in literature, they are linked too less
hierarchical behaviours in societies and they are considered also healers or
medicine woman. Shamans are more likely to behave on tribes, so their
status or political power is not that relevant. They are more close to the
society they serve. When shamanism became popular, most though
shamans were always man, but in many cultures, shamans are woman or
both man and woman. Shamans use to have some reverence for nature,
although they may not have God or Goddesses to serve, but spirits.

Modern priestesses are probably more similar to shamans because most of

them are not directly related to political power. A modern priestess use to
belong to a group or tribe more or less independent, though they can be
involved in politic or activism. A modern priestess can be a healer in many
ways, emotionally, spiritually and sometimes physically.

The other important root is the reverence for sexual woman organs. As
Enheduana wrote Like her mouth her genitals are sweet, her beer is
sweet. Her diluted beer, her beer is sweet. Depictures of Sheela na gig
figures who shows their vagina or the cult of the Yoni in Tantra are
other examples of this way of worshiping Goddess related to the
feminine human figure. This reverence was often symbolises on
flowers like the lotus or the rose. Tantra, an ancient spiritual tradition
from the east present in Hinduism and Buddhism, has been a great
inspiration for Goddess spirituality, because it involves the five senses
and a way to be present in our body in order to experience. Goddess
spirituality is not against materiality or corporality, the spiritual
experience come together with body experiences and pleasure.
Although Tantra works with polarities: male and female, it is often
called the left hand of the Goddess, giving lot of relevance to figures
as the Dakini or Khandro, representing emptiness and wisdom.

There are many access to ancient wisdom, they all have some
influence in our modern understanding of the Goddess and her
worship. Even if it is harder to find information about Goddesses than
Gods, the information available in ancient times can be very abundant.