In the Bible, there is the story of Adam and Eve who lived in a paradise called the Garden of Eden. Then somehow it all went wrong. Eve was tempted by a serpent to eat the forbidden fruit, and encouraged Adam to do the same. Then because of this they were banished from the Garden of Eden by a God to live in the waste land. Then Eve had to suffer the pain of childbirth and be ruled by Adam. While he had to work 'by the sweat of his brow'.
There is a similar story in Ancient Greek myths of Pandora’s Jar or box. Pandora opens a sacred jar and out comes curses, pain, death, sickness, and all other afflictions. So what are these stories trying to tell us? Because they suggest there was a time when we did live in paradise, a world without pain or suffering, but it all went wrong and not only for women but men as well.
Throughout recorded history there has been warfare, genocide, poverty, slavery and oppression and this is so commonplace in our history books, that we assume that this is normal human behaviour. But there is evidence that the world wasn’t always like this. Many ancient stories tell of a Golden Age of love and harmony. In ancient Greek Legend there is a story of the first humans who lived in a Golden Age. To quote:
'The first age was an age of innocence and happiness. Truth and right prevailed, though not enforced by law, nor was there any magistrate to threaten or punish. The forest had not yet been robbed of its trees to furnish timbers for vessels, nor had men built fortifications around their towns. There were no such thing as swords, spears, or helmets. The earth brought forth all things necessary for man, without his labour in ploughing or sowing. Perpetual spring reigned, flowers sprang up without seed, the rivers flowed with milk and wine, and yellow honey distilled from the oaks.'
After that came the Silver age, where everything started to go wrong, then deteriorated more in the Bronze age and finally got even worse in the Iron age, which is really our present age of warfare and violence. The whole concept of this myth is that everything has become slowly worse and worse for human kind since the Golden Age.
Yet the myth of the Golden age doesn't only come from Ancient Greece. One of the ancient religion that survives today is Taoism in China. Again this religion also talks about a Golden age in the past, and the slow deterioration to our present world of conflict and violence. In the few Aztec and Maya writing that have survived again there is a myth of a very ancient Golden Age ruled by a compassionate Mother Goddess. Which is shown in contrast to the later age of warfare and human sacrifice. In fact, most ancient cultures of the world have some myth of a golden age of the ancient past.
Surprisingly there is archaeological evidence for this age. The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas has written about this in her books about the Neolithic-age where in their excavations archaeologist found hardly any evidence of warfare or violence. Unlike the later bronze and Iron ages where archaeologist found a huge amount of evidence of warfare. In the large numbers of weapons, fortifications and images of violence they found in the bronze and iron age layers.
Another thing that was noted was that all the houses were more or less the same. They didn’t find a extra large house for a ruler or a rich and poor areas like we find in later times. From archaeological evidence it suggests that people then had equal status in these communities.
The idea that human beings once lived in a world where violence and warfare was unknown, is so controversial that much of Marija Gimbutas work is criticised and condemned. Probably for political reasons, because if people were able to live in peace up to five thousand years ago, then why can’t we do the same today? If this knowledge became commonplace, then people might question the way our world is ruled today, causing political upheaval.
This was true for other parts of the world, like the Indus Valley civilization in Pakistan was again an ancient society that archaeologists could find no signs violence or weapons of war. The oldest city found in South America was found in Peru, called Caral and was over 5,000 year old. Archaeologists were shocked that in this city was they couldn’t find evidence of conflict and violence. Which was in stark contrast to later South American civilizations where war and human sacrifice was commonplace.
So what happened? Why did we live in a time where conflict and violence was unknown and people living in harmony with each other, but then it all went wrong. As since then we have lived in a world of conflict, war and poverty. One vital clue is that in these ancient civilizations people worshipped a female deity whom they called The Great Mother and everything deteriorated when we began to worship male gods.
In ancient writings there are stories of a world-wide religion of the Great Mother who gave birth to our world. Because she was a female deity she would of course be a loving Goddess. She would be maternal deity that would give us, her children, unconditional love. Therefore it was easy for the people in this ancient religion to assume that the Great Mother love us unconditionally. This would strongly effect the attitude of people who believed in this religion. They would copy the behaviour of the deity they worshipped and likewise become loving and nurturing people. So it is no wonder that archaeologists found very little evidence of warfare and violence in the Neolithic age.
It is within the bodies of all mothers where the spirit is made flesh. So all women do receive spirit through pregnancy and giving birth. But also women are not so egoistic as what men are, and therefore it is easier for them to communicate with the Oneness of spirit, than it is for men. Also women through their maternal and nurturing instincts are better able to love others unconditionally. The Great Mother also loves us all unconditionally, as well, making it easier for women to tune into the same loving frequency as the Great Mother. This is why the majority of successful mediums, channels and psychics are women.
Today there are many reports of NDE, (Near Death Experiences). All these report are very similar the person who dies goes through a long tunnel to find a beautiful paradise of loving spirits who live in a world of total harmony, unconditional love and Oneness. This world is so wonderful that many of these people who temporary die, don’t want to return to their bodies, but only do so to look after children or some other duty. But not all people find this world so wonderful.
This is illustrated in one NDE story which was about a surfer who got into trouble while surfing and was drowning. He then experienced the usual thing of going down a long tunnel and on the other side came into a beautiful garden and met spiritual beings who welcomed him. He was then shown to another garden were he met angelic beings who were also welcoming but has he got closer to them, he said, he felt like a raindrop returning the ocean. The moment he thought this, he became frightened and ran away. Then the next moment he found himself back in in his body, fighting for his life in the sea and somehow managed to save himself.
A week later I told this story to a female friend of mine and when I got to the part where he said, he felt like a raindrop returning to the ocean. She said, “How beautiful what a wonderful story.” Then when I went on tell her that the surfer turned and ran away, she was puzzled by this. So I had to explain to her that men have stronger egos than women and therefore they fear the One. This is because they are frightened that the One would overwhelm their egos and they would lose their sense of individuality.
So this is how it all suppose to work. Men come to the material world to explore what it is like to be separate from the One and have individual thoughts and desires. But without contact and communication with the One, men create chaos, conflict and suffering. So the job of women is to mediate between the spirit and material worlds to control men and prevent him from going too far down in the path of violence, pain, hatred and suffering.
Women were able to do this when men respected and worshipped women. So female mediums and channels were able to contact the limitless wisdom of the spirit world and men listened to these women because they worshipped them as goddesses. But then some men began to envy the power and respect these women had and wanted a “piece of the action”. So some men thought they should be mediums but because men had larger egos than women it wasn’t so easy for men to access the Oneness of spirit as it was for women. Nor was is as easy for men to tune into the unconditional love of the Great Mother.
Many of the matriarchal societies were conquered by violent patriarchal tribes but even after the conquest, women still had their Goddess temples and continued to worship the Great Mother. And the reason might be that the conquers feared the power of the holy women whom people believed has supernatural powers. But then some men decided they wanted to be mediums as well and the holy women let them. Perhaps because they thought they could reform these men but it didn’t work out like that.
To overcome their larger egos these men had to either spend years in meditation or use chanting or drugs in which to contact spirit. Like today, probably many of these priests and sham-men were genuine about wanting to be spiritual people. But there will always be ambitious men among them, who will use something like this to gain personal power. In most religions, the more spiritual priests are generally not promoted but the priests wanting power and wealth are the ones with the political skills to gain power.
The poet Robert Graves claims that the holy women of the Great Mother religion, allowed men to become priests by allowing them to dressed up as women. He wrote that at first they had fake breasts and some even went as far as castrating themselves. This is why priest’s clothing even today looks so much like women’s dresses and in the Christian tradition when a priest is dismissed from this job, it is said he has been ‘defrocked’.
Then when priests were established in their role as priests, some of them used deception and lies to compete against the holy women for power. So in time they were not only successful in deceiving the people but the holy women as well. This was because although the holy women had access of the limitless wisdom of the One, through mediumship. Lies and deception were unknown in the spirit world which only knows unconditional love. So the holy women didn’t know how to deal with the unscrupulous tricks of the priests.
It seems that there was a slow progression into patriarchy when people at first only worshipped the Great Mother but then has the behest of the patriarchal conquers the Great Mother had a son. Over time this son became her lover or brother, (depending on what part of world it was), and ruled the heavens equally with the Great Mother. Then the male god took the dominant position like we see with gods like Zeus or Odin and finally Goddesses were banned completely and we had just one male god.
So through all sorts of devious cunning schemes, ambitious men tricked people into worshipping male gods and to go to sham-men or priests to receive messages from the false male gods, they invented. Then through this they gained the power and prestige the former female mediums and channels received. But none of these male priests and sham-men where as good as receiving wisdom from the spirit world as women and told the people self-serving lies. Nor did they rule with love in the same way the holy women previously did. As the result, we entered a patriarchal age of conflict, violence and suffering.
So the people began to worship male gods many of whom were war-gods and so war and violence then became acceptable to people within these new religions. As the result, the people became dissatisfied with the new order and want to return to the old ways. So the patriarchal world to retain it’s dominance, had to totally destroy all respect men had for women. They also had to outlaw all female mediums and channels and condemn them as evil witches to try and force people to go to corrupt, self-serving male priests for guidance and wisdom.
Goddess worship was discouraged and finally banned except in India in the Hindu religion. What is not well-known is that the word Devil comes from the ancient Indo-European language word, devi which means goddess or woman. This word is still used today in India. So the Goddess of love was turned into something evil by the propaganda of male dominated religions. Then over time they even went as far as denying that the Devil was a woman. The same is true of the word hell, this word comes from the the Goddess Hel, the ancient Nordic underworld Goddess.
Many of the practises in Goddess temples were also condemned and priestess were labelled by male priests as ‘temple prostitutes’. This was because priestesses celebrated all aspects of childbirth, like menstruation, sex, pregnancy and breast feeding. In some of the Goddess temples that have survived today in Hindu temples in India, Western visitors are surprised to see carvings of women and men having sex together.
It suggests that loving Goddess religions saw no problems with sex and it was part of their rituals. But male dominated religions hated this. Probably because priestesses could still attract men to their temples with promises of sex and seduce them into becoming members of their temples. But also women had a very effective tool in being able to brainwash men.
Modern psychologists have discovered that if a beautiful woman is talking to men, they generally cannot remember what she said afterwards. Yet, it seems that they do remember what she said in some part of their brains, because they will remember the information she gave them but cannot remember who told him and will assume it is his own idea.
This has infuriated women in modern times in business, political or scientific meeting where a women will give her ideas but the other men in the room will ignore her. Then another man in the room will say the same thing as she said as if it was his idea. When the women challenges the man pointing out that this was what she said a few minutes ago, he then claims he cannot remember her saying this and neither do the other men in the room.
So although his is a big problem for ambitious women in the political, business and scientific world. Advertisers have realised that this can be a powerful brainwashing tool and now use attractive women to sell their produces as this is very effective in selling their products to men. This is the same as hypnoses, the hypnotists talks a person into becoming very relaxed and go into a trance, then gives them suggestions. Then brings them out of their trance and the person cannot remember consciously what was said to them, but the suggestions are still retained in the unconscious mind. Then can strongly influence their behaviour because as the man doesn’t know where the suggestion came from and he owns it.
The same was probably true in ancient Goddess temples where a attractive women preacher would be very effective in brainwashing the male followers. The effect is even stronger if the women is scantly dressed or nude as nude priestesses were commonplace in ancient Goddess Temples. Which suggests they knew how to brainwash men using this technique.
Patriarchal religions couldn’t compete against this and so in the end, to get rid of Goddess temples patriarchal religions destroyed all of them by violence. Also communication with spirit world was greatly discouraged by the new patriarchal religions. They frightened the people with stories about evil spirits, ghosts and demons. Which is in total contrast to the beautiful spirit world of love and harmony as reported by people with NDEs, (near death experiences).
This then makes sense of the Garden of Eden story. The serpent is a phallic symbol and so he was probably a man. So he probably represented the men who talked holy women into becoming priests or sham-men. So the forbidden fruit might be allowing men to become mediums or priests, who then invented male gods. Because God is not a male but female, people began to worship false gods and lost their contact with the true God, which is feminine in nature.
It’s a bit like trying to tune into a radio or TV station but are given the wrong information of what frequency it is at. So of course it becomes impossible to contract god if you think he is a aggressive man who will judge, condemn and punish you. The right frequency is that God is feminine and loves us all unconditionally. So it is a far different feeling and frequency completely. Jesus did try to fix this with his idea of a loving Father God but that didn’t work as priests preferred the judgemental punitive god of the Old Testament.
Because religions could no longer give proper guidance to the people, they had to use lies, propaganda, indoctrination and violence to keep people under control. But it couldn’t last and people came disillusioned with religion and this allowed the rise of science and atheism. Bringing about the age of science and technology. And it has been science and technology that has undermined the power of religions because technology can give the people more that the empty promises of patriarchal religions.
We are now seeing a change, since the 19th century, with the decline of patriarchal religions, female mediums have become acceptable again and can now practice without being accused of witchcraft. Though because of thousands of years of the Church propaganda they don’t receive the respect they use to, and are just seen as only fortune tellers or someone to contact dead relations.
In time they will receive more respect and the better ones will create followers and perhaps even start their own religions. But it is important that religions don’t start with the revelation of just one person. This is because once the founder of the religion dies, then it can no longer progress. It needs a matriarchal religion that encourages its priestesses to be mediums or channels so it can keep on responding to the changing needs of its followers.
So through matriarchal religions the feminine world can once again expand and once again become the bridge between the spirit world and the materialistic masculine world. Allowing people to live in our materialistic world without unnecessary pain and suffering.
This may happen in the future but in the here and now, people still cannot go to Goddess temples and receive guidance from its priestesses. But this doesn’t stop us from contacting the Great Mother directly through meditation.
Bibliography
The Bible
Tao-Te-Ching
Myths of Greece and Rome - Thomas Bulfinch
Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images - Marija Gimbutas
The Language of the Goddess - Marija Gimbutas
The Living Goddesses - Marija Gimbutas
The Civilization of the Goddess - Marija Gimbuas
The Great Goddess: Reverence of the Divine Feminine from the Palaeolithic to the Present
- Jean Markale
Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth - Monica Sjoo
Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience - Pim van Lommel
The White Goddess - Robert Graves
God is a Woman - I. Chase Scott
The Women’s History of the World – Rosalind Miles
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