In the western world we have been brought up to believe in a angry and uncaring God who judges and condemns us. Some people have attempted to get away from this Judo-Christian God and try to see him as a loving God as portrayed by Jesus in the New Testament. But old habits die hard. Even though many people try to see God as a loving God. We all live in a world of suffering and people unconsciously assume it is because we are "sinful" in the eyes of God and this is why he will not help us. Because for what other reason are we living in a world of suffering?
This unconscious argument is supported by atheists who have put forward a argument against the existence of God, which goes: If God loves us all, as stated by Jesus Christ, then why are we living in a world of suffering? Which suggests that either there isn't a God or that he is indifferent to our suffering.
In the Bible it states that; "God make us in his own image". If we are to think of a God who has the great intelligence and power to create the universe. Then as we all are his creations we should be all perfect. Because a being with such power and intelligence should be able to create us perfect. Yet I doubt if any person thinks that they are perfect and I also doubt if anyone thinks that we live in a perfect world.
The Bible gets around this paradox by saying that; we were led astray from this perfection by the Devil. Yet who is the Devil? The Bible says he is a fallen angel. Yet if God has created everything then it means he has created the Devil as well. Which again suggests this powerful being of unlimited power and intelligence has again created something imperfect.
So from out point of view we have a choice: We either believe in a imperfect God who is seems doesn't know what he is doing. And is willing to blame his own shortcoming on to us. To the degree of punishing us for his mistakes. Or that we don't believe in a God at all. So that the universe and life appeared by accident. Which suggest we live in a meaningless and pointless universe.
Which is a very depressing picture. It means that if we are to believe consciously or unconsciously in atheistism or the angry imperfect God. Then it means there is no hope for us all. It means we are forced to live in this world of suffering for ever with no redemption. So it means that such beliefs will have a very negative effect on anyone who believes in them, so it is not a wonder people look for happiness through money, power, drink and drugs.
What is the way out of these very negative beliefs? How can we give ourselves hope in a better life and future for us all? The answer is to change the sex of God so he is not a father God but a Mother Goddess. Once we begin to look at our creator as a Mother which makes more sense as it is the Mother who give birth. Then we begin to see life in a very different way. We begin to understand there is hope for us all and that we do not have to live in a world of suffering.
Anyone who has been brought up as a Christian should know the story of The Prodigal Son which is a parable by Jesus. Briefly it is about a son who leaves his father to make his own way in the world. But leaving the security of his father everything starts to go wrong for him. He is robbed and cheated and soon finds himself living in desperate poverty. In the end he swallows his pride and goes back to his father and is greeted with kindness and consideration by the father.
The meaning of this parable is that we all are Prodigal Sons and daughters. And the father in this story is the idea of the Loving Father God that Jesus unsuccessfully tried to promote. The reason why Jesus was unsuccessful in promoting the Loving Father God image was because most men are not kind and loving of others. We see men who attack each other and go to war with each other. In fact a loving man is seen as something of a wimp. Which is the image Jesus has. People have preferred the image of the angry and dogmatic Old Testament God, because at least he is a real man with attitude. Not realising what a image does to the people and the society that believes in such a God.
It is far easier for see a Mother as being loving and caring of us all. Then to try and create a image of a loving and caring father because even the best father tend to give their children conditional love. So why is this so important? What difference does the image we have of our creator makes to our lives and the society we live in? Simply that if our Creator is a Mother Goddess. Or as She was known in prehistoric time The Great Mother. Then we can believe that she loves us all unconditionally in the same way a human mother loves her children. Which is all very well you may ask: But if that is true why are we living in a world of suffering?
As the Bible says we are created in our creators image and if we accept that, then the problems of the Great Mother is similar to that of a mortal mother. And through this understanding we then begin to make sense of our lives. Any mother who has children come up with a real dilemma: Because she loves her children unconditionally she doesn't want to see her children hurt or suffer in any way. Yet she also knows that if she is to mollycoddle them too much and give them constant protection. They are unable to live lives of their own and learn how to look after themselves. So if she is a wise mother she learns to untie them from her apron strings and allow them the freedom to make their own mistakes. So mothering is a balancing act of giving her children freedom to learn for themselves. But not too much freedom so they will hurt themselves.
Likewise we all are the children of the Mother Goddess. She like a mortal Mother loves us all unconditionally. She doesn't want us to suffer yet also she wants to give us the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. She has given us a very vital gift and that is freewill. So that she will not interfere with anything we wish to do. Because she loves us all unconditionally she will love us no matter what we do. This is echoed in the words of Jesus when nailed to the cross he said: "Forgive them for they no not what they do". In the eyes of the Great Mother we are all still children and the earth is our playground.
So if the Great Mother loves us all unconditionally why does she not interfere in the world? Why does she not come down to earth and guild us more directly to eliminate suffering from the world? The answer is in the Prodigal Son parable by Jesus. When children become teenagers they begin to rebel against their parents, they become "knowalls" and think they know better then what mother and father. And many of them leave their parents and go off on their own to live independent lives. This is what the whole of humanity has done, as we have a desire to be independent of our Mother Goddess. So we have turned our back on her to lead independent lives. Like a mortal parent she knows that she cannot interfere with this decision we have all made and has allowed us to go off to learn for ourselves. Yet also the story of the Prodigal Son also tells us that if we want to return to the Great Mother then we are all free to do so and we will be welcomed with open arms. So the question is, why are we not doing this?
The obvious answer would be pride. The teenage son or daughter doesn't want to go back to there parents and say: "I can't look after myself after all". But there is another reason for this, the way we see our creator has become extremely distorted. If we believe our creator is a angry and judgmental God or that God doesn't exist at all. Then we are not going to want to turn to someone who will condemn us or we think doesn't exist at all. So how did it come about that we have distorted the image we have of our creator?
If we are to believe what we are told about history: Then it seems that people in the past lived far more terrible lives than what we did. It seems that the further we go back in time the harder life was for all people. But is this true? We can certainly look back to say the Middle-ages as say for certain that life in those day was very much harder than it is today.
I don't think anyone would argue with the fact that life was far harder in the Medieval times than today. Yet would it also be true that if you go back further in time than the Middle-ages would life get progressively worse for people? That is a debatable point, because the further we go back in history the less we understand what is really going on. But logic tells us that if we adopt the model of gradual evolution where everything has slowly got better for all people then we will go back to a time that conditions were so hard for people that humanity couldn't possibly survive. So we have to revise this model and see that history is about a series of high and lows.
A low point would of been the Middle ages and if we look at these times people then believed in the angry and judgmental God far more than they do today. The belief permeated the whole of society where people were genuinely frighten of God. Which created a very negative point of view because every disaster and misfortune was seen as a judgment against people by a angry God. Though I am not a advocate of atheistism. I have to say that the rise of atheistism in the 19th century has created a far more humane society. It seems that the concept of no-God is far better for us all that the belief in a angry God.
Now the Ancient Greeks had a myth about a Golden Age that existed in their past. 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 labor in ploughing or sowing. Perpetual spring reigned, flower 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 wasn't so good then the Brazen age and finally the Iron age, which is really our present age. The whole concept of this myth is that everything has become slowly worse and worse for human kind since the Golden Age. Which is at odds with modern thinking which assumes everything has become better and better for human kind since the stone-age.
Yet the myth of the Golden age doesn't only come from Ancient Greece. Probably the most ancient religion that survives today is Taoism in China. Again this religion talks about a Golden age in the past. As explained repetitively in the Tao-Te-Ching by Lao Tzu written at about the third century BC Although the Tao-Te-Ching is considered to be the Taoist "Bible". Taoism is far older than its author Lao Tzu. It seems that he was the archivist in the Imperial Court, and would of had access to very ancient documents that were later destroyed by later Emperors who wanted to destroy all ancient knowledge. So the Tao-Te-Ching is one of the few Chinese writings of that period to survive.
The concept of the Golden Age is also in the story of the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned they were banished into the waste land and Adam had to work "by the sweat of his brow". Again 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 ruled by the Mother Goddess.
Modern Scholars treat all these stories of a Golden age in the past as a unrealistic myth of the past. Yet modern archaeology has confirmed certain aspects of the Greek Golden Age to be true. Across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia in Turkey, inland from the ancient city of Troy. Archaeologists have discovered the most ancient city that they have ever discovered, called Catal Huyuk. Going back 9,000 years it is older than both the Ancient Sumerian and Egyptian Civilizations.
This Ancient city is very controversial for two reasons: It contains a large amount of Goddess imagery and archaeologists have failed to discover any city walls or any weapons of war. It seems that this city existed for thousands of years without any means to defend itself. Suggesting that this city existed in a time before war was invented! So according to the excavation of Catal Huyuk there was a peaceful age in the past where warfare and conflict was unknown. Another aspect of the Golden age was also true; Archaeologist have also discovered that in the Classic times of Ancient Greece the people began to fell trees in very large numbers. Causing erosion and the depletion of the soil.
So we can see there is some aspects of the Golden Age myth that has been proven as fact. It could be a age of innocence and happiness. Because as Catal-Huyuk has shown it was a age before the invention of warfare and the manufacture of arms. It was a age before the destruction of the forests not only in Ancient Greece but also in the middle East. Again Archaeologist have discovered the remains of ancient forests in Israel even as late as Roman times. Forests at one time covered the whole of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa where today there is only desert. I would doubt if archaeologists would discover rivers flowing with milk and wine. But it has to be remembered that Ancient Israel was known to be a land of "milk and honey" which means that in ancient times the soil was very fertile and crops could be grown without much effort. That is until the forests were decimated and the top soil was allowed to blow away. So there is evidence that the ancient Golden age did exist and there was a decline in the fortunes of human existence since the time of Catal Huyuk. But if we accept that then what was the reason for this decline?
If we accept that there was a Golden age then why was in so much better than way come after it? The Tao-Te-Ching gives many reason for this and why we declined from the Golden age.
Those of old who were competent
In ruling according to the Tao
Did not do it by enlightening the people
But by keeping the people unknowing.
The difficulty in leading the people
comes from their knowing too much.
Now this is a similar idea to the story of the Garden of Eden. Again Adam and Eve was forbidden to eat the fruit from "the tree of knowledge". In this story when they ate the fruit they realize they were naked. This suggests they had lost their innocents. Again this is in line with what the Ancient Greeks say about the Golden age in that the people of the Golden age were innocent.
So what is the problem with knowledge? There is nothing wrong with knowledge in itself but as the old saying goes; "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing". When the people of the Golden age allowed themselves to be ruled and guided by the Mother Goddess through their instincts, then harmony was easy to achieve. Because all people were calling on the great wisdom of the Great Mother in everything they done. Yet then there come a desire for people to work things out for themselves. So people began to learn from experience and from this experience they gained knowledge. This allowed people to begin to become independent from the Great Mother and began to take more noticed of what they had learnt from there own experience and knowledge. Unfortunately they began to live their lives from their own experience and knowledge and not the wisdom of the Great Mother. So it is then no wonder that the fortunes of humanity began to decline. As again pointed out in the Tao-Te-Ching:
When a man is to take the world over and shape it
I see that he must be obliged to do it
For the world is a divine vessel:
It cannot be shaped;
He who shapes it damages it;
He who insist upon it loses it.
The Great Mother would see this decline but wouldn't do anything to stop it because she can see the desire of her children to learn to be independent from her. From what we learn from the Ancient Greeks and the Tao-Te-Ching it seems that the decline was very slow.
At first humankind listened to the voice of the Great Mother and also learnt through experience and knowledge. Yet it seems as time went on people trusted their own experience and knowledge more than the voice of the Mother Goddess. So why did we lose this contact to the degree we know longer know of her existence? A clue is this the Prodigal Son parable: When the son leaves his loving father he is soon robbed and cheated of his money and wealth by others. So who were these robbers? It seems they were and still are our rulers and priests who robbed us of the contact, and therefore the great wisdom and abundance of the Great Mother. To quote the Tao-Te-Ching again:
When the great Tao is lost, spring forth benevolence and righteousness
When wisdom and sagacity arise, there are great hypocrites.
When family relations are no longer harmonious, we have filial children and devoted parents.
When a nation is in confusion and disorder, patriots are recognized.
When Tao is, equilibrium is. When Tao is lost, out come all the differences of things.
As people began to learn through their personal experience they began to doubt the wisdom they received from the Mother Goddess. Simply because sometime the wisdom of the Great Mother is beyond out understanding and sometime doesn't make logical sense. Because of this doubt others realized they could use this doubt to receive for themselves power over others. In many stone-age tribes that still exist today there is always the shaman or witch-doctor. These are people who have, or suppose to have, a better contact with the spirit world, God or Goddess than the average person. Even if the shaman is completely honest the temptation to use his position as the spokesperson of the Great Mother for personal gain would of been very great. And off coarse those who where not honest abused there position of trust to further their own ends. So from the Shaman or witch-doctor grew a priesthood who gained power and wealth in their societies. Unfortunately the advice of this priesthood as it was for their own personal gain wouldn't be anywhere as good as the great wisdom of The Great Mother. So when they the people came to the priesthood complaining that the advice given wasn't correct. Then the priests where forced to blame the Great Mother. Which priest do even today when they say; "The ways of God are very mysterious", when confronted by a unanswerable question.
So the image of the Great Mother became tarnished. She didn't seem to have the same wisdom she had in the past. So people began to pay less attention to her words as interpreted by the priesthood.
He who knows does not speak;
He who speaks does not know.
He who is truthful is not Showy;
He who is showy is not truthful.
He who is virtuous does not dispute;
He who disputes is not virtuous;
He who is learned is not wise;
he who is wise is not learned.
Therefore the Sage does not display his own merits.
The first line of this chapter in the Tao-Te-Ching states: "He who knows does not speak." We have to ask why not? A clue to this reason can be seen in later lines: "He who is virtuous does not dispute; He who disputes is not virtuous". It seems that in the time of Lao-Tzu if a person who is still in contact with the Great Mother and voices her wisdom. He is likely to be attacked by those who claim to voice the wisdom of the Great Mother but only do it to gain personal power. In disputes the sage would be at a disadvantage. He or she can only give the wisdom of the Great Mother but may not be able to say why the people should follow this teaching. Or if he or she knows why the people should follow the ways of the Mother Goddess they may have difficulty in explaining it. Because it would be beyond the ability for the average person to understand.
So as suggested by the Tao-Te-Ching those who only wanted power for themselves where able to influence people far more than those who still had a true contact with The Great Mother. And the contact with the Mother Goddess was slowly broken and replaced by the knowledge of the priests and rulers. By becoming in the eyes of the general population the mouthpiece of the Mother Goddess. They began to give her a very bad name as they more and more used her as a scapegoat for their mistakes. So the people began to reject the Great Mother and other Goddesses and Gods were created out of the imagination of the priests. Many ancient civilizations began to worship a large number of deities and the priest of the different Gods and Goddesses competed with each other for power over the people.
The priest began to realize that a God who could frighten the people gave them far more power. So Gods like Jehovah, Zeus, Thor and Rama began to appear. These were thunder Gods who will punish with a bolt of lighting anyone they were displeased with. Spiritual teachers like Jesus and Buddha tried to counter this trend. Jesus put forward the idea of a loving Father God. While Buddha taught people how to contact the Great Mother through meditation. Yet these teachers became Gods themselves after they died, there teaching soon become distorted to suit the needs of power hungry priests.
So what has the Great Mother been doing as we collectively broken all contact off from her? It would but untrue to say the link has been totally cut off and where she could influence us for the better she did so. To the degree that we have moved from a low in the Middle-ages where people really believed that they were created by a uncaring, angry and judgmental God. To now where people don't believe in a God at all or they are starting to believe in the caring God as promoted by Jesus.
So what is the next step? What would happen to us all if we started to believe in the Great Mother who loves us all unconditionally and will gives us everything that will bring us joy and happiness? The problem that most people will have with this is that it sounds far too good to be true. But unfortunately because of this belief the Mother Goddess cannot give us what we want.
The Great Mother has given us all the power to create the life and world we want to create. And we create our personal life and collectively create our world by the way we think and feel. So if we believe in a utopia where everyone is happy is impossible, then that becomes true because that is the way we think. We have all become prisoners of our past and history. When we look back in our history all we read about is wars and conflict so we assume this way of behaving will continue because it is "human nature". Yet as we have said there is some proof from the excavation of Catal Huyuk that there was in pre-historic times a Golden age. So why can we not do the same today?
As I have previously pointed out the Great Mother has given us free will. But she has given us more than this she has given us god-like power to create what ever we want in our lives. Unfortunately we are still children. We have the power but do not yet have the knowledge and experience to use this power. It is like someone giving us a high-powered sports car without telling us how to drive it. So with experimenting we might learn how to start the engine. Then we then might try and drive it. But without the knowledge and experience of driving it we are more than likely to crash the car.
Before we are allowed to drive a car we are given instructions how to learn how to drive it. The same is true with life, the Great Mother is always there to help and guide us. Unfortunately by listening to political minded priests we have lost contact with the Mother Goddess. So She is now only a "small voice" which most of us choose to ignore. It has become very difficult for Her to contact us though the distortions of religious and atheists dogma, to the degree that priests have called the small voice within us the voice of the Devil or evil spirits.
We can only get into contact with the Great Mother by clearing away these distortions. This can only be done by affirming a few basic truths about the Mother Goddess. It was possible for the Prodigal Son to return to his loving father because he had the memory of what life was like before he went off on his own. We unfortunately do not have that memory. As far as we know in the whole of recorded history we have always lived a life on conflict and suffering. So it requires us to listen to the small voice of the Great Mother even though it seems to contradict everything we have been taught about our world, and know that a world of love and harmony is really possible. Then we have to affirm to ourselves a few basic truths about the Great Mother.
1. The Great Mother loves us all unconditionally, because we ALL are Her children. So in no way will She judge, condemn or punish us.
2. The world of the Great Mother is a world of Love and Harmony. The world of conflict, fear, hatred and chaos was created by us. Not because we are bad or evil but because we are children and as such, "we know not what we do".
3. The Great Mother is all powerful, because She is the One, She is everything there is. She has given us the gift of freewill and will never interfere is our lives. Therefore She will only help and guide us if we give Her permission to do this.
4. The Great Mother will always be there for us and give us what help we allow Her. Unfortunately if we believe in a judgmental avenging god or in no god at all, that is the reality we have created and She cannot go againest what we have chosen to believe.
So therefore if we can go throughout our live reminding ourselves the Great Mother is all Powerful because She is the One. That She loves us all unconditionally because we are Her children. That we in truth live in a caring world of love and harmony. Because this is the world created by the Great Mother. The world of fear and chaos then becomes an illusion created by us.
Then it can become far easier for the Great Mother to help and guide us. It is like tuning into a radio station. The radio station we receive in our normal daily gives us negative thoughts and feelings about ourselves and the world we live in. This is the radio station we all have collectively created together and has created the frequency that creates our collective reality. If on the other hand we make a conscious effort to tune in to the frequency of the Great Mother which is the frequency of unconditional love, harmony and compassion. Then we find we begin to tune into these thoughts and feelings and our lives begin to change for the better. If you find this difficult then simply keep repeat to yourself that; "The true reality of our life (my life) is the reality of love, compassionate and harmony." Or if you like; "We live in a abundant universe of love and harmony" and "I am loved, (we are loved) by the Great Mother unconditionally". Or any other words and feelings that support this theme. We then start to create in our lives a world of love and harmony because this is the real world created by Her.
This article was first published at. -
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