Once upon a time there was in pre-historic times a golden age as written about by the Ancient Greeks, the Chinese Taoists and other Ancient cultures. Where people not only live in harmony with nature but also lived in harmony with each other. These ancient people worshipped the Great Mother but not only did they worship a Feminine Deity they lived in a Matriarchal society where men served and worshipped Women as Goddesses.
Because these Ancient societies of the Golden Age were ruled by Women they had no interest in fighting and warfare or even competing with each other. So it was possible for Women to create a world on harmony and love. In these Ancient societies men were treated like slaves, with no rights or freedom. They were trained from a very early age to devote their lives to obeying, serving and worshipping Women, and some Women began to feel that this was very unfair. It was true that there was many stories handed down to them from even more Ancient times that there was a time men ruled and this had become a age of bloodshed and violence where women were brutally subdued by men. But these stories had began to be regards as myths by many Women and seen as just a unwarranted justification by Women to turn men into slaves. Many Women couldn't believe that the submissive men who served and worshipped them could be the savage brutes portrayed by these Ancient myths.
Some Women began to give men more freedom and there was a movement to give men equal rights with Women. So men were encouraged to no longer worship Women as Goddesses and where allowed to treat Women as equals. At first men showed they could if given the chance behave like responsible people and Women were encouraged to give all men freedom and equality. It was also pointed out that it was unfair they only had a Female deity so the Great Mother was allowed to have a son and in time this son ruled alongside his Mother. Reflecting his growing status of men in society. Then in time the son became a brother or is some societies the lover of the Great Mother and both sexes ruled equality.
This at first seemed to be ideal and confirmed the beliefs of the reformers that Women and men could live together in equality. But as time went on men began to push for more power. They began to demand more power beyond the equality given to them by Women. Some Women thought this was unfair and resisted these demands but to their surprise this resistance was met by violence. Women didn't know how to react to violence as violence had been unknown in their world for thousands of years. Men soon found it easy to get their way over Women by using violence this only encouraged them to continue to use violence not only to get their way over Women but also over other men.
Quickly this brought about a world of bloodshed and wars that the very ancient myths predicted. Women set about trying to reverse this trend. Many moved away to mountains or islands and started again to train their sons to worship Women as Goddess. Other Women decided that they only way was to fight fire with fire. They became Amazons and learnt how to use arms and defended themselves and their way of life with violence.
For hundreds of years many Women successfully fought againest the growing world of patriarchy. In many cases they even reversed this trend and again established Matriarchal societies. But in the end patriarchy won. Not only because of the efforts of brutal and violent men but also through the efforts of women who learnt to love these men. Many women had learnt the masochistic pleasure of worshipping and serving selfish, brutal and violent men and gave them unconditional love and support. These Women slowly began to become the majority and it was this more than anything else that allowed men to rule society throughout the whole world.
The worship of the Great Mother who ruled the universe alongside her Son/Brother/Lover god was changed so he became the dominant partner. In fact many religions adopted a whole host of different gods and goddesses. Then one religion Judaism adopted the idea of a single male God and this was later taken up by Christianity and Mohammadism and these religions have become to most powerful religions in more modern times.
The religion of the Great Mother states clearly that She loves us all unconditionally, and will give us all everything we desire. In this religion there was no concept of right and wrong or good and evil. So therefor there was no concept of blame, guilt or punishment. All the Great Mother required of us is that we live in joy, happiness and love.
When men took control of society and its religion they were presented with a problem. The world of love and harmony was no longer the case as they had used violence and force to get their own way. So they ignored the Great Mother and declared that She was weak in not using force and violence to get her own way. They declared that the Male Gods were more powerful because they were ruthless and violent. So this became the new religion. A God who behaves like a despotic dictator, who is only interested in power and will punish those who will defy his will. In other words like the new male rulers he ruled by fear.
What was not realized by the new male rulers that fear created hate and hate creates misery and suffering. This was the reason why that even though men had the advantage of violence and force of arms it took them thousands of years to finally subdued the last remains of the religions of the Great Mother. The Great Mother could offer Her people a world of love and harmony. While the religion of the new gods could only offer to the people a religion of fear, hatred and suffering. For this reason all knowledge of the religion of the Ancient Great Mother had to be completely destroyed before the patriarchy could ruled uncontested. Because while people had a alternative to the god of fear in the Goddess of love, they naturally preferred the Goddess of love. So all knowledge of the Great Mother had to be destroyed so people would not know that there was a better way of living. Even as late as the middle-ages in Europe the religion of the Great Mother continued in the form of Witchcraft. It took one last brutal Crusade by the Patriarchal Church to eliminate them.
Yet even as the last of the Witches were being slaughtered a trend was beginning that would take as back to the Great Mother. In the time of the English Civil War in the 17th century when Charles 1 was beheaded, many men in Britain were demanding equality and some Women voiced there demands that men and Women should also be equal. This was soon crushed in the brutal dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, but over the next few centuries more and more Women began to demand equality. In the 20th century this movement really took off and the idea of equality between Women and men has now become a accepted world-wide.
Patriarchal religions have also suffered. Back in the 17th century Issac Newton showed that the movement of the planets obeyed scientific laws and were not moved as previously thought by the hand of god. Then in the 19th century Darwin showed that life could come about through evolution and didn't have to be created by a god. This undermined patriarchal religion to a degree that in a few generations its power has been broken. It is now scientist who people now look for answers to life's problem and who have the ear of the rich and powerful instead of priests. The Old Testament god that ruled by fear was so unpopular, that most people quickly changed allegiances when presented with a alternative belief. It seem that most people prefer to believe in no god at all than a angry god of fear.
With the collapse of Patriarchal Christianity in West in this vacuum have come other spiritual ideas. Like the return of Witchcraft and the return of Goddess worship. At present this is very much still in its infancy and most people still do not understand the difference between the worship of a God and the worship of the Great Mother. For instance in Witchcraft today most covens worship both a god and Goddess not realizing that the world view of a masculine god is very different from a Feminine Goddess.
A masculine male is aggressive, competitive and ruthless. So likewise a masculine God behaves in exactly the same way. It is not for nothing that Christians once called themselves "godfearing people". It is true there as feminine gods like Jesus, Buddha and in the past gods like Pan and Osris. These are more gentle gods who teach love and sacrifice. Unfortunately although such gods were popular with the common people they didn't suit power hungry priests who preferred the more macho gods who ruled by fear. So although Christianity is suppose to be about the teachings of Jesus, they are mostly ignored and the teachings of the Old Testament have been given more prominence.
The Great Mother is not interested in power over us Her children. She is the Mother of everything and loves her children unconditionally. She has also given us freewill, she does not interfere with our live if we wish to go our own way.
For the last few thousand years we have been taught to respect and honor the masculine and despise the feminine. Even today we are still fed with a propaganda that masculine power is powerful and "might is right" in our films and TV shows. John Wayne, Clint Eastward films and TV shows like Power Rangers teach our children and teenagers that violence and force are the solutions to all problems. Women are also taught that if they want equality they have to fight for it and behave like macho men.
Yet is this true? We today assume that it would be impossible for Women to be feminine, loving and caring and yet still be powerful enough to rule society. We have accepted the status quo of a masculine world ruled by a masculine god because the vast majority of people were ignorant that there was a alternative to this. The belief we live in a masculine world has forced Feminist Women to learn to behave and think like men to gain power for themselves.
Yet given the alternative of a world of fear, hatred, war and suffering as we have today and the last few thousand years. Against a world of harmony, Love and compassion. Most people would prefer the latter. Unless people might think that living in a world of harmony would be very boring. But that is a personal choice. At present it seems we don't have that choice. We are taught, (off coarse) that such a world would be impossible as it is human nature to hate and to compete with others. Yet this is not true, this is the masculine behavior of macho men. Most mothers who love their children unconditionally do not behave like this. Nor do a increasingly large number of men today who want to learn how to care for others.
The choice is simple. We have can choose to love others or we can choose to fear and hate others. The more people are free to love other the more the fear in our society is reduced and the less people will hate each other. It is true that this is what Jesus taught but as a role model of this he was unsuitable because he was a man. It is accepted that Women have a maternal instinct. Because of this instinct they mostly love their children (as well as other children) unconditionally. From this Women have learnt to also love men and animals also unconditionally. Men do not have a maternal instinct so men have to learn how to love others.
If we were once again to return to a society where Women ruled. The then Women's maternal instinct would shape the decisions made by Women to create a more caring and loving society. But to do this men have to accept the authority and power of Women and be willing for them to learn how to love others.
I believe that if a large number of Women and men came together in a community where men accepted the rule of Women, and Women ruled using there maternal instinct. Women will naturally create a community of love and harmony as they will actively teach men how to care for and love others. This would greatly encourage others to join this community or start similar communities of their own. For the first time for thousands of years there will be an alternative to patriarchal rule. In a choice of a society of love and harmony to a society of hatred and fear. There will be no contest. (Though it has to be admitted that some people will still want the drama of conflict that patriarchy creates).
In such a situation a truly Matriarchal community biased on the feminine qualities of love and compassion, will act like a Black hole on the surrounding patriarchal community and suck the patriarchal community into it.
First published at.-
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DivineGoddess
