The Fall of Divine Feminine: A Brief History
Once upon a time, a long time ago, people worshiped the Divine Feminine. Mother Earth, she who nurtures and not only creates but also embodies love in the truest, most abundant sense, was the absolute deity during the earliest times of human history. She was worshiped, and the earth and her people were happy. As I said, this was a long – long – time ago.
Cultures innately recognized the transcendent, supernatural power of femininity. So revered was this power that religions and cultures were built around worshiping and protecting not only the divine goddess but also her human counterparts. Because the Divine Feminine embodies cyclical harmony of intuition, maidenhood, motherhood, and crone wisdom, early cultures were largely harmonious in their nomadic, highly-artistic, philosophic lifestyles.
Then, one day, Patriarchy happened. To summarize this phenomenon, I’ll paraphrase Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael.” A group of men decided that in order to fulfill their destiny (the destiny to conquer the earth), some semblance of permanent order needed to be established. They invented agriculture: stay in one place, grow select crops, kill select animals. Of course, this way of life used up considerably more time and energy than the previous way – so people were, shall I say, reluctant to comply.
Faced with such insubordination, the Patriarchs realized they needed a means to force “civilization” upon the people. Thus began the new story of male deity – oh, and the locking-up of all the food and resources. When that still wasn’t proving satisfactorily effective in controlling the masses – who were quite happily leaving these civilizations to continue worshiping and living in harmony with Mother Earth – the Patriarchs grew more violent, viciously enslaving women and hunting and destroying all traces of the Goddess.
The Inquisition. Witch burnings. Early Christianity. Roman rule. The birth of democracy. Kings, pharaohs, walled cities, prisons, marriage, dowry, prostitution, and the continued objectification of women – ALL aimed at eliminating the belief in and empowerment of the Divine Feminine.
Women and children, like animals, plants, and the very earth itself, became property. Objects one could own with the swipe of sword and pen.
“Given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now.” Daniel Quinn, “Ishmael.”
The story had changed, gradually and ferociously, from the worship of the Divine Feminine to that of Manifest Destiny. In place of nurturing beauty from birth to death and back, humankind took to destroying each other, the planet, and even the idea of peace after death. Such were the depths of the people’s despair that an entire historical period was termed “The Dark Ages.”
“You must change people’s minds. And you can’t just root out a harmful complex of ideas and leave a void behind; you have to give people something as meaningful as what they’ve lost–something that makes better sense than the old horror of Man Supreme, wiping out everything on this planet that doesn’t serve his needs directly or indirectly.” Quinn, “Ishmael,” later.
Even the Dark Ages were followed by a Renaissance. The Divine Feminine is notoriously difficult to erase, and has reappeared (to be driven back into hiding) many times since the birth of Patriarchy. She is the “something meaningful” that our starving, bleeding, dying planet – our children, our animals, our forests, and our people – need in order to make sense of the void. A Divine Mother to hold us to her breast and nurture us back to life.
I am here today to announce – along with so many mystics, sages, prophets, mediums, and philosophers – that the Divine Feminine is reawakening on the planet AGAIN. And, this time, She is here to stay.
2 Comments on “The Fall of Divine Feminine: A Brief History”
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Love this Britt. I pray this is try. I’ve been a little pessimistic these days. Thank you for your faith.
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