One big idea right from the start is that women are navigating a modern world without clear mythological guideposts for their new roles, which can sometimes lead to feeling competitive with men or losing a sense of their own inherent nature. Traditionally, for millions of years, the relationship between male and female was seen as cooperative in the grand task of continuing life – women giving birth and nurturing, men supporting and protecting. These roles feel deeply ingrained, almost _archetypal_, but modern life, bless its vacuum-cleaner-inventing heart, has changed things dramatically. Women are stepping into fields of personal quest and achievement, areas traditionally assigned to men, and our existing myths don't offer models for this "individuated" woman, nor for a man in partnership with her. It's an "interesting time," as an old Chinese curse might put it, with no clear models, leaving us to shape the new ones ourselves. In mythological terms, we're becoming the "ancestors" of a future age, crafting the myths that will support it. Now, when we look back at early mythologies, it's often the goddesses who are _prime_. The simplest form of the Goddess in early planting, or agricultural, societies is Mother Earth. This makes intuitive sense, right? The Earth brings forth life and nourishes it, much like a woman. This leads us to a key distinction: there are generally two main types of primal mythology. One is centered on planting agricultural people, and the Goddess is strongly associated with this. The other belongs to herding nomadic people and tends to feature masculine gods. In these early societies, women are linked to the plant world – collecting food and small game, while men are the major hunters. So, males get associated with killing, and females with bringing forth life. This is a pretty fundamental mythological association. Imagine the stark difference between these lifestyles. In hunting cultures, often ranging across wide plains, food is brought in by men who face great danger. Before 1500 b.c., they didn't even have bows and arrows, meaning they had to charge massive animals like mammoths. This lifestyle puts a huge accent on masculine action, courage, and celebrating the individual hunter who can bring in the food. Flattery goes to the male psyche because being a good shot or slayer of enemies (be they animals or rival tribes) is crucial for survival. Women in these societies support the male hunter. An interesting ritual observed in Africa with Pygmies illustrates this: before hunting, they drew a gazelle, hit the drawing with an arrow at sunrise, and the woman gave a cry. They then killed a real gazelle at the same spot the arrow hit the drawing. The woman's cry, in this context, represents her power supporting the hunter, drawing on the power of Mother Nature alongside the male solar power. From the Paleolithic era, going back thirty thousand years, we see the woman mythologically viewed both as the guardian of the hearth and as the source of spiritual life, her power supporting the hunter. Contrast this with equatorial regions where plant food is primary. Picking a banana doesn't require celebrating individual achievement in the same way. Here, a woman's biological functions connect her mythologically with the Earth itself, making her magic particularly powerful. Generally, where hunting is the focus, mythology is male-oriented; where plants are the focus, it's female-oriented. Yet, even in the early hunting societies, among the oldest art forms known are naked Goddess figurines, sometimes called Paleolithic Venuses, found in living shelters. Meanwhile, men's initiation rites were often held in deep, dark, dangerous caves where there's very little representation of the female. These caves, containing images of masculine shamans and animals, were not places people lived; they were for rituals involving inviting animals to be killed, often with the understanding that rituals would return their life to the Mother Source. Intriguingly, in these contexts, the Goddess is the cave itself, and initiates passing through the rites deep underground are seen as returning to and being reborn from Her womb. This connection of the female to nature is a crucial point. While male figures in cave art are often dressed as shamans, implying their magic comes from social roles, the naked female figurines suggest that in embodying the divine, the female operates simply _in her own nature_. She represents the _nature principle_ – we are born from her physically. The male, conversely, represents the _social principle_ and social roles. This idea shows up even in psychoanalytic theories where the father initiates the child into their adult role in society, while the mother represents the principle of life itself, in its nurturing and its consuming aspects – the Earth gives birth and nourishes, but also takes us back in death. A vivid example of the woman as a link between worlds comes from a Blackfoot hunting story. When buffalo wouldn't go over a precipice for the hunt, a young woman spontaneously offered to marry a buffalo if they would fall. They did, and a bull claimed her. She became the link between the tribe and the buffalo, supplying the food that the men would hunt. Her act consecrated the pact between hunters and animals. This echoes the meaning of the Pygmy woman's cry – her power gives the animals the confidence to come, be killed, and be revived; she embodies the principle of birth and rebirth. The Goddess, through women, becomes the inexhaustible vessel of life, transforming seed into life, receiving the past and transmuting it into the future. This transforming role is key to the "Goddess-as-transformer" mythology. Symbolism often found with the Goddess is rich with meaning. The labyrinth or lozenge design can represent earthbound matter, with the navel as the world's center. Meditation on a deity allows us to explore the various manifestations of the power personified. Threshold guardians, like the two leopards guarding the entrance to a Goddess chapel in Çatal Hüyük, represent the passage from everyday, dualistic thinking (where things are either 'a' or 'not-a') to a transcendent world beyond pairs of opposites, like the dream logic where dreamer and dream are one. This echoes philosophical concepts like Kant's "Ding an sich" or the Indian "brahman". These pairs of opposites are fundamental. In Indian thought, you have _rajas_ (energy) and _tamas_ (inertia), balanced by _sattva_ (harmonization); in Chinese philosophy, _yin_ (inertia) and _yang_ (energy), balanced harmoniously. Even Einstein's E=MC² can be seen through this lens (Energy, Mass, Harmonious Movement represented by the speed of light). Penetrating these opposing forces is the path to deeper reality. Another powerful symbol is the bull, often seen associated with the Goddess. In Çatal Hüyük, the Goddess is depicted giving birth to a bucranium (a bull's head). The bull represents the crescent moon, that celestial body that dies and is resurrected monthly. The moon carries its own death (the increasing shadow) but has the power to throw it off and be reborn. Thus, the moon symbolizes rebirth and the power of life in the world of time to overcome death. This symbolism connects to the idea of dead and resurrected gods in the Mediterranean area, such as Osiris, Attis, Adonis, and even Jesus, who are associated with the moon. The Goddess, in her dual aspect, is She who takes the seed and transmutes it into life, and She who takes back the body to bring it forth renewed. She carries death to resurrection; she is the transformer. In Crete, the double-headed ax, the _labrys_ (from which "labyrinth" is named), is a prime symbol associated with the dominant Mother Goddess. The _labrys_, with its lunar curve, signifies that something old must die for something new to be born; thus, she is Goddess of death as well as birth. The arrival of Indo-European peoples in Old Europe after 3500 b.c. brought a dramatic change and a collision of mythologies. The older agricultural societies with dominant Mother Goddess traditions where identity was often matrilineal contrasted sharply with the incoming Indo-European warrior cultures, who were patrilineal and focused on masculine gods. This clash is seen in Greek mythology, culminating in stories like the Oresteia, where male gods like Apollo and Athena cleanse Orestes of matricide guilt. Yet, the sources suggest the female power _does_ come back. Unlike the syncretism common in nature-based mythologies (where gods from different cultures could be seen as variations of the same underlying nature powers), the incoming Semitic traditions often featured an exclusive tribal god. In the desert, where life was harsh and dependency was on the tribe, the tribal god became the dominant figure. This led to _exclusivism_, where the gods of other people were seen not just as different, but as not real gods, even as demons. The Hebrew tradition, particularly, is highlighted as being extreme in turning against the Goddess and the powers of the Earth, calling local goddesses "abominations". Let's look at Greek myth more closely. A figure like Artemis, though known as the virgin goddess in the Classical tradition, is presented as a "total goddess" with varied powers and associations. Encountering a deity, who represents a powerful focus of spiritual energy, requires preparation; if you're not ready, it can be overwhelming, like an overloaded circuit blowing a fuse. This is shown in the story of Actaeon, who sees Artemis naked and is turned into a stag consumed by his own dogs – symbolizing his lower appetites consuming him when unprepared for the divine presence. The epic poems _The Iliad_ and _The Odyssey_ reflect this shift. _The Iliad_ is seen as embodying the male-oriented, war-focused Indo-European world, dominated by Zeus and the Olympians. _The Odyssey_, however, marks a "Return to the Goddess". Odysseus's journey after the Trojan War becomes a mythological voyage, a descent into the unconscious where he encounters not human beings, but mythological figures like the Cyclops and nymphs (Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa). These nymphs represent different aspects of the female principle or _śakti_ – Circe the temptress/erotic, Calypso the wife/matron, and Nausicaa the virgin/inspirer of heroes, mirroring Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena. His journey is a process of learning to meet the female principle on her own terms, with guidance from Hermes, the messenger god who guides souls to rebirth. The Trojan War itself, supposedly caused by the Judgment of Paris, is reinterpreted not as a mere beauty contest, but as a young man (Paris) being required to choose his life's path, his dominant _śakti_, from these three aspects of the one Goddess – heroism (Athena), royal rule (Hera), or the erotic life (Aphrodite). His choice of Aphrodite is seen as a patriarchal "put-down" of the Goddess, valuing "woman and booty" over deeper principles. Odysseus's trials on his journey are a kind of initiation, forcing him to confront and assimilate the female principle that the war-oriented world of the Iliad had rejected. Mystery cults, like those at Eleusis, offer a deep dive into these transformative ideas. The Eleusinian mysteries, linked to Demeter (Earth Mother) and Persephone (her daughter, Kore), centered on agriculture – the sowing, storage, death, and rebirth of grain. This symbolized the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, and also the journey of the individual initiate. Persephone's descent into the underworld and return mirrors the grain cycle and represents the fruit of the fields coming forth again. The initiate's journey through the mysteries is a spiritual process aiming to introduce them to the fundamental grounds of existence, the source of consciousness and energy. Symbols like the torch (representing the underworld journey), the serpent (life-giving consciousness, shedding skin, rebirth), the winnowing basket (separating the essential seed from the chaff of life), and the symbolic child/old man (representing eternal energy) are central to this initiation. Even painful rituals like whipping were part of this, symbolizing the hurting or "tilling" of the Earth (or the self) necessary for new life to emerge. Dionysus, associated with wine, frenzy, and transformation, also plays a significant role in mystery traditions. His mythology includes themes of death and rebirth, destruction and creation. His unique birth story – twice born, once from his incinerated mother Semele and then from Zeus's thigh – is seen through the lens of male initiation: physical life from the mother, spiritual/cultural life from the father/male principle. Dionysus represents sudden inspiration and the potent energy of life breaking through established forms. Riding the powerful energy of the "mother energy," often symbolized by the leopard or panther, is the goal – living with divine composure amidst the rush of life. The serpent symbolism reappears powerfully. The serpent is associated with healing (caduceus) and vitality. In other contexts, it represents the energy of life engaged in the world of time, constantly shedding its skin for renewal. When paired with the panther or lion (solar, eternal, disengaged consciousness), it shows the Goddess spanning both the temporal and eternal realms. A striking image shows a nymph (the female as initiator) initiating a young man (Peleus) into the mysteries of life, with serpents opening his inner eye (mystic vision), his ear (song of the universe), and biting his heel (death to ego, opening to the transcendent). This death to the ego and rational consciousness is necessary to hear the "song of the universe" and access inner intuition, which is framed as a female power. This idea of integrating opposites and transcending the ego is fundamental. The goal of mystery journeys and meditation is often to navigate the "razor's edge" between awareness of self in the world of time and space, and awareness of self as consciousness disengaged from it. Figures like the neutral angels bringing the Grail (transcending God vs. Devil) or the leopards guarding the threshold symbolize this passage. The ancient Mother Goddess principle, though often suppressed or reinterpreted, consistently resurfaces. Even in the rigorously patriarchal Old Testament, which called goddesses "abominations", hints of older Sumerian nature mythology appear, like the flood story or the idea of a creative being splitting in two (Adam and Eve). The story of Cain and Abel can be seen as a patriarchal reversal of an older Sumerian myth where an agriculturalist was favored by a goddess over a herder. In Christianity, the Goddess principle makes a powerful return through the Virgin Mary. Influences from Classical mystery religions and even potentially Buddhism (via figures like Aśoka's missionaries) are suggested to have shaped early Christian mythology, particularly the concept of death and resurrection and the idea of an inward Christ. The "virgin birth" is interpreted mythologically not as a biological event, but as the birth of spiritual life within the individual, a theme found in many traditions, including American Indian myths and the Indian _kuṇḍalinī_ system. Mary's gradual elevation within Catholic tradition is seen as the old Goddess "right back again". The Renaissance, too, saw a resurgence of these ideas through the rediscovery of hermetic texts, which showed a shared symbolic language between Christian and Classical traditions, often attributed to the Goddess herself as the source of the teaching. Finally, the symbolism of the Muses and Graces tied to the celestial spheres provides a map of the soul's journey towards illuminated consciousness. The Graces, as aspects of Aphrodite (_śakti_), represent the energy flowing out and returning. The Muses, inspired by this energy from Apollo (Lord of Light), translate it into the arts and spiritual knowledge. The terrifying figure of Cerberus, guarding the underworld entrance, symbolizes the fears and desires (past, present, future; wolf, lion, dog) that bind the ego. To access the higher spheres and hear the "song of the universe" (the Muses), one must confront these fears, die to the ego, and open to the intuition. This powerful, gentle voice of the universe, sometimes described as feminine, encourages us, "Be not afraid". **Ideas and Questions to Explore Further:** - How does the lack of modern "female mythological models" described at the beginning impact women's self-perception and societal roles today? Can new myths be consciously created? - Delve deeper into the specific mythologies of the goddesses mentioned (Artemis, Demeter, Persephone, Isis, Aphrodite, Hera, Athena) and explore their variations across different regions and time periods within the Greek world. - Research the Eleusinian Mysteries or Dionysian Mysteries in more detail. What specific rituals were involved, and how might they have induced transformative experiences? - Explore the concept of _śakti_ in Indian philosophy and compare it more closely with the female principle or energy as described in the sources. - Investigate the influence of mystery religions and pagan traditions on early Christianity beyond what is mentioned in the sources. - How does the mythological distinction between the female as the "nature principle" and the male as the "social principle" manifest in contemporary society? Are there modern examples or challenges related to this? - Examine the symbolism of the Muses and the celestial spheres in ancient cosmology and philosophy. How does this relate to psychological or spiritual development? - Look into the work of Carl Kerényi or Jane Ellen Harrison, mentioned in the sources, to gain further perspective on Greek religion and mythology. - Consider how the collision of mythologies (agricultural/Goddess vs. herding/male gods) might relate to historical events and societal changes, such as the rise of patriarchal structures. - Reflect on the idea of deities as "metaphors transparent to transcendence". How can this understanding shape our approach to religious or spiritual concepts? This brief journey through the sources gives us a glimpse into the enduring power and presence of the Goddess in mythology across cultures and throughout history. From the earliest Paleolithic figurines to the mystery cults, the Arthurian romances, the Renaissance, and even woven into unexpected corners of modern traditions, the principle of the feminine divine continues to offer deep insights into the nature of life, death, rebirth, and the mysteries within ourselves.