An exploration of the historical development of the concept of the Moon-Mother Goddess, from her beginnings in the Near East five thousand years ago to her ultimate absorption into the Catholic Church as the Blessed Virgin Mary. *
{Happy Mother's Day}
"...The god or goddess announces its name through the mouth of a hu-
man and is known to its worshippers by that name. It grows in mass
and power according to the increase of the number who believe...
In this manner came into existence...such trinities as Brahma, Vishnu
and Shiva, and Osiris, Isis and Horus. A god or goddess lasts as long
as there is anyone to worship it...It ceases to be when there are no
more human bodies to give thoughts of prayer and worship..."
(Percival, H.W. 'Thinking and Desire')
In this sense, gods and goddesses are born and die just as human beings do. When the
goddesses were created they served a purpose in the minds of their worshippers. Psy-
chologically, they symbolized female creative power. They were provided with femin-
ine nourishment, protection and creativity...
The first evidence of female deities or worship was a female figurine...dating as far back as ca. 25,000 b.c.e. Traces of this worship have been found from Siberia to
Southern Africa, from the Indies to Ireland, and all over the New World.
The worship of the goddess was primarily a reflection of ancient societies needs and
views of nature and creation. As they saw it, all human beings, and more importantly,
all life emanated from the female. Therefore, the Great Mother - the Goddess - was
the Mother of the universe - the Mother of all creation.
"Only when we have considered the whole scope of the basic feminine
functions - the giving of life, nourishment, warmth, and protection -
can we see why the Feminine occupies so central a position in human
symbolism and from the very beginning bears the character of "greatness'.
The Feminine appears as great because that which is contained, shel-
tered, nourished, is dependent on it and utterly at its mercy. Nowhere
perhaps is it so evident that a human being must be experienced as
"great" as in the case of the Great Mother. Woman = body = vessel =
world is the basic formula of the matriarchal stage, i.e. of a human
phase in which the Feminine is preponderant over the masculine, the
unconscious over the ego and consciousness. It should not be forgot-
ten that "early humankind" and "matriarchal stage" are no archeologic-
al or historical entities, but psychological realities whose fateful power
is still alive in the psychic depths of present-day human beings."
(Nuemann, E. 'The Great Mother')
"...The Mother archetype appears in an infinite variety of aspects...to
this category belong the goddess and especially the Mother of God, the
virgin, and Sophia (Wisdom). Mythology offers many variation of the
mother archetype: many things arousing devotion or feelings of awe, as
for instance...heaven or earth, the woods, the sea or any still waters,
rather even the underworld and the moon can be mother symbols."
(Jung, C.G. "Aspects of the Feminine")
*excerpted from "Moon Goddess" Safiyah Karimah
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