Product Code Database
A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmology role of a Creation myth and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, and/or the life-giving bounties thereof in a maternal relation with humanity or other gods. When equated in this lattermost function with the earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as the Mother Earth or Earth Mother, deity in various animistic or pantheistic religions. The earth goddess is archetypally the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky Father or Father Heaven, particularly in theologies derived from the Proto-Indo-European sphere (i.e. from Dheghom and Dyeus). In some polytheistic cultures, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion which narrates the cosmic egg myth, the sky is instead seen as the Heavenly Mother or Sky Mother as in Nut and Hathor, and the earth god is regarded as the male, paternal, and terrestrial partner, as in Osiris or Geb who hatched out of the maternal cosmic egg.
Since 1993, excavations were resumed, now headed by Ian Hodder with Lynn Meskell as head of the Stanford Figurines Project that examined the figurines of Çatalhöyük. This team came to different conclusions than Gimbutas and Mellaart. Only a few of the figurines were identified as female and these figurines were found not so much in sacred spaces, but seemed to have been discarded randomly, sometimes in garbage heaps. This rendered a cult of the mother goddess in this location as unlikely.Ian Hodder (2010)
In Kongo religion, the Sky deity, Nzambici, was the female counterpart of the Sky father and Solar deity, Nzambi Mpungu. Originally, they were seen as one spirit with one half male and the other half female. After the introduction of Christianity to Central Africa, the description of Nzambi changed to Creator God and Nzambici to his wife, "God the essence, the god on earth, the great princess, the mother of all the animals, and the mystery of the Earth."
In Hinduism, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Radha, Parvati, Durga and other goddesses represents both the feminine aspect and the shakti (power) of the Para Brahman known as the Brahman. The divine mother goddess, manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creator deity. She becomes Mother Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms and nourishes them through her body. Ultimately she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or "devours" them to sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life. She also gives rise to Maya (the illusory world) and to prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos.
The Shaktism is strongly associated with Samkhya, and Tantra Hindu philosophies and ultimately, is monist. (2025). 9780791488904, State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791488904 The primordial feminine creative-preservative-destructive energy, Shakti, is considered to be the motive force behind all action and existence in the phenomenal cosmos. The cosmos itself is purusha, the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality that is the divine ground of all being, the "world soul". This masculine potential is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied in multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately all manifestations of the one great mother. Shakti, herself, can free the individual from demons of ego, ignorance, and desire that bind the soul in maya (illusion). Practitioners of the Tantra tradition focus on Shakti to Moksha from the cycle of karma.
The worship of the mother deity can be traced back to early Vedic culture. The Rigveda calls the divine female power Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33) which means "great mother".
Mary occupies a central role in Christian devotion, particularly within the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.Pelikan, Jaroslav. Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture. Yale University Press, 1996. While Protestant traditions generally reject Marian devotion, Catholic and Orthodox theology maintains that veneration of Mary differs from worship of God, reserving adoration (latria) for the Trinity alone.Johnson, Elizabeth. Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints. Continuum, 2003.
The earliest known prayer directed to Mary, the Sub Tuum Praesidium, dates to approximately the 3rd century and seeks her intercession and protection.Thompson, R. P. Prayers of the Early Church. SPCK, 1957. The Hail Mary, originating in the 11th century, became a central element of the Rosary.Jungmann, Josef. The Place of the Hail Mary in Catholic Devotion. Gregorian University Press, 1953. Shrines and devotions such as Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Our Lady of Good Counsel are observed in diverse cultural contexts.McGinn, Bernard. Visions of the Virgin Mary: The Apparitions of the Blessed Mother. Paragon, 1991.
According to Catholic and Orthodox teaching, Mary’s life concluded with her bodily assumption into heaven (the Assumption in Western Christianity, the Dormition in Eastern Christianity).Shoemaker, Stephen. Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption. Oxford University Press, 2002. She is regarded as the foremost saint and is believed by some Christians to continue interceding in the world through reported Marian apparitions and devotions.Pelikan, Jaroslav. Mary Through the Centuries, 1996.
Mary has not been described in Christian theology as a goddess or divine in her own right. Scholastic theology and Mariology consistently describe her as a created being, subordinate to and distinct from the Triune God.Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica, III, q.35.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, were an unorthodox Christian denomination who reportedly worshipped Virgin Mary by making of dough to her. Ancient Christians viewed the Collyridians as heretics, holding that Mary was only to be honoured, and not to be worshipped like the God-man of Christianity.
In Theosophy, the Earth goddess is called the "Planetary Logos of Earth".
The Mother Goddess, or Great Goddess, is a composite of various feminine deities from past and present world cultures, worshiped by modern Wiccans and others broadly known as Neopagans. She is considered sometimes identified as a Triple Goddess, who takes the form of Maiden, Mother, and Crone archetypes. She is described as Mother Earth, Mother Nature, or the Creatress of all life. She is associated with the moon and stars, the Earth, and the sea. In Wicca, the Earth Goddess is sometimes called Gaia."Sage Woman" magazine Issue 79 Autumn 2010--special issue "Connecting to Gaia" The name of the mother goddess varies depending on the Wiccan tradition. English historian Ronald Hutton, however, has forcefully stated that any use of the term "Mother-Goddess" can be accounted for, and disregarded, as the scholars and mythographers' own projection of the Virgin Mary onto the evidence and source data.Hutton, Ronald (1999). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford University Press, pp. 36, 37, and 40. More recently Hutton was criticized in a review for ignoring the evidence of numerous goddesses identified as either mothers or both virgin and mother in pre-Christian antiquity, in addition to providing no evidence or secondary citations with which to substantiate his own position.Whitmore, Ben (2010). Trials of the Moon: Reopening the Case for Historical Witchcraft. A Critique of Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Auckland: Briar Books, p. 20.,
Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the archetype mother was a part of the collective unconscious of all humans; various adherents of Jung, most notably Erich Neumann and Ernst Whitmont, have argued that such an archetype underpins many of its own mythology and may even precede the image of the paternal "father." Such speculations help explain the universality of such mother goddess imagery around the world.
The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have been sometimes explained as depictions of an Earth Goddess similar to Gaia.
In the Baháʼí Faith, Baha'u'llah uses the Mother as an attribute of God: "And when He Who is well-grounded in all knowledge, He Who is the Mother, the Soul, the Secret, and the Essence thereof, revealeth that which is the least contrary to their desire, they bitterly oppose Him and shamelessly deny Him.". Baha'u'llah further writes that "Every single letter proceeding out of the mouth of God is indeed a Mother Letter, and every word uttered by Him Who is the Well Spring of Divine Revelation is a Mother Word, and His Tablet a Mother Tablet."Drewek, Paula. "Feminine Forms of the Divine in Baháʼí Scriptures." Journal of Baháʼí Studies 5 (1992): 13-23.
For a long time, feminist authors claimed that these peaceful, matriarchal agrarian societies were exterminated or subjugated by nomadic, Patriarchy warrior tribes. An important contribution to this was that of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. Her work in this field has been questioned.Kit Wesler (2012), pp. 65–66. Among feminist archaeologists this vision is nowadays also considered highly controversial.Lotte Motz (1997)James; Sheila Dillon (2012)
Since the 1960s, especially in popular culture, the alleged worship of the mother goddess and the social position that women in prehistoric societies supposedly assumed, were linked. This made the debate a political one. According to the goddess movement, the current male-dominated society should return to the Egalitarianism matriarchy of earlier times (though a matriarchy is not an egalitarian society, but a female-dominated one). That this form of society ever existed was supposedly supported by many that were found.
In academic circles, this prehistoric matriarchy is considered unlikely. Firstly, worshiping a mother goddess does not necessarily mean that women ruled society.Lauren Talalay in James; Sheila Dillon (2012) In addition, the figurines can also portray ordinary women or goddesses, and it is unclear whether there really ever was a mother goddess. Let me be perfectly clear about my own position: the maternal Great Goddess is a fantasy , a powerful fantasy with an astonishing capacity to resist criticism. Nicole Loraux in Georges Duby; Michelle Perrot (1994)Lauren Talalay in James, S.L.; Sheila Dillon (2012)Monaghan (2014)
|
|
