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  Earth-Mother-Earth
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(The Living Earth)
Archaeological
evidence has emerged from
all over the prehistoric world that the Earth itself was once
viewed/worshipped as a living female form, from whom all life is born and into which we all pass back
into after death.
The
worship of the Mother-Earth was a common belief before the development of
the patriarchal society. It can be seen reaching back into the
Palaeolithic period through the numerous Venus
figures discovered in Europe.
The mother-earth belief system had close connections
to the beliefs in the afterlife, as seen in the use of red-ochre in
funerary rights and an association with the underworld through
the female dominated oracle centres.
Scroll down for more.
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Mother Earth: Mythology.
The word 'Gaia' originates from ancient Greece,
in which it was considered the primary Greek Goddess personifying
the Earth. Gaia is a primordail and Cthonic deity in the Ancient Greek
pantheon and considered a mother Goddess or Great Goddess.
Specifically
from Greek mythology, the myth of Demeter and Persephone tells the story of a mother who discovers that her
daughter has been abducted by Hades,
who drags Persephone into the underworld with him. Demeter, goddess of the harvest, whose
name originally meant 'earth mother', wreaked revenge upon the
earth by refusing to provide any crops.
This myth reveals an important link
to the subject of oracle centres, in that the location of Demeter
is Dodona.
Many ancient cultures
worshipped female deities who match the modern conception of a
"mother goddess".
The Sumerians wrote many erotic poems about their mother goddess
Ninhursag (Sex, Love & Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature,
G, Leick, Routledge, 2003).
In the Hindu
context, the worship of the Mother entity can be traced back to
early Vedic culture, and perhaps, even before that time. The
Rigveda calls the divine female power, Maimata (R.V. 1.164.33),
a term which literally means Mother Earth.
 In
Anatolia, the Neolithic settlement from 7500 BC,
Çatalhöyük,
has yielded many examples of worship of a mother goddess. Examples
found show that images of the goddess greatly exceeded the small
number of a male deity found in early associations and that the
male images eventually ceased to appear at all after a certain
time, as evidenced in the temporal stratification of the
excavations of the site. (3) To date eighteen levels have been
identified. These careful figurines were found primarily in areas
Mellaart believed to be shrines. One, however – a stately goddess
seated on a throne flanked by two lionesses – was found in a grain
bin, which Mellaart suggests might have been a means of ensuring
the harvest or protecting the food supply. The image on the left
was found in excavations there and depicts a Mother Goddess seated
on a throne that is flanked by two lionesses. It is dated at c.
6000-5500 BC and resides in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations
in Ankara.
(More about Chatal Huyuk)
Mother goddesses
are present in the earliest images discovered among the
archaeological finds in Ancient Egypt. The Supreme Egyptian
Goddess was Hathor, who is portrayed as a cow, a woman, and the
holder of the sky. It is interesting in relation to the finds at
Chatal Huyuk that one figure of a deity, depicted standing between
two lionesses, exists among those on one of the earliest paintings
found among the Naqada Culture.
In Egyptian
mythology Aker was the double lion god, the guardian of the
sunrise and the sunset. Between the lions is the Akhet symbol
which represents the horizon on which the sun rises or sets. This
symbol is made up of a solar disk cradled between the two peaks of
the mountains Djew. The western peak was called Manu, while the
eastern peak was called Bakhu.
Following this line of
thought, the Female goddess above can be seen to represent the
earth itself.
The European Prehistoric Earth Goddess 'Cybele' (left), (later Britannia), is also often depicted enthroned with lion/s
as is the Minoan mountain goddess (right).
(Note the similarity to Sumerian
Gilgamesh figure)
The Modern Gaia theory was
revived by James Lovelock approaches the
Earth as a living organism with self-regulatory
functions.
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The Palaeolithic Earth-Mother.
The worship of the female figure can be traced back to the Palaeolithic
period through the numerous Venus figurines which have been discovered
across Europe and Asia. Although there is no direct association, the
figurines display the same featureless face, exaggerated hips, breasts and
belly as seen in later images of the mother earth.
The fact that numerous examples of this type of
female figure have been found over a broad geographical area
ranging from France to Siberia, suggests that some system of
shared understanding and perception of a particular type of woman
existed during the Paleolithic.
The 'Venus of Laussel' (left), is
suggested to include a lunar-count on the conch. It is also
suggested that because she has her hand on her belly, that the
lunar count is represented here in relation to the female cycle.
Images of women, mostly figurines of the same
type as the "Venus" of Willendorf (top of page), all dating to the Paleolithic
period, far outnumber images of men. This has lead to speculation
about the place of women in Stone Age society.
Some have argued that these female figures
denote the existence during this period of a prominent female
deity identified usually as the Earth Mother or the Mother
Goddess. On the basis of this assumption, it has been suggested
that, unlike today, women played a considerably more important, if
not dominant, role in Paleolithic society; that possibly a
matriarchy existed and women ruled.
(More about Venus
Figurines) |
Malta - Home of the
Mother-Goddess.
A selection of the female figurines discovered on
Malta.
It has been suggested that the temples themselves
may have been built in the shape of the mother-earth.
(More about Malta)
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Omphalus: (Navel stones).
Omphalus stones
have been found at several sacred sites. (i.e. Delphi, Dodona and Thebes
(Egypt). Within these stones lies a symbolism which is almost lost to us
now.
Although not at
first apparent, the Omphalus stones from Thebes and Delphi have several
features in common through which it is possible to see the fusion of
Egyptian and Greek iconography and mythology, and the thread of an older
set of ideas.
 
Thebes, Egypt
(left), Greek engraving of Delphi (Note: Apollo’s harp, Doves), (right).
Santillana (4), offers several examples to support the association between
navel-stones and ‘the great flood’ by referring to their function as
‘plugs’; an idea typified by the following phrase “The opening of the
navel brings the deluge”. If one considers the myth of the 'Ark',
and the symbolic reference to doves notifying the end of the flood, then
one can see the Ark itself as a symbolic navel or 'plug', the Doves on both the omphalos above reflect
this suggestion
Service and
Bradbury (2), state that 'Within concept of the Omphalus, there is also
implied an umbilical cord, an invisible link reaching from the depths of the
earth through the navel right up into the heavens' (Roscher 1913)
(2).
Earth-Navels.
Several Earth-navels are considered to have been
significantly situated.
Cuzco - Literally translated means 'Navel'. The capital of the Inca
empire was situated at Cuzco, high in the Andes. Tradition states that the
city was founded according to 'geomantic' principles.
Easter Island -
Was also called 'Te-Pito-O-Te Henua' Which translated means, 'The
Navel of the Earth'. Hancock suggested that its geographical location may
have determined the original settlement. (1)
Jerusalem - As
the capital of the 'Holy land' Jerusalem is called an Earth Navel.
Delphi -
Contained an 'Omphalus', which
was believed to mark the centre of the world. It was supposed to have fallen
from heaven. The story is that Cronus, the god of time, was driven to the
depths of the universe by Zeus, who forced him to vomit the stone, which
landed in the centre of the Earth. The current Omphalus is a replica of the
original, made in the Hellenistic period. (1)
Eridu
- Iraq. The
original Sumerian 'Mound of Creation'.
Angkor Wat - The 'Bayon'
in the network of temples at Angkor was described by B. Groslier as 'the
Omphalus in Angkor's stone cosmos'. (1)
Karnak, Egypt - An
Omphalus was excavated in the sanctuary of the Great Temple of Amon at
Karnak, by G. A. Reisner. It supports the Greek traditions of doves flying
between Delphi and Karnak. (1)
Mecca - The centre of Islam. The
location of the
Kabba,
and the 'black stone' which, according to Islamic tradition, fell
from heaven during the time of Adam and Eve. It is said that Abraham found
the black rock and when he rebuilt the Kaaba, Archangel Gabriel brought the
Stone out of hiding and gave it to him.
Allahabad, India - Formerly called Prayag, and
listed in the Mahabharata as the last and most important of 270
ancient holy places. Prayag was considered the mythical creation point of
the universe. The chief cult shrines at Prayag stood on an island with a
shrine to the primordial serpent who protected the eternal tree (seen by
Hsuan Tsang in 644). A goddess-shrine was recently found south of
Allahabad that dates to 11,000 BC, along with Mesolithic cave paintings of a dancing shaman with horned head-dress,
bangles and a trident, closely resembling Shiva. (3)
Allahabad is still the site of
the largest gathering of humanity on earth.
(More
about Earth-Navels) |
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