{"id":27833,"date":"2020-01-13T12:15:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T11:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/?p=27833"},"modified":"2024-09-25T23:58:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T21:58:01","slug":"divine-female","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lelo.com\/blog\/divine-female\/","title":{"rendered":"Divine Female – Have Men Always Been Religious Deities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cGod is a Woman\u201d <\/span><\/i>sang Arianna Grande with her remarkable single in 2018. Her attempt to tap into the history of a female God brought about some borderline blasphemy by religious communities, along with some interesting questions.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the boardroom to the sports field, women are laying claim to their inborn privilege. And yet, there\u2019s one arena that\u2019s almost exclusively overseen by males: religion<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re not ones to question personal beliefs, but certain narratives inspire the question: <\/span>what if<\/span><\/i>? For the biggest world faiths of today, the respective deity is portrayed as male, meaning that for many, our spiritual sphere is, quite literally, a man\u2019s world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hebrew God, the Torah tells us, is a He. Likewise for Christians, the single deity <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> said being\u2019s only child are both male. Scriptures describe how Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha as he\u2019s more commonly known, was a male sage. Flick through the Quran for any number of <\/span>suras<\/span><\/i> describing God with masculine pronouns. Sure, semantics play a part. The transcribing and translating of ancient texts over thousands of years skews stories\u2013 and yet, divinities tend to be depicted as male. Huh.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t always a man\u2019s world…<\/span><\/p>\n

Women on Top<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"venus<\/p>\n

Venus of Willendorf<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

28 \u2013 25th century BC<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Archeologists all over the world have unearthed ancient artifacts pointing to the widespread worship of goddesses\u2015 or one single Goddess\u2015dating back some 25,000 years. Of course, that vastly predates writing, generally thought to have slowly started in Mesopotamia some five thousand years ago. Only through surviving icons and objects can historians speculate as to the beliefs and communities of one of the earliest societies whose trinkets and tools still survive the Paleolithic people.<\/span><\/p>\n

In particular, so-called Venus figures\u2015small-scale models of exaggerated female forms cast in clay, stone, ivory or bone\u2015may point to a prehistoric, woman-centric religion and by extension, society, with a Mother Goddess as its figurehead. Take the Woman of Willendorf, discovered in the eponymous Austrian village in 1908 and thought to have been made some time between 28,000 and 25,000 BC.<\/span><\/p>\n

All full breasts, curved belly and ample bottom, she\u2019s glorious, and tinted with red. It\u2019s easy to imagine her contours and curves celebrating fertility and fecundity; perhaps that slick of color symbolizing the then-enigma of menstruation, mysteriously tied to the moon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Seated<\/p>\n

Seated Woman of \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

6000 BC<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This adoration of female physiology continued. Case in point, the serene Seated Woman of \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck: a nude figure of baked clay, depicted giving birth. This Great Mother Goddess, scholars posit, was all fruitfulness, life force and vitality \u2013 without any of that \u2018good versus evil\u2019 dualism that so dominates Western religions of today.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gender Tables A-Turning\u2026<\/b><\/h3>\n

Twenty-thousand years ago, revolutionary new beliefs were taking shape. Mesopotamian polytheism, the world\u2019s oldest written religion, paved the way, influencing both its near contemporaries as well as the monotheistic, male-led systems that would follow. The Great Mother figure was joined by a myriad other deities, all of whom \u2013 somewhat disconcertingly \u2013 were related to one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Burney Relief<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

19th \u2013 18th century BC<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

However, it seemed that not all deities were created equal, and increasingly, certain immortals \u2013 mostly sons, male lovers and brothers \u2013 took precedence over those original goddesses of old. Heavenly hierarchies took shape, with male entities at their helm. It\u2019s not really clear why that happened, although inevitably, theories arose.<\/span><\/p>\n

For one, men and women\u2019s place in society was becoming increasingly defined and segregated. Where the hunter-gatherers of prehistory were fairly egalitarian in their division of labor, more-organized approaches to agriculture played to men\u2019s strength and physicality. Gradually, women became relegated to baby makers, so ensuring longevity and lineage to bolster communities\u2019 farming futures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another theory places responsibility for the turning of tables from female worship to male directly with <\/span>knowledge \u2013 <\/span><\/i>somewhat deliberately, if you ask us. In <\/span>The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, <\/span><\/i>Leonard Shlain suggests that the arrival of writing in around 3000 BC effectively rewired the human brain, strengthening the linear and predominantly masculine left hemisphere. It seems farfetched, not to mention sexist in today\u2019s feminist age, but there you go.<\/span><\/p>\n

A more plausible explanation behind the rise and rise of male personifications of deities to the detriment of the once highly-praised goddess figure links back to female fertility. Simply put, women got dragged back down to Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Associated with birth, growth and maternity, they became downgraded over time, while their male counterparts ascended to sky god status, ruling the heavens and becoming, well, <\/span>celestial<\/span><\/i>. Women \u2013 their bodies, bleeding, and mystery \u2013 got unceremoniously grounded. Boo.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would You Adam and Eve It?<\/b><\/h3>\n

\"Liber<\/p>\n

God the Father Creating Eve from Adam\u2019s Rib<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Illustration from the \u2018Liber Chronicarum\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

According to Mesopotamian legend, it was the first woman (we\u2019ll call her Eve) who created a mate: the first man (he sometimes goes by the name of Adam). And yet, <\/span>Genesis<\/span><\/i> \u2013 the first book of both the Torah <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> the Bible \u2013 sees God enact precisely the reverse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, was the Christian Father a convenient substitute for a pre-established Mother? Was he an acceptablereplacement for the ever-so religious Mary figure, sans sex, periods, and well, <\/span>womanliness<\/span><\/i>? And if farming, of all things, sparked this shift, what future repositioning of our communities and world could trigger a reset?<\/span><\/p>\n

Faith is a personal thing, and not to be meddled with. Likewise, these are my opinions and mine alone. And they prompt me to wonder: <\/span>what if<\/span><\/i>? In so many ways, ours isn\u2019t a \u201cman\u2019s world\u201d- at least not exclusively. But in spite of all of our efforts, a huge chunk of life still moves to the beat of an established patriarchy, much of which, inevitably, is cemented in religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

See also:<\/strong><\/p>\n