Before The Age Of Delusion

By: David Yanez 4-17-12


In a time long before the current age of delusion and faith, long before Zeus, Apollo, Jupiter, Yahweh, Allah, Jesus, Mosses, Krishna and the Buddha, the Goddess reigned supreme. Prehistoric societies were partnership societies between men and women, with matriarchal lineages, where women were respected and honored as living goddess's. It was the Goddess, not God or the Gods that they worshipped, but the creator of the universe and of all life, the Mother Earth Goddess. Why? Because women as understood by prehistoric cultures, where the givers of life and the maintainers of life, who possessed the magical powers of life, healing, compassion and wisdom.

We call the human Paleolithic age of hunter gathering, primitive, but in reality it was far from primitive. For all intensive purposes we were anatomically modern humans, Homo sapien sapiens. Our brains were actually slightly larger than they are today. If you took a Cro-Magnon human and educated them today, they could very well be the next Einstein. So why do we call their beliefs in the Goddess primitive? Only their technology was primitive, not their ability to reason, think creatively, or create. Far from being the mindless cavemen we have long imagined, they were our founding fathers and mothers.

Being the ones that gathered food while the men were hunting, women possessed the knowledge of edible and healing plants. Women of this time were basically the ones that fed and clothed the tribe when the men did not catch any game. They fashioned nets and hooks to hunt small prey and fish, and developed the technology to cloth us from the extreme weather. Women were invaluable and seen as goddess's and magicians. They were our shaman healers and painters of the cave walls as well. They were symbolized by the prehistoric Goddess figurines all over the world and portrayed as protectors and seen as one with all animals and life.

Many scholars agree that it was women who first domesticated plants via their knowledge of the plants they picked, and took us into the Neolithic agricultural age. The fig tree is most likely the first domesticated plant in the world. Women being the first to discover the suns power of life over the plants, were most likely seen as givers of life like the sun, when the plants they sowed came to bear fruit. In my opinion this is why ancient women where associated with the sun, and portrayed as sun goddess's. Women discovered the secret of life, and the knowledge of the Gods, and as a consequence reaffirmed their role as Goddess's. The fig tree also became a sacred tree throughout the world and is most likely the origin of the tree of life symbol, being that it sustained the lives of many humans, and has branches that spread up to the heavens and roots that reach deep down the earth or underworld. This also marked the time when humans left the garden of Eden and where forced to sow their own food. The age of agriculture arrived and the Goddess prevailed in pre-historic agricultural societies throughout the world.

The bull or bison have long been depicted with the goddess or women, from the Chauvet Caves, to the city of Çatalhöyük, and in later classical mythologies. One theory according to Marija Gimbutas, in The Language of the Goddess suggests that the likeness of the female uterus and fallopian tubes to the head and horns of a bison/bull, associates the bison with the Goddess and is a symbol of ‘becoming’. Taurus the constellation, is an astrological sign associated with the Vernal equinox, Spring, a time of life and regeneration. One theory suggests that the cave of Lascaux in particular a painting of a Bison is the representation of the constellation Taurus and was used as an astronomical observatory. The Bison also has a similar gestation time as women, approximately 9 1/2 lunar months. Taurus is also supposedly governed by Venus and is also associated with the moon.

The cave engraving of the Venus of Laussel depicts a women holding a Bison horn with 13 carved notches, possibly symbolizing the number of moons or the number of menstrual cycles in one year. The Venus was also painted with red ochre, which symbolized, birth, death and re-birth. She also has her hand on her abdomen (or womb), with large breasts and vulva. Throughout history humans have linked women's menstrual cycle to the cycle of the moon, although current scientific understanding sees no link. Suffice it to say ancient humans probably saw a connection.

The panther, or the panthera species of large cats, which include the leopard, jaguar, lion, and tiger have long been associated with the ancient goddess. The oldest zoomorphic sculpture in the world is of a lion headed figure that some believe to be the body of a woman. The word "panther", in Greek, could be interpreted as "every wild beast", supporting the idea of the Goddess connected to every creature. The Goddess is depicted with the panther in Çatalhöyük, and with the Minoen Snake Goddess. She is the Egyptian lion Goddess Bastet. The panther was a symbol of the earth Goddess. The Native Americans regard the panther as the protector of the universe. She was the Mayan Ixchel, the jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine, the goddess of making children.

In the hills of Botswana Africa archeologists have found what appears to be the oldest evidence for ritual religion dating back to 70,000 years ago. In a cave is hidden a six-meter-long rock that bears a striking resemblance to a snake, including a mouth like gash at the end. With carved notches along its length that simulate the appearance of moving scales. The snake may be the first animal humans worshipped, and as a result have taken the symbol of the sacred snake throughout the worlds and later associated it with the Goddess. The serpent is one of the oldest and wide spread mythological symbols. It represent fertility or a creative life force. When snakes shed their skin, they are symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing. The ouroboros is a symbol of eternity and continual renewal of life. Serpents were the guardians of the Goddess Athena's temple. They were seen as life givers. Chaldeans had only one word for life and snake. The snake was also associated with the tree of life, perhaps because the fig tree has serpent like trunks and branches. It was a serpent that engulfed the Buddha under a Bodhi tree (Fig tree) and protected him for seven days. They were symbols of wisdom in ancient times and flourished with the goddess.

Not until men domesticated animals do we see the formation of patriarchal societies. These were male dominated societies who saw men as supreme over all animals including women. In order to domesticate an animal you have to dominate it, and men saw this as an opportunity to dominate women as well. When these patriarchal societies easily conquered Goddess societies due to the power and efficiency of the horse. They had to convert these societies that they conquered into patriarchal societies. They did this by outlawing the worship of the Goddess and changing their Mythologies in a way that made women look like the evil temptress, and everything associated with the goddess evil. In the mythology of the Medusa who was a guardian and protectress, women and snakes are transformed into an evil monster, that was beheaded by Prometheus.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil of the bible has long been thought of as an apple tree when in fact it was the fig tree; remember that Adam and eve covered their genitals with fig leaves. In antiquity it was the tree of knowledge, but in the bible it was transformed into the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the snake transformed into an evil snake and Eve into an evil temptress who wanted the knowledge of good and evil. Because of Eve, (whose name means 'to breath', and consequentially, 'to live' or 'to have life), according to the Bible humans were forced out of the garden of eden and forced to fend for themselves. Instead of seeing women and the knowledge of life and agriculture as a good thing, patriarchal societies made women into scapegoats and possessions, just like livestock.

Because it was long associated with the Goddess, the bull was transformed into an evil obstacle that had to be defeated or slain in Patriarchal mythologies. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he kills the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh. In Roman Mithraism, Mythra is depicted as slaying the Sacred Bull. In Greek Mythology the Minotaur is killed by Theseus. In the Old testament Moses punishes the Israelites for worshipping a Golden Calf. It has even been suggested that Spanish bull fighting is a left over practice of killing the Bull of the Goddess.

In Greece the image of the Lion Goddess was transformed into the Sphinx. The body of a lion, the wings of a bird, and the face of a woman, the sphinx was treacherous and merciless. Those who cannot answer her riddles are killed and eaten by the monster. The mythical Greek king Oedipus, defeated the ravenous sphinx by answering her questions correctly thereby forcing the female monster to kill herself, thereby freeing Thebes from her harsh rule. Even in contemporary portrayals of women by men, they are likened to vicious cats. Cat fight is generally used to refer to two women fighting. Cat woman from the Batman cartoon is an evil temptress.

The spiral is the most pre-historic ancient symbol in the entire world, and is in every indigenous culture across the globe. It is also the most sacred and holy of symbols across ancient cultures. The symbol of the spiral has been associated with the solar calendar, the rhythm of the seasons, and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Similarly, the spiral symbolized the sun, ancient people most likely thought the sun was born each morning, died each night, and was reborn the next morning. The spiral is also the universal pattern of growth and evolution. The spiral represents the goddess, the womb, fertility and the life force. It means all universe and eternity. Islamic people used the symbol for holy things that can not be written. In the orient the spiral meant the beginning of all life, where the Gods come from. Native American believed it to be all energy all consciousness, the scared ones, all living things.

The spiral is the most recurring shape in Nature. From tornados to hurricanes, to water whirlpools and snail shells, the spiraling of leaves in the wind, from Galaxies to flowers, the spiral is everywhere. It is the shape of the building blocks of life, DNA, and the shape of a fetus in the womb. Our ancestors could not have missed the most common shape in the universe. It is the shape that gravity exerts on galaxies and forming stars, which in turn give birth to all life in the universe.

Before the age of delusion, there was the goddess. Today we have our mothers, and our sisters. They carry us in their wombs for nine months and care for us the rest of our lives. How can men treat women as possessions? They owe their existence to them. Male dominated religions spread bigotry towards women and encourage bigotry against other religions. It's time we took a second look at what women represent and there sacred role in our lives.







Copyright 2012 David Yanez. All Rights Reserved.

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