Exploring Literature CK Tower

Herstory: rediscovering the names, forms & powers of Women Throughout my exploration of Women Studies, I have come to understand the profound significance in searching for and exploring the truth about women's history, cultural significance and accomplishments -- to remember, reconstruct, rediscover, the names, forms and powers of Woman: Goddess, Matriarch, Muse and Amazon. It is from these ancient names and forms of Woman that we draw our strengths and powers, and in them we see all that we have been, all that has been taken from us, all that we have surrendered, all that we can become. Through an exploration of Herstory, we take an important step toward living more fully as women, as humans. In the beginning was Woman, and Woman was All. She was the Source of Life, the Primal Creator, Mother Earth, Queen of Heaven, Lady of the Beasts. In the beginning fathers were unknown and fatherhood was an unknown concept. The connection between sex and procreation, obvious to the modern woman, was not so obvious to ancient people. Women were magical, fascinating creatures: they could create life within their own bodies, of their own accord, and draw it forth into the world. They nursed this new life at their breasts, fed this life and cared for it. Women were honored as manifestations of the Lady Who supplied the streams and the fish, the trees and the beasts of the hunt, the fields of grain and the fruits of the bough. For thousands of years, Woman was so honored. Even after the discovery of fatherhood--male as partial contributor to the creation of new life-- Woman was still revered. This realization was reflected in the faith, art and tales of ancient peoples. For a time, the male creative principle was honored alongside that of the female, though it was often of lesser status: the male principle, expressed as a God, was usually the Goddess' son and consort, sometimes Her brother and consort. He was always the younger, and, whereas the Goddess was forever and constant, the God often died annually and was resurrected, reflecting the change of the seasons. Over thousands of years, many human populations moved from being nomadic tribes to the settled life of villages, towns and cities. As the life style of the people changed, so their faith changed; men began to assume power over land, livestock, and eventually life. Other peoples, such as those of the Mediterranean and India, were conquered by waves of patriarchal invaders from the Steppes of Asia. The reasons for near-total male assumption of power are unclear and contested by historians, but the results are not: the Goddess was overthrown and the God emerged triumphant. Again, myths and art reflect this transfer of power: the Goddess' virgin forests are violated, She Herself is raped, forced into marriage, forced to show obeisance to the God who had once been her loving and beloved husband/son/consort. Matriarchy? Was there ever such as time and place, an ancient Matriarchy of peace? Was this Golden Age, so popular in women's spirituality texts, a reality? Or is it more accurately a Narrative of Origins? Is it history/herstory or fiction? No subject is more likely to cause heated debate among anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and mythologists than the Golden Age of Matriarchy. Whether or not this was a great age of peace and prosperity, in which war was virtually unknown and nature was honored, remains unclear and dependent upon the personal biases of the interpreter. However, based upon a preponderance of archaeological and mythological evidence, it seems that far in the distant past there was no knowledge of fatherhood, or it was considered irrelevant; family name and property were passed through the female line; and Deity was understood primarily in female form. Historical records, too, seem to support the idea of a time when women were of equal importance and dignity with men, perhaps in some ways of greater importance and dignity, and Goddesses were greater than Gods. Unfortunately, written records appear just as the patriarchal Gods are descending from on high, and reveal the slow and deliberate marginalization of the Goddesses and women, in the forms of sacred myths, folk tales, marriage and property laws, and other legal records. So, what of those myths of Gods battling Goddesses? Some mythographers and historians take the stories at their word, while others consider them allegorical. Most likely, they are a combination of the fictional and the factual, the imaginative and the concrete. While it is doubtful the Greek God Apollo literally slew a giant serpent at Delphi, there is substantive archaeological and literary evidence for an overthrow of the Goddess Gaea at that site, and Her replacement by Apollo--that is, the sacred site of Delphi was violently taken from the priestesses of Gaea and rededicated to Apollo by His priests and priestesses. Similarly, the moon is not the head of Coyolxauhqui--but an Aztec myth recounts a great battle between Deities, in which that Goddess was beheaded; the myth, then, is probably as much a phenomenological tale as the mythological remembrance of a real invasion or civil war. This change, though, from Goddess to God, was and is far from absolute. The Goddess and Goddesses remained. Among a few peoples the Goddess/es remained all-powerful, but more often survived in altered and marginalized forms. Devi, "Goddess," remains the most powerful expression of Deity among the Hindu faithful. Among Native American peoples, Goddesses remained essential to the life and prosperity of the people and the right order of the universe. Chinese Buddhists revere Kuan-Yin, Mistress of Mercy, as greatly as they do Buddha himself, and Tara is the beloved of Tibet. Natives of the South American Andes, alongside their Catholic Christ and Saints, still honor their mountain Goddesses. Amaterasu-no-mi-kami is still today the life-loving Sun Goddess of the Shinto. The Aboriginal people of Australia never forgot their Ancestresses, who created the world during the long-ago Dreamtime. And the men and women of Africa know wombs will remain empty and fields barren without the blessings of the Goddesses of the hearth and the field, the garden patch and the river. Even in the West, bastion of male worship, the God's triumph some fourteen hundred years ago was incomplete. Women have long memories. Male historians have regarded as curious relics of the past the sacred stories of Europe and Egypt and the Near East; but to women these sacred stories have long been hidden sources of power. Women remembered that Hera forever fought Her forced marriage to Zeus; they remembered that Freya rode Her cat-drawn chariot across the night heavens; that Danu the Mother was loved from Ireland to Anatolia; that Rana Nedia made the hills green for Saami reindeer; that Medeine ruled the forests of Lithuania and Cerridwen the Cauldron of Inspiration....They remembered that Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah (and Bilhah and Zilpah) were as much Matriarchs as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were Patriarchs, that Mary was the Mother of God, that Khadijah was the beloved wife of the Prophet and Fatimah his favorite, powerful daughter. The Amazons "We are riders; our business is with the bow and the spear, and we know nothing of women's work." -- Herodotus IV, 114 Fierce warriors, they wielded spear and sword in defense of children and motherland. The ancient Greeks considered the Amazons their most fearsome opponents, defenders of an ancient woman-centered faith who had to be defeated that father-rule might prevail---so it is that Penthesilea leads her Amazons in defense of matriarchal Troy. It was the Greeks who named them "Amazon" from a-mazos, that is, "without a breast." And so the legend has come down to us of ferocious women warriors who cut off their right breast, that it not hinder their use of the bow; who fought and often defeated the greatest of the Greek heroes; and who finally retreated into the mist-enshrouded mountains of Anatolia and Armenia and Bactria as wave after wave of patriarchal warriors invaded their lands. The historical factuality of Amazons as a people is a debate which has raged in academic circles for centuries. Were the Amazons "real"? In the case of the Greeks, the Amazons they wrote of seem to have been a combination of fact, mythology and male fantasy. (Historically, the particular Amazons the Greeks wrote of seem to have been tribes of women, and maybe even men, who fought the armed invasions by the Indo-Europeans.) On the other hand, some tales of the Amazon are obviously fictional: for a particular society the Amazon becomes the "Other," the being upon whom are projected all of the society's doubts, fears and prejudices; the Amazon is the exact opposite of what a proper woman should be, her culture is the unnatural opposite of the natural order. However, evidence has been found throughout the world of women warriors, not just as anomalous curiosities but as standard features of society. The daughters of noble Japanese families were trained for battle and were skilled in the use of the naginata. Joan of Arc was not the only woman of Medieval Europe to lead soldiers in battle: Queens, noblewomen and nuns had been doing so for centuries. The King of Siam was protected by an elite bodyguard of women warriors. Warrior queens are a common element of African folk-history, among the most famous being Aminatu and Jinga Mbande. Vietnamese women were savage warriors who fought on both sides of their civil war, andmany Russian women were decorated for valor during both World Wars. Even where archaeological evidence is lacking, surely the preponderance of stories featuring women warriors points to their historical existence. The fictional, mythical Amazon has changed her image and function to suit the needs of the people and the times. She has also changed the battles she has fought. The Amazon has been chaste defender of the Christian faith, sword-wielding Abbess, valorous Medieval Christian Crusader and loyal daughter of Islam. She has been samurai and ninja. She has been the denizen of a Lost Valley, Victorian explorer of strange lands, Suffragette and Abolitionist, courageous war nurse and pilot, and futuristic seeker of new life and civilizations. She has wielded as her weapons sword and spear, pistol and whip, picket signs and clubs, speech and pen. The Amazon of fiction and dream is always noble, courageous, intelligent and--above all--independent, and the women who have willingly or unwillingly earned the name Amazon often emulate these qualities. Each, in her own way, has sought and fought to improve the quality of life for herself, her sisters and her children. Some have purposefully sought battle, while others fell into the midst quite unexpectedly. Some fit the classical ideal of Amazon; that is, they fought on the traditional field of battle with pistols and swords. For others, the field of battle is the picket line, the classroom, the hospital, the factory, the laboratory and houses of politics. The present argument over the place, or even appropriateness, of women in the military is one at which these women would laugh. Women have always been warriors: they have borne spears and swords and bows and arrows in defense of family, land and belief. Not all of these women were forced into the role by the absence of men, as so many southern women were during the Civil War. Rather, they chose to be warriors, and proved to be as ferocious and ingenious as their male comrades. And while we may not always agree with or even understand their motivations and actions, these women nonetheless fit the profile of the traditional Amazon. All of the Amazons profiled here actually lived, except one-- Lakshmi, and her story may well be based on an actual historical person. Decent of the Gods Whatever the reasons, the Gods came. The change in power, from Goddess to God, from women to men, was gradual and relatively peaceful in some areas, violent and abrupt in others, bitter and centuries-long among still other peoples. The changes are related in the myths: Nergal pulled Ereshkigal from Her underworld throne and forced Her into marriage. Zeus transformed into a cuckoo, landed in Hera's lap, then changed back into His manly form and raped Her. The Aesir, a pantheon of vibrant, violent Deities, invaded the ancient lands of Scandinavia and drove the peaceful Vanir into exile. Often times, the change was initiated by a powerful hero, usually the son of a God: Theseus destroyed the Goddess-worshipping civilization of Crete, while Vainamoinen stole the grain-grinding Sampo from Louhi the Witch-Queen. In a few instances, the change took place during recorded history: Akhnaton temporarily replaced the female-honoring faith of ancient Egypt with monotheistic worship of the male Aten; the priests of Yahweh overthrew Jezebel and Athaliah, loyal daughters of Asherah; and the Kaaba was taken from the Trinity of Al-Lat, Manat and Al-Uzzah and given to Their father, Allah. This change in the Divine Order has had tremendous effect on civilization, particularly in the West. At its most extreme, the new order of patriarchy supports slavery, racism, economic oppression, bloody wars of conquest, rape, mistreatment of children, physical and emotional abuse, environmental destruction, suppression of socially-unacceptable intellectual and artistic talents, the sexual and economic enslavement of women, emotional repression in men, and genital mutilation. Even in its more "benevolent" forms, patriarchy treats women like children, intellectual inferiors who needed to be cared for and shielded--often to the women's detriment when the men accorded the role of protector died, abandoned or mistreated them. Women in the East, too, suffered: only after the victory of the Communist revolutionaries were Chinese women spared the agonizing pain of foot-binding. Following the Aryan invasion of ancient India, women became less than secondary citizens and widows were required to die in their husbands' funeral pyres; even today, poor families spend a month's wages to determine a fetus' sex by sonogram and if the child is female, abortion is almost immediate. The Other In the beginning was Woman and Woman was All. Then She was not All, She was one of many, though still beloved and powerful and feared. Later, She was One of Many, but no longer powerful. Finally, She was no longer She but she-- the Other. So it went in the West and throughout much of the rest of the world, wherever pagan patriarchal warriors and priests brought word of their mighty (male) Gods, wherever Jews and Christians and Muslims and Zoroastrians brought word of their One God, wherever Buddhists declared women too-closely tied to the illusion of the world, wherever brothers and sons and lovers revolted and declared male to be above female. The Divine, though proclaimed to be beyond gender--or as encompassing both genders--was nonetheless referred to in the masculine. And women suffered because of this. Woman had lost the magic of her body, the power of her words, the wisdom of her mind. Her body was not magical, the source of pleasure and life; now, it was source of temptation and sin. Her words were no longer source of counsel and respect; now they were frivolous and inane. Her mind was no longer wise and inventive; now it was filled with vacuous imaginings and nothing of great value or import. Such was the general opinion, however it was far from universal. Images of Woman Divine survived, and in some areas flourished. Not all women bowed before the new patriarchal order, not all women kept silent in speech or in thought, not all women stilled their creative hands and imaginings. Not all men suppressed the natural feelings of their heart; they recognized love and kindness and nurturance and respect not as sources of vulnerability, but as sources of strength. Perhaps, as some have argued, it was a necessary step in human cultural evolution. Perhaps, at least for a time, we needed to push the Goddess away and embrace the ways of the God. Perhaps, as some have argued, the ancient Age of the Great Mother was the infancy of humanity, when we lived secure and safe, thriving in love. If that is so, then the Age of the Father God has been one of rebellious adolescence. In this Age, separated from the Great Mother, yet unsure of ourselves, unsure of our direction, we wandered. We searched for our own way, frightened. If this is so, if humanity has passed through the Age of the Great Mother, and is now in the Age of the Father God, then what of today? Are we truly emerging out of adolescence? Are we entering an era of greater maturity, in which the necessity of masculine and feminine in all spheres of life (political, economic, social, religious), is coming to be recognized? Or is the present resurging interest in the Goddess only a temporary reaction to thousands of years of patriarchy, a fad, a blip? I do not think so. Rediscovering the feminine aspect of Divinity Women have been ordained as Ministers in many branches of Christianity and women Rabbis are an increasingly common sight. Women are gaining ground in the Catholic Church, serving in numerous administrative and supportive capacities; the mystical writings of nuns and other devout women--such as Julian of Norwich, Hildegard von Bingen and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz--are being rediscovered and reprinted; it is doubtful, though, that we will see ordination of women Priests in our generation. The Sufis of Islam never forgot the importance of woman and the dignity she possessed in Allah's eyes; and young Egyptian women now take self-defense courses while their Iranian sisters wear Western clothing and jewelry beneath their jubbah or kibr. The women's rights movement in India is strong, and slowly gaining ground, though bride burning and abortion of female fetuses remains rampant; as part of the movement, the writings of female saints--such as Mirabai, Lal Ded and Mahadeviyakka--while never forgotten, are being reexamined; similarly, the writings of Buddhist saints are being rediscovered. The Baha'i faith has as one of its central tenets the equality and dignity of men and women, both in the world and in the eyes of the Divine. Neo-Paganism, with its emphasis on the Feminine aspect of Divinity, claims some one hundred thousand faithful in the United States alone, and more in Europe, the Near East and Australia and New Zealand. Women in Africa are slowly regaining their economic rights and responsibilities, and so also their self-respect and the respect of others; women have also begun to openly decry the ancient custom of female castration as torture, rather than as initiation rite. In South and Central America, women are eloquent voices in the religious/political/economic movement which has come to be called Liberation Theology. In Mexico, native Mayan women are at the forefront of the battle for native rights, wielding both rifles and petitions. Rediscovery of the femininity of the Divine is a key component in women's battle for equal rights. The Goddesses wield all the power and contain all the potential which is feminine. Women must no longer be defined as virgin or whore; we must no longer be defined by our sexuality and reproductive capabilities alone. While these are central elements of our psyche and physiology, while we are indeed nurturing and loving and kind and empathetic, we are so much more. Women must rediscover the warrior instincts of Athena and Senamuki, the dignity of Hera, the beauty of Erzulie and Lakshmi, the creativity of the Muses and the Poetry Goddess, the charisma of Qandisa, the courage of Mella and Scathach, the wisdom of Shekinah and Saga, the sexuality of Venus and Radha, the magic of Hekate, the strength of Wagadu, the anger of Nemesis, the ferocity of Sekhmet. Men, too, must rediscover these things. They must rediscover the multifaceted natures of their sisters and daughters and wives and mothers. They must rediscover the "feminine element" of their male psyche, that is, their nurturant and empathetic qualities which has so long been suppressed and marginalized Throughout the world, women are working to regain the honor and power lost to them centuries ago through the spread of patriarchal institutions and their oppressive ideologies. And though we still have much to fight for, it is essential we, on occasion, take pause to celebrate all the wondrous accomplishments women have made, and their profound contributions which have enriched human culture.

****

Source Info. Frazer, James George. Robert Fraser, abr. The Golden Bough. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Gimbutas, Marija. Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. New York: HarperCollins, 1991 Leeming, David and Margaret Leeming. A Dictionary of Creation Myths. New York: Oxford University Press,1994. Athanassakis, Apostolos N. The Homeric Hymns: Translation, Introduction and Notes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,1976. Bolen, Jean Shinoda. Gods in Every Man: A New Psychology of Men's Lives and Loves. New York: HarperPerennial,1989. Campbell, Joseph. Occidental Mythology. New York: Penguin Books,1963. Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth. New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1992. Leeming, David and Jake Page. God: Myths of the Male Divine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Stone, Merlin. When God Was A Woman. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers,1976. Cotterell, Arthur. The Encyclopedia of Mythology: Norse, Classical, Celtic. New York: Smithmark Publishers, 1996. The Goddess Oracle: A Way to Wholeness Through The Goddess and Ritual. Melbourne Victoria: Element Books Inc., 1997 Amy Sophia Marashinsky. Bulfinch's Mythology. Crown Publishers, Inc., 1979. The Return of The Mother. Berkeley CA.: Frog Ltd. Andrew Harvey. 1995. The Language of the Goddess. New York: HarperCollins, 1991 Leeming, David and Margaret Leeming. A Dictionary of Creation Myths. New York: Oxford University Press,1994. Ann, Martha and Dorothy Myers Imel. Goddesses in World Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press,1993. Goddess: A Celebration in Art and Literature. Jalaja Bonheim, editor. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1997. Green, Miranda. Celtic Goddesses: Virgins, Warriors and Mothers. New York: George Braziller, 1996. Harvey, Andrew and Ann Baring. The Divine Feminine: Exploring the Feminine Face of God Around the World. Berkeley: Conari Press, 1996. Hixon, Lex. Mother of the Universe: Visions of the Goddess and Tantric Hymns of Enlightenment. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1994. Shaw, Ian and Paul Nicholson. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995. Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon Press, 1978. Waldherr, Kris. The Book of the Goddess. Hillsboro, OR: Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., 1995 Tibet on Buddhism's Great Goddess. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1996. Woolger, Jennifer Barker and Roger J. Woolger. The Goddess Within: A Guide to the Eternal Internet Resources AvatarSearch http://www.avatarsearch.com/ Melisende's Women of History http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/9329/ Women's Access http://users.netropolis.net/sonya/Fam.htm Women Artists In History http://www.wendy.com/women/artists.html#medieval Camille Claudel http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~loui/camille.html Women Artists Archive http://libweb.sonoma.edu/special/waa/ Georgia O'Keefe http://www.ionet.net/~jellenc/okeeffe1.html Women Artists Self-Portraits & Representations of Womanhood from the Medieval Period to the Present http://www.csupomona.edu/~plin/women/womenart.html Frida Kahlo Home Page http://www.cascade.net/kahlo.html The Varo Registry of Women Artists http://www.netdreams.com/registry/ National Museum of Women in the Arts http://www.nmwa.org/ The Book of Gods http://raven.cybercom.com/~grandpa/ Lakshmi International Goddess Art Gallery http://www.lakshmi.com/p_goddes.htm Goddess Art by Joanna Powell Colbert http://cleese.nas.com/jpcolbertart/PrintsPg/ArtPrints/PstssHealCopy/eve.html A Celebration of Women Writers http://www.cs.cmu.edu/People/mmbt/women/celebration.html The Academy of American Poetry http://www.poets.org AMG All Music Guide http://www.allmusic.com/ 4000 years of women in science http://www.astr.ua.edu/4000WS/4000WS.html Amazon Women Warriors in Ancient History http://www.speakeasy.org/~music/amazon.html Diotima: Women & Gender in the Ancient World: http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/gender.html 6000 years of Warrior Women http://www.gendergap.com/military/Warriors.HTM 100 Celebrated Chinese Women http://www.span.com.au/100women/index.html Feminist.com-Women In The Arts http://www.feminist.com/women.htm Women's International Center http://www.wic.org/ The Creation of Patriarchy http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/lerner1.html

Copyright © 2001 CK Tower All Rights Reserved

Contents | Archive | Submissions | News Policies | Staff | Links | Webring | Get Involved | E-mail BarnesandNoble.com@Conspire