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(Visuals are forthcoming. In the meantime you can access some websites that have the following pictures on them.) |
A picture of Aesclepius: http://www.cybercomm.net/~grandpa/aesclepiusx.html |
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Crete: snake goddess (?) and the ancient goddess/woman/snake ancient sitting statue (Scroll down the page for both.): http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/crete.htm |
Another "snake goddess:" http://jade.ccccd.edu/Andrade/WorldLitI2332/Mino/snake.gif |
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Both snake "goddesses:" http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/prehistory/aegean/galleryimages/minoan_images/goddesses.jpg |
A good picture of the snake "goddess:" http://witcombe.sbc.edu/snakegoddess/ |
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Is this figurine from Ur of the Chaldees a snake/woman figure? http://www.GatewaysToBabylon.com/ |
Demeter with snakes and grain: http://www.cybercomm.net/~grandpa/demeterx.html |
Preamble
Have you ever gotten tired of having God always be a man? Or, if you're a man, isn't it nice that God has been of your sex for a long time? Doesn't it make you feel good that God is male? How would you feel if you'd grown up in a society where God was solely female?
Or if you're a woman, don't you get tired of God never being female? Wouldn't it be nice if we were able to think of God as a woman? Of course, some societies think of God as male and female. Very ancient societies may well have thought of God as female, since all human beings come from women.
Now, as far as I'm concerned, whatever it is that constitutes reality, wherever reality came from was probably neither male nor female. But humans have tended to create their idea of the divine in human (and animal) terms. Thus, we have had male and female Gods.
Be that as it may, there was a time when divinity, however one defines it, was female. And I think it important for us to know that. It makes women different -- in their own eyes and in the eyes of men, if we realize that the divine is not only imaged as male, but as female, too. It can give women a better sense of self, and it can give men a greater respect for women as well.
I'm going to talk about a time when God was a woman (or women). This was in Greece before it was Greek, in Egypt before the dynasties, in Iraq before it was Iraq -- all over the Fertile Crescent before it was the states and countries we call it today.
There is much evidence that makes us believe that God was a woman in those days -- about 5,000 years ago and before and after. And I'm going to tell you about a certain female God, one you can still see in the sky today.
The Female Snake God?
Women and snakes have been linked for millenia, even much earlier than Adam and Eve (where the linking was negative). Were these female images "Gods," "priestesses," were they related to life and death, or were they related to fertility and nourishment and menstruation? Let us assume for the moment that they were viewed as representations of some form of deity, as we begin looking at the serpent holder in the sky.
In those days the sky was their holy book, their "Bible," if you will. The sky was important, for it was a good calendar that told the agricultural peoples when to plant and when to harvest. Why? Well, the stars are at specific places in the sky, depending on the time of year. And the ancients knew how to "read the sky." "When you can see the Goddess Sotis just before sunup, the Nile will flood." This meant that when the star we now call Sirius (and the Egyptians called the Goddess Sotis) appears just before dawn, it is a certain time of the year, and the Nile will soon flood, because the Nile floods at that time of the year. This is the harbinger of that time and quite possibly of the new planting season.
The sky was also the site of their religion, for they put their religious stories into the night constellations. Sotis was Isis, the Wisest of the Wise, the One before all others. And the constellations came from how they saw the position of the stars in relationship to each other.
The serpent holder constellation is one of those ancient constellations. If you look at her in a star book (i.e., H. A. Rey's The Stars: A New Way to See Them) you'll note that she is a woman with a gown on and she is holding two snakes. (See visuals 1 and 2.) (The original priests were women who wore gowns in imitation of the Goddess; thus, male priests today wear gowns, because they replaced that tradition with men, but kept the gowns.) Back to the constellation: I posit that She is the Snake Goddess of ancient times. In those times both the female divine and the Snake divine were holy. The female divine was holy, because She was the giver and taker of life (The Lady giveth, and The Lady taketh away). She was the original Mother of us all. The Snake divine was holy, because She (later He) represented reincarnation (the Snake sheds its skin and seems to be "reborn") and was also the death wielder (remember that many Snakes are poisonous). In addition, the Snake was wisdom personified. If you were bitten by a Snake (and survived), you had hallucinations which were interpreted as oracles from the Goddess.
The Snake Goddess (or images of women and snakes, women as snakes) is very old. She is found in Ur, prehistoric Iraq in the fourth millenium B.C.E. -- somewhere between 4000 and 3000 B.C.E., or 5000 to 6000 years ago!! She doesn't yet look like the Snake Goddess in the sky, however, although the people were using the sky as their agricultural calendar then. (See visual 3.) But by 2500 B.C.E. in Sumer (Iraq) She does look like the Snake Goddess in the sky. (See visual 4.) By the time She reaches Crete, an island off the Greek mainland, She is very clearly that Snake Goddess in the sky (1600-1500 B.C.E.). (See visual 5.) And in Ras Shamira, Syria (13th c B.C.E.) She is still the Snake Goddess.(See visual 6.) In Canaan (Israel or Lebanon) in 1200 B.C.E. She wears the dress of the Goddess and the pointed hat of the Goddess as well. (See visual 7.)*
By the classical Greek era, however, She has been changed fairly drastically. She has become Athena, Preserver and Protector of Athens and the Creator of Civilization. She still has a Snake, but now it is by Her side on Her shield, and there is only one Snake (See visual 8.) Furthermore, Athena has renounced Her mother and says She comes only from the Father (which is a biological impossibility, of course). By these times we also find Demeter with the Snakes as well (fifth century B.C.E.). In addition, Demeter holds the grain of the harvest in Her hands, indicating the relationship of harvest to death (Snake of death; see below) and food to renewed life (Snake of rebirth; see below). (See visual 9.)
By the Chrisitan era, the Snake Goddess is no longer female, and has become only half divine. She has become Aesclepius, half-man, half-God, who is a snake holder and healer. (See visuals 10 and 11.) By 500 C.E. (Christian era), the last Goddess temple has been closed in the Western world.
The Meaning of the Snake Goddess, as I have extrapolated it
The Snake Goddess is the mother of all living plants, animals, humans. She has the breasts of the nourisher. In one hand She holds the Snake of rebirth (creation), which sheds its skin. In the other hand She holds the Snake of death (destruction and Armaggedon), because the Snake is often poisonous. The Snake of rebirth is also the Snake of wisdom, since the hallucinations caused what people thought was wisdom, insight, and prophecy.
Her Meaning in the Sky
The Snake Goddess is important in the night sky. First of all, She is huge -- a very large constellation compared to others.
Secondly, She is located on the Zodiac.
Thirdly, She is the 13th constellation.
Fourth, She comes around at harvest.
What does all this mean? Well, size makes Her stand out.
Being located on the Zodiac is important astronomically and agriculturally. As I said, the Zodiac was important as a calendar. What is the Zodiac? Well, it's a bit hard to explain clearly, but I'll try. You see, from earth's perspective, we see the stars in a certain juxtaposition to each other. The way the stars look in relationship to each other we call constellations. We've grouped the stars in certain ways so that they make visuals.
Now, the planets seem to move through the night sky, and as they do so, they seem to move through certain constellations. The movement of the planets forms a kind of line from our perspective, and this line is called the Ecliptic and forms a line along which the planets seem to move through the constellations, from our perspective on earth, and these constellations are called the Zodiac (they seem to move on this line as well). Thus, these constellations are more important than constellations that don't have any planets moving through them. More is happening there! The sun, moon, and planets all seem to move through these constellations. Thus, you hear about the sun or Venus or Mars being in the constellation Gemini the twins, or Leo the lion. (See visual 12.)
Now, today the Zodiac has 12 constellations. But if you look at a sky map, you'll see that the Zodiac actually has 13 constellations running through it, the 13th being the Snake Goddess. What happened? Why do we pretend She's not in the Zodiac? Deleting her from the Zodiac will have happened long ago. She was evidently so important to the ancient peoples that She was removed from the Zodiac by later peoples who didn't like Her religion and wanted to replace Hers with their own. This is very likely what I think happened. (Rey finds it strange that the Serpent Holder is considered a part of the Zodiac when it is indeed on the Ecliptic.)
Also, She would make the 13th constellation in today's Zodiac. The number 13 is a bad omen in later belief systems, because it was so good and important in these earlier ones that had to be overthrown in order for later religions to take over. 13 was a good number, for there are 13 lunar months in a year. The number 13 was good. In fact, a holy woman and her coven of 12 make 13. Jesus and his 12 disciples make 13. The numbers 13 and 12 were important. From the number 12 came our designation of time as well. (We don't have 10 or 20 hours in a day. We have two sets of 12!)
The Snake Goddess in our time is "in the sun" during late autumn. However, back in those days (because the earth shifts on its axis), the Snake Goddess was "in the sun" at the harvest time. She represented the cutting down of the harvest, the death of the plants so that humans might live through winter to see another spring of rebirth. She was the wielder of death, but also of nourishment to keep one going until the spring of rebirth.
Let's Get Her Back
The Snake Goddess is a wonderful icon. If those many figurines were not symbols of divinity, we may make them so, for in our terms, She is a representation of what reality is: we are created and we die, and out of us is reborn something new -- maybe not us, but maybe new soil, flowers, etc., etc. She represents earth's natural behavior, and nature's natural behavior. What is created must be destroyed to make room for what is created out of it, which also must be destroyed later to make room for what is then created out of that, and so on throughout the earth's and the universe's eons. It is not logical, given the structure of the universe, that anything should stay in one form forever. Everything is constantly changing form, constantly coming into being or being destroyed. Such is the nature of the universe. Such is our nature.
She is also live-giver and nourisher. She is the Mother of all that is. Out of Her Body everything came. She is the great giver of truth, justice, the right, of pleasure, love, and affection, of giving. She is The Lady, and The Lady giveth, and The Lady taketh away. Blessed be the name of The Lady.
This is the nature of reality. We are born, we grow, we mature, we decline, and we die. This great reality is a mystery that we cannot fathom. We create a God -- or a Goddess -- and say She or He was here from the beginning, but how can we not question where S/He came from? Who created Him/Her? If no one did, then how did S/He always exist? Our brains cannot fathom one way or the other. Reality is the great mystery. It is magical. How could it have been created? Or how could its creator have been created? It is magical and mysterious. The great mystery. The great, unsolvable mystery.
*There is also a story about Eurynome, the Original Being. Eurynome began to dance one day in ecstasy. She danced so fast that She set the wind in motion, and it became like Snake. She became so sexually aroused that She and the Snake coupled, and She brought forth the Universe. This story comes from the "Greek" area.
Your Turn to Decide
Take a look at the pictures and decide for yourself what the meaning may have been. True, you do not have the context of where the objects were found, nor information on what other objects and materials were found, as well as current speculation about their meanings. However, take a look, and remember not to have preconceived ideas about 'woman' or 'snake' or dress or life, death, afterlife, rebirth. What could these images have meant to human beings? To men? To women? The fact that they exist -- what does that tell you about their importance or significance? Would they have been "good," "bad," what?
VISUALS FORTHCOMING
Visual 1: The Snake Goddess (serpent holder) constellation as it appears in the sky.
Visual 2: The Snake Goddess (serpent holder) constellation as one might see it if "connecting" the stars in a certain way.
Visual 3: Figurine, Ur fourth millenium B.C.E.
Visual 4: Figure in relief on a bowl, 2500 B.C.E. in Sumer (Iraq) .
Visual 5: Statue, Crete, Snake Goddess in the sky (1600-1500 B.C.E.).
Visual 6: Relief on a gold amulet, Ras Shamira, Syria (13th c B.C.E.) .
Visual 7: Gilded bronze figurine, Canaan (Israel or Lebanon) in 1200 B.C.E.
Visual 8: Statue of Athena in Temple of Athena, the Parthenon.
Visual 9: Relief on stone, Demeter, fifth century B.C.E.
Visual10: Constellation, Aesclepius.
Visual 11: Statue, Aesclepius, circa 200 C.E.
Visual 12: The Zodiac.
