The Great Mother
Who is she? The Goddess, known by many names. As life, as a universal archetype and as ‘Mother Earth’. Why don’t we know her from our history and where has she been for some time? Why does it come back to our consciousness now and what does it bring us after the patriachate?
Venus in you
Venus figures inspire you to (re)connect with the Venus power of your body. Your body awareness with the beautiful round breasts, the masculine things 🌹 and hips that can have every possible curve.
It is a nice addition to everything from the stories that have been known to us for a long time. How do we see ourselves? The divine formless marries a body in which it expresses itself. Venus invites you to love your body and feel and inhabit its fertility.
Photo above: The Divine Feminine: Ancient Forms of the Great Mother Goddess
Photo right: The Venus of Renancourt, found in Amiens, France in 2019 and dated to 23,000 years ago combined with Late Vintage (2021) by award winning Canadian artist, Jennifer Annesley. Watercolour.
Our ancient Herstory
Where It All Began
The Great Mother, also Great Goddess, or Mother Goddess, is a primordial female deity, appearing in very diverse forms in a wide range of cultures, civilizations and populations from different areas of the world from prehistoric times, both in the Paleolithic and in the Neolithic. Her figure, which points back to the mother symbolism of creativity, birth, fertility, sexuality, nourishment and growth, continued to be known, for example, by the Phoenics as Ashtoreth, in Mesopotamia as Ishtar, by the Semites as Astarte, in Arabia as Atar, by the Egyptians like Hathor, through the Greeks and from the Romans like Aphrodite, Cibele and others.
The website of well known Dutch historian, theologian and symbol expert Annine van der Meer offers an overview of venusart in Europe and Near East.
In the Spotlight
The Divine Feminine
She represents the understanding of life as a perpetual circle of creation, destruction and rebirth.
Years ago
Goddesses
Countries
Religions
Features
Who Is She
What Does She Offer Us
Life - Love & Sexuality
She is Life itself, a holy combination of love and sexuality in every moment, to create, to give birth to life
Feminine Principle
She is the feminine principle and she helps to understand how the feminine principle shapes our perceptions and behaviours.
Universal Archetype
She is a universal archetype and she helps to explore the timeless significance of the Great Mother archetype in human psyche and history.
Hieros Gamos - Balance
She is the ‘hieros gamos’, meaning the sacred union. She helps to discover the interplay of the feminine and masculine energies in the psyche.
Symbolic Manifestations
She is represented in symbolic manifestations of the Great Mother and helps to gain insights into its significance in various cultures.
Transformative Power
She is a transformative power and helps to grasp the power of embracing the feminine within oneself and society.
And the Great Mother said:
Come my child and give me all that you are. I am not afraid of your strength and darkness, of your fear and pain.
Give me your tears. They will be my rushing rivers and roaring oceans.
Give me your rage. It will erupt into my molten volcanoes and rolling thunder.
Give me your tired spirit. I will lay it to rest in my soft meadows.
Give me your hopes and dreams. I will plant a field of sunflowers and arch rainbows in the sky.
You are not too much for me. My arms and heart welcome your true fullness.
There is room in my world for all of you, all that you are.
I will cradle you in the boughs of my ancient redwoods and the valleys of my gentle rolling hills.
My soft winds will sing you lullabies and soothe your burdened heart.
Release your deep pain. You are not alone and you have never been alone.
And today when you journey to be together with me, I can show you the fullness and abundant nurturing I have for you.
My love is unconditional because you are.
You come from the deep darkness and joyful light of my Being.
Take this love that I am filling you with and when you are ready and have had your fill of me, tell others so that they do not forget me.
You are my messenger from this Sacred World to the others.
Go forward when you are ready and have filled up on the nourishment that is your Birthright.
Thank you sweet daughter. For now let me love you fully. I ask for nothing in return.
Be open to my deep love for you.
~ Linda Reuther, “Homecoming”
~ Lucy Pierce- Artist and Wordsmith, “Her Abundant Heart”
The Great Mother – a Universal Archetype
a primordial image of the human psyche
Archetypes are fundamental building blocks of our mind – as universal as sadness, anger or pleasure – that can be uncovered by analyzing mythologies: stories, legends or religions that reveal the worldview of the human being who breathed life into them
It is merely a kind of blueprint from the collective subconscious, which is interpreted differently depending on time, place and culture and yet remains recognizable.
The common structures of the collective unconscious, the archetypes, are, as it were, engraved in the psyche by the similar experiences of all people of all times. Just as the instincts drive animals to similar automatic behavior, people are driven by the so-called archetypes to an automatic pattern of thoughts and feelings. For example, there are the Mother and the Child, archetypes that are carried because people of all times have had to deal with mothers and children. However, in intensity of experience, the archetype surpasses the real mother. Archetypes are, as it were, empty matrices that only become flesh and blood when they are evoked and then projected outside one’s own psyche. For example, certain people, places, situations, smells can have just that something that awakens the archetype. The main characters in film and media are probably able to touch a certain archetype in many people and that is precisely why they are so attractive or frightening.
Depending on the context, each archetypal figure may “shift” or “reverse” into its opposite. Enantiodromia is a principle introduced in the West by psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung defines enantiodromia as “the emergence of the unconscious opposite in the course of time.” It is similar to the principle of equilibrium in the natural world, in that any extreme is opposed by the system in order to restore balance. When things get to their extreme, they turn into their opposite. Jung adds that “this characteristic phenomenon practically always occurs when an extreme, one-sided tendency dominates conscious life; in time an equally powerful counterposition is built up which first inhibits the conscious performance and subsequently breaks through the conscious control.”
Some
Female Arche
types
Sophia, a positive anima figure of the Great Mother; wisdom, vision, inspiration, exstasy
Lilith, a female demonic figure or negative anima figure of the Great Mother; but she symbolizes the untamed woman
Isis, the good Mother: fruit, birth, rebirth, immortality); also: Demeter and Ishtar (Innana)
Witch the meaning of witch is a person (especially a woman) who is credited with having usually malignant supernatural powers. She is mostly seen as negative in patriarchal cultures.
Mother Earth
PachaMama
Mother Earth is a commonly known term because we feel that the planet is a mother that gives life to us. Mother Earth is called Pachamama by the ancient peoples of the Andes. They see her as the mother of all mothers, and find it important to thank her for the abundance she gives us.
Mother Earth appears in many myths. She is also called Gaia or Demeter. The earth is then seen as the female part of creation, the cosmos as the male part.
In the Greek mythology is Gaia the primordial mother, the Earth, who emerged from Chaos at the beginning of things. The Chaos contained all the basic components, the four elements earth, water, air and fire.
Mother Earth is a beautiful and mysterious place full of natural beauty and powerful energy. There are moments when we can enjoy this beauty or connect with her on a deeper level. There are moments when we feel one with the nature around us.
1 Upernavik – Greenland 2 Nadi Spencer 3 Kiwi- sacred geometry. 4.1 Go to the woods. Bring a pinecone home.
4.2. Put the cone in a pot with some soil – so that most of it stands out. 4.3 Every day water it with a small amount of water, as excess water makes the cones rot. 4.4 After some time, a tiny tree will appear. 4.5. Congratulations – you have a piece of forest in your own home.
The Great Mother in Patriarchy
The Great Mother Seemed To Be Asleep During Patriarchy
In a patriarchal mythology or theology, there are no powerful goddesses, and in the stories of classical mythology about Greek gods, mothers and wives play a powerless or subordinate role. Perhaps the fall is the most well-known patriarchal story, a story in which women are portrayed in a less friendly way.
In Christianity and its neighboring religions, Islam and Judism, the spiritual emphasis is on the masculine. Their monotheistic God is a paternal archetype. His worship, therefore, produced patriarchal societies. Inevitably, femininity would lose out as a result.
The wound is the place where your pain is converted into connection.
Two patriarchal shadow stories of the Feminine Divine that are now coming to the light (about the virgin and the harlot).
Every year millions of people around the world go to Mary, because they know they will be accepted by her, no matter what.
The Great Mother Lost Her Body And Sexuality During Patriarchy (Mother Earth) But Found Her Infinite Love
How do we know her
The two Marys
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, are the two most important women in the Bible who have been at the extreme ends of the classical moral spectrum for centuries. Both still have a lot of influence on women and men. Mary Magdalene was the whore, a warning to women to avoid this seductive behavior. Later her statue was overturned and she became the ‘apostle of the apostles’ who stands for the dignity of women in the church.
Aspire to become a Mary has been the message for women for centuries. This second Mary is the holy supermother, pure in her virginity, unconditionally caring for the well-being of others. Both Marys are, as it were, each other’s shadow. One stands for autonomy, strength and sexuality, the female Messiah, the rose of roses and the other always remained a bit in the background, and is mainly known for her devotion.
Anna about
‘My expercience of separation
Unlike most people, I have always been aware of the Great Mother, of our goddess. This has been the case ever since I began to wonder in my twenties why we always talk about god in the masculine form. That’s where my search for ‘where is the goddess in our world’ began. Gradually, I came to realize that she could never have really been gone because she is life itself. She just wasn’t visible. She did not appear in our stories and our religions. She had no space in our culture and therefore also what she stands for ”being life”: dark and light’.
That’s what life mirrored to me. Thus I experienced as ‘life’, as consciousness, as that which is aware of everything, very consciously my invisibility in the world, my own darkness. The projection reflected the story I believed about ‘the rejected mother’in patriarchy. It reflected my disconnection from the world, from ”feeling life’,’my own feelings and longings and as a consequence my neediness from others (men). The needy mother is my dark side about dependency.
co-dependency, relationship addiction
Co-dependency is a symptom of the shadow, the hurt child or the pain body that protects itself to survive. By losing your own identity, contact with your feelings, needs and desires, you start looking in others for things that have not yet been addressed in yourself. The basis of dependency relationships, fear of commitment, fear of abandonment, relationship addiction, etc. You have the feeling of being incomplete without the other person. Often the partners merge and do not release each other. They mirror each other’s trauma, wounds, unprocessed emotions, sometimes across lifetimes. Letting go of your partner can trigger an intense feeling of fear (which feels like love for that person). Recognizable? Co-dependency is not useful for an adult relationship, but it is very human.”
The Needy Mother
The Needy Mother always has ailments.
The Needy Mother crowds and drowns.
The Needy Mother always demands care.
Boundless, limitless, endless.
She makes you walk on eggshells.
She never lets you go.
She puts it down to you.
You grow from child to parent.
You go from being a daughter to being a mother.
You become a strong woman from her weakness.
Take care of.
Looking after.
Responsibility assumed.
No problems for you.
Not a weak moment for you.
No surrender for you
As long as there is a father, he carries it with him.
If that's gone too
Yes, then you have to wear it for her.
She creates discord among children.
One disappears to another part of the country or overseas.
Far away
You are left. Who else should do it?
Loyalty. Sense of duty. Humanity.
Where has your child gone?
Where is your playfulness?
Where is the mother for you?
It's not easy, to say the least.
You might almost go under.
Can't seem to wear it anymore.
Even if you've already gotten this far.
Is there the seed for a re-emergence?
To grow up.
Gasping for fresh air. Oxygen.
Struggling like a child.
Looking for your solid ground.
Go ahead and drive your pickets.
Establish your boundaries.
Claim your space
William Smid
the experience of separation with ‘being life'(our mutual being) or ‘feeling life’ (our body & sexuality)
Sexual Trauma
At “Herstory,” we have experience with the ways in which our identity as a person or ego is shaped, both from within ourselves and by society at large. We illuminate the lasting psychological impact of sexual trauma caused by societies out of balance (patriarchy). In lineair time, in duality, our sexuality and sensuality couldn’t be more (ab)used, shamed and being ripped from SACREDNESS. While our sensuality gives us access to being deeply nourished, experiencing pleasure, feeling connected to the earth and the cosmos, opening up as a channel of love.
Embracing your darkness instead of (unconsciously) fighting it is the first step. We let go of our thinking, our judgements, our stories, our faith, our religions, as the way we – as a person – should shape life. Because in this way you become a slave to your thinking, to your self-image, which seeks love there without love here. Instead of filling life with our thoughts and actions, the life we are is filled with what we feel and what we desire. That happens naturally because of our awackened sexuality.
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“Ourself Behind Ourself, Concealed” (2020) by JAMIE L. LUOTO (American, b.1987)
Where do we find her
In the depths of our un- or subconsious
The Girl in a Room (2006) by British diver and underwater photographer, Phoebe Rudomino (born in 1981), based at the Underwater Stage at Pinewood Studios, the only facility of its kind in the world.
The Great Mother after Patriarchy
Mary & Mary
Mary’s ‘being love’ helps you to embody your innocence again.
Mary’s ‘feeling love’ helps you to embody your joy and strength again.
Instead of these two primal forces working against each other, as happens with the shadow, they work together and reinforce each other. The connection with yourself and the connection with others is equal, two sides of the same coin. The more you take care of yourself, your feelings and desires, the more you can serve others with your expertise and passion.
Who is hiding behind the Marys in jou?
Mary, mother of Jezus
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a symbol of the connection with others, a gateway to life, your divinity, where you are love (love – passive – unity)
Mary, the partner of Jezus
Mary Magdalene, the partner of Jesus, symbolizes the connection with yourself, gateway to the world, your humanity, where you feel love (sexuality – active – twoness).
Love & sexuality
Do you also feel that it is time to convert the one-sidedness of both caricatured symbols/images into a multiform and multicolored richness within yourself? Do you no longer want to rid yourself of your humanity or your goddess? Do you also feel that it is time to embrace this shadow within yourself? The dark side of Mary? That it is time for equality of both Marys. Taking care of yourself, your own feelings and body goes hand in hand with caring for others, the world and the universe. Exciting life meets serving God(dess), your heart.
Who is hiding behind the Marys in you? For wo/men who want to connect their sexuality with their infinite love.
Vladimir Volegov
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