Secret Garden of the Feminine

           Who Is Goddess?

“Who is Goddess?”  Some people might conjure an image of Marilyn Monroe, goddess of the silver screen, whose beauty and vulnerability seemed to represent femininity in an acceptable, non-threatening way to both men and women. Many picture Botticelli's lovely Venus rising on a pristine shell from the depths of the ocean. Still others have a vague memory from early school days of the bickering, petty pantheon of later Greek and Roman goddesses studied in literature and Western civilization classes. These are not the strong images and stories needed to inspire and guide women today.

Thanks to our foremothers, many women around the world have acquired the power to express themselves as never before in recorded history. In the United States, we have the right to vote, to affect the political body of the society we live in. We have, to a great extent, control of our own bodies and birth functions. The power of the feminine grew and amplified during World War II, when women were patriotically called into factories to do the work of the men who were off to war. We found we not only could do the same jobs, and just as well, but liked the challenge which enhanced and fulfilled something within. Once women found this expression of themselves that involved challenge outside the home, they were reluctant to give it up. Economically, however, working outside the home is no longer a choice for most women and their families. And so we added “working woman” to the ever-expanding litany of women’s job titles and found it did not take away from our roles as wife and mother.

Women are now faced with the task of balancing and integrating the many and varied aspects of themselves. Where do we look for the archetypes that will mirror this multifaceted picture of femininity, the guides that will reflect the process of deep integration? Do we look to the legacy of fairy tales, with their wicked stepmothers (the mothers are always dead) and their defenseless daughters? Who is the role model we seek? Is it the stepmother, she who strives for youth and beauty, two aspects of seeming power that women in our culture are valued for? Or do we look to the defenseless daughter, she who passively waits for her prince to come and rescue her? And who is the missing mother? Perhaps it is she we are searching for—a portrait of woman so full, so complete, so threatening that she has been deliberately exiled, banished, killed off.

History, which as we are told it, usually begins with Western civilization, has recorded few of the contributions females have made to society. Most of what we are taught in school is void of the accomplishments of women. Instead, we are inundated with tales of commerce and industry; overwhelmed with the exploits of conquerors and kings. Many women grow up and graduate from school believing we are a powerless afterthought.

So where do we find the images, role models, archetypes who will heal and inspire women in the twenty-first century? Many women and men are reaching back into the period of history prior to the rise of Western civilization to see what existed before. We are reclaiming an ancient legacy that can change our lives and our relationships, and gives us hope for the future of both the planet and the people.

I recently had an enlightening conversation with a friend and coworker. We were talking about "this time before," and she said with great incredulity, "I know this sounds crazy, but I just accepted, as fact, that history began four thousand years ago. I thought the Bible took us to the beginning of time."  My friend is an intelligent, well-read, articulate woman. She has a Ph.D. and teaches in her field, yet she too was caught in the cultural trance that postulates that humanity's existence extends only through Western civilization (Greek and Roman) or Judeo-Christian biblical history. If we acknowledge prehistory at all, we think in erroneous images of cavemen and dinosaurs-uncultured, primitive, unthinking violence.

The last Ice Age reached its zenith about 16,000 B.C.E. (Before the Common Era). What existed in those fourteen thousand years between that date and 2,000 B.C.E.? Babies don't emerge from their mothers full-grown; likewise, humans didn’t simply turn a corner and civilization automatically appeared. What were those toddler years like for humanity? What kind of societies did they create? What were the mythologies that governed their culture, and how did these mythologies affect the way men and women related to each another?

© Copyright 1995 Judy Tatum aka Xia except where otherwise noted. All rights reserved worldwide. This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state, and local laws.