Over time, goddesses have been forgotten to some degree. They have been looked upon as secondary. Often, goddesses have taken a backseat to the more conventional—meaning societally approved—male deities. A lot has been written about the past and present of gods and a singular god, but it may be time to put some well-deserved attention on the massive historical and cultural impact goddesses have had. Because long before there was a singular god there were many goddesses, and in fact, for much of early history, humanity lived as more of a matriarchy than a patriarchy. Women gave life, and that ability was revered and heralded for the magnificent feat it was.
The origin of the goddess mythology dates back to the earliest traces of humankind, beyond the influence of a purely patriarchal-based belief system. Men, in fact, had very limited representation as deities, mainly being seen as the sons or lovers of goddesses. The earliest calculations of goddess worship date between 20,000 and 30,000 bce in a period known as the Paleolithic. This ancient worship was observed through reverence of the color red for its connection to menstruation and rebirth, and that color often was used in ceremonies. These early societies also modeled the interior of their temples and sacred caves after female sexual organs by using shells.
The subsequent Neolithic period produced some of the most intricate goddess-worshipping sites, which can be found in Anatolia, Turkey, and date back to 6500 BCE. This period is also interesting in that it observed the similarity of life-giving properties that both women and the Earth shared. It is no coincidence that the Earth is often referred to as “mother,” because it really does provide all that is necessary for existence and growth. The Earth and women were known as life givers. Possibly as a result, the images of goddesses began to appear with parts of nature, such as plants, animals, and streams. Women during that time were tasked as gatherers in their hunter-gatherer tribes and further informed this idea of a benevolent provider, as the killing of animals was left to the men. This shows the functionality and structure of matriarchal societies: Women contributed greatly to the makeup of civilization and culture, developing the arts, medicine, and rules, but they did not necessarily dominate men.
Goddesses often were attributed to specific phenomena, ideas, or virtues. Some are identified with a single, very specific concept, whereas others are considered to be a Great Goddess type, overseeing many different aspects of life. Different themes associated with goddesses include childbirth, motherhood, love, beauty, war, the moon, creation, and death, among other things. In the early view of women, often they were seen to govern individual maturity and spiritual life as well as the heart. In this, we see the flow of the life cycle at the will and creation of the female figure, and so it becomes a common theme throughout history.
In the absence of a written language, the existence of goddesses is preserved in cave drawings that depict the birth-giving ability of these deities and in carved miniatures that portray their figures, such as the Neolithic Venuses, including the Venus of Willendorf. These figurines emphasize the features of a nursing mother to show fertility and the nourishment her body provides. The word goddess itself starts to appear in the English language as early as the mid-1300s and soon after is adapted into many other languages.
What was once limited to a strictly Mother Earth goddess in primal times later became an all-encompassing, all-powerful heavenly mother, as in the case of Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky, as civilizations were established. This continued to sustain the idea of physical and spiritual connection to a divine entity’s womb, as it became apparent that a divine mother created all above and below us and that people were connected to the Earth and space. Once this distinction was made and embraced in various societies—the Celts, Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians—goddesses and gods took on a much more prominent role in those cultures.
Temples have been around since the dawn of time—interestingly, those temples often were reserved to honor male deities in the Neolithic period, and the worship of female deities actually took place in the homes of those early people. This shows a much more personal and warm connection associated with these goddesses and their placement in everyday lives, as opposed to the separate and confined areas where one was expected to worship gods. Eventually, goddess temples were established for worship and prayer.
The hierarchy of the Temple of Delphi was unlike that in modern places of worship. For one thing, the most spiritually elevated person there was a woman. A female high priestess known as the Pythia or the Pythoness, named after the dragon the Greek god Apollo slew to appease her spirit, acts as a mediator between the gods and mortals, often guided by an altered state of being.
That prophetic trance is popularly believed to have been achieved through vapors emitted into the room that high priestesses, sitting on the tripod at the center, would breathe in and be raised to a different level of consciousness. However, research has shown that the presence of a vent at Delphi for exactly this purpose has not been found, even with testimony from a Delphic priest by the name of Plutarch who described the fumes: “as if the adyton [sanctuary] were sending forth the essences of the sweetest and most expensive perfumes from a spring,” reporting that there was indeed a distinct scent in the air at Delphi. If the presence of fumes cannot be explained, this presents the possibility that different methods were employed, notably the use of oral hallucinogens such as plants to alter the oracle’s state of mind.
The oracle had the task of being the translator between the divine and humankind, often providing answers for personal issues in common citizens’ lives. This title would be passed down from one woman to another at the end of her life, and so there would always be a living resident providing this service at the temple. In addition to her duty to Delphi, the Pythia enjoyed the immense beauty of nature as it touched Greek culture in the unique atmosphere of the temple. This is yet another instance of the human meeting the “otherness” on an equal plane of existence and of the woman bridging the connection between the earthly and the divine.
Matriarchal societies provided so many benefits outside the spiritual realm. The most outstanding fact is their limited, if nonexistent, history with long-term warfare. They were considered highly peaceful cultures, built on open fields and focused on the cultivation of the arts, which were seen as divine.
Why did the world start to move toward a monotheistic, patriarchal belief system and throw out the old ways? Much of that came from the squandering of old-world practices and beliefs to promote traction and spread the belief in new gods, or rather “God.” Because of the nature of female-oriented societies, which was largely seen as peaceful, their survival in an aggressive and armed new world was nearly impossible.
Despite their dismissal in the face of colonization and the modern day, the cultural relevance of and reverence for goddesses throughout time remains. Often paired with a male counterpart to show equal importance in the manifestation of the world, goddesses became integral to understanding the nature of the physical and spiritual world.