Secret_History

492 The Secret History of the World
blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and
merited punishment for sins.” What such experts fail to mention - again a sly
twisting - is what follows in that particular passage, which is an argument against
such practices.
The religion of the Great Mother Goddess existed and flourished for many
thousands of years in the Near and Middle East before the arrival of the patriarch
Abraham who is depicted as the first prophet of the dominator male deity,
Yahweh. Archaeologists have traced the worship of the Goddess back to the
Neolithic communities of about 7000 BC, some to the Upper Paleolithic cultures
of about 25,000 BC. From Neolithic times, at least, its existence has been
repeatedly attested to well into Roman Times. Yet, Bible scholars tell us that
Abraham lived in Canaan as late as between 1800 and 1550 BC, a veritable
Johnny-come-lately! How in the world has such a recent appearance on the world
scene managed to push itself into such prominence and domination?
Over and over again in the studies of the ancient religions it is noted that, in
place after place, the goddess was debased and replaced by a male deity - the
worship of a young warrior god and a supreme father god. It has been assumed
that this was the Indo-European invasion from the north. But when the cultural
connections are considered, it is clear that this ideation moved northward from the
South. Perhaps we ought to call it the “Indo-Incan” invasion since we have
suggested a connection to the cultures of South America. Archaeology reveals
that, after these incursions, the worship of the Mother Goddess fluctuated from
city to city. As the invaders gained more and more territory over the next two
thousand years, the male began to appear as the dominant husband or even the
murderer of the Goddess! The transition was accomplished by brutally violent
massacres and territorial acquisition throughout the Near and Middle East. The
same is true regarding the conversion of the western world to Christianity.
Something is definitely strange about this picture.
This corruption drifted north, as Eliade has noted, changing the shamanic
cultures from goddess worshippers to male dominated societies. In studying the
legends about the Golden Age, the Antediluvian world, we realize over and over
again that these stories talk about a garden where woman and man lived in
harmony with each other and nature. That is, until a dominator male god decided
that woman had been a very bad girl and must now and forever be subservient to
man.
The Chinese Tao Te Ching describes a time when the yin, or feminine principle,
was not yet ruled by yang, the male principle, a time when the wisdom of the
mother was still honored and followed above all. To many people, references to
these times are no more than mere fantasy.
It seems that there were ancient societies organized very differently from ours,
and chief among the finds in such digs are the many images of the Deity as female.
Thus we are better able to interpret the references to the Great Goddess in ancient
art, myth, and even historical writings.
The chief idea of these people was that the Universe was an all-giving mother.
Indeed, this idea has survived into our time. In China, the female deities Ma Tsu
and Kuan Yin are still widely worshipped as beneficent and compassionate
goddesses. Similarly, the veneration of Mary, the Mother of God, is widespread.