Belief in a supreme Goddess who created and governs all life is common in many cultures. Some three dozen accounts of feminine deities are summarized in Merlin Stone’s Ancient Myths of Womanhood. Some are from Native American, South American, African and other modern cultures. Others are from classical times, back to about 5,000 years before the present.

This belief goes back many thousands of years. A figurine 31,000 years old, long before the last Ice Age was found in Austria. Some are as recent as classical Greece about 5,000 years ago. Several thousand feminine figurines and a few male figurines have been found In Europe and Asia. Some were found as far east as Lake Baikal and others near the Atlantic in southern France. This is about equal to the distance between London, England and Denver, Colorado.

These figurines are about three inches tall and could have been carried as personal talismen, as many Christians carry crucifixes today. There are three styles: a youthful, slender figure, a mature, obese figure and an elderly wrinkled one. This seems to agree with the three aspects of the Goddess in later myths and legends. In these stories, She appears as a maiden to awaken new growth in springtime. She is usually seen as the mature Great Mother. And, when our lives reach their end, she comes as the aged Crone to bring us home.

[Modern copies showing these aspects are at the top of the page
As Maiden in the Dancing Venus of Glagenberg, about 31,000 years old
As Mother in the Venus of Dolni Vestonici, about 27,000 years old.
As Crone in a figure found in Greece, about 5,000 years old.]

How might such a widespread, long-lasting and powerful belief have begun? Perhaps it began when children and adults asked the grandmother of the tribe, “Where did everything come from?” Her natural answer was that the Great Mother had given birth to everything long, long ago, and had given females of each kind of animals some of Her power so they could continue to have babies. This Great Mother knew everything. Some grandmothers knew how to talk to Her and learned more than others. They should be listened to and it was a good idea to do as they asked. This is all speculation as a background to the little that we know about those ancient times before the glaciers last covered most of Europe.

When population pressure forced people to begin farming and herding, about 10,000 years ago, they left more remains, so we know more about this Neolithic Age. In southeastern Europe, Pottery models of their temples have survived, as well as remains of the buildings. The temples were used for baking bread, weaving and pottery, as well as for religious rituals. Perhaps only priestesses were taught these skills and the rituals appropriate to them. In the Middle East, we have literally tons of written records because clay was the only convenient writing material and the tablets were dried in the hot sun. Some fragments include prayers and hymns to Ishtar or Innana as they called the Goddess.

So our ancestors believed in a Great Goddess for many thousands of years. What did they belief? They cannot speak to us across the millennia, but we can infer some things:

No elaborate graves or other evidences of chiefs or leaders have been found, So their government seems to have been by consensus, perhaps of a group of older women and their brothers, like some modern tribes. Their system must have worked well, even among large groups and large areas. Tallyanky, in the Ukraine covered nearly 1,000 acres and could have had a population of 10,000. It was only one of ten large towns, which have been found.

Cave paintings made between 30,000 years ago and 8,000 years ago show no scenes of men fighting each other, although they show many hunting scenes. We have found no fighting weapons. Why didn’t they fight? Perhaps women leaders, knowing the pains of creating and nurturing new life, were very reluctant to kill.

This Golden Age ended, about 4,500 years ago when tribes of horseherders were forced out of the steppes of southern Europe by population pressure. Their nomadic life and frequent fighting for each other’s herds had led to autocratic government by a male chief, and skill in fighting. They believed in a fierce, jealous male God of the Shining Sky. Women were little better than their brood mares, subject to individual men.

The peaceful people of Old Europe had no defense against these skilled warriors. Some invading tribes simply destroyed everyone and everything, as in Israel. Others saw the conquered people as useful workers. In the Middle East, their chiefs married the High Priestesses in the old religious rituals and took over the government. Their priests gradually changed the religious stories (just as Hermann Goebbels did for Hitler) to demote Her to the consort of their male god, and finally to an evil spirit whom the male god killed or banished.

But this defamation was not effective even in Israel. The Old Testament frequently denounces those who worshipped Her, including some Kings and Queens. In the rest of the Middle East, most people worshipped the Goddess as Astarte, Ashteroh, Isis, Diana or other names.

On Malta, a small island almost in the middle of the Mediterranean, a huge building boom began about 5,500 years ago, a thousand years before the Great Pyramid of Khufu in Egypt! Forty-three temples and underground cemeteries were built during the next 1000 years. Why were so many temples needed for the small number of people who could live on this island, and how were they built? Perhaps Malta was a religious center and various Mediterranean peoples built their own temples, as in Rome today. About 4,500 years ago, temple building stopped and the entire population vanished. Perhaps the horseherding invaders saw this center of the Old Ways as a threat and destroyed it, killing the people and throwing their bodies into the sea.

The culture and religion of the Goddess reached their highest points in Crete, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Beginning about 4000 years ago, these people built large administrative and religious centers such as the one at Knossos which was two to three stories high and covered five acres. They also built many smaller shrines, some in caves or on mountaintops. Vivid frescos in Knossos and other places show goddesses and priestesses in various rituals. Men are shown adoring these goddesses and bringing offerings. (They got that right!) They seem to have lived together peacefully because none of their cities had defensive walls. But the invaders came about 3000 years ago, burning and destroying everything as they usually did.

Several waves of Indo-European invaders occupied the mainland of Greece and Anatolia beginning over 4,000 years ago. They followed the usual practice of systematically degrading the various goddesses and making them consorts or children of the fierce male gods. However, belief in these goddesses and rituals in their honor lived on. We are fortunate that their myths were recorded, with as much of the rituals as men were allowed to know. By reading critically, we can remove the invaders’ denigration and recover much of the original stories.

The Celts preserved many traditions of the Goddess in Her various aspects. The Morrigan was a terrible warrior who might intervene to decide a battle. Mab represented the land. A man could not become King of Ireland unless he slept with her priestess. The closest Celtic equivalent to the Great Goddess is Brigid, the patroness of healing herbs and waters, metalcraft and writing. Her annual festival is on St. Bridget’s Day, February first, when some of the old customs are still observed in Ireland.

Only the Basques escaped the barbarian invasions. They still speak an Old European language unlike Indo-European ones of the invaders. Until the 1800’s, women owned all the property, which descended to their daughters. Women and men are equal in their laws today. The Goddess, Andre Mari (Andre means lady), was worshipped in remote communities even in the 20th century. This overlaps the resurgence of belief in Her, which began in England in the 1930’s. We can justly say that belief in the Great Goddess has been continuous for at least 27,000 years.

It is interesting to compare this to the major religions of today.
Hinduism began about 7,500 years ago, Judaism, about 3,500 years ago, Buddhism, about 2,500 years ago, Christianity, about 2,000 years ago, and Islam, about 1,650 years ago.

These dates mean that belief in the Goddess is about:

3.5 times older than Hinduism
8 times older than Judaism
11 times older than Buddhism
13.5 times older than Christianity
16 times older than Islam.

An older belief is not necessarily a better one, but believers in the Great Goddess lived together peacefully without fighting and without a leader and noble class telling them what to do. We have not done as well under the newer religions

Modern expressions of belief in the Goddess take many and varied forms, some open to all, and some requiring instruction and initiation, like Wicca. Some groups have a coequal male god, in others, the Goddess reigns supreme. There are also many who left a younger religion to develop their own ways and have found peace and comfort in them.

How Did I Come to Believe in the Goddess?

As a boy, I had little formal religious training. When I was 12 years old, I found that I could not really believe in the Christian Apostles’ Creed. Islam seemed more reasonable but I could not accept their views and practices about women. Over the next fifty years I studied the “modern” religions and found problems with all of them.

In 1982, I found the idea of A Great Goddess in Jean Auel’s Valley of Horses. Although fiction, these ideas seemed more reasonable than the established religions I had studied. After more reading, I learned that this had been a real religion and concluded that it was the best concept, at least for me.

Nine years ago, my wife was in the Intensive Care at Newport Hospital after an accident. Her chest had been crushed; she was no longer breathing naturally and was being kept alive by a respirator. The surgeon told us that there was nothing more she could do. If she did not resume breathing, it would be necessary to let her go. That night I asked the Great Mother to let stay together a little longer. The next morning, we saw Dorothy’s natural breathing resume as we watched the monitor. It was faltering and intermittent at first, but grew regular and stronger until she was out of danger. I told our daughters, “After this, how could I NOT believe.” We had seven more good years together. I think of them as a gift from the Great Mother.

What Do I Believe?

The idea of a Great Goddess creating all life from her birth waters is a good symbol of what we know about all life beginning in the Ocean.

I visualize us as children on a big playground. From time to time, The Great Mother calls one of us Home. He may not want to leave, but go he must. However, he is never ever afraid to go. The Great Mother is kind and loving. She will take care of him.

We should be very reluctant to kill another person, but sometimes we must when he threatens us or our loved ones.

We should be slow to kill other life except for good reasons such as repelling a threat or needing the meat.

We should try to understand and get along with others, even if we don’t like them. It will make life easier and more fun.

We should remember that we are related to all other life and to the Earth we live on and try to live in harmony with them. We are NOT stewards, free to exploit as we wish.

We should remember that more happiness comes from relationships with people than from ownership of things. – Life is not about collecting more toys.

My daughters say I have changed and become more mellow. Speaking for myself, I have found serenity, tolerance, concern for others and help in accepting a great loss. I feel more laid back. I don’t write President Bush when I think he's wrong or write to our local paper. I am no longer sure I know all the right answers and I try to understand where the other person is coming from.I see a humorous side to annoying things that happen. If a rush-hour driver cuts in front of me, I think he or she is newly married and is hurrying home to a very late supper. I remember when I used to burn up the road from Fort Belvoir to Dumfries, Virginia – with similarly good reason.

OK. These are my beliefs and the effects I think they have had on my life. But what use are they to you? Perhaps some who believe in earth-centered spirituality will find strength in knowing that many of their beliefs have been common for much longer than the modern religions. Perhaps others will find new ways of thinking about life. At least, some of this history may be new and interesting.