Monotheism
The concept of monotheism -"one" god- is relatively recent. It was first expressed by the modern Hebrews less than 4,000 years. ago. The exclusive authority of "one universal male god," in western culture, goes back less than 1,700 years to the conversion of the "Roman Emperor Constantine" in 320 CE and his imposition of Christianity as the state religion. Since that time Christianity has actively attempted to convert the rest of the world, through violence, to one so-called "true faith."
Bible Records
The writers of the Judo-Christian Bible, as we know it today, purposely glossed over the sexual identity of the female deity who was held sacred by the neighbors of the Hebrews in Canaan, Babylon and Egypt. The Old Testament does not even have a word for Goddess.
Witch-Hunts and Burnings
Estimates of Witches executed range range around 100,000. Their where many who were not officially executed but died in prisons. The climate of terror feed to this number. Anyone could be accused of being a Witch. Once accused, the suspected Witch was subjected to torture. Whether the accused yield to intolerable pain and named others or confessed to whatever her tortures suggested, whether she was strangled at the stake before burning or burned alive, or hung, or banished, or whether she committed suicide, accusation meant ruin. When you look back over historical time of patriarchy there is terrible evidents of a relentless desire to crush the female essence, human and divine.
Earth Mother
The Bible
The goal was the separation and mutual hostility of the female and male and the
punishment of the female by the male (to the degradation of both.)
Hebrews
Goddess Symbols and Woman Cursed
Destruction of the Goddess Religion
Cult
We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our OWN mouth, to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then had we PLENTY of victuals, and were well, and SAW NO EVIL.
But since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
And when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?
She was known as Ashtoreth in the “promise land.” In Egypt she was known as the Goddess Isis or Hathor.
Goddess Symbols
Referred to in the bible as the Goddess Ashtoreth (2 Kings 23:6)
High Places
Goddess Names – Bible
Her Canaanite names were Asherah, Astarte, Ashtoreth. The people of the Old Testament, like everyone else in the near east, practiced Goddess worship. The Old Testament is the record of the conquest and massacre of these people by nomadic patriarch Hebrew tribes, followers of a male sky/thunder/lightening God, who then set up their own bible God in the place of the Ancient Goddess.
Reference books:
How Can There Be a God Without a Goddess?!
Accumulating archaeological evidence affirms that early cultures worshiped a "Female" deity. This evidence and early writings documents the persistence of Goddess religions for nearly 30,000 years. With the coming of agriculture, the religion of the Goddess flowered. Outside mainstream western culture and the Islamic world, female deities are "still" worshiped today...
As we know, the Bible records the continuous battle waged by the ancient Hebrews against the worship of the Goddess. There can be little doubt that the continuous attacks as recorded in the Old Testament, destroyed much precious and irretrievable information. Even in later periods Christians were known throughout the world for their destruction of sacred icons and literature belonging to the so-called pagan or heathen religions. The Christians became the persecutors who persecuted the so-called pagans. Temples and images were destroyed by fire and their devotees where either mistreated or killed. As the worship of the earlier deities was suppressed temples where destroyed, closed or converted into Christian churches and statues and historic records were obliterated by the missionary father of Christianity.
Witches were accused of worshipping the devil and having sexual intercourse with him. If crops failed, horses ray away, women miscarried, or butter wouldn't churn, a witch would be blamed. Witch-hunts became widespread in the late fifteenth century when Pope Innocent VII declared witchcraft a heresy and extended the power of the Inquisition to its practioners. It was open season on all aberrant people, some men but mostly women of the peasant working class, the lower strata of society, midwives, herbalists, the old wise women, widows, and spinsters, - women unprotected by a man.
During the earliest culture people perceived themselves a one with the animals, not separate species, both were natured like the rocks and the tress, by the life force emanating from the earth itself.
The Goal
The Hebrews were a nomadic patriarchal tribe of sheepherders and warriors who invaded land long belonging to the matriarchal Canaanites. There they established themselves on Canaanite land with their sky and thunder god Yahweh (Jehovah), calling themselves his “chosen people.” Yahweh’s male prophets and priests had to carry on a continuous struggle against their own people from worshipping the Goddess of the Eastern people. This constaint fight against the matriarchal religion and customs is the primary theme of the Old Testament.
The old Goddess religion was damned, her people slaughtered and the stolen
mythology of the new male God was written down by male, so-called prophets and
thus given textual authority as the word of God.
The Christians were known throughout the world for their destruction of sacred icons and literature, belonging to the so-called “heathen religions.” The missionaries of Christianity obliterated statues and historical records. Though the destruction was major, it was not total. Fortunately, many objects were overlooked; remnants that today tell their OWN versions.
The Last of the Goddess Temples
Queen of Heaven
……..all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in
the land of Egypt…saying
Cobra - (Serpent)
-worn on forehead as the eye of wisdom
-a symbol of mystic insight and wisdom
-hieroglyphic sign for the word Goddess
-associated with healing and medicine
Tree – (Tree of Good and Evil)
-in ancient records mentioned as sacred
-called the sycamore or fig
-referenced with the Goddess Hathor of Egypt
-Grove – (Goddess)
-Built for Ashtoreth (II Kings 23:13)
-Groves - (Garden)
-Trees (Deu 16:21)
-Ordered to be cut down (Exodus 34:13)
-Yet Abram planted (Genesis 21:33)
Ashtart – Judges 2:13
Ashtoreth – I King 11:5, 33
Queen of Heaven – Jeremiah 44:17
Diana/Artemis - Acts 19:24
When God was a Woman - Merline Stone
Mother Worship - James J. Preston
The Great Cosmic Mother - Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor
The Once & Future Goddess - Elinor W. Gadon
Lady of the Beasts - Ancient Images of the Goddess and Her
Sacred Animals - Buffie Johnson
~Nubian Goddess Shop~
Bring Out the Goddess In You
Recognize Your Empowerment
Show the World Who You Are
