Of the Sacred Feminine

In the beginning was the mother God. So writes Jane Harrison anthropologist, linguist and scholar on ancient religions, pacifist and suffragette born in England in the 1870’s. She found in her work in the early twentieth century that the origins of Greek religion came from fertility cults which worshiped the Goddess, the sacred Mother. Religious iconography throughout the seventh century B.C.E. was decidedly female. It is not until the sixth century that figures of the male gods appear. There is an ancient Persian myth called the myth of Mardok in which Mardok the rebellious warrior murders his mother who is the queen, and thus patriarchy and the ways of patriarchy are born.

According to Proverbs, the figure of Wisdom, she the queen of heaven, is the one who delivers Israel from the Red Sea; it is she who leads Israel through the Sinai desert; it is she who teaches the way of Torah; it is she who prepares the Eucharistic feast; she who stands in the marketplace and at the cross roads, in the midst of human commerce, demanding justice and mercy and hope. But alas, she is finally exiled from earth, banished to her ivory tower aloof in the heavens. But she still is, and she makes her appearance among us now and again.

We have been watching in horror in the news, thanks to Internet technology, the crackdown upon protesters in Iran. The primary face of the victim of this brutal abuse of power is the educated woman. Patriarchy and its modus operandi of violence fears most of all the sacred feminine. Patriarchy fears justice and peace and forbearance and freedom, because it would cede its grip on power and control in favor of the common good. Matriarchy is mutual and collaborative. Patriarchy is self interested.

We are seeing in our own time another attempt at exiling our Mother God, controlling, binding her for the sake of power and greed. We see her dying in the streets of Tehran; we see her occupied and held hostage in Gaza; in every act of violence she is battered: Just War an insidious illusion wrought by patriarchy. Who will speak for her? Who will call out the death spiraling ways of warfare and greed and corruption and violence? Who will free her from her exile, so that her ways become the ways of earth. “Come to me and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you and learn from me”, she pleads in the voice of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel; “for I am gentle and self giving of heart (my translation of the Greek); and you will find rest for your souls.” Who will set her free? Who will break the rattling spear of patriarchy? It is now time….Who?