Who Was She?

[Earth Walker]

Ashtoreth, the despised "Pagan" deity of the old testament
was (despite the efforts of biblical scribes to disguise her
identity by repeatedly using the masculine gender) actually
Astarte -- the Great Goddess, as She was known in Canaan,
the Near Eastern Queen of Heaven. Those heathen idol
worshippers of the bible had been praying to a woman god--
elsewhere known as Innin, Innana, Nana, Nut, Anat, Anahita,
Istar, Isis, Au Set, Ishara, Asherah, Ashtart, Attoret, Attar and
Hathor -- the many-named Divine Ancestress. Yet each name
denoted, in the various languages and dialects of those who
revered Her, The Great Goddess.
Even more astonishing was the archaeological evidence which
proved that Her religion had existed and flourished in the Near
and Middle East for thousands of years before the arrival of the
patriarchal Abraham, first prophet of the male deity Yahweh.
Archaeologists had 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 the time of its Neolithic origins, its existence was repeatedly attested to until
well into Roman times. Yet bible scholars agreed that it was as
late as somewhere between 1800 and 1550 BC that Abraham
had lived in Canaan (Palestine).
Who was this Goddess? Why had a female, rather than a male,
been designated as the supreme deity? How influential and
significant was Her worship, and when had it actually begun?
Though Goddesses have been worshipped in all areas of the
world, let's focus on the religion as it evolved in the Near and
Middle East, since these were the lands where both Judaism,
Christianity and Islam were born. The development of the
religion of the female deity in this area was intertwined with the
earliest beginnings of religion so far discovered anywhere on
earth.

For those who love, time is eternity....

[Earth Walker]

DAWN IN THE GRAVETTIAN GARDEN OF EDEN

The Upper Paleolithic period, though most of its sites have
been found in Europe, is the conjectural foundation of the
religion of the Goddess as it emerged in the later Neolithic
Age of the Near East. Since it precedes the time of written
records and does not directly lead into an historical period
that might have helped to explain it, the information on the
Paleolithic existence of Goddess worship must at this time
remain speculative. Theories on the origins of the Goddess
in this period are founded on the juxtaposition of mother-
kinship customs to ancestor worship. They are based upon
three separate lines of evidence.
The first relies on anthropological analogy to explain the
initial development of matrilineal (mother-kinship) societies.
Studies of "primitive" tribes over the last few centuries have
led to the realization that some isolated "primitive" peoples,
even in our own century, did not yet possess the conscious
understanding of the relationship of sex to conception.
The analogy is then drawn that Paleolithic people may have
been at a similiar level of biological awareness.
Jacquetta Hawkes wrote in 1963 that "....Australian and a few
other primitive peoples did not understand biological paternity
or accept a necessary connection between sexual intercourse
and conception." In that same year, S.G.F. Brandon, Professor
of Comparative Religion at the University of Manchester in
England, observed, "How the infant came to be in the womb was
undoubtedly a mystery to primitive man...in view of the period
that separates impregnation from birth, it seems probable that
the significance of gestation and birth was appreciated long
before it was realized that these phenomena were the result of
conception following coition."
"James Frazer, Margaret Mead and other anthropologists,"
writes Leonard Cottrell, "have established that in the very early
stages of man's development, before the secret of human
fecundity was understood, before coitus was associated with
childbirth, the female was revered as the giver of life. Only women
could produce their own kind, and man's part in this process was
not as yet recognized."

[amberlaine]

Hey Mystique--

Since you obviously aren't coing up with all thist stuff on your own, it might be useful if you rpfovide us with the resource you're using. Otherwise it appears that you are writing this stuff off-the-cuff, which is fairly obviously not true. (And it just plain bad manners to post stuff that isn't yours without proper citation and waht not.)

[Mairwen]

Amberlaine, I'm the moderator here, not you, nor anyone else in this forum. At least Mystique is providing us with information ~ but at the same time, she's not implying that it is or is not her sole creation. This thread is closed.

[Mairwen]

After a few PM's, Mystique and I came to this conclusion: re-open the thread. She also said I could post this here:


Mystique: It is my habit to include the credits after my posting(s) are finished. A little are my words, some from Merlin Stone, et al.

Mairwen: I thought so ... on both counts. Mind if I post this post to the thread? I'll reopen it, even.

Mystique: No, I do not mind. Thanx.

[Earth Walker]

I use stuff from woman writers like Merlin Stone, et al; because
I do not have access(university credentials, etc) to what they
have access to, nor am I able to travel to places to see things
for myself, so that is why I rely largely on those history books,
etc., but I do make my own comments as well.
I apologize for any misunderstandings. Thanx. :)

[amberlaine]

I appreciate that clarification :)