21 Feb Mother Goddess Religion
There exists a “myth” that the world was originally a matriarchal paradise and therefore was sex-positive, before the conquest of the patriarchy about 5000 years ago. Feminist researchers such as Eisler and Gimbutas have written extensively about this subject. Jeffrey Kripal (2020) even states, “Among all races, primitive religion begins with glorifying the abundant eros of Mother Earth.” Although this matriarchal time is controversial in academia as well as within traditional religions, especially as there is no written evidence, it is easy to see from the art and sculpture of that time that ancient people celebrated sensuality in a way that is foreign to our modern world. To view the rich, sensually-embodied statues of the temples of Kanarak or Khajuraho in India, or to gasp in amazement at the joyful expressions on the faces of the statues of the sheela na gigs displaying their vulvas found all across the Middle East, Europe, and into Ireland, is to understand deeply that these cultures possessed an entirely different relationship to their bodies than our own.
In these cultures that predated the changes brought about by the patriarchy, the world was seen as emerging out of the Mother’s womb, as have all human beings and other mammals. However, this was not an idyllic time as some romantic writers would have us believe, but was fraught with its own challenges. Nevertheless, in terms of this study, the evidence is that the world was sex-positive to a greater degree than that which followed it. Ascetism was not yet a virtue, as most people did not have enough and spent their days producing food and safety.
Dehejia wrote of the Indian cult of the mother (Mātrikās) which was prominent from the first to third centuries AD, particularly in the region that later birthed the tantras. This cult featured powerful yoginis who passed on their knowledge. Perhaps it was the arrival of the shocking new philosophy and spirituality of Buddhism, mixed with the wisdom of the yoginis that produced the sexual technologies now referred to as tantra.
© 2024 Catherine Auman
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