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One of the oldest austrian archaeological finds is an 11 centimeter long figure made from limestone, dating to around 30.000 years back. The figurine displays an opulant woman with big breasts and a huge womb: The Venus of Willendorf. Similar objects, also from the Old Stone Age, were found in the Czech Republic ( The Venus of Dolní Věstonice) and in Slovakia (The Venus of Moravany). None of these figurines has a face, but their prominent femininity clearly stands out.
I believe that these figurines tell us a story. What we call “The Goddess” today in pagan or wiccan religious beliefs, is the word for an archetype which has been described and experienced for far longer than we might believe.
the “modern” goddess
In todays understanding of spirituality and paganism, the Goddess is both archetype and actual entity, sometimes viewed as the feminine answer to a catholic God who demands patriarchy and the suppression of women and their feminine energy. Women and men all over the world recognize her as a creator, as an actual being to pray and talk to. When we look at further modern interpretations we see her as a female archetype for fertility and abundance. The Goddess also stands for the Earth herself, which is refered to as the all-giving mother of life.
Of course, we can only guess what kind of exact role a female God-like figure played in the Old Stone Age, yet we can make assumptions by looking at the artefact and letting our intuition speak. So keep in mind that the following analysis is my purely intuitive and subjective interpretation.
descriptiveness
Long before institutionalized religion took over, and even after that, the simple folk has always used simple symbols to portray their understanding of the interrelation between themselves, nature and the spiritual world. When I look at the Venus of Willendorf I see not an organized religion of worship, but a simple description of what is. An anonymous fertile female body, the genitals and womb clearly defined, without any decoration, apparel or jewelry, as we know it so well from todays religious art. This doesn’t look much like a personality worship of any kind, as there are no distinct features to the figurine other than her womanhood. And this mere descriptiveness is what fascinates me so much. It makes me imagine and tune into the different kind of thinking the people back then must have had. And also, I think about what it tells us, as modern faeries, pagans and witches, about the energy of the Goddess.
a personal conclusion
The Goddess isn’t a made up story for fearfully fanatics, neither is she an almighty saviour. She is the archetypical expression of the feminine energy and thus a universal principle which applies for all life on earth. And as simple as it may sound: There is no further lore or story needed around her. Many religious figures have been described as coming into human society, having a divinely inspired mission. But the Goddess is what she is, what she always has been. Life itself doesn’t need a saviour or a grand mission to proceed, life is happening everyday in its own mysteriously harmonious order.
a different awareness
I firmly believe that at some point in our history, the awareness of humans was a lot different. I feel we were a little more receptive of our surroundings, and less stuck in intellectual over-thinking. There was a time when people were less analytical and left brained, and there was no need for control through an institutionalized world religion.
I believe people had an awareness for the correlation between the universal concepts of life and themselves. The Earth was both bringing forth life and nurturing it at the same time, just like a human woman with her newborn, so linking both things together in an archetypical, godlike figure seems almost logical. I believe their thinking was a lot different, because they were living together with nature, and in order to survive, having an intuitive understanding of it was necessary. I believe that instead of seeing themselves as lowly humans below the God’s feet, they knew they had their role in the circle of life.
is the goddess the only creator? what is her purpose?
An archetype is nothing less than a personification for a set of elemental characteristics which exist naturally. We are social beings, and it’s much easier to grasp certain concepts if you can imagine them as a being with a face. The old, wise man with the long beard who embodies warmth, wisdom, but also discipline and who is near death. The young child standing for living in the now, carelessness, naivety and new beginnings.
what I believe
To me, the Goddess is the archetype for the expression of female energy, both the wild and tame aspects. But she is not the Creator. Because to create life, there simply needs to be a male counterpart. This male counterpart who embodies the male energy could fill up yet another blog text, so let’s stay focused for now.
oneness
To me, both male and female energy belong together, but they are two sides of the same coin, expressions of one being who contained it all- long before life was expressed into polarities of male and female energy. We can turn to either side of this great being, for all humans have both male and female energy inside of them to a certain degree. But we must never forget the whole picture, that the absolute contains parts of the relative, but the relative- one part of the absolute- can never pose as the absolute.
To everything that exists in the natural order of the world and human psyche, there is an archetype which will be universally understood, because humanity has a hidden collective language, one that tells stories beyond words and staged concepts. This is one of the reasons why the old fairytales are still cherished by young and old: They speak in metaphors and personifications that stir up a part in us that most of us have forgotten.
moving into analytical thinking
I’m deeply convinced that with history happening and more institutionalized, left-headed political, social and religious structures forming around people, we were estranged from this naive, intuitive thinking. What first was a symbol for a universal principle got institutionalized, slowly losing its mere descriptiveness and gaining more of a life on its own, being fed with personality that deviated further and further from the archetypes.
downfall of the gods
I feel that in this process, a God suddenly wasn’t the personification of certain cycles in nature and archetypes in the human psyche anymore, a God suddenly became a stern ruler to whom you might pray to gain something, may it be fortune, safety, wealth, or whatever else people had started to forget they could create themselves. The more human beings deviated from their self awareness into structures of more complicated lore, suddenly, the God or Goddess was an entity standing above you, with more power than you, someone from whose mercy you were completely dependent. Humans forgot their own power and started to know themselves less and less- and with that, the universal concepts and rules of the world. And that must be the reason why simple, descriptive figurines without an identity grew into monstrous statues which embodied worldly power, status and raging emotions driven by an unbalanced ego.
conclusion
The Goddess is here. I know. I feel her in the Earth, in the trees. I feel her in other women, in my own cycle and in myself. I honour her as the ultimate female archetype/being to turn to when I feel like it, but I see her for what I believe she is- as the great all sending itself to me in its aspect of the female archetype, knowing there is more to the original being than this. And I don’t need a feminist role model to make peace with the wounds of womanhood, because the greatest embodiment of female energy is always, and for all time, inside of me.
And everything else- the witches way, faerysoul, everything- is my way of expressing that archetype through the filter of my personality and character.
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