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Who is Sakina or Shekinah.
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CONTENTS
The Holy Spirit-Shekinah
Shekinah: The Voice of Wisdom
The Shekinah is the Cosmic Womb
The Shekinah: Image of the Divine Feminine
Gnostic Imagery of Divine Mother Sophia
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# The Holy Spirit-Shekinah
The Holy Spirit/Shekinah is frequently described as some mysterious, creative power of God. But when we actually turn to that ‘Spirit of God that dwells in us’, She is mysterious no longer, for She is the One that is present within us to give us that Second Birth...
# Shekinah: The Voice of Wisdom
There were different schools of Kabbalah. Some saw the Shekinah as separated from the godhead, in voluntary exile on earth, describing her as a daughter cut off from her mother, and as a widow, until she is able to return to the divine ground, having gathered to herself all the elements or sparks of her light that had been scattered throughout creation during the process of emanation. The blackness of the Shekinah's robe, inherited perhaps from the black robe or veil of Isis (who was also called "The Widow" during her search for Osiris), is the darkness of the mystery that hides the hidden glory of her Light.
Another strand in this tapestry of the Divine Feminine in the Hebrew tradition are the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament (of which the greater part were mysteriously lost), written down from the fourth to the first centuries B.C., after the end of the Captivity in Babylon. The Shekinah comes to life in the passages where Wisdom (called Hokhmah in Hebrew, or Sophia in Greek) speaks as the Holy Spirit calling to humanity. She tells us that she is immanent in our world, with us in the streets of our cities, calling to us to awaken to her presence, to obey her laws, to listen to her wisdom, promising her blessing if we can only hear her voice and respond to her teaching. These magnificent passages transform the voice of the Shekinah, speaking as Divine Wisdom, from abstract idea into presence, friend, and guide. She speaks as if she were here, in this dimension, dwelling in the midst of her kingdom, accessible to those who seek her out. Widowed because of her voluntary separation from her spouse, she is unknown and unrecognised, yet working within the depths of life, striving to open humanity's understanding to her justice, her wisdom, and her truth.
She says that she is with her beloved from the beginning, before the foundation of the world, speaking from the deep ground of life as the hidden law that orders it, the craftswoman of creation. She is the intelligence within nature, the animating energy of the cosmos; rooted in tree, vine, earth, and water and active in the habitations of humanity. She is the principle of justice that inspires all human laws. She is the invisible spirit guiding human consciousness; a hidden presence longing to be known, calling out to the world for recognition and response. To those like Solomon, who prized her more highly than rubies, she becomes their wise and luminous guide.
# The Shekinah is the Cosmic Womb
The Shekinah or feminine face of the godhead is the Cosmic Womb, the Palace, the Enclosure, the Fountain, Apple Orchard, and Mystical Garden of Eden and, at the same time, the radiance that becomes the successive robes or veils that are the spheres of consciousness or dimensions of created life. She is named as Mother, Sister, and Daughter, Beloved and Bride, the architect of worlds, the source or foundation of our world, who is the Radiance, Word, or Glory of the unknowable ground or godhead; she brings into being all the creative powers and entities, both female and male (the ten sephiroth), all the spheres or dimensions of manifestation that are ensouled by the godhead until she generates the manifest world we know.
The Kabbalists called this last sphere Malkuth, the Kingdom, where the divine Mother-Father image is expressed as the male and female of all species. Humanity, female and male, is made in the image of God, the reflection of the duality-in-unity of the godhead. The Shekinah is forever united with her beloved spouse in the divine ground or heart of being, and it is their union in the godhead that holds life in a constant state of coming into being. The sexual attraction between man and woman and the expression of true love between them is the enactment or reflection at this level of creation of the divine embrace at its heart enshrined in the words: "I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine." Human sexual relationship, enacted with love, mutual respect, and joy, is a holy ritual that helps to maintain the ecstatic union of the divine pair.
Text after text uses sexual imagery and the imagery of light to describe how the ray that emerges from nothing is sown into the womb - the Great Sea of Light - of the celestial Mother and how she brings forth from this womb the male and female creative energies, which, as two branches of the Tree of Life, are King and Queen, Son and Daughter. A third branch of the Tree descends directly down the center, unifying the energies on either side. Surely a long visionary tradition, meditated on for centuries, must lie behind these images. The Shekinah is the waters above and below the firmament, the Divine Spouse, the indwelling and active Holy Spirit, and the divine guide or immanent presence who delivers the world from bondage and restores it ultimately to the heavenly spheres. Wisdom, compassion, justice, and mercy are four intrinsic qualities of her being; yet, like the goddesses of Egypt and Sumer, she can also be terrible in her power to destroy and in her fury at the wanton desecration of her life.
Because she brings all worlds into existence as her robes or veils, and dwells in them as Divine Presence, nothing is outside God, nothing excluded. Everything is connected to everything else as through a luminous circulatory system, a seamless robe of light. Moreover, the Shekinah is deeply devoted to what she has brought into being, as a mother is devoted to the well-being of her child and, in particular, to the mystic community of Israel.
In the last chapter of the Book of Revelation (Rev.21:2), written by a Jewish Christian hand, the imagery of Shekinah can be recognised in the description of the Heavenly City, "descending from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" with pearls and gold and precious jewels, having no need of sun or moon for light, for she is the Light, the Glory of God. Christians, knowing nothing of this lost tradition, cannot make the connection between the Shekinah as Bride and the Holy Spirit, the feminine aspect of the divine.
# The Shekinah: Image of the Divine Feminine
The Shekinah is the image of the Divine Feminine or the feminine face of God as it was conceived in the mystical tradition of Judaism, originating perhaps in the rabbinic schools of Babylon and transmitted orally for a thousand years until it flowered in the writings of the Jewish Kabbalists of medieval Spain and southwestern France. In Kabbalah, religion ceases to be a matter of worship and collective belief. It becomes a direct path of communion between the individual and the Divine. In the imagery of the Shekinah, Kabbalah gives us the cosmology of the soul and the relationship between the two aspects of the godhead that has been lost or hidden for millennia. The mythology of the Kabbalah is so gloriously rich, so broad in its imaginative and revelatory reach, and so intensely nourishing to a world that lacks any awareness of the Divine Feminine, that to discover this tradition is immensely exciting. The Shekinah reveals the missing imagery of God-as-Mother that has been lost or obscured in both Judaism and Christianity.
Whereas the Old Testament is the written tradition of Judaism, Kabbalah offers the hidden oral tradition, wonderfully named as "The Voice of the Turtle" (turtledove). This mystic knowledge or mystic tradition of the direct path to God was described as the Jewels of the Heavenly Bride. The Bronze Age imagery of the Great Goddess returns to life in the extraordinary beauty of the Kabbalistic description of the Shekinah and in the gender endings of nouns that describe the feminine dimension of the godhead. But the Divine Feminine is now understood as cosmic soul, the intermediary between the godhead and life in this dimension who, as the Shekinah brings together heaven and earth, the divine and the human in a resplendent vision of their essential relationship.
The mythology of this tradition restores the image of the sacred marriage in the union of the Divine Father-Mother in the ground of being. There is not a Mother and a Father but a Mother-Father who are one in their eternal embrace: one in their ground, one in their emanation, one in their ecstatic and continuous act of creation through all the invisible dimensions they bring into being and sustain. No other tradition offers the same breathtaking vision, in such exquisite poetic imagery, of the union of male and female energies in the One that is both. The Song of Songs was the text most used by Kabbalists for their contemplation of the mystery of this divine union. Yet one has the feeling that this way to union with the Divine may descend from some unknown source that nourished Egypt, Sumer, and India.
The Kabbalistic tradition describes the feminine image of the godhead as Mother, Daughter, Sister, and Holy Spirit, giving woman what she has lacked throughout the last two and a half thousand years in Judeo-Christian culture - an image of the Divine Feminine in the godhead that is reflected at the human level in herself. The Shekinah is Divine Motherhood, Mother of All Living. Women can know themselves, in their role as mothers, in their care and concern for the well-being of their loved ones, as the instinctive custodians of her creation.
The thirteenth-century "Zohar, The Book of Radiance or Splendor" that was the principal text of Kabbalah, contemplates the mystery of the relationship between the female and male aspects of the godhead expressed as Mother and Father, and their emanation through all levels of creation as Daughter and Son. The essential conception of this mystical tradition expresses itself as an image of worlds within worlds. Divine Spirit (Ain Soph or Ein Sof) beyond form or conception is the light at the center, the heart, and moves outward as creative sound (word), thought and energy, bringing into being successive spheres, realms, veils, or dimensions imagined as veils or robes that clothe and hide the hidden source yet at the same time transmit its radiant light.
The transmission of light from source to the outer, manifest level is also imagined as an inverted tree, the Tree of Life, whose branches grow from its root in the divine ground and extend through the worlds of emanation. The primal center or root is the innermost light, of an unimaginable luminosity and translucence. The inner point expands or is sown as a ray of light into a dimension described in some texts as a sea of glory, in others as a palace that acts as an enclosure for the light; from this womb it emanates as a radiant cascade, a fountain of living water, pouring forth light to sustain and permeate all the worlds or dimensions it brings into being. All life on earth, all consciousness, is that light and is therefore utterly sacred. The Zohar [principal text of Kabbalah] describes nature as the garment of God.
# Gnostic Imagery of Divine Mother Sophia
Yet another strand to this story [of the Shekinah of Judaism] is the Gnostic imagery of the Divine Mother Sophia. Reading the Kabbalistic texts, it is almost as if they are the voice of this lost tradition. By the year 200, all the feminine imagery of God that was part of the Gnostic tradition had been excised from the orthodox canon of Christian teaching so that, until very recently in this century, no one knew that some groups of early Christians had an image of the Divine Mother. They named her the "Invisible within the All." They spoke of how, as the Eternal Silence, she received the seed of light from the ineffable source and how, from this womb, she brought forth all the emanations of light, ranged in harmonious pairs of feminine and masculine energies. They saw her as the womb of life, not only of human life, but the life of the whole cosmos. They named this Divine Mother as Holy Spirit and saw the dove as her emissary: at the baptism of Jesus, it was the Divine Mother who spoke to her son.
The imagery and mythology of the Divine Mother in Gnosticism is so similar to her later imagery as the Shekinah of Kabbalah that they seem to belong to one and the same tradition. In a Gnostic text called the "Trimorphic Protennoia" the speaker describes herself as the intangible Womb that gives shape to the All, the life that moves in every creature. Other texts name her as the Mother of the Universe but also speak of the androgyny of the divine source in imagery similar to the later Kabbalistic texts.
Today we might imagine the Shekinah as the light that manifests as both wave and particle, as the deep unexplored "sea" of cosmic space, and as the extraordinary complex structure and organization of energy manifested as matter - a word that comes from the Latin word for mother: "mater". After so many billions of years the energy of life has evolved a form - the planet earth - and a consciousness - our own - which is slowly helping us to explore the mystery of what we are. Yet, because of the loss of the tradition of the Divine Feminine, we do not know that what we are exploring in the finer and finer gradations of matter we discover, is what the Jewish mystics called the face and the glory of God, nor that the universe we explore with our technology is the outer covering or veil of an unimaginable web of luminous interconnecting pathways. If only these images of the Shekinah could be restored to us, how differently we might see matter, with what respect and awe we might treat it.
In the magnificent passages from the Apocrypha, it seems as if the Shekinah is telling us her story:
I came out of the mouth of the most high,
and covered the earth as a cloud.
I dwelt in high places,
and my throne is in a cloudy pillar.
I alone compassed the circuit of heaven,
and walked in the bottom of the deep.
I had power over the waves of the sea,
and over all the earth,
and over every people and nation...
He created me from the beginning
before the world, and I shall never fail.
In the holy tabernacle I served before him;
and so was I established in Sion.
Likewise in the beloved city he gave me rest,
and in Jerusalem was my power...
I am the mother of fair love, and fear,
and knowledge and holy hope...
I therefore, being eternal, am given to
all my children which are named of him.
Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me,
and fill yourselves with my fruits.
For my memorial is sweeter than honey,
and mine inheritance than the honeycomb...
Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach
24:3-6, 9-11, 18-20
["The Divine Feminine" , Anne Baring and Andrew Harvey]
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Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Mary
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The Most Holy Name of Mary
Queen of Heaven - Christianity
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# The Most Holy Name of Mary
We are presented to Christ by His Mother. She presents our needs and petitions to Him; She is the instrument of His mercy and of the disposition of the "Treasury of Grace" won by Him for us on Calvary; She consoles our hearts and through Her maternal care, imparts to Her children whatever peace or happiness we can know in this vale of tears - nothing less than the peace of Christ.
The Most Holy Name of Mary
by Mark Alessio
"O name of Mary! Joy in the heart, honey in the mouth, melody to the ear of Her devout clients!"
St. Anthony of Padua AD1231
Pondering the Meaning of "Mary"
In Hebrew, the name Mary is Miryam. In Our Lady's time, Aramaic was the spoken language, and the form of the name then in use was Mariam. Derived from the root, merur, the name signifies "bitterness."
Miryam was the name of the sister of Moses; and the ancient rabbinical scholars perceiving in it a symbol of the slavery of the Israelites at the hands of the Egyptians, held that Miryam was given this name because she was born during the time of the oppression of her people. The Old Testament, chronicling as it does the "Time of Expectation" of the Redeemer, is filled with "types," or foreshadowings of people and events which would be made manifest during the "Time of Redemption," when. Christ walked the earth. Jesus Mary and Joseph, the Sacrament of Baptism, the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Calvary, etc., are all foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but we view them there "through a glass darkly," so to speak, under the guidance of the Catholic Church, which alone possesses the authority to interpret the sacred texts.
Miryam, the sister of Moses is a "type" of the Blessed Virgin. Miryam was a prophetess who sang a canticle of thanksgiving after the safe crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's army; Mary prophesied in Her Magnificat that all generations would honor Her, and She sang of how God would topple the proud and raise the lowly. Miryam supported her brother, Moses, the liberator of his people; as the Co-Redemptrix who united Her sufferings to those of the One Mediator on Calvary, Mary labored alongside the Redeemer, the true Liberator of His people. Just as Jesus was the "antitype" [i.e., fulfillment] of Moses, so was Our Lady the "antitype" of Miryam, the fullest realization of the courageous woman standing beside, and laboring with, the one who comes to free captives.
Throughout the centuries, Saints and scholars have put forth different interpretations for the name "Mary." A mixture of etymology and devotion has combined to produce an interesting array of meanings:
"Mary means enlightener, because She brought forth the Light of the world. In the Syriac tongue, Mary signifies Lady." [St. Isidore of Seville +636]
"Let me say something concerning this name also, which is interpreted to mean Star of the sea, and admirably suits the Virgin Mother." [St. Bernard +1153]
"Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary's maternal intercession." [St. Thomas Aquinas +1274]
"This most holy, sweet and worthy name was 'eminently fitted to so holy, sweet and worthy a virgin. For Mary means a bitter sea, star of the sea, the illuminated or illuminatrix. Mary is interpreted Lady. Mary is a bitter sea to the demons; to men She is the Star of the sea; to the Angels She is illuminatrix, and to all creatures She is Lady ." [St. Bonaventure +1274]
"God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas or maria [Latin, seas]. He gathered all His grace together and called it Mary or Maria . . .This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the Saints call the 'treasury of the Lord.' From Her fullness all men are made rich;" [St. Louis de Montfort +1716]
The hallowed title, "Star of the Sea," dates back to St. Jerome [+420]. It has been said that the great Doctor had originally used the phrase Stilla Maris to describe Mary as a "drop of the sea," the sea being God. A copyist's error, then, could have resulted in stilla [drop] being written down as stella [star]. Of course, the hallowed title, "Star of the Sea," suits Our Lady perfectly:
" 'And the Virgin's name was Mary.' Let us say a few things about this name, which can be interpreted to mean Star of the sea, an apt designation for the Virgin Mother. She is most beautifully likened to a star, for a star pours forth its light without losing anything of its nature. She gave us Her Son without losing anything of Her virginity. The glowing rays of a star take nothing away from its beauty. N either has the Son taken anything away from His Mother's integrity.
"She is that noble star of Jacob, illuminating the whole world, penetrating from the highest heavens to the deepest depths of Hell. The warmth of Her brilliance shines in the minds of men, encouraging virtue, extinguishing vice. She is that glorious star lighting the way across this vast ocean of life, glowing with merits, guiding by example.
"When you find yourself tossed by the raging storms on this great sea of life, far from land, keep your eyes fixed on this Star to avoid disaster. When the winds of temptation or the rocks of tribulation threaten, look up to the Star, call upon Mary!" [St. Bernard, Second Homily on the Missus Est]
The interpretation "Lady" for Mary was also proposed by St. Jerome, based on the Aramaic word, mar, meaning "Lord". This would render the meaning "Lady" in the regal or noble sense [as in "Lord and Lady."] Catholic sensibility, however, recognizing in Mary the simple dignity of a Mother, as well as the grandeur of a Queen, did not hesitate to add an affectionate touch to this majestic title. Mary is not just "Lady;" She is "Madonna," Notre Dame-----i.e., She is Our Lady. This aspect of Mary -----"Lady" or "Mistress"-----is close to Our Lord's Heart. We read in the Scriptures how, for a time, the youthful Christ made Himself "subject" to Her and St. Joseph, an act of Divine condescension which caused St. Bernard to wonder:
"Which shall we admire first? The tremendous submission of the Son of God, or the tremendous God-given dignity of the Mother of God? Both are marvels: both amazing. When God obeys a woman, it is humility without precedent. When a woman commands her God, it is sublime beyond measure." [First Homily on the Missus Est]
It is not difficult to see why these various interpretations of the name "Mary" should have been proposed and cherished, for they encapsulate many of our Marian doctrines and beliefs. "Bitter sea [mara = bitter; yam = sea]," for instance, in addition to the interpretation given by St. Bonaventure, also calls to mind Our Lady's Seven Sorrows and the sword which "pierced" Her soul on Calvary, recalling the lamentation of the mother-in-law of Ruth, who had lost a husband and two sons: "Call me not Noemi, [that is, beautiful,] but call me Mara, [that is, bitter,] for the Almighty hath quite filled me with bitterness [Rt. 1: 20]." Maror are "bitter herbs," such as are found on the seder plate at Passover.
The "Illuminated" points us to St. John's apocalyptic image of the "Woman clothed with the Sun," a dual image encompassing both the Catholic Church and Mary, the Mother and Image of the Church. In addition, the "Illuminated" has also been rendered as the "Enlightener" and, like St. Bernard, St. Aelred [+1167] combines this meaning with that of the Stella Maris in a powerful passage:
"Therefore a certain Star has risen for us today: Our Lady, Saint Mary. Her name means Star of the sea; no doubt the Star of this sea which is the world. Therefore, we ought to lift up our eyes to this Star that has appeared on earth today in order that She may lead us, in order that She may enlighten us, in order that She may show us these steps so that we shall know them, in order that She may help us so that we may be able to ascend. And therefore it is a beautiful thing that Mary is placed in this stairway of which we are speaking, there where we must begin to climb. As the Evangelist says, Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, so immediately at the very moment of our conversion She appears to us and receives us into Her care and enlightens us in Her light and accompanies us along this laborious path." [Sermon 24, For the Nativity of Holy Mary]
There is another interpretation for the name "Mary" which is quite interesting in that it relates to the Church as well. This supposes the name to be derived from the Hebrew verb mara, meaning "to be fleshy or robust. In the East, such descriptions implying corpulence were used to indicate beauty and fecundity. Here, then, Our Lady's name would indicate "The Beautiful One," quite fitting for the Immaculate Conception. [Tota Pulchra Es, M aria!-----"You are all beautiful, Mary!"] The Psalms prophetically describe the Church in this manner, all alluding to the fruitfulness and spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost:
"The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain . . . A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell." [Ps. 67:16-17]
This image resonates with the prophecy of Isaias concerning the New Dispensation [and the Church], and with the words of Our Lord:
"And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow unto it [Is. 2: 2] . . . You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a mountain cannot be hid." [Mt. 5: 14]
It is here that the Psalms intersect with St. John's Apocalyptic vision, to present the maternal function of the Church, a virginal maternity mirroring that of Our Lady, which begets new "brethren" of Christ, new sons and daughters of Mary ["the rest of Her seed," as Catholics are called by St. John in his Apocalypse] and new children of God the Father:
"But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." [Jn. 1: 12-13]
"The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains: The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. Glorious things are said of Thee, O city of God . . . Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in Her? And the Highest Himself hath founded Her." [Ps. 86: 1-3, 5]
The inspired texts prophesy that the Church will be "exalted"-----It shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow unto it. So, too, will be the Mother of the Church, She who prophesied that "all generations shall call Me blessed." Another proposed meaning for the Blessed Virgin's name reflects this exaltation, the majesty of the Queen of Heaven. It derives from ancient Canaanite literature, where the word mrym [pronounced somewhat like Maryam] means "height" [sharing the same derivation as marom, the Hebrew word for "height"]. This would render Mary's name as "Highness" or "The Exalted One."
This fascinating-----and very, very Catholic-----desire to explore the meaning and depths of the holy name of "Mary" is not merely a pious pursuit, unrelated to any theological concerns. In the various interpretations set forth, a wealth of Marian doctrine is made manifest, not in the clinical language of theology , but in rich, colorful meditations on Our Lady's name, and sacred truths are explored and taught in language easily comprehended and appreciated by all.
In his fine book, The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God, St. John Eudes [+1680] offers meditations on seventeen interpretations of the name "Mary," taken from the writings of "the Holy Fathers and by some celebrated Doctors. "Among these are "God born of my race," [St.Ambrose] "Rain of the sea, falling at convenient time and season," [St. Peter Canisius] "Myrrh of the Sea," [St. Jerome] and "The hope of those who voyage on the stormy sea of this world." [St. Epiphanius] It is quite clear-----from Scripture, Tradition and history-----that the Church owes so much to Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer and our Mother "in the order of grace." How does the gratitude and affection of Her spiritual children manifest itself in the beautiful Feast of the Holy Name of Mary,and what does this cherished name mean to those who love and venerate the Mother of God?
The Virtue and Power of Our Lady's Name
A balanced view of salvation history will grant to the Blessed Virgin Her proper place in both the Incarnation of the Second Divine Person and in the Kingdom won by Him on Calvary. Therefore, She is venerated with thanksgiving as both the one who, in union with the Blessed Trinity, gave Jesus to the world, and as the one who stood by Him during His Passion, uniting Her "Com-Passion" to His Salvific Passion for the restoration of fallen mankind to the friendship of God. It was prophesied in Eden that the Mother of Christ would be given a share in the work of the One Mediator and, because of this, a unique share in His glory. As had been prophesied by Simeon in the Temple, the soul of the Co-Redemptrix was pierced beneath the Cross on Calvary. The Mother of the Church, who experienced no physical labor pains during the birth of the Incarnate God at Bethlehem, did undergo unimaginable spiritual 'labor pains' as Her Son hung on the Cross, dying the cruelest
death imaginable. And God, in His wisdom, has decreed that these sufferings of Mary count for something, and something indescribably precious, in the economy of salvation. They were not the sufferings which redeemed humanity, like those of Jesus. They were not needed in order to augment or complete the superabundant Sacrifice of Jesus, which alone could and did atone for all the sins of the world. Yet, God decreed that Our Lady unite Her Sufferings to those of Jesus, the Woman of Genesis standing beside Her Seed during the restoration of the world.
Our Lady did this-----suffered as She did-----for us, for the spiritual progeny bequeathed to Her by Jesus in the person of St. John: "Woman, behold Thy son!" Therefore, we truly are brethren of Jesus, "the rest of Her seed:"
"And a great sign appeared in Heaven: A Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under Her feet, and on Her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, She cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered . . . And She brought forth a man Child, Who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and Her son was taken up to God, and to His throne . . . And the dragon was angry against the Woman: and went to make war with the rest of Her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." [Apoc, 1-2, 5,17]
The Woman prophesied in Eden . . . The Virgin prophesied by Isaias . . . The Beautiful One of the Canticles . . . When the time had finally come, the world knew Her name at last: "And the Virgin's name was Mary." This woman uniquely honored with the title, Co-Redemptrix, was rewarded by Her Lord and Redeemer with a queenly crown in His Kingdom . . . and with the role of Mediatrix of All Graces, to dispense those graces which had cost Her Son so dearly on the Cross.
And so, we call out to this Mother and Queen in confidence: Ave Maria . . . Salve Regina . . . Ave Maris Stella . . . Ave Regina Caelorum. Because of this, we honor, respect and set aside in our hearts a special place for Her Holy Name, "Mary," for it was the beacon of our redemption. During the nine months that Jesus rested in His Mother's womb, no one encountered Christ except through Mary, as did the infant St. John the Baptist in the womb of St. Elizabeth. Men and women still, and always will, go to Jesus through Mary:
"Considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish His greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since He created Her, we can safely believe that He will not change His plan in the time to come, for He is God and therefore does not change in His thoughts or His way of acting." [True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin]
Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anne . . . She is not a goddess, not a mythological warrior-queen, not a curious, elusive character recalled through the mists of antiquity. She is a person, a uniquely blessed and honored individual, but a person still. "When you approach the time for reading about Mary Immaculate," wrote St. Maximilian Kolbe [+1941], "always remember that you are entering into contact with a living, loving person." No wonder, then, that Catholics [members of Christ's Mystical Body and, therefore, the "rest" of Mary's seed] should hold their Blessed Mother's name in such esteem. It reminds us of God's goodness, of His mercy and generosity to struggling mankind:
"The name of Mary is a name of salvation for those who are regenerated; it is the insignia of virtue, the honor of chastity, the sacrifice agreeable to God, the virtue of hospitality, the school of sanctity, a name altogether maternal." [St. Peter Chrysologus +450]
Of course, in a proper understanding of doctrine and Scripture, such a declaration will not be misinterpreted as any contradiction to the words of St. Paul concerning Our Lord and His sacred Name:
"For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." [Phil. 2: 9-11]
St. Peter Chrysologus did not say that the name of Mary is a "name of salvation." He wrote that "the name of Mary is a name of salvation for those who are regenerated." A person who wishes to follow Christ, yet denies the Mother given to him by Jesus on Calvary, is fooling himself. Through the inspired Gospels, Our Lady has been presented to the world as Advocate and Mediatrix [in the Visitation and Wedding at Cana episodes], and as Spiritual Mother [on Calvary]. Because there are no empty shows or meaningless displays with God, then we are bound to understand Mary's advocacy and spiritual maternity as active, vital components in the life of the soul, for it is the good of souls that moved God to ordain the Incarnation:
"For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting [Jn. 3: 16] . . .
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." [Lk. 19: 10]
The Blessed Virgin, then is a Divine bestowal, a gift bequeathed to the Church by Her dying Savior. And Her name? Her name will become more than a name It will be a sign of Our Lord's solicitude, a pledge of His love . . . and a prayer unto itself:
"We scarce remember now that once this name was spoken softly in a time before the Aves rang. Perhaps across some threshold it was said, so casually, by one who called to Her, 'Mary.' Then, She might have turned and come, obedient from where the children played together in the dusk: and no one knew that more was said than just a young girl's name." [Fr. John W. Lynch, A Woman Wrapped in Silence]
The Introit for the Mass of the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, taken from Psalm 44, is an eloquent testimony to the reason we celebrate this beautiful name:
"All the rich among the people shall entreat Thy countenance: after Her shall virgins be brought to the King: Her neighbors shall be brought to Thee in gladness and rejoicing . . . My heart hath uttered a good word: I will speak my works to the King."
We are presented to Christ by His Mother. She presents our needs and petitions to Him; She is the instrument of His mercy and of the disposition of the "Treasury of Grace" won by Him for us on Calvary; She consoles our hearts and through Her maternal care, imparts to Her children whatever peace or happiness we can know in this vale of tears-----nothing less than the peace of Christ. We may struggle to maintain this peace in our bruised and weary hearts, but Our Lady is always ready and eager to share it with us again and again. Yes, the name of Mary, this brief, simple name, speaks volumes to us. "There is hidden in that Divine name [of Mary] a spell so potent," wrote Abbé Orsini, "and of such marvelous sweetness, that merely to pronounce it softens the heart, merely to write it beautifies the style." St. Bonaventure declared the the name of Mary "cannot be pronounced without bringing some grace to him who does so devoutly."
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# Queen of Heaven - Christianity
Hail! Queen of Heaven,
Hail! Lady of the Angels;
Salutation to Thee, root and portal,
Whence the Light of the world has arisen.
Although Mary is appealed to as Queen of Heaven, she seems to stand, as intercessor between earth and heaven, for the connecting principle of life, for the soul - for the feminine principle of relationship that connects all things to each other, for the supreme values of the heart. She is the grail of compassion and healing. She is the guardian of the sacredness of all life. When the Virgin Mary appears in visions, as at Fatima and Medjugorje, it is to children that she speaks. She speaks as if she were the voice of the Holy Spirit, offering wisdom and warning, and the children who see her and hear her voice, knowing nothing of what they ought or ought not to believe, respond instinctively from the soul, implicitly trusting what she is saying to them. In these messages, she does not ask for belief but for radical and total transformation.
The full dimensions of the Virgin Mary are more easily understood if we look beyond her to the luminous image of the Shekinah. In the Shekinah we are one life, one radiance. So many numinous images that belonged to the Shekinah in the Old Testament were transferred to Mary; reflection on Mary as intercessor between God and humanity reveals the veiled form of the Shekinah as the feminine face of God, the divine presence within all created life. Perhaps we may recognize her in Mary's mother, St. Anne. The painters of the Renaissance show Mary's womb penetrated by a ray of light from God in the way that the ray or point of light from the source penetrated the "sea of glory" of the Shekinah's womb.
Mary's name is derived from the Latin 'mare' - the sea - one of the most ancient images of the waters of life, the great sea of being. Mary gradually reveals herself to be the Prima Materia, the Root and Portal of Life, the Womb of Creation, the Fountain, and the Rose Garden - images that also belonged to the Shekinah. Like the Shekinah, she is the secret, hidden ground of the soul, addressed as such by many Christian mystics, the conduit to the Divine. Many of the images evoked in the great Orthodox Akathist hymn to Mary address her as this ineffable ground; the height unattainable by human thought; the depth invisible even to the eyes of angels; the womb of divine incarnation; the field of the immortal crop; the planter of our life; the haven; the fount of love; the inexhaustible treasure. Mary is the rose, the lily, and the Tree of Life from which the faithful are fed - an image that evokes not only the Shekinah as the image of the hidden wisdom that
is the Tree of Life but also the goddesses Nut, Hathor, and Isis giving the food and drink of eternal life to the souls of the dead.
Wherever the association is made between love and divinity, between beauty and harmony and divinity, between nourishment and divinity, or between compassion and divinity, there stands the image of the Divine Feminine. All of these images, read as describing the unfathomable ground of being that is also the unfathomable ground of the human soul, bring Mary closer to us as the root and foundation of our own lives. She feels closer to us than the transcendent God who has been drawn more in the imagery of a remote father and stern judge than a loving mother. The Virgin Mary is the compassionate, accessible face of the Divine Feminine.
["The Divine Feminine", Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring]
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The Most Holy Name of Mary
Queen of Heaven - Christianity
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# The Most Holy Name of Mary
We are presented to Christ by His Mother. She presents our needs and petitions to Him; She is the instrument of His mercy and of the disposition of the "Treasury of Grace" won by Him for us on Calvary; She consoles our hearts and through Her maternal care, imparts to Her children whatever peace or happiness we can know in this vale of tears - nothing less than the peace of Christ.
The Most Holy Name of Mary
by Mark Alessio
"O name of Mary! Joy in the heart, honey in the mouth, melody to the ear of Her devout clients!"
St. Anthony of Padua AD1231
Pondering the Meaning of "Mary"
In Hebrew, the name Mary is Miryam. In Our Lady's time, Aramaic was the spoken language, and the form of the name then in use was Mariam. Derived from the root, merur, the name signifies "bitterness."
Miryam was the name of the sister of Moses; and the ancient rabbinical scholars perceiving in it a symbol of the slavery of the Israelites at the hands of the Egyptians, held that Miryam was given this name because she was born during the time of the oppression of her people. The Old Testament, chronicling as it does the "Time of Expectation" of the Redeemer, is filled with "types," or foreshadowings of people and events which would be made manifest during the "Time of Redemption," when. Christ walked the earth. Jesus Mary and Joseph, the Sacrament of Baptism, the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Calvary, etc., are all foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but we view them there "through a glass darkly," so to speak, under the guidance of the Catholic Church, which alone possesses the authority to interpret the sacred texts.
Miryam, the sister of Moses is a "type" of the Blessed Virgin. Miryam was a prophetess who sang a canticle of thanksgiving after the safe crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's army; Mary prophesied in Her Magnificat that all generations would honor Her, and She sang of how God would topple the proud and raise the lowly. Miryam supported her brother, Moses, the liberator of his people; as the Co-Redemptrix who united Her sufferings to those of the One Mediator on Calvary, Mary labored alongside the Redeemer, the true Liberator of His people. Just as Jesus was the "antitype" [i.e., fulfillment] of Moses, so was Our Lady the "antitype" of Miryam, the fullest realization of the courageous woman standing beside, and laboring with, the one who comes to free captives.
Throughout the centuries, Saints and scholars have put forth different interpretations for the name "Mary." A mixture of etymology and devotion has combined to produce an interesting array of meanings:
"Mary means enlightener, because She brought forth the Light of the world. In the Syriac tongue, Mary signifies Lady." [St. Isidore of Seville +636]
"Let me say something concerning this name also, which is interpreted to mean Star of the sea, and admirably suits the Virgin Mother." [St. Bernard +1153]
"Mary means Star of the sea, for as mariners are guided to port by the ocean star, so Christians attain to glory through Mary's maternal intercession." [St. Thomas Aquinas +1274]
"This most holy, sweet and worthy name was 'eminently fitted to so holy, sweet and worthy a virgin. For Mary means a bitter sea, star of the sea, the illuminated or illuminatrix. Mary is interpreted Lady. Mary is a bitter sea to the demons; to men She is the Star of the sea; to the Angels She is illuminatrix, and to all creatures She is Lady ." [St. Bonaventure +1274]
"God the Father gathered all the waters together and called them the seas or maria [Latin, seas]. He gathered all His grace together and called it Mary or Maria . . .This immense treasury is none other than Mary whom the Saints call the 'treasury of the Lord.' From Her fullness all men are made rich;" [St. Louis de Montfort +1716]
The hallowed title, "Star of the Sea," dates back to St. Jerome [+420]. It has been said that the great Doctor had originally used the phrase Stilla Maris to describe Mary as a "drop of the sea," the sea being God. A copyist's error, then, could have resulted in stilla [drop] being written down as stella [star]. Of course, the hallowed title, "Star of the Sea," suits Our Lady perfectly:
" 'And the Virgin's name was Mary.' Let us say a few things about this name, which can be interpreted to mean Star of the sea, an apt designation for the Virgin Mother. She is most beautifully likened to a star, for a star pours forth its light without losing anything of its nature. She gave us Her Son without losing anything of Her virginity. The glowing rays of a star take nothing away from its beauty. N either has the Son taken anything away from His Mother's integrity.
"She is that noble star of Jacob, illuminating the whole world, penetrating from the highest heavens to the deepest depths of Hell. The warmth of Her brilliance shines in the minds of men, encouraging virtue, extinguishing vice. She is that glorious star lighting the way across this vast ocean of life, glowing with merits, guiding by example.
"When you find yourself tossed by the raging storms on this great sea of life, far from land, keep your eyes fixed on this Star to avoid disaster. When the winds of temptation or the rocks of tribulation threaten, look up to the Star, call upon Mary!" [St. Bernard, Second Homily on the Missus Est]
The interpretation "Lady" for Mary was also proposed by St. Jerome, based on the Aramaic word, mar, meaning "Lord". This would render the meaning "Lady" in the regal or noble sense [as in "Lord and Lady."] Catholic sensibility, however, recognizing in Mary the simple dignity of a Mother, as well as the grandeur of a Queen, did not hesitate to add an affectionate touch to this majestic title. Mary is not just "Lady;" She is "Madonna," Notre Dame-----i.e., She is Our Lady. This aspect of Mary -----"Lady" or "Mistress"-----is close to Our Lord's Heart. We read in the Scriptures how, for a time, the youthful Christ made Himself "subject" to Her and St. Joseph, an act of Divine condescension which caused St. Bernard to wonder:
"Which shall we admire first? The tremendous submission of the Son of God, or the tremendous God-given dignity of the Mother of God? Both are marvels: both amazing. When God obeys a woman, it is humility without precedent. When a woman commands her God, it is sublime beyond measure." [First Homily on the Missus Est]
It is not difficult to see why these various interpretations of the name "Mary" should have been proposed and cherished, for they encapsulate many of our Marian doctrines and beliefs. "Bitter sea [mara = bitter; yam = sea]," for instance, in addition to the interpretation given by St. Bonaventure, also calls to mind Our Lady's Seven Sorrows and the sword which "pierced" Her soul on Calvary, recalling the lamentation of the mother-in-law of Ruth, who had lost a husband and two sons: "Call me not Noemi, [that is, beautiful,] but call me Mara, [that is, bitter,] for the Almighty hath quite filled me with bitterness [Rt. 1: 20]." Maror are "bitter herbs," such as are found on the seder plate at Passover.
The "Illuminated" points us to St. John's apocalyptic image of the "Woman clothed with the Sun," a dual image encompassing both the Catholic Church and Mary, the Mother and Image of the Church. In addition, the "Illuminated" has also been rendered as the "Enlightener" and, like St. Bernard, St. Aelred [+1167] combines this meaning with that of the Stella Maris in a powerful passage:
"Therefore a certain Star has risen for us today: Our Lady, Saint Mary. Her name means Star of the sea; no doubt the Star of this sea which is the world. Therefore, we ought to lift up our eyes to this Star that has appeared on earth today in order that She may lead us, in order that She may enlighten us, in order that She may show us these steps so that we shall know them, in order that She may help us so that we may be able to ascend. And therefore it is a beautiful thing that Mary is placed in this stairway of which we are speaking, there where we must begin to climb. As the Evangelist says, Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, so immediately at the very moment of our conversion She appears to us and receives us into Her care and enlightens us in Her light and accompanies us along this laborious path." [Sermon 24, For the Nativity of Holy Mary]
There is another interpretation for the name "Mary" which is quite interesting in that it relates to the Church as well. This supposes the name to be derived from the Hebrew verb mara, meaning "to be fleshy or robust. In the East, such descriptions implying corpulence were used to indicate beauty and fecundity. Here, then, Our Lady's name would indicate "The Beautiful One," quite fitting for the Immaculate Conception. [Tota Pulchra Es, M aria!-----"You are all beautiful, Mary!"] The Psalms prophetically describe the Church in this manner, all alluding to the fruitfulness and spiritual gifts of the Holy Ghost:
"The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain . . . A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell." [Ps. 67:16-17]
This image resonates with the prophecy of Isaias concerning the New Dispensation [and the Church], and with the words of Our Lord:
"And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow unto it [Is. 2: 2] . . . You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a mountain cannot be hid." [Mt. 5: 14]
It is here that the Psalms intersect with St. John's Apocalyptic vision, to present the maternal function of the Church, a virginal maternity mirroring that of Our Lady, which begets new "brethren" of Christ, new sons and daughters of Mary ["the rest of Her seed," as Catholics are called by St. John in his Apocalypse] and new children of God the Father:
"But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name. Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." [Jn. 1: 12-13]
"The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains: The Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. Glorious things are said of Thee, O city of God . . . Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in Her? And the Highest Himself hath founded Her." [Ps. 86: 1-3, 5]
The inspired texts prophesy that the Church will be "exalted"-----It shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow unto it. So, too, will be the Mother of the Church, She who prophesied that "all generations shall call Me blessed." Another proposed meaning for the Blessed Virgin's name reflects this exaltation, the majesty of the Queen of Heaven. It derives from ancient Canaanite literature, where the word mrym [pronounced somewhat like Maryam] means "height" [sharing the same derivation as marom, the Hebrew word for "height"]. This would render Mary's name as "Highness" or "The Exalted One."
This fascinating-----and very, very Catholic-----desire to explore the meaning and depths of the holy name of "Mary" is not merely a pious pursuit, unrelated to any theological concerns. In the various interpretations set forth, a wealth of Marian doctrine is made manifest, not in the clinical language of theology , but in rich, colorful meditations on Our Lady's name, and sacred truths are explored and taught in language easily comprehended and appreciated by all.
In his fine book, The Wondrous Childhood of the Most Holy Mother of God, St. John Eudes [+1680] offers meditations on seventeen interpretations of the name "Mary," taken from the writings of "the Holy Fathers and by some celebrated Doctors. "Among these are "God born of my race," [St.Ambrose] "Rain of the sea, falling at convenient time and season," [St. Peter Canisius] "Myrrh of the Sea," [St. Jerome] and "The hope of those who voyage on the stormy sea of this world." [St. Epiphanius] It is quite clear-----from Scripture, Tradition and history-----that the Church owes so much to Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer and our Mother "in the order of grace." How does the gratitude and affection of Her spiritual children manifest itself in the beautiful Feast of the Holy Name of Mary,and what does this cherished name mean to those who love and venerate the Mother of God?
The Virtue and Power of Our Lady's Name
A balanced view of salvation history will grant to the Blessed Virgin Her proper place in both the Incarnation of the Second Divine Person and in the Kingdom won by Him on Calvary. Therefore, She is venerated with thanksgiving as both the one who, in union with the Blessed Trinity, gave Jesus to the world, and as the one who stood by Him during His Passion, uniting Her "Com-Passion" to His Salvific Passion for the restoration of fallen mankind to the friendship of God. It was prophesied in Eden that the Mother of Christ would be given a share in the work of the One Mediator and, because of this, a unique share in His glory. As had been prophesied by Simeon in the Temple, the soul of the Co-Redemptrix was pierced beneath the Cross on Calvary. The Mother of the Church, who experienced no physical labor pains during the birth of the Incarnate God at Bethlehem, did undergo unimaginable spiritual 'labor pains' as Her Son hung on the Cross, dying the cruelest
death imaginable. And God, in His wisdom, has decreed that these sufferings of Mary count for something, and something indescribably precious, in the economy of salvation. They were not the sufferings which redeemed humanity, like those of Jesus. They were not needed in order to augment or complete the superabundant Sacrifice of Jesus, which alone could and did atone for all the sins of the world. Yet, God decreed that Our Lady unite Her Sufferings to those of Jesus, the Woman of Genesis standing beside Her Seed during the restoration of the world.
Our Lady did this-----suffered as She did-----for us, for the spiritual progeny bequeathed to Her by Jesus in the person of St. John: "Woman, behold Thy son!" Therefore, we truly are brethren of Jesus, "the rest of Her seed:"
"And a great sign appeared in Heaven: A Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under Her feet, and on Her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, She cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered . . . And She brought forth a man Child, Who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and Her son was taken up to God, and to His throne . . . And the dragon was angry against the Woman: and went to make war with the rest of Her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." [Apoc, 1-2, 5,17]
The Woman prophesied in Eden . . . The Virgin prophesied by Isaias . . . The Beautiful One of the Canticles . . . When the time had finally come, the world knew Her name at last: "And the Virgin's name was Mary." This woman uniquely honored with the title, Co-Redemptrix, was rewarded by Her Lord and Redeemer with a queenly crown in His Kingdom . . . and with the role of Mediatrix of All Graces, to dispense those graces which had cost Her Son so dearly on the Cross.
And so, we call out to this Mother and Queen in confidence: Ave Maria . . . Salve Regina . . . Ave Maris Stella . . . Ave Regina Caelorum. Because of this, we honor, respect and set aside in our hearts a special place for Her Holy Name, "Mary," for it was the beacon of our redemption. During the nine months that Jesus rested in His Mother's womb, no one encountered Christ except through Mary, as did the infant St. John the Baptist in the womb of St. Elizabeth. Men and women still, and always will, go to Jesus through Mary:
"Considering things as they are, because God has decided to begin and accomplish His greatest works through the Blessed Virgin ever since He created Her, we can safely believe that He will not change His plan in the time to come, for He is God and therefore does not change in His thoughts or His way of acting." [True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin]
Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anne . . . She is not a goddess, not a mythological warrior-queen, not a curious, elusive character recalled through the mists of antiquity. She is a person, a uniquely blessed and honored individual, but a person still. "When you approach the time for reading about Mary Immaculate," wrote St. Maximilian Kolbe [+1941], "always remember that you are entering into contact with a living, loving person." No wonder, then, that Catholics [members of Christ's Mystical Body and, therefore, the "rest" of Mary's seed] should hold their Blessed Mother's name in such esteem. It reminds us of God's goodness, of His mercy and generosity to struggling mankind:
"The name of Mary is a name of salvation for those who are regenerated; it is the insignia of virtue, the honor of chastity, the sacrifice agreeable to God, the virtue of hospitality, the school of sanctity, a name altogether maternal." [St. Peter Chrysologus +450]
Of course, in a proper understanding of doctrine and Scripture, such a declaration will not be misinterpreted as any contradiction to the words of St. Paul concerning Our Lord and His sacred Name:
"For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." [Phil. 2: 9-11]
St. Peter Chrysologus did not say that the name of Mary is a "name of salvation." He wrote that "the name of Mary is a name of salvation for those who are regenerated." A person who wishes to follow Christ, yet denies the Mother given to him by Jesus on Calvary, is fooling himself. Through the inspired Gospels, Our Lady has been presented to the world as Advocate and Mediatrix [in the Visitation and Wedding at Cana episodes], and as Spiritual Mother [on Calvary]. Because there are no empty shows or meaningless displays with God, then we are bound to understand Mary's advocacy and spiritual maternity as active, vital components in the life of the soul, for it is the good of souls that moved God to ordain the Incarnation:
"For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting [Jn. 3: 16] . . .
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." [Lk. 19: 10]
The Blessed Virgin, then is a Divine bestowal, a gift bequeathed to the Church by Her dying Savior. And Her name? Her name will become more than a name It will be a sign of Our Lord's solicitude, a pledge of His love . . . and a prayer unto itself:
"We scarce remember now that once this name was spoken softly in a time before the Aves rang. Perhaps across some threshold it was said, so casually, by one who called to Her, 'Mary.' Then, She might have turned and come, obedient from where the children played together in the dusk: and no one knew that more was said than just a young girl's name." [Fr. John W. Lynch, A Woman Wrapped in Silence]
The Introit for the Mass of the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary, taken from Psalm 44, is an eloquent testimony to the reason we celebrate this beautiful name:
"All the rich among the people shall entreat Thy countenance: after Her shall virgins be brought to the King: Her neighbors shall be brought to Thee in gladness and rejoicing . . . My heart hath uttered a good word: I will speak my works to the King."
We are presented to Christ by His Mother. She presents our needs and petitions to Him; She is the instrument of His mercy and of the disposition of the "Treasury of Grace" won by Him for us on Calvary; She consoles our hearts and through Her maternal care, imparts to Her children whatever peace or happiness we can know in this vale of tears-----nothing less than the peace of Christ. We may struggle to maintain this peace in our bruised and weary hearts, but Our Lady is always ready and eager to share it with us again and again. Yes, the name of Mary, this brief, simple name, speaks volumes to us. "There is hidden in that Divine name [of Mary] a spell so potent," wrote Abbé Orsini, "and of such marvelous sweetness, that merely to pronounce it softens the heart, merely to write it beautifies the style." St. Bonaventure declared the the name of Mary "cannot be pronounced without bringing some grace to him who does so devoutly."
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# Queen of Heaven - Christianity
Hail! Queen of Heaven,
Hail! Lady of the Angels;
Salutation to Thee, root and portal,
Whence the Light of the world has arisen.
Although Mary is appealed to as Queen of Heaven, she seems to stand, as intercessor between earth and heaven, for the connecting principle of life, for the soul - for the feminine principle of relationship that connects all things to each other, for the supreme values of the heart. She is the grail of compassion and healing. She is the guardian of the sacredness of all life. When the Virgin Mary appears in visions, as at Fatima and Medjugorje, it is to children that she speaks. She speaks as if she were the voice of the Holy Spirit, offering wisdom and warning, and the children who see her and hear her voice, knowing nothing of what they ought or ought not to believe, respond instinctively from the soul, implicitly trusting what she is saying to them. In these messages, she does not ask for belief but for radical and total transformation.
The full dimensions of the Virgin Mary are more easily understood if we look beyond her to the luminous image of the Shekinah. In the Shekinah we are one life, one radiance. So many numinous images that belonged to the Shekinah in the Old Testament were transferred to Mary; reflection on Mary as intercessor between God and humanity reveals the veiled form of the Shekinah as the feminine face of God, the divine presence within all created life. Perhaps we may recognize her in Mary's mother, St. Anne. The painters of the Renaissance show Mary's womb penetrated by a ray of light from God in the way that the ray or point of light from the source penetrated the "sea of glory" of the Shekinah's womb.
Mary's name is derived from the Latin 'mare' - the sea - one of the most ancient images of the waters of life, the great sea of being. Mary gradually reveals herself to be the Prima Materia, the Root and Portal of Life, the Womb of Creation, the Fountain, and the Rose Garden - images that also belonged to the Shekinah. Like the Shekinah, she is the secret, hidden ground of the soul, addressed as such by many Christian mystics, the conduit to the Divine. Many of the images evoked in the great Orthodox Akathist hymn to Mary address her as this ineffable ground; the height unattainable by human thought; the depth invisible even to the eyes of angels; the womb of divine incarnation; the field of the immortal crop; the planter of our life; the haven; the fount of love; the inexhaustible treasure. Mary is the rose, the lily, and the Tree of Life from which the faithful are fed - an image that evokes not only the Shekinah as the image of the hidden wisdom that
is the Tree of Life but also the goddesses Nut, Hathor, and Isis giving the food and drink of eternal life to the souls of the dead.
Wherever the association is made between love and divinity, between beauty and harmony and divinity, between nourishment and divinity, or between compassion and divinity, there stands the image of the Divine Feminine. All of these images, read as describing the unfathomable ground of being that is also the unfathomable ground of the human soul, bring Mary closer to us as the root and foundation of our own lives. She feels closer to us than the transcendent God who has been drawn more in the imagery of a remote father and stern judge than a loving mother. The Virgin Mary is the compassionate, accessible face of the Divine Feminine.
["The Divine Feminine", Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring]
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Celtic Spirituality
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Articles on ancient spirituality inBritain and Ireland
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# NATIVE BRITISH GNOSIS
Romans propaganda is unreliable about human sacrifices by Celtics.
Celtics were not fear ridden and dark.
Celtic people believed in cyclic nature of existence.
No false distinctions between the sacred and secular.
Whole of creation is part of a unity.
To respond to direct and intuitive knowledge of God.
Spoken word is utmost.
Otherworld, Annwn, acts upon reality.
Humans originated from a TREE.
Prophecy was a gift bestowed by those in the Otherworld.
Magic Cauldrons contained potions of mysterious gifts.
Soul goes to its home in theLand of Eternal Youth
Source: CELTIC MYSTICISM, by Anthony Duncon.
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"O Lady of the Fair Hair,
Sing to me of the fair ancient land.
Yours divine voice
Whispers the poetry of magic
that flow through the wind,
Like sweet-tasting water of theBoyne .
"Girls, forever young and beautiful,
Dancing around the broken dun,
Where long forgotten heroes
sang of victory
And drank ales
to old memories.
"Sing to me one last time,
Goddess of the Fair Hair,
Before my old ear fail me.
Let me see you dance,
Before your beauty fade away
from my failing sight."
— Song to the Lady of the Fair Hair,
from the Book of Heroes.
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# Ana – the Celtic Goddess
Ana is the Universal Mother Goddesses. She has many names.
Ana is also known as: Anna, Annan, Anu, or Dana. [Tr. Abundance, Wealth]
Ana was the Great Mother. She is the ancient Goddess. She is cousin of our Lady Mary. She is mother of Tuatha De Danaan, all the gods and goddesses [ofIreland
].
“Ana is the mother of gods [leaders] ofHibernia
Ana is the original Earth Goddess.
"Sacred World of the Celts" - Nigel Pennick
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# ANA
The meaning of the name Ana is not clear. Most experts think it means 'wealth' or 'abundance'.
Other possible meanings derived from the name: anati (soul,spirit) ana- (breathe, remain) both suggesting an interpretation of 'engendering spirit' (in terms of giving life) so that the name Ana could be indicative of a deity type of the 'first mother' kind.
The Irish for Ireland is 'the land of Ana'. The name Ana is etymologically very closely related to the name of the goddess Tiana which contains the verbal form of Ana and is interpreted as meaning: 'The Abundant One', 'The Wealth Provider'.
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Articles on ancient spirituality in
--
# NATIVE BRITISH GNOSIS
Romans propaganda is unreliable about human sacrifices by Celtics.
Celtics were not fear ridden and dark.
Celtic people believed in cyclic nature of existence.
No false distinctions between the sacred and secular.
Whole of creation is part of a unity.
To respond to direct and intuitive knowledge of God.
Spoken word is utmost.
Otherworld, Annwn, acts upon reality.
Humans originated from a TREE.
Prophecy was a gift bestowed by those in the Otherworld.
Magic Cauldrons contained potions of mysterious gifts.
Soul goes to its home in the
Source: CELTIC MYSTICISM, by Anthony Duncon.
--
"O Lady of the Fair Hair,
Sing to me of the fair ancient land.
Yours divine voice
Whispers the poetry of magic
that flow through the wind,
Like sweet-tasting water of the
"Girls, forever young and beautiful,
Dancing around the broken dun,
Where long forgotten heroes
sang of victory
And drank ales
to old memories.
"Sing to me one last time,
Goddess of the Fair Hair,
Before my old ear fail me.
Let me see you dance,
Before your beauty fade away
from my failing sight."
— Song to the Lady of the Fair Hair,
from the Book of Heroes.
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# Ana – the Celtic Goddess
Ana is the Universal Mother Goddesses. She has many names.
Ana is also known as: Anna, Annan, Anu, or Dana. [Tr. Abundance, Wealth]
Ana was the Great Mother. She is the ancient Goddess. She is cousin of our Lady Mary. She is mother of Tuatha De Danaan, all the gods and goddesses [of
].
“Ana is the mother of gods [leaders] of
Ana is the original Earth Goddess.
The meaning of the name Ana is not clear. Most experts think it means 'wealth' or 'abundance'.
Other possible meanings derived from the name: anati (soul,spirit) ana- (breathe, remain) both suggesting an interpretation of 'engendering spirit' (in terms of giving life) so that the name Ana could be indicative of a deity type of the 'first mother' kind.
The Irish for Ireland is 'the land of Ana'. The name Ana is etymologically very closely related to the name of the goddess Tiana which contains the verbal form of Ana and is interpreted as meaning: 'The Abundant One', 'The Wealth Provider'.
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Goddess
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In Mormonism, Heavenly Mother or the Mother in Heaven is the mother of human spirits and the wife of God the Father. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The doctrine was not widely known, however, until after the movement's succession crisis upon the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1844.
The Heavenly Mother doctrine is mainly taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),[1][2] the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ [3] and branches of Mormon fundamentalism, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[citation needed] The doctrine is not generally recognized by other faiths within the broader Latter Day Saint movement, such as the Community of Christ, where Trinitarianism is predominant.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she is sung about in one church hymn and briefly discussed in church teaching manuals and sermons.[4]
The theological underpinnings of a belief in Heavenly Mother is attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, who shortly before his death in 1844 outlined a controversial view of God that differed dramatically from traditional Christian consensus.[5] Smith's theology included the belief that God would share his glory with his children and that humans might become exalted beings, or gods and goddesses, in the afterlife (see Exaltation).
Although there is no clear record of Joseph Smith teaching of Heavenly Mother publicly, several of Smith's contemporaries attributed the theology to him either directly, or as a consequence of his theological stance. An editorial footnote of History of the Church, 5:254, presumably quotes Joseph Smith as saying: "Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen." In addition, a secondhand account states that in 1839, Joseph Smith had told Zina Diantha Huntington, after the death of her mother, that "not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but 'more than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven'."[6]
In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum, a highly select leadership group in the early church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[7] Also, the Times and Seasons published a letter to the editor from a person named "Joseph's Specked Bird" in which the author stated that in the pre-Earth life, the spirit "was a child with his father and mother in heaven".[8]
In 1845, after the murder of Joseph Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow, published a poem entitled My Father in Heaven, (later titled Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother, now used as the lyrics in the popular Latter-day Saint hymn O My Father), acknowledging the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[9] This hymn contained the following language:
In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare.
Truth is reason: truth eternal
tells me I've a mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
in your royal courts on high?
Some early Mormons considered Eliza Snow to be a "prophetess".[10] Later, however, Church President Joseph F. Smith (a nephew of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr.) explained his own belief that "God revealed that principle that we have a mother as well as a father in heaven to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith revealed it to Eliza Snow Smith, his wife; and Eliza Snow was inspired, being a poet, to put it into verse."[11]
The doctrine is also attributed to several other early church leaders. According to one sermon by Brigham Young, Joseph Smith once said he "would not worship a God who had not a father; and I do not know that he would if he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other" (Journal of Discourses, vol.9, p. 286).
Early leader George Q. Cannon thought that “there is too much of this inclination to deify ‘our mother in heaven,’ arguing that she is not part of the Godhead and that to worship her would diminish from the worship of heavenly father.[13] However, early 20th-century church leader Rudger Clawson disagreed, arguing that “it doesn’t take away from our worship of the Eternal Father, to adore our Eternal Mother…we honor woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal prototype” [14]
Some church leaders have interpreted the term “God” to represent the divinely exalted couple with both a masculine and feminine half. Erastus Snow, an early Mormon Apostle, wrote “’do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of a man and woman?’ Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself…I must believe that deity consists of a man and woman.” This notion was reaffirmed by later church leaders Hugh B. Brown, James E. Talmage, Melvin J. Ballard, and Bruce R. McConkie.[15]
Some feminist Mormons have adopted the practice of praying to the Heavenly Mother. However, deceased LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley opposed this practice, saying that Mormons should not pray to the Heavenly Mother, saying that Christ instructed his disciples to address the Heavenly Father in their prayers.[16] A feminist professor was fired from Brigham Young University, one of the reasons being her public advocacy of praying to Heavenly Mother.[17]
Susan Young Gates, a daughter of Brigham Young and women's rights activist, stated that “[the] great Heavenly Mother was the great molder” in Abraham’s personality. “Gates speculated that Heavenly Mother has played a significant role in all our lives, looking over us with ‘watchful care’ and providing ‘careful training.’”[20] Brigham Young preached that resurrected “eternal mothers” would “be prepared to frame earths like unto ours.” [21]
Early 20th century church leader B.H. Roberts pointed out that the Heavenly Mother doctrine presents a “conception of the nobility of women and of motherhood and of wife-hood--placing her side by side with the Divine Father.” [22] John Widtsoe, a colleague of B.H. Roberts in the Quorum of the Twelve, wrote that the afterlife “is given radiant warmth by the thought that…[we have] a mother who possesses the attributes of Godhood.” [13] In 1894, The Juvenile Instructor, an official publication of the LDS church, published a Hymn entitled "Our Mother in Heaven."[23]
There has also been some more recent discussion of Heavenly Mother by LDS Church leaders. In a speech given at BYU in 2010, Glenn L. Pace, a member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy, said, “Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.” [24]
The lack of focused teaching and more information about her has caused speculation among Mormons that lack of information may have a divine purpose, to avoid drawing attention to her and to preserve the sacredness of her existence. In 1960 an LDS seminary teacher (which is not a church authority) published in an LDS encyclopedia that “the name of our Mother in Heaven has been withheld” because of the way God the Father’s and Jesus Christ’s names have been profaned.[26] Whether he is the source of the idea or is reflecting a prevalent belief is hard to say.[editorializing][original research?]
While no General Authority has made an official statement denying belief in a Heavenly Mother nor stating that her existence is too sacred to discuss, several factors may influence the current trend that sees even a mention of Heavenly Mother as treading on forbidden ground. Members take their cues about what is acceptable doctrine from talks of General Authorities and official church manuals and magazines, and these materials rarely mention Heavenly Mother directly. The publicly discussed church discipline of feminists like Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Maxine Hanks, Janice Allred, and Margaret Toscano, all of whom were disciplined in part for statements related to the Heavenly Mother, adds to the general sense that discourse about her is strictly forbidden.[27] However, Brigham Young University professor David L. Paulsen has argued that such a belief finds no official backing in statements by church leaders, and that the concept that the Heavenly Mother is consigned to a "sacred silence" is largely the result of a relatively recent cultural perception.[28]
Though church president Gordon B. Hinckley said the prohibition on praying to Heavenly Mother in no way “belittles or denigrates her,” some feel that it makes her seem less important to our eternal lives than Heavenly Father.[who?] Others assume that both heavenly parents are equally important and expect that more will be revealed when we are ready.[editorializing] This question ties into a larger set of questions among many Latter Day Saints about power in relationships between men and women. When asked why God said that Adam would rule over Eve, Hinckley said, "I do not know... My own interpretation of that sentence is that the husband shall have a governing responsibility to provide for, to protect, to strengthen and shield the wife. Any man who belittles or abuses or terrorizes, or who rules in unrighteousness, will deserve and, I believe, receive the reprimand of a just God who is the Eternal Father of both His sons and daughters."[29]
The Catholic teaching on this subject is expressed in the papal encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam,[1] issued by Pope Pius XII. It states Mary is called the Queen of Heaven because her Son, Jesus Christ, is the King of Israel and heavenly King of the Universe. The Eastern Orthodox churches do not share the Catholic dogma, but have themselves a rich liturgical history in honor of Mary.
The title Queen of Heaven has long been a Catholic tradition, included in prayers and devotional literature, and seen in Western art in the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin, from the High Middle Ages, long before it was given a formal definition status by the Church.
According to Catholic doctrine, Mary was assumed into heaven and is with Jesus Christ, her divine Son and is represented in Book of Revelation 12 as the woman clothed with the sun who gives birth to Christ.[2] Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood of Jesus Christ, her only Son, but also because God the Father has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of the eternal salvation of humanity. The papal encyclical Ad caeli reginam, argues that as Christ, because he redeemed humankind, is its Lord and king by a special title, so the Blessed Virgin Mary is Queen, on account of the unique manner in which she assisted in the redemption of humanity by giving of her own substance, by freely offering him by her singular desire and petition for, and active interest in, human salvation.[3]
Ad caeli reginam states:
Mariological basis
The first Mariological definition and basis for the title of Mary Queen of Heaven developed at the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was defined to be the Mother of God. The Council fathers specifically approved this version against the opinion, that Mary is "only" the mother of Jesus. Nobody had participated in the life of her son more, than Mary, who gave birth to the Son of God.[7]
Litany of Loreto
The Litany of Loreto includes several supplications to Mary as Queen. There are two types of statements about the Queen of Heaven.
Queen conceived without original sin
Queen conceived without original sin refers to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, a long held belief which became dogma in 1854. It definitively solved the question, how Mary, fully human and in need of redemption like everybody else, was granted the fullness of God's grace from her very beginning. The dogma teaches, that Mary, the Mother of God, participated from before her birth in the holiness of God through His grace. She did not become a goddess but being without sin, the spiritual mother and new Eve.[8]
Queen assumed into Heaven
This is the reason she is Queen assumed into Heaven. To Catholics, assumption into heaven refers to the elevation into the heavenly realm, where the saints are with God and his son.[8] Queen assumed into heaven is thus an indication, that Mary's service to the human race was not concluded with the birth of Christ, but continues for all eternity in heaven.[8]
Queen of the Rosary
As Queen of the Rosary, Mary lets the faithful participate in her life with Christ[9] The rosary is a prayer for faith, hope and love, who were all perfected in the Virgin Mary.
Queen of the Angels
In the Catholic tradition as reflected in the Litany of Loreto, angels are messengers of God; angels also praise God. As Mother of God, Mary is more than a messenger and in her Magnificat she praises God. In the heavenly kingdom Mary is seen as Queen of the Angels.
Queen of Peace
To Christians Christ is peace. They pray: "May the peace of Christ be with you" Mary is Queen of Peace, because she aided in the reconciliation of humanity with God like nobody else. With the fullness of her person she aided the entry of peace into this world. She is also considered Queen of Peace, because throughout her life, she lived by God's will and not her own. Peace in the Catholic tradition means to do God's will.[8]
Queen of the Patriarchs
In the Old Testament, patriarchs have a exceptional relation to God. Abraham is even seen as father of the faith (Gen15,5 Rom 4 Hebr 11,8) In the Litany of Loreto, God is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but also the God of Mary. Only Mary had the complete faith for which she was considered blessed (Luke 1,45)[8] With the title Queen of Patriarchs, the Catholic Church states the continued relevance and position of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Other titles
For similar reasons, Mary, because her prophetic pronouncements in the Magnificat is Queen of Prophets. She is Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Confessors, Queen of Virgins, and Queen of all Saints .[10] As Ever Virgin and immaculate Mother of God who was assumed into heaven, she is closer to God than any other creature[8]
In the classic Roman Catholic Mariology book The Glories of Mary, the author Saint Alphonsus Liguori called the Blessed Virgin Mary the "Gate of Heaven", relying on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, another Doctor of the Church. [11]
Other titles have been added to reflect modern scientific understanding. The Second Vatican Council in 1964 referred to Mary as Queen of the Universe. Section 59 of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican II, stated: "Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all guilt of original sin, on the completion of her earthly sojourn, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of the universe, that she might be the more fully confimed to her Son, the Lord of lords and the conqueror of sin and death." This reference came at a time during which space exploration was beginning.[12]
Veneration
The Catholic faith states as a dogma, that Mary is assumed into heaven, and is with Jesus Christ, her divine son. Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood of Jesus Christ, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of eternal salvation. Roman Catholicism employs the liturgical Latin phrase Ora Pro Nobis, meaning pray for us and does not teach adherents to pray to saints or worship saints, but rather asks those saints to pray for them. The encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam maintains that Christ as redeemer is Lord and King. The Blessed Virgin is Queen, because of the unique manner in which she assisted in our redemption, by giving of her own substance, by freely offering Him for us, by her singular desire and petition for, and active interest.[21] Mary was chosen Mother of Christ so she might help fulfill God's plan in the redemption of humankind; The Catholic Church from the earliest times venerated the Queen of Heaven, according to Pius XII, as
In the New Testament, the title has several biblical sources. Mary is mother of the messianic king. Luke 1:32 says of Jesus, He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be without end. It is therefore held in Christianity, that the throne of King David has passed to Jesus. The biblical precedent of ancient Israel is that the mother of the king becomes the queen mother.[29] Since Jesus is the heavenly king, of the lineage of David and Solomon, many see Mary as the queen mother.
The Roman Catholic Church views Mary as the woman clothed with the sun in the Book of Revelation 12:1-3:[2] "1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads."
For Catholics, the reference to the ark of the covenant immediately prior to this passage(chapter 11, verse 19) confirms the woman's identification with Mary, as she is seen as the ark of the "new covenant" bearing the Word of God (Christ) in her womb, as the old ark carried the Ten Commandments. Catholics interpret Psalm 45, "A Song Celebrating the King's Marriage", as referring to the Messiah, to suggest in verse nine, that Jesus, the Messiah, would have a queen at his right hand. Although Mary was Jesus' mother, she is often portrayed as that queen. Other views are that Psalm 45 refers to the marriage of Jesus to His people, i.e. the church which is called the "Bride of Christ" or that Psalm 45 is simply a celebration upon the marriage of an earthly king, giving thanks to God but not referring to the Messiah. It is also believed by those assigning a special significance to Mary, and believing in her Annunciation, that in Luke 1:26-35 of the New Testament the Archangel Gabriel seems to praise Mary, although she would otherwise be inferior to him.
The Roman Catholic Church generally reasons that the Bible speaks of the mother of Jesus as "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" - (Revelation 12:1). As Mary is a perfect model of the Church, she also represents the Church as a whole.[30] Some non-Catholic Bible scholars interpret these verses to refer not to Mary, but rather to Israel or the Church and they do not view Mary as the Queen of Heaven. They reason that the Bible generally refers to nations and tribes as female characters, as in Matthew 2:18 and Revelation 17 and that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13), through Him all things were created (Colossians 1:15-17). However, the Roman Catholic Church accepts Revelation 12 as a reference to Mary, Israel, and the Church as a three-fold symbolism through the Book of Isaiah and affirms Mary as the mother of Jesus as the prophetic fulfilment described in Revelation 12 (cf. Isaiah 7:14, 26:17, 54:1, 66:7).[2] These interpretations have not been resolved within Christianity, and are not necessarily accepted by all denominations.
In the Old Testament the term "queen of heaven" appears in a context unrelated to Mary. The prophet Jeremiah writing circa 628 BC refers to a "queen of heaven" in chapters 7 and 44 of the Book of Jeremiah when he scolds the people for having "sinned against the Lord" due to their idolatrous practices of burning incense, making cakes and pouring out drink offerings to her. This title was probably given to Asherah, a Caananite idol and goddess worshipped in ancient Israel and Judah.[31] For a discussion of "queen of heaven" in the Old Testament, see Queen of heaven (Antiquity). [Source: Wiki.]
Queen of Heaven was a title given to a number of ancient sky goddesses in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, in particular Anat, Isis, Innana, Astarte, Hera and possibly Asherah (by the prophet Jeremiah). Elsewhere, Nordic Frigg also bore this title. In Greco-Roman times Hera, and her Roman aspect Juno bore this title. Forms and content of worship varied. The title Queen of Heaven is used by Catholics and Orthodox Christians for Mary.
Isis was venerated first in Egypt. As per the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, Isis was the only goddess worshiped by all Egyptians alike,[1] and whose influence was so widespread by that point, that she had become completely syncretic with the Greek goddess Demeter[2]. It is after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, and the Hellenization of the Egyptian culture initiated by Ptolemy I Soter, that she eventually became known as 'Queen of Heaven'.[3] Lucius Apuleius confirmed this in Book 11, Chap 47 of his novel known as The Golden Ass, in which his character prayed to the "Queen of Heaven". The passage says that the goddess herself responded to his prayer, in which she explicitly identified herself as both the Queen of Heaven and Isis.
Then with a weeping countenance, I made this orison to the puissant Goddess, saying: O blessed Queen of Heaven...
Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertile Arabia, disdained not with her divine voice to utter these words unto me: Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers has moved me to succor thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven... and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis.[4]
Inanna was the Sumerian Goddess of love and war. Despite her association with mating and fertility of humans and animals, Inanna was not a mother goddess, and is rarely associated with childbirth[5]. Inanna was also associated with rain and storms and with the planet Venus.[6]
Queen of Heaven is a title used for goddesses central to many religions of antiquity. Inanna's name is commonly derived from Nin-anna "Queen of Heaven" (from Sumerian NIN "lady", AN "sky")[7], although the cuneiform sign for her name (Borger 2003 nr. 153, U+12239 𒈹) is not historically a ligature of the two. In some traditions Inanna was said to be a granddaughter of the creator goddess Nammu or Namma.[citation needed]. These difficulties have led some early Assyriologists to suggest that Inanna may have been originally a Proto-Euphratean goddess, possibly related to the Hurrian mother goddess Hannahannah, accepted only latterly into the Sumerian pantheon, an idea supported by her youthfulness, and that, unlike the other Sumerian divinities, she at first had no sphere of responsibilities.[8] The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists[9]. In Sumer Inanna was hailed as "Queen of Heaven" in the 3rd millennium BC. In Akkad to the north, she was worshipped later as Ishtar. In the Sumerian Descent of Inanna, when Inanna is challenged at the outermost gates of the underworld, she replies
The goddess, the Queen of Heaven, whose worship Jeremiah so vehemently opposed, may have been possibly Astarte. Astarte is the name of a goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions, cognate in name, origin and functions with the goddess Ishtar in Mesopotamian texts. Another transliteration is ‘Ashtart; other names for the goddess include Hebrew עשתרת (transliterated Ashtoreth), Ugaritic ‘ṯtrt (also ‘Aṯtart or ‘Athtart, transliterated Atirat), Akkadian DAs-tar-tú (also Astartu) and Etruscan Uni-Astre (Pyrgi Tablets).
According to scholar Mark S. Smith, Astarte may be the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) incarnation of the Bronze Age (to 1200 BC) Asherah.[10]
Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname. Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and in Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival):[11]
Hebrew Bible references
Worship of a "Queen of Heaven", (in Hebrew Malkath haShamayim) is recorded in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, circa 628 BC, in the context of the Prophet condemning such religious worship as blasphemy and a violation of the teachings of the God of Israel. In Jeremiah 7:18:
The goddesses Asherah, Anath and Astarte first appear as distinct and separate deities in the tablets discovered in the ruins of the library of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria), although some Biblical scholars who have not explored the earlier documented evidence tend to jumble all these goddesses together.
John Day states that "there is nothing in first-millennium BC texts that singles out Asherah as 'Queen of Heaven' or associates her particularly with the heavens at all."[17]
# Mother goddess
[Wiki 2012]
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation, or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.
Many different goddesses have represented motherhood in one way or another, and some have been associated with the birth of humanity as a whole. Others have represented the fertility of the earth.
Paleolithic figures
Several small, corpulent figures have been found during archaeological excavations of the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Willendorf, perhaps, being the most famous.[1] This sculpture is estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE. Some archaeologists believe they were intended to represent goddesses, while others believe that they could have served some other purpose. These figurines predate, by many thousands of years, the available records of the goddesses listed below as examples of mother goddesses, so although they seem to conform to the same generic type, it is not clear whether they, indeed, were representations of a goddess or whether, if they are, there was any continuity of religion that connects them with Middle Eastern and Classical deities.
The Paleolithic period extends from 2.5 million years ago to the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 BCE. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans migrated to the Western Hemisphere before the end of the Paleolithic so cultures around the world share its characteristics. It is the prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools, and covers the greatest portion of humanity's time on Earth.
While most Paleolithic figurines are from the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Berekhat Ram found at Berekhat Ram on the Golan Heights is a Middle Paleolithic artefact of the later Acheulian, possibly was made by individuals identified as, Homo erectus.
Neolithic figures
Diverse images of what are believed to be Mother Goddesses have been discovered that also date from the Neolithic period, the New Stone Age, which ranges from approximately 10,000 BCE, when the use of wild cereals led to the beginning of farming and, eventually, to agriculture. The end of this Neolithic period is characterized by the introduction of metal tools as the skill appeared to spread from one culture to another, or arise independently as a new phase in an existing tool culture, and eventually, became widespread among humans. Regional differences in the development of this stage of tool development are quite varied. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own patterns of development, while distinctive Neolithic cultures arose independently in Europe and Southwest Asia.
During this time, native cultures appear in the Western Hemisphere, arising out of older Paleolithic traditions that were carried during migration. Regular seasonal occupation or permanent settlements begin to be seen in excavations. Herding and keeping of cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs is evidenced along with the presence of dogs. Almost without exception, images of what Marija Gimbutas interpreted as Mother Goddesses have been discovered in all of these cultures.[2]
Old Europe
James Frazer (author of The Golden Bough) and others (such as Jane Ellen Harrison, Robert Graves and Marija Gimbutas) advance the idea that goddess worship in ancient Europe and the Aegean was descended from Pre-Indo-European neolithic matriarchies. Gimbutas argued that the thousands of female images from Old Europe (archaeology) represented a number of different groups of goddess symbolism, notably a "bird and snake" group associated with water, an "earth mother" group associated with birth, and a "stiff nude" group associated with death, as well as other groups.[3] Gimbutas maintained that the "earth mother" group continues the paleolithic figural tradition discussed above, and that traces of these figural traditions may be found in goddesses of the historical period.[4] According to Gimbutas' Kurgan Hypothesis, Old European cultures were disrupted by expansion of Indo-European speakers from southern Siberia.
In 1968 the archaeologist Peter Ucko proposed that the many images found in graves and archaeological sites of Neolithic cultures were toys.[5] The graves he was describing dated from Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete, and mostly, contained adults, however.[citation needed]
Deity examples
Many ancient cultures worshiped female deities who match the modern conception of a "mother goddess".
Egyptian
Mother goddesses are present in the earliest images discovered among the archaeological finds in Ancient Egypt. An association is drawn to the early goddesses of Egypt with animals seen as good mothers—the lioness, cow, hippopotamus, white vulture, cobra, scorpion, and cat—as well as, to the life-giving primordial waters, the sun, the night sky, and the earth herself.
Even through the transition to a paired pantheon of male deities matched or "married" to each goddess and during the male-deity-dominated pantheon that arose much later, the mother goddesses persisted into historical times (such as Hathor and Isis). Advice from the oracles associated with these goddesses guided the rulers of Egypt. The Two Ladies, Wadjet and Nekhbet, remained patron deities of the rulers of Ancient Egypt throughout every dynasty, including that of Akhenaten (who often is described as having abandoned all but one solar deity), and they all bore their images on their crowns and included special names associated with these goddesses among their titles.
The image of Isis nursing her son was worshiped into the sixth century A.D. and has been resurrected by contemporary "cults" of an Earth Mother. That imagery may have been adopted by early Christians as well.
Indigenous people of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Andes worship the fertility goddess Pachamama. In Inca mythology, Pachamama presides over planting and harvesting and she causes earthquakes. After conquest by Catholic Spain her image was masked by the Virgin Mary, behind whom she is invoked and worshiped in the Aboriginal rituals in some parts of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.[6] The religion centered in the Pachamama is practiced currently in parallel form to Christianity, to the point that many families are simultaneously Christian and Pachamamistas.[7]
Pachamama is sometimes syncretized the Virgin of Candelaria, [8] of the Canary Islands. Chaxiraxi is the native sun goddess of the Guanche religion and associated with statues of a mother and child dated to before exploration by Europeans. The imagery and concepts may have been introduced to South American and Caribbean cultures by emigrants from there. The mother goddess figure they worship often is syncretised with the Yoruba goddess called by the names Iansan and Oyas.
The Hopi people of North America (Turtle Island), Arizona, USA, refer to the Earth as Tuuwaqatsi-Earth Mother. According to the knowledge they have carefully preserved down the ages, the Earth is our "Land and our Life," which is remembered in their first law: Tutskwa I'qatsi - Land and Life are one. The Goddess-Earth has a male counterpart representing the inner life or core of the Earth. This inner life-soul-mind-womb is sometimes referred to as Maski, or spirit-home, the place where people go following death. This place is sometimes referred to as the "underworld."
Aztec
In Aztec mythology, Toci is the "Mother of the Gods". She is often associated with Tlazolteotl, a central Mesoamerican goddess of both purification and filth, healing, and midwifery.
Sumerian and Mesopotamian
Ninsun is the Mother Goddess in general Mesopotamian mythology. She is Asherah in Canaan and
in Syria. The Sumerians wrote erotic poetry about their mother goddess Ninhursag.[9]
Anatolia
Numerous female figurines from Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia have been interpreted as evidence of a mother-goddess cult, c.7500 BC. James Mellaart, who led excavation at the site in the 1960s, suggests that the figures represent a Great goddess, who headed the pantheon of an essentially matriarchal culture. A seated female figure, flanked by what Mellart describes as lionesses, was found in a grain-bin; she may have intended to protect the harvest and grain.[10][11] Reports of more recent excavations at Çatalhöyük conclude that overall, the site offers no unequivocal evidence of matriarchal culture or a dominant Great Goddess; the balance of male and female power appears to have been equal.[12][13] The seated or enthroned goddess-like figure flanked by lionesses, has been suggested as a prototype Cybele, a leading deity and Mother Goddess of later Anatolian states.
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture
From 5500 to 2750 BC the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture flourished in the region of modern-day Romania, Moldova, and southwestern Ukraine, leaving behind ruins of settlements of as many as 15,000 residents who practiced agriculture and domesticated livestock. They also left behind many ceramic remains of pottery and clay figurines. Some of these figurines appear to represent the mother goddess (see images in this article).
Greek
In the Aegean, Anatolian, and ancient Near Eastern culture zones, Cybele, the primordial deity Gaia, and Rhea were worshiped as Mother goddesses. In Mycenae the great goddess often was represented by a column.[citation needed]
Olympian goddesses of classical Greece with mother goddess attributes include Hera and Demeter. "The goddesses of Greek polytheism, so different and complementary, are nonetheless, consistently similar at an earlier stage, with one or the other simply becoming dominant in a sanctuary or city. Each is the Great Goddess presiding over a male society; each is depicted in her attire as Mistress of the Beasts, and Mistress of the Sacrifice, even Hera and Demeter"[14]
The Minoan goddess represented in seals and other remains many of whose attributes were absorbed into Artemis, seems to have been a mother goddess type, for in some representations she suckles the animals that she holds.[citation needed] The archaic local goddess worshiped at Ephesus, whose cult statue was adorned with necklaces and stomachers hung with rounded protuberances [15] who was later also identified by Hellenes with Artemis, was probably also a mother goddess.[citation needed]
Roman
In ancient Roman religion, Tellus or Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") was a goddess of the earth and agriculture. Her festivals and rituals often connected her to Ceres, goddess of grain, agriculture, fertility, and mothering.[16]
Venus was regarded as a mother of the Roman people through her half-mortal son Aeneas, who led refugees from the Trojan War to settle in Italy. The family of Julius Caesar claimed to have descended from Aeneas, and hence Venus. In this capacity she was given cult as Venus Genetrix (Venus the Begetter). In the later Imperial era, she was included among the many manifestations of a syncretised Magna Dea (Great Goddess), who could be manifested as any goddess at the head of a pantheon, such as Juno or Minerva.
Celtic
The Irish goddess Anu, sometimes known as Danu, has an impact as a mother goddess, judging from the Dá Chích Anann near Killarney, County Kerry. Irish literature names the last and most favored generation of deities as "the people of Danu" (Tuatha De Danann). The Welsh have a similar figure called Dôn who is often equated with Danu and identified as a mother goddess. Sources for this character date from the Christian period, however, so she is referred to simply as a "mother of heroes" in the Mabinogion. The character's (assumed) origins as a goddess are obscured.
The Celts of Gaul worshipped a goddess known as Dea Matrona ("divine mother goddess") who was associated with the Marne River. Similar figures known as the Matres (Latin for "mothers") are found on altars in Celtic as well as Germanic areas of Europe.
Germanic
In the first century B.C., Tacitus recorded rites amongst the Germanic tribes focused on the goddess Nerthus, whom he calls Terra Mater, 'Mother Earth'. Prominent in these rites was the procession of the goddess in a wheeled vehicle through the countryside. Among the seven or eight tribes said to worship her, Tacitus lists the Anglii and the Longobardi.[17]
Among the later Anglo-Saxons, a Christianized charm known as Æcerbot survives from records from the tenth century. The charm involves a procession through the fields while calling upon the Christian God for a good harvest, that invokes 'eorþan modor' (Earth Mother) and 'folde, fira modor,' (Earth, mother of men).
In skaldic poetry, the kenning, "Odin's wife", is a common designation for the Earth. Bynames of the Earth in Icelandic poetry include Jörð, Fjörgyn, Hlóðyn, and Hlín. Hlín is used as a byname of both Jörð and Frigg. Fjörgynn (a masculine form of Fjörgyn) is said to be Frigg's father, while the name Hlóðyn is most commonly linked to Frau Holle, as well as to a goddess, Hludana, whose name is found etched in several votive inscriptions from the Roman era.[18]
Connections have been proposed between the figure of Nerthus and various figures (particularly figures counted amongst the Vanir) recorded in thirteenth century Icelandic records of Norse mythology, including Frigg. Due to potential etymological connections, the Norse god Njörðr has been proposed as the consort of Nerthus.[19] In the Poetic Edda poem, Lokasenna, Njörðr is said to have fathered his famous children by his own sister. This sister remains unnamed in surviving records.
Due to specific terms used to describe the figure of Grendel's mother from the poem Beowulf, some scholars have proposed that the figure of Grendel's mother, like the poem itself, may have derived from earlier traditions originating from Germanic paganism.
Turkic Siberians
Yer Tanrı is the mother of Umai, also known as Ymai or Mai, the mother goddess of the Turkic Siberians. She is depicted as having sixty golden tresses, that resemble the rays of the sun. She is thought to have once been identical with Ot of the Mongols.
Hinduism
In Hinduism, Durga represents the empowering and protective nature of motherhood. From her forehead sprang Kali, who defeated Durga's enemy, Mahishasura. Kali (the feminine form of Kaal" i.e. "time") is the primordial energy as power of Time, literally, the "creator or doer of time" -- her first manifestation. after time, she manifests as "space", as Tara, from which point further creation of the material universe progresses. The divine Mother, Devi Adi parashakti, manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms as plants, animals, and such from Herself, and she sustains and nourishes them through her body, that is the earth with its animal life, vegetation, and minerals. Ultimately she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or "devours" them to sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life. She also gives rise to Maya (the illusory world) and to prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos. The Earth itself is manifested by Parvati, Durga's previous incarnation. Hindu worship of the divine Mother can be traced back to pre-vedic times, in pre-historic India.
Shaktism
The form of Hinduism known as Shaktism is strongly associated with Samkhya, and Tantra Hindu philosophies and ultimately, is monist. The primordial feminine creative-preservative-destructive energy, Shakti, is considered to be the motive force behind all action and existence in the phenomenal cosmos. The cosmos itself is Shiva or purusha, the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality that is the Divine Ground of all being, the "world soul". This masculine potential is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied in multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately all manifestations of the One Great Mother. Mother Maya or Shakti, herself, can free the individual from demons of ego, ignorance, and desire that bind the soul in maya (illusion). Practitioners of the Tantric tradition focus on Shakti to free themselves from the cycle of karma.
Christianity
Depictions in churches
The Normans had a major influence on English Romanesque architecture when they built a large numbers of Christian monasteries, abbeys, churches, and cathedrals. These Romanesque styles originated in Normandy and became widespread in north western Europe, particularly in England, which has the largest number of surviving examples.
Sheela na Gig is a common stone carving found in Romanesque Christian churches scattered throughout Europe. These female figures are found in Ireland, Great Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, and in the Czech Republic. Their meaning is not clearly identifiable as Christian, and may be a concept that survived from ancient forms of yoni worship and sacred prostitution practiced in the goddess temples. Some of the figures seem to be elements of earlier structures, perhaps devoted to goddess worship.
Other common motifs on Christian churches of the same time period are spirals and ouroboros or dragons swallowing their tails, which is a reference to rebirth and regeneration, a concept well known in pantheism. Other creatures including the succubus make an appearance in the sculptural reliefs of the church that have a long history in the oral tradition of previous civilizations that preceded Christianity that may relate to earlier goddess worship.
Blessed Virgin Mary
In 300 A.D., the Blessed Virgin Mary was worshipped as a Mother Goddess in the Christian sect Collyridianism, which was found throughout Saudi Arabia. Collyridianism was made up mostly of women followers and female priests. Followers of Collyridianism were known to make bread and wheat offerings to the Virgin Mary, along with other sacrificial practices. The cult was heavily condemned as heretical and schismatic by the Roman Catholic Church and was preached against by Epiphanius of Salamis, who exposed the group in his recollective writings entitled, Panarion.
As motherhood is a common recurring concept in all religions, The Blessed Virgin Mary receives many titles in the Roman Catholic Church, such as Queen of Heaven and Our Lady, Star of the Sea, that are familiar from earlier Near Eastern traditions. Due to this correlation, some Protestants often accuse Catholics of viewing Mary as a goddess, but the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox churches always have condemned "worship as adoration" of Mary. Part of this accusation is due to the Catholic practice of prayer as a means of communication rather than as a means of worship. Catholics believe that the dead who followed their deity, have eternal life and can hear prayers in heaven from people here on earth. Concepts of Mother Goddess worshipped is heavily condemned by the Holy See as it had been suppressed and condemned among the Collyridianism sect in 300 A.D.
Mormonism
Neopaganism
Earth Mother
The Earth Mother is a motif that appears in many mythologies. The Earth Mother is a fertile goddess embodying the fertile earth and typically, the mother of other deities, and so, also are seen as patronesses of motherhood. This is generally thought of as being because the earth was seen as being the mother from whom all life sprang.
The Rigveda calls the deity, Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which literally means Great Mother.
In South America, contemporary Andean Indian peoples such as the Quechua and Aymara believe in the Mother Earth Pachamama, whose worship cult is found in rural areas and towns at Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina. Andean migrants carried the Pachamama cult to cities and many other extra-Andean places, including metropolitan Buenos Aires.
In various cultures
The idea that the fertile earth is female and nurtures humans, was not limited to the Greco-Roman world. These traditions were greatly influenced by earlier cultures in the ancient Middle East. In Sumerian mythology Ki is the earth goddess. In Akkadian orthography she has the syllabic values gi,ge,qi,qe (for toponyms). Some scholars identify her with Ninhursag (lady of the mountains), the earth and fertility Mother Goddess, who had the surnames Nintu (lady of birth), Mamma, and Aruru.[21] An Egyptian earth and fertility deity, Geb, was male and he was considered father of all snakes, however, the mound from which all life was created by parthenogenesis, represents Mut, the primal "mother of all who was not born of any". She is the more appropriate figure to discuss as the mother goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion. The number of Egyptian goddesses who are depicted as important mother deities is numerous because of regional cults of many very early cultures and a major unification of two ancient countries into one, whose written history only begins at approximately 3150 B.C. It is estimated that the some early cultures that eventually became parts of Ancient Egypt date back to 8000 B.C. and that human occupation of the Nile Valley by modern hunter gatherer societies dates back 120 thousand years.
The title "The mother of life" later was given to the Akkadian Goddess Kubau, and hence to Hurrian Hepa, emerging in Hebrew as Eve (Heva) and Phygian Kubala (Cybele). In Norse mythology the earth is personified as Jörð, Hlöðyn, and Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn. In Germanic paganism, the Earth Goddess is referred to as Nertha.[22] The Irish Celts worshipped Danu, whilst the Welsh Celts worshipped Dôn. Hints of their names occur throughout Europe, such as the Don river, the Danube River, the Dnestr, and the Dnepr, suggest that they stemmed from an ancient Proto-Indo-European goddess.[23] In Lithuanian mythology Gaia - Žemė (Lithuanian for "Earth") is daughter of Sun and Moon. Also she is wife of Dangus (Lithuanian for "Sky") (Varuna).
In Pacific cultures, the Earth Mother was known under as many names and with as many attributes as cultures who revered her, such as the Māori, whose creation myth included Papatuanuku, partner to Ranginui, the Sky Father. In South America in the Andes a cult of the Pachamama still survives (in regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile). The name comes from Pacha (Quechua for change, epoch) and Mama (mother). While ancient Mexican cultures referred to Mother Earth as Tonantzin Tlalli that means "Revered Mother Earth".
In Hinduism, the Mother of all creation is called "Gayatri". Gayatri is the name of one of the most important Vedic hymns consisting of twenty-four syllables. One of the sacred texts says, "The Gayatri is Brahma, Gayatri is Vishnu, Gayatri is Shiva, the Gayatri is Vedas" and Gayatri later came to be personified as a goddess. She is shown as having five heads and is usually seated within a lotus. The four heads of Gayatri represent the four Vedas and the fifth one represents the almighty deity. In her ten hands, she holds all the symbols of Lord Vishnu. She is another consort of Lord Brahma.
In Hinduism and Buddhism the specific local indwelling mother deity of Earth (as opposed to the mother deity of all creation) is called Bhūmi. Gautama Buddha called upon Bhumi as his witness when he achieved Enlightenment.
Phra Mae Thorani is recognized as the Goddess of the earth in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries.
Only in late Egyptian Mythology does the reverse seem true - Geb is the Earth Father while Nut is the Sky Mother, but the primordial and great goddess of Egypt was Mut, the source of all life and the mother of all. The mound of earth from which life sprang was Mut.
In Theosophy, the Earth Goddess is called the "Planetary Logos of Earth".
In Wicca, the Earth Goddess is sometimes called Gaia.[24] The name of the Mother Goddess varies depending on the Wiccan tradition.
Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the archetypal mother was a part of the collective unconscious of all humans, and various Jungian students, e.g. Erich Neumann and Ernst Whitmont have argued that such mother imagery underpins many mythologies, and precedes the image of the paternal "father", in such religious systems. Such speculations help explain the universality of such mother goddess imagery around the world.
The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have been sometimes explained as depictions of an Earth Goddess similar to Gaia. [25]
In Native American Indian storytelling, "The Earth Goddess", is one of several Creator-based titles and names given to the Spider Grandmother.
In ancient Hawaii, Nuakea was a mother goddess of lactation.
In fiction
In Gore Vidal's ironic dystopia, "Messiah", a new death-worshiping religion sweeps the world and wipes out Christianity. Yet at the conclusion of the book, a woman named Iris, who was among the new religion's founders, starts to be worshiped as a new manifestation of the Mother Goddess, although there was no such concept when the religion was founded. Vidal's point was clearly to show that worship of the Mother Goddess is an immemorial institute and it would find a manifestation within whatever religion emerges.
In Robert Graves' 1949 novel, Seven Days in New Crete, a mother goddess is central to the religion of a quasi-matriarchal future society.
The Mother Goddess is referred to throughout the novel, The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
In the 2009 movie, Avatar, the indigenous species at the center of the drama, the Na'vi, worship a mother goddess called Eywa.
In the 2009 video game, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, a goddess known as Mem Aleph wishes to restore the Earth to its ancient worship of mother goddesses, and is opposed by the patriarchal Law faction.
In the universe of Warhammer 40000, there is the cult of the Great Sky Mother. The problem is that this cult worships an intergalactic Hive mind. And the name that the rest of the inhabitants of the galaxy give to this cult is genestealer cult. [Source: Wiki.]
# Heavenly Mother (Mormonism)
The Heavenly Mother doctrine is mainly taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),[1][2] the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ [3] and branches of Mormon fundamentalism, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[citation needed] The doctrine is not generally recognized by other faiths within the broader Latter Day Saint movement, such as the Community of Christ, where Trinitarianism is predominant.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she is sung about in one church hymn and briefly discussed in church teaching manuals and sermons.[4]
Origin of the theology
Although there is no clear record of Joseph Smith teaching of Heavenly Mother publicly, several of Smith's contemporaries attributed the theology to him either directly, or as a consequence of his theological stance. An editorial footnote of History of the Church, 5:254, presumably quotes Joseph Smith as saying: "Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen." In addition, a secondhand account states that in 1839, Joseph Smith had told Zina Diantha Huntington, after the death of her mother, that "not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but 'more than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven'."[6]
In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum, a highly select leadership group in the early church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[7] Also, the Times and Seasons published a letter to the editor from a person named "Joseph's Specked Bird" in which the author stated that in the pre-Earth life, the spirit "was a child with his father and mother in heaven".[8]
In 1845, after the murder of Joseph Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow, published a poem entitled My Father in Heaven, (later titled Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother, now used as the lyrics in the popular Latter-day Saint hymn O My Father), acknowledging the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[9] This hymn contained the following language:
In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare.
Truth is reason: truth eternal
tells me I've a mother there.
When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
in your royal courts on high?
The doctrine is also attributed to several other early church leaders. According to one sermon by Brigham Young, Joseph Smith once said he "would not worship a God who had not a father; and I do not know that he would if he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other" (Journal of Discourses, vol.9, p. 286).
Worship and prayer to Heavenly Mother
Early leader George Q. Cannon thought that “there is too much of this inclination to deify ‘our mother in heaven,’ arguing that she is not part of the Godhead and that to worship her would diminish from the worship of heavenly father.[13] However, early 20th-century church leader Rudger Clawson disagreed, arguing that “it doesn’t take away from our worship of the Eternal Father, to adore our Eternal Mother…we honor woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal prototype” [14]
Some church leaders have interpreted the term “God” to represent the divinely exalted couple with both a masculine and feminine half. Erastus Snow, an early Mormon Apostle, wrote “’do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of a man and woman?’ Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself…I must believe that deity consists of a man and woman.” This notion was reaffirmed by later church leaders Hugh B. Brown, James E. Talmage, Melvin J. Ballard, and Bruce R. McConkie.[15]
Some feminist Mormons have adopted the practice of praying to the Heavenly Mother. However, deceased LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley opposed this practice, saying that Mormons should not pray to the Heavenly Mother, saying that Christ instructed his disciples to address the Heavenly Father in their prayers.[16] A feminist professor was fired from Brigham Young University, one of the reasons being her public advocacy of praying to Heavenly Mother.[17]
Acknowledgment by the LDS Church
Statements by church leaders
Susan Young Gates, a daughter of Brigham Young and women's rights activist, stated that “[the] great Heavenly Mother was the great molder” in Abraham’s personality. “Gates speculated that Heavenly Mother has played a significant role in all our lives, looking over us with ‘watchful care’ and providing ‘careful training.’”[20] Brigham Young preached that resurrected “eternal mothers” would “be prepared to frame earths like unto ours.” [21]
Early 20th century church leader B.H. Roberts pointed out that the Heavenly Mother doctrine presents a “conception of the nobility of women and of motherhood and of wife-hood--placing her side by side with the Divine Father.” [22] John Widtsoe, a colleague of B.H. Roberts in the Quorum of the Twelve, wrote that the afterlife “is given radiant warmth by the thought that…[we have] a mother who possesses the attributes of Godhood.” [13] In 1894, The Juvenile Instructor, an official publication of the LDS church, published a Hymn entitled "Our Mother in Heaven."[23]
There has also been some more recent discussion of Heavenly Mother by LDS Church leaders. In a speech given at BYU in 2010, Glenn L. Pace, a member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy, said, “Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.” [24]
Controversy around Sacred Silence
The lack of focused teaching and more information about her has caused speculation among Mormons that lack of information may have a divine purpose, to avoid drawing attention to her and to preserve the sacredness of her existence. In 1960 an LDS seminary teacher (which is not a church authority) published in an LDS encyclopedia that “the name of our Mother in Heaven has been withheld” because of the way God the Father’s and Jesus Christ’s names have been profaned.[26] Whether he is the source of the idea or is reflecting a prevalent belief is hard to say.[editorializing][original research?]
While no General Authority has made an official statement denying belief in a Heavenly Mother nor stating that her existence is too sacred to discuss, several factors may influence the current trend that sees even a mention of Heavenly Mother as treading on forbidden ground. Members take their cues about what is acceptable doctrine from talks of General Authorities and official church manuals and magazines, and these materials rarely mention Heavenly Mother directly. The publicly discussed church discipline of feminists like Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, Maxine Hanks, Janice Allred, and Margaret Toscano, all of whom were disciplined in part for statements related to the Heavenly Mother, adds to the general sense that discourse about her is strictly forbidden.[27] However, Brigham Young University professor David L. Paulsen has argued that such a belief finds no official backing in statements by church leaders, and that the concept that the Heavenly Mother is consigned to a "sacred silence" is largely the result of a relatively recent cultural perception.[28]
Though church president Gordon B. Hinckley said the prohibition on praying to Heavenly Mother in no way “belittles or denigrates her,” some feel that it makes her seem less important to our eternal lives than Heavenly Father.[who?] Others assume that both heavenly parents are equally important and expect that more will be revealed when we are ready.[editorializing] This question ties into a larger set of questions among many Latter Day Saints about power in relationships between men and women. When asked why God said that Adam would rule over Eve, Hinckley said, "I do not know... My own interpretation of that sentence is that the husband shall have a governing responsibility to provide for, to protect, to strengthen and shield the wife. Any man who belittles or abuses or terrorizes, or who rules in unrighteousness, will deserve and, I believe, receive the reprimand of a just God who is the Eternal Father of both His sons and daughters."[29]
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# Queen of Heaven
[wiki edited]
Queen of Heaven is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Christians, mainly of the Roman Catholic Church, and also, to some extent, in the Anglican, and Eastern Orthodox churches, to whom the title is a (disputed) consequence of the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century, where the Virgin Mary was proclaimed "theotokos" ("God-bearer," "birthgiver of God" or the "one who gives birth to God" among other translations), a title rendered in Latin as Mater Dei, "Mother of God".The Catholic teaching on this subject is expressed in the papal encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam,[1] issued by Pope Pius XII. It states Mary is called the Queen of Heaven because her Son, Jesus Christ, is the King of Israel and heavenly King of the Universe. The Eastern Orthodox churches do not share the Catholic dogma, but have themselves a rich liturgical history in honor of Mary.
The title Queen of Heaven has long been a Catholic tradition, included in prayers and devotional literature, and seen in Western art in the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin, from the High Middle Ages, long before it was given a formal definition status by the Church.
Catholicism
Ad caeli reginam states:
- The main principle on which the royal dignity of Mary rests is without doubt her Divine Motherhood. ... So with complete justice St. John Damascene could write: "When she became Mother of the Creator, she truly became Queen of every creature.".[4]
- Mary was chosen as Mother of Christ in order that she might become a partner in the redemption of the human race.[5]
Mariological basis
See also: Ad Caeli Reginam
Queen of Heaven (Latin Regina Caeli) is one of many Queen titles used of the Virgin Mary. The title derived in part from the ancient Catholic teaching that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was bodily and spiritually assumed into heaven, and that she is there honored as Queen.[6]The first Mariological definition and basis for the title of Mary Queen of Heaven developed at the Council of Ephesus, where Mary was defined to be the Mother of God. The Council fathers specifically approved this version against the opinion, that Mary is "only" the mother of Jesus. Nobody had participated in the life of her son more, than Mary, who gave birth to the Son of God.[7]
Litany of Loreto
The Litany of Loreto includes several supplications to Mary as Queen. There are two types of statements about the Queen of Heaven.- Some refer to the Virgin Mary as theological statements about her queenship.
- Others indicate more specifically her realm of influence of the virgin as queen of heaven.
Queen conceived without original sin
Queen conceived without original sin refers to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, a long held belief which became dogma in 1854. It definitively solved the question, how Mary, fully human and in need of redemption like everybody else, was granted the fullness of God's grace from her very beginning. The dogma teaches, that Mary, the Mother of God, participated from before her birth in the holiness of God through His grace. She did not become a goddess but being without sin, the spiritual mother and new Eve.[8]
Queen assumed into Heaven
This is the reason she is Queen assumed into Heaven. To Catholics, assumption into heaven refers to the elevation into the heavenly realm, where the saints are with God and his son.[8] Queen assumed into heaven is thus an indication, that Mary's service to the human race was not concluded with the birth of Christ, but continues for all eternity in heaven.[8]
Queen of the Rosary
As Queen of the Rosary, Mary lets the faithful participate in her life with Christ[9] The rosary is a prayer for faith, hope and love, who were all perfected in the Virgin Mary.
Queen of the Angels
In the Catholic tradition as reflected in the Litany of Loreto, angels are messengers of God; angels also praise God. As Mother of God, Mary is more than a messenger and in her Magnificat she praises God. In the heavenly kingdom Mary is seen as Queen of the Angels.
Queen of Peace
To Christians Christ is peace. They pray: "May the peace of Christ be with you" Mary is Queen of Peace, because she aided in the reconciliation of humanity with God like nobody else. With the fullness of her person she aided the entry of peace into this world. She is also considered Queen of Peace, because throughout her life, she lived by God's will and not her own. Peace in the Catholic tradition means to do God's will.[8]
Queen of the Patriarchs
In the Old Testament, patriarchs have a exceptional relation to God. Abraham is even seen as father of the faith (Gen15,5 Rom 4 Hebr 11,8) In the Litany of Loreto, God is not only the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but also the God of Mary. Only Mary had the complete faith for which she was considered blessed (Luke 1,45)[8] With the title Queen of Patriarchs, the Catholic Church states the continued relevance and position of the Patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Other titles
For similar reasons, Mary, because her prophetic pronouncements in the Magnificat is Queen of Prophets. She is Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs, Queen of Confessors, Queen of Virgins, and Queen of all Saints .[10] As Ever Virgin and immaculate Mother of God who was assumed into heaven, she is closer to God than any other creature[8]In the classic Roman Catholic Mariology book The Glories of Mary, the author Saint Alphonsus Liguori called the Blessed Virgin Mary the "Gate of Heaven", relying on the writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, another Doctor of the Church. [11]
Other titles have been added to reflect modern scientific understanding. The Second Vatican Council in 1964 referred to Mary as Queen of the Universe. Section 59 of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican II, stated: "Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all guilt of original sin, on the completion of her earthly sojourn, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of the universe, that she might be the more fully confimed to her Son, the Lord of lords and the conqueror of sin and death." This reference came at a time during which space exploration was beginning.[12]
Veneration
The Catholic faith states as a dogma, that Mary is assumed into heaven, and is with Jesus Christ, her divine son. Mary should be called Queen, not only because of her Divine Motherhood of Jesus Christ, but also because God has willed her to have an exceptional role in the work of eternal salvation. Roman Catholicism employs the liturgical Latin phrase Ora Pro Nobis, meaning pray for us and does not teach adherents to pray to saints or worship saints, but rather asks those saints to pray for them. The encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam maintains that Christ as redeemer is Lord and King. The Blessed Virgin is Queen, because of the unique manner in which she assisted in our redemption, by giving of her own substance, by freely offering Him for us, by her singular desire and petition for, and active interest.[21] Mary was chosen Mother of Christ so she might help fulfill God's plan in the redemption of humankind; The Catholic Church from the earliest times venerated the Queen of Heaven, according to Pius XII, as
From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven and never has that hope wavered which they placed in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.[22]
Biblical basis
The Roman Catholic Church views Mary as the woman clothed with the sun in the Book of Revelation 12:1-3:[2] "1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads."
For Catholics, the reference to the ark of the covenant immediately prior to this passage(chapter 11, verse 19) confirms the woman's identification with Mary, as she is seen as the ark of the "new covenant" bearing the Word of God (Christ) in her womb, as the old ark carried the Ten Commandments. Catholics interpret Psalm 45, "A Song Celebrating the King's Marriage", as referring to the Messiah, to suggest in verse nine, that Jesus, the Messiah, would have a queen at his right hand. Although Mary was Jesus' mother, she is often portrayed as that queen. Other views are that Psalm 45 refers to the marriage of Jesus to His people, i.e. the church which is called the "Bride of Christ" or that Psalm 45 is simply a celebration upon the marriage of an earthly king, giving thanks to God but not referring to the Messiah. It is also believed by those assigning a special significance to Mary, and believing in her Annunciation, that in Luke 1:26-35 of the New Testament the Archangel Gabriel seems to praise Mary, although she would otherwise be inferior to him.
The Roman Catholic Church generally reasons that the Bible speaks of the mother of Jesus as "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" - (Revelation 12:1). As Mary is a perfect model of the Church, she also represents the Church as a whole.[30] Some non-Catholic Bible scholars interpret these verses to refer not to Mary, but rather to Israel or the Church and they do not view Mary as the Queen of Heaven. They reason that the Bible generally refers to nations and tribes as female characters, as in Matthew 2:18 and Revelation 17 and that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13), through Him all things were created (Colossians 1:15-17). However, the Roman Catholic Church accepts Revelation 12 as a reference to Mary, Israel, and the Church as a three-fold symbolism through the Book of Isaiah and affirms Mary as the mother of Jesus as the prophetic fulfilment described in Revelation 12 (cf. Isaiah 7:14, 26:17, 54:1, 66:7).[2] These interpretations have not been resolved within Christianity, and are not necessarily accepted by all denominations.
In the Old Testament the term "queen of heaven" appears in a context unrelated to Mary. The prophet Jeremiah writing circa 628 BC refers to a "queen of heaven" in chapters 7 and 44 of the Book of Jeremiah when he scolds the people for having "sinned against the Lord" due to their idolatrous practices of burning incense, making cakes and pouring out drink offerings to her. This title was probably given to Asherah, a Caananite idol and goddess worshipped in ancient Israel and Judah.[31] For a discussion of "queen of heaven" in the Old Testament, see Queen of heaven (Antiquity). [Source: Wiki.]
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# Queen of heaven (antiquity)
Isis
Then with a weeping countenance, I made this orison to the puissant Goddess, saying: O blessed Queen of Heaven...
Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertile Arabia, disdained not with her divine voice to utter these words unto me: Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers has moved me to succor thee. I am she that is the natural mother of all things, mistress and governess of all the elements, the initial progeny of worlds, chief of powers divine, Queen of Heaven... and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me Queen Isis.[4]
Inanna
Queen of Heaven is a title used for goddesses central to many religions of antiquity. Inanna's name is commonly derived from Nin-anna "Queen of Heaven" (from Sumerian NIN "lady", AN "sky")[7], although the cuneiform sign for her name (Borger 2003 nr. 153, U+12239 𒈹) is not historically a ligature of the two. In some traditions Inanna was said to be a granddaughter of the creator goddess Nammu or Namma.[citation needed]. These difficulties have led some early Assyriologists to suggest that Inanna may have been originally a Proto-Euphratean goddess, possibly related to the Hurrian mother goddess Hannahannah, accepted only latterly into the Sumerian pantheon, an idea supported by her youthfulness, and that, unlike the other Sumerian divinities, she at first had no sphere of responsibilities.[8] The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists[9]. In Sumer Inanna was hailed as "Queen of Heaven" in the 3rd millennium BC. In Akkad to the north, she was worshipped later as Ishtar. In the Sumerian Descent of Inanna, when Inanna is challenged at the outermost gates of the underworld, she replies
I am Inanna, Queen of Heaven,
On my way to the East.
Her cult was deeply embedded in Mesopotamia and among the Canaanites to the west.On my way to the East.
Astarte
According to scholar Mark S. Smith, Astarte may be the Iron Age (after 1200 BC) incarnation of the Bronze Age (to 1200 BC) Asherah.[10]
Astarte was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war. Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus. Pictorial representations often show her naked. Astarte was accepted by the Greeks under the name of Aphrodite. The island of Cyprus, one of Astarte's greatest faith centers, supplied the name Cypris as Aphrodite's most common byname. Asherah was worshipped in ancient Israel as the consort of El and in Judah as the consort of Yahweh and Queen of Heaven (the Hebrews baked small cakes for her festival):[11]
"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger." [12]
"... 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 ..."[13]
Hebrew Bible references
Worship of a "Queen of Heaven", (in Hebrew Malkath haShamayim) is recorded in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, circa 628 BC, in the context of the Prophet condemning such religious worship as blasphemy and a violation of the teachings of the God of Israel. In Jeremiah 7:18:
"The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger."[14]
In Jeremiah 44:15-18:
"Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine." "[15]
It should be remembered in this context that there was a temple of Yahweh in Egypt at that time that was central to the Jewish community at Elephantine in which Yahweh was worshipped in conjunction with the goddess Anath (also named in the temple papyri as Anath-Bethel and Anath-Iahu).[16].The goddesses Asherah, Anath and Astarte first appear as distinct and separate deities in the tablets discovered in the ruins of the library of Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria), although some Biblical scholars who have not explored the earlier documented evidence tend to jumble all these goddesses together.
John Day states that "there is nothing in first-millennium BC texts that singles out Asherah as 'Queen of Heaven' or associates her particularly with the heavens at all."[17]
[Source: Wiki.]
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# Heavenly Mother
[Wiki 2012]
In some religious traditions or movements Heavenly Mother (also referred to as Mother in Heaven or Sky Mother) is the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky father or God the Father. Teachings about the Heavenly Mother are promulgated by various religious groups, to one degree or another.
Ancient Egypt
In Egyptian mythology, sky goddess Nut is sometimes called "Mother" because she bore stars and Sun god.
Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine.[1]
Ascended Master Teachings
In the Ascended Master Teachings, a group of religions based on Theosophy, the Heavenly Mother is called Omega.
Christianity
Orthodoxy and Catholicism
Main articles: Queen of Heaven and Theotokos
Orthodox Christians and Catholics believe that Mary was assumed, body and soul, into Heaven, referred to as the Assumption of Mary. This could make her a "heavenly mother", as she gave birth to Jesus, and was granted the title Theotokos at the First Council of Ephesus. However, she is more often referred to as "Our Mother", since Christians alike refer to themselves as "Brothers and Sisters in Christ". There is a parallel in calling Mary "Our Mother" as calling God "Our Father", though there is a Pater Noster but no Mater Nostra. Mary is not considered the "Heavenly Mother", the same way that God the Father is referred to as the "Heavenly Father". Mary, although highly venerated as the first among the Saints, is never viewed on an equal status with God (cf. hyperdulia vs. latria), rather she is viewed as a Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix.
Mormonism
Main article: Heavenly Mother (Mormonism)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, many adherents believe in a Heavenly Mother as the wife of God the Father. The theology varies, however, according to denomination. The only clear declaration regarding a Heavenly Mother figure is that she exists. Some off-shoot denominations disavow a belief in her, some do not make her a part of the official doctrine, and others openly acknowledge her.[2]
Collyridianism
Collyridianism was a heretical Christian sect of feminist theology. Collyridians worshipped the Virgin Mary as their Heavenly Mother and as a Goddess. The Catholic Church condemned the Collyridians of Marian Heresies, holding that Mary was to be venerated but not adored like God.[3] The Collyridian service was similar to that of the Catholic Mass, except that the sacramental bread was not considered Christ, or a sacrifice to God, but a sacrifice to the Virgin Mary. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote about the Collyridianism and their multiple heresies against the Catholic Church in his work entitled Panarion.
Unification Church
In the Unification Church some members occasionally address God as "Heavenly Mother" when emphasizing the divine attribute of femininity, but not indicating a distinct person. Unificationists consider God a unified being of masculine and feminine characteristics, but they nearly always address God (in prayer) using masculine references and refer to Him as "Father" or "Heavenly Father."
Hinduism
In the Hindu context, the worship of the Mother deity can be traced back to early Vedic culture, and perhaps even before. The Rigveda calls the divine female power Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which literally means Mother Earth. At places, the Vedic literature alludes to her as Viraj, the universal mother, as Aditi, the mother of gods, and as Ambhrini, the one born of Primeval Ocean. Durga, the wife of Shiva, is a warrior goddess who represents the empowering and protective nature of motherhood. An incarnation of Durga is Kali, who came from her forehead during war (as a means of defeating Durga's enemy, Mahishasura). Durga and her incarnations are particularly worshipped in Bengal.
Today, Devi is seen in manifold forms, all representing the creative force in the world, as Maya and prakṛti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos. She is not merely the Earth, though even this perspective is covered by Parvati (Durga's previous incarnation). All the various Hindu female entities are seen as forming many faces of the same female Divinity. [Source: Wiki.]
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# Mother goddess
[Wiki 2012]
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation, or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.
Many different goddesses have represented motherhood in one way or another, and some have been associated with the birth of humanity as a whole. Others have represented the fertility of the earth.
Paleolithic figures
Several small, corpulent figures have been found during archaeological excavations of the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Willendorf, perhaps, being the most famous.[1] This sculpture is estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE. Some archaeologists believe they were intended to represent goddesses, while others believe that they could have served some other purpose. These figurines predate, by many thousands of years, the available records of the goddesses listed below as examples of mother goddesses, so although they seem to conform to the same generic type, it is not clear whether they, indeed, were representations of a goddess or whether, if they are, there was any continuity of religion that connects them with Middle Eastern and Classical deities.
The Paleolithic period extends from 2.5 million years ago to the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 BCE. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans migrated to the Western Hemisphere before the end of the Paleolithic so cultures around the world share its characteristics. It is the prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools, and covers the greatest portion of humanity's time on Earth.
While most Paleolithic figurines are from the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Berekhat Ram found at Berekhat Ram on the Golan Heights is a Middle Paleolithic artefact of the later Acheulian, possibly was made by individuals identified as, Homo erectus.
Neolithic figures
Diverse images of what are believed to be Mother Goddesses have been discovered that also date from the Neolithic period, the New Stone Age, which ranges from approximately 10,000 BCE, when the use of wild cereals led to the beginning of farming and, eventually, to agriculture. The end of this Neolithic period is characterized by the introduction of metal tools as the skill appeared to spread from one culture to another, or arise independently as a new phase in an existing tool culture, and eventually, became widespread among humans. Regional differences in the development of this stage of tool development are quite varied. In other parts of the world, such as Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, independent domestication events led to their own patterns of development, while distinctive Neolithic cultures arose independently in Europe and Southwest Asia.During this time, native cultures appear in the Western Hemisphere, arising out of older Paleolithic traditions that were carried during migration. Regular seasonal occupation or permanent settlements begin to be seen in excavations. Herding and keeping of cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs is evidenced along with the presence of dogs. Almost without exception, images of what Marija Gimbutas interpreted as Mother Goddesses have been discovered in all of these cultures.[2]
Old Europe
James Frazer (author of The Golden Bough) and others (such as Jane Ellen Harrison, Robert Graves and Marija Gimbutas) advance the idea that goddess worship in ancient Europe and the Aegean was descended from Pre-Indo-European neolithic matriarchies. Gimbutas argued that the thousands of female images from Old Europe (archaeology) represented a number of different groups of goddess symbolism, notably a "bird and snake" group associated with water, an "earth mother" group associated with birth, and a "stiff nude" group associated with death, as well as other groups.[3] Gimbutas maintained that the "earth mother" group continues the paleolithic figural tradition discussed above, and that traces of these figural traditions may be found in goddesses of the historical period.[4] According to Gimbutas' Kurgan Hypothesis, Old European cultures were disrupted by expansion of Indo-European speakers from southern Siberia.In 1968 the archaeologist Peter Ucko proposed that the many images found in graves and archaeological sites of Neolithic cultures were toys.[5] The graves he was describing dated from Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete, and mostly, contained adults, however.[citation needed]
Deity examples
Many ancient cultures worshiped female deities who match the modern conception of a "mother goddess".
Egyptian
Mother goddesses are present in the earliest images discovered among the archaeological finds in Ancient Egypt. An association is drawn to the early goddesses of Egypt with animals seen as good mothers—the lioness, cow, hippopotamus, white vulture, cobra, scorpion, and cat—as well as, to the life-giving primordial waters, the sun, the night sky, and the earth herself.Even through the transition to a paired pantheon of male deities matched or "married" to each goddess and during the male-deity-dominated pantheon that arose much later, the mother goddesses persisted into historical times (such as Hathor and Isis). Advice from the oracles associated with these goddesses guided the rulers of Egypt. The Two Ladies, Wadjet and Nekhbet, remained patron deities of the rulers of Ancient Egypt throughout every dynasty, including that of Akhenaten (who often is described as having abandoned all but one solar deity), and they all bore their images on their crowns and included special names associated with these goddesses among their titles.
The image of Isis nursing her son was worshiped into the sixth century A.D. and has been resurrected by contemporary "cults" of an Earth Mother. That imagery may have been adopted by early Christians as well.
Indigenous people of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Andes worship the fertility goddess Pachamama. In Inca mythology, Pachamama presides over planting and harvesting and she causes earthquakes. After conquest by Catholic Spain her image was masked by the Virgin Mary, behind whom she is invoked and worshiped in the Aboriginal rituals in some parts of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.[6] The religion centered in the Pachamama is practiced currently in parallel form to Christianity, to the point that many families are simultaneously Christian and Pachamamistas.[7]Pachamama is sometimes syncretized the Virgin of Candelaria, [8] of the Canary Islands. Chaxiraxi is the native sun goddess of the Guanche religion and associated with statues of a mother and child dated to before exploration by Europeans. The imagery and concepts may have been introduced to South American and Caribbean cultures by emigrants from there. The mother goddess figure they worship often is syncretised with the Yoruba goddess called by the names Iansan and Oyas.
The Hopi people of North America (Turtle Island), Arizona, USA, refer to the Earth as Tuuwaqatsi-Earth Mother. According to the knowledge they have carefully preserved down the ages, the Earth is our "Land and our Life," which is remembered in their first law: Tutskwa I'qatsi - Land and Life are one. The Goddess-Earth has a male counterpart representing the inner life or core of the Earth. This inner life-soul-mind-womb is sometimes referred to as Maski, or spirit-home, the place where people go following death. This place is sometimes referred to as the "underworld."
Aztec
In Aztec mythology, Toci is the "Mother of the Gods". She is often associated with Tlazolteotl, a central Mesoamerican goddess of both purification and filth, healing, and midwifery.
Sumerian and Mesopotamian
Ninsun is the Mother Goddess in general Mesopotamian mythology. She is Asherah in Canaan and in Syria. The Sumerians wrote erotic poetry about their mother goddess Ninhursag.[9]
Anatolia
Numerous female figurines from Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia have been interpreted as evidence of a mother-goddess cult, c.7500 BC. James Mellaart, who led excavation at the site in the 1960s, suggests that the figures represent a Great goddess, who headed the pantheon of an essentially matriarchal culture. A seated female figure, flanked by what Mellart describes as lionesses, was found in a grain-bin; she may have intended to protect the harvest and grain.[10][11] Reports of more recent excavations at Çatalhöyük conclude that overall, the site offers no unequivocal evidence of matriarchal culture or a dominant Great Goddess; the balance of male and female power appears to have been equal.[12][13] The seated or enthroned goddess-like figure flanked by lionesses, has been suggested as a prototype Cybele, a leading deity and Mother Goddess of later Anatolian states.
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture
From 5500 to 2750 BC the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture flourished in the region of modern-day Romania, Moldova, and southwestern Ukraine, leaving behind ruins of settlements of as many as 15,000 residents who practiced agriculture and domesticated livestock. They also left behind many ceramic remains of pottery and clay figurines. Some of these figurines appear to represent the mother goddess (see images in this article).
Greek
In the Aegean, Anatolian, and ancient Near Eastern culture zones, Cybele, the primordial deity Gaia, and Rhea were worshiped as Mother goddesses. In Mycenae the great goddess often was represented by a column.[citation needed]
Olympian goddesses of classical Greece with mother goddess attributes include Hera and Demeter. "The goddesses of Greek polytheism, so different and complementary, are nonetheless, consistently similar at an earlier stage, with one or the other simply becoming dominant in a sanctuary or city. Each is the Great Goddess presiding over a male society; each is depicted in her attire as Mistress of the Beasts, and Mistress of the Sacrifice, even Hera and Demeter"[14]
The Minoan goddess represented in seals and other remains many of whose attributes were absorbed into Artemis, seems to have been a mother goddess type, for in some representations she suckles the animals that she holds.[citation needed] The archaic local goddess worshiped at Ephesus, whose cult statue was adorned with necklaces and stomachers hung with rounded protuberances [15] who was later also identified by Hellenes with Artemis, was probably also a mother goddess.[citation needed]
Roman
In ancient Roman religion, Tellus or Terra Mater ("Mother Earth") was a goddess of the earth and agriculture. Her festivals and rituals often connected her to Ceres, goddess of grain, agriculture, fertility, and mothering.[16]Venus was regarded as a mother of the Roman people through her half-mortal son Aeneas, who led refugees from the Trojan War to settle in Italy. The family of Julius Caesar claimed to have descended from Aeneas, and hence Venus. In this capacity she was given cult as Venus Genetrix (Venus the Begetter). In the later Imperial era, she was included among the many manifestations of a syncretised Magna Dea (Great Goddess), who could be manifested as any goddess at the head of a pantheon, such as Juno or Minerva.
Celtic
The Irish goddess Anu, sometimes known as Danu, has an impact as a mother goddess, judging from the Dá Chích Anann near Killarney, County Kerry. Irish literature names the last and most favored generation of deities as "the people of Danu" (Tuatha De Danann). The Welsh have a similar figure called Dôn who is often equated with Danu and identified as a mother goddess. Sources for this character date from the Christian period, however, so she is referred to simply as a "mother of heroes" in the Mabinogion. The character's (assumed) origins as a goddess are obscured.The Celts of Gaul worshipped a goddess known as Dea Matrona ("divine mother goddess") who was associated with the Marne River. Similar figures known as the Matres (Latin for "mothers") are found on altars in Celtic as well as Germanic areas of Europe.
Germanic
In the first century B.C., Tacitus recorded rites amongst the Germanic tribes focused on the goddess Nerthus, whom he calls Terra Mater, 'Mother Earth'. Prominent in these rites was the procession of the goddess in a wheeled vehicle through the countryside. Among the seven or eight tribes said to worship her, Tacitus lists the Anglii and the Longobardi.[17]Among the later Anglo-Saxons, a Christianized charm known as Æcerbot survives from records from the tenth century. The charm involves a procession through the fields while calling upon the Christian God for a good harvest, that invokes 'eorþan modor' (Earth Mother) and 'folde, fira modor,' (Earth, mother of men).
In skaldic poetry, the kenning, "Odin's wife", is a common designation for the Earth. Bynames of the Earth in Icelandic poetry include Jörð, Fjörgyn, Hlóðyn, and Hlín. Hlín is used as a byname of both Jörð and Frigg. Fjörgynn (a masculine form of Fjörgyn) is said to be Frigg's father, while the name Hlóðyn is most commonly linked to Frau Holle, as well as to a goddess, Hludana, whose name is found etched in several votive inscriptions from the Roman era.[18]
Connections have been proposed between the figure of Nerthus and various figures (particularly figures counted amongst the Vanir) recorded in thirteenth century Icelandic records of Norse mythology, including Frigg. Due to potential etymological connections, the Norse god Njörðr has been proposed as the consort of Nerthus.[19] In the Poetic Edda poem, Lokasenna, Njörðr is said to have fathered his famous children by his own sister. This sister remains unnamed in surviving records.
Due to specific terms used to describe the figure of Grendel's mother from the poem Beowulf, some scholars have proposed that the figure of Grendel's mother, like the poem itself, may have derived from earlier traditions originating from Germanic paganism.
Turkic Siberians
Yer Tanrı is the mother of Umai, also known as Ymai or Mai, the mother goddess of the Turkic Siberians. She is depicted as having sixty golden tresses, that resemble the rays of the sun. She is thought to have once been identical with Ot of the Mongols.
Hinduism
In Hinduism, Durga represents the empowering and protective nature of motherhood. From her forehead sprang Kali, who defeated Durga's enemy, Mahishasura. Kali (the feminine form of Kaal" i.e. "time") is the primordial energy as power of Time, literally, the "creator or doer of time" -- her first manifestation. after time, she manifests as "space", as Tara, from which point further creation of the material universe progresses. The divine Mother, Devi Adi parashakti, manifests herself in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms as plants, animals, and such from Herself, and she sustains and nourishes them through her body, that is the earth with its animal life, vegetation, and minerals. Ultimately she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or "devours" them to sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life. She also gives rise to Maya (the illusory world) and to prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos. The Earth itself is manifested by Parvati, Durga's previous incarnation. Hindu worship of the divine Mother can be traced back to pre-vedic times, in pre-historic India.
Shaktism
The form of Hinduism known as Shaktism is strongly associated with Samkhya, and Tantra Hindu philosophies and ultimately, is monist. The primordial feminine creative-preservative-destructive energy, Shakti, is considered to be the motive force behind all action and existence in the phenomenal cosmos. The cosmos itself is Shiva or purusha, the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality that is the Divine Ground of all being, the "world soul". This masculine potential is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied in multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately all manifestations of the One Great Mother. Mother Maya or Shakti, herself, can free the individual from demons of ego, ignorance, and desire that bind the soul in maya (illusion). Practitioners of the Tantric tradition focus on Shakti to free themselves from the cycle of karma.
Christianity
Depictions in churches
The Normans had a major influence on English Romanesque architecture when they built a large numbers of Christian monasteries, abbeys, churches, and cathedrals. These Romanesque styles originated in Normandy and became widespread in north western Europe, particularly in England, which has the largest number of surviving examples.
Sheela na Gig is a common stone carving found in Romanesque Christian churches scattered throughout Europe. These female figures are found in Ireland, Great Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, and in the Czech Republic. Their meaning is not clearly identifiable as Christian, and may be a concept that survived from ancient forms of yoni worship and sacred prostitution practiced in the goddess temples. Some of the figures seem to be elements of earlier structures, perhaps devoted to goddess worship.
Other common motifs on Christian churches of the same time period are spirals and ouroboros or dragons swallowing their tails, which is a reference to rebirth and regeneration, a concept well known in pantheism. Other creatures including the succubus make an appearance in the sculptural reliefs of the church that have a long history in the oral tradition of previous civilizations that preceded Christianity that may relate to earlier goddess worship.
Blessed Virgin Mary
Main articles: Theotokos, Queen of Heaven, and Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Some Christians regard the Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Theotokos (or Mother of God) for many believers, as a "spiritual mother," since she not only fulfills a maternal role, but is often viewed as a protective and intercessory force, a divinely established mediator for humanity, but stress that she is not worshiped as a divine "mother goddess". The Roman Catholic, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches identify "the woman" described in Revelation 12 as Mary because in verse 5 this woman is said to have given "birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod", whom they identify as Jesus Christ. Then, in verse 17 of Revelation 12, the Bible describes "the rest of her offspring" as "those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus." These Christians believe themselves to be the other "offspring" because they try to "keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus," and thus, they embrace Mary as their "mother". They also cite John 19:26–27 where Jesus entrusts his mother to the Apostle John as evidence that Mary is the mother of all Christians, taking the command "behold your mother" to apply generally. The Roman Catholics refer to her as, the Blessed Virgin Mary.In 300 A.D., the Blessed Virgin Mary was worshipped as a Mother Goddess in the Christian sect Collyridianism, which was found throughout Saudi Arabia. Collyridianism was made up mostly of women followers and female priests. Followers of Collyridianism were known to make bread and wheat offerings to the Virgin Mary, along with other sacrificial practices. The cult was heavily condemned as heretical and schismatic by the Roman Catholic Church and was preached against by Epiphanius of Salamis, who exposed the group in his recollective writings entitled, Panarion.
As motherhood is a common recurring concept in all religions, The Blessed Virgin Mary receives many titles in the Roman Catholic Church, such as Queen of Heaven and Our Lady, Star of the Sea, that are familiar from earlier Near Eastern traditions. Due to this correlation, some Protestants often accuse Catholics of viewing Mary as a goddess, but the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox churches always have condemned "worship as adoration" of Mary. Part of this accusation is due to the Catholic practice of prayer as a means of communication rather than as a means of worship. Catholics believe that the dead who followed their deity, have eternal life and can hear prayers in heaven from people here on earth. Concepts of Mother Goddess worshipped is heavily condemned by the Holy See as it had been suppressed and condemned among the Collyridianism sect in 300 A.D.
Mormonism
Main article: Heavenly Mother (Mormonism)
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believe in, but do not worship, a Heavenly Mother, the wife and female counterpart—and equal of the Heavenly Father.[20] This belief is not emphasized, however, and typically, adherents pray to the "Father in Heaven."
Neopaganism
Further information: Goddess (Wicca)
The Mother Goddess, or Great Goddess, is a composite of various feminine deities from past and present world cultures, worshiped by modern Wicca and others broadly known as Neopagans. She is considered sometimes identified as a Triple Goddess, who takes the form of Maiden, Mother, and Crone archetypes. She is described as Mother Earth, Mother Nature, or the Creatress of all life. She is associated with the full moon and stars, the Earth, and the sea.
Earth Mother
The Earth Mother is a motif that appears in many mythologies. The Earth Mother is a fertile goddess embodying the fertile earth and typically, the mother of other deities, and so, also are seen as patronesses of motherhood. This is generally thought of as being because the earth was seen as being the mother from whom all life sprang.The Rigveda calls the deity, Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which literally means Great Mother.
In South America, contemporary Andean Indian peoples such as the Quechua and Aymara believe in the Mother Earth Pachamama, whose worship cult is found in rural areas and towns at Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Northern Chile and Northwestern Argentina. Andean migrants carried the Pachamama cult to cities and many other extra-Andean places, including metropolitan Buenos Aires.
In various cultures
The idea that the fertile earth is female and nurtures humans, was not limited to the Greco-Roman world. These traditions were greatly influenced by earlier cultures in the ancient Middle East. In Sumerian mythology Ki is the earth goddess. In Akkadian orthography she has the syllabic values gi,ge,qi,qe (for toponyms). Some scholars identify her with Ninhursag (lady of the mountains), the earth and fertility Mother Goddess, who had the surnames Nintu (lady of birth), Mamma, and Aruru.[21] An Egyptian earth and fertility deity, Geb, was male and he was considered father of all snakes, however, the mound from which all life was created by parthenogenesis, represents Mut, the primal "mother of all who was not born of any". She is the more appropriate figure to discuss as the mother goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion. The number of Egyptian goddesses who are depicted as important mother deities is numerous because of regional cults of many very early cultures and a major unification of two ancient countries into one, whose written history only begins at approximately 3150 B.C. It is estimated that the some early cultures that eventually became parts of Ancient Egypt date back to 8000 B.C. and that human occupation of the Nile Valley by modern hunter gatherer societies dates back 120 thousand years.The title "The mother of life" later was given to the Akkadian Goddess Kubau, and hence to Hurrian Hepa, emerging in Hebrew as Eve (Heva) and Phygian Kubala (Cybele). In Norse mythology the earth is personified as Jörð, Hlöðyn, and Fjörgyn and Fjörgynn. In Germanic paganism, the Earth Goddess is referred to as Nertha.[22] The Irish Celts worshipped Danu, whilst the Welsh Celts worshipped Dôn. Hints of their names occur throughout Europe, such as the Don river, the Danube River, the Dnestr, and the Dnepr, suggest that they stemmed from an ancient Proto-Indo-European goddess.[23] In Lithuanian mythology Gaia - Žemė (Lithuanian for "Earth") is daughter of Sun and Moon. Also she is wife of Dangus (Lithuanian for "Sky") (Varuna).
In Pacific cultures, the Earth Mother was known under as many names and with as many attributes as cultures who revered her, such as the Māori, whose creation myth included Papatuanuku, partner to Ranginui, the Sky Father. In South America in the Andes a cult of the Pachamama still survives (in regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile). The name comes from Pacha (Quechua for change, epoch) and Mama (mother). While ancient Mexican cultures referred to Mother Earth as Tonantzin Tlalli that means "Revered Mother Earth".
In Hinduism, the Mother of all creation is called "Gayatri". Gayatri is the name of one of the most important Vedic hymns consisting of twenty-four syllables. One of the sacred texts says, "The Gayatri is Brahma, Gayatri is Vishnu, Gayatri is Shiva, the Gayatri is Vedas" and Gayatri later came to be personified as a goddess. She is shown as having five heads and is usually seated within a lotus. The four heads of Gayatri represent the four Vedas and the fifth one represents the almighty deity. In her ten hands, she holds all the symbols of Lord Vishnu. She is another consort of Lord Brahma.
In Hinduism and Buddhism the specific local indwelling mother deity of Earth (as opposed to the mother deity of all creation) is called Bhūmi. Gautama Buddha called upon Bhumi as his witness when he achieved Enlightenment.
Phra Mae Thorani is recognized as the Goddess of the earth in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian countries.
Only in late Egyptian Mythology does the reverse seem true - Geb is the Earth Father while Nut is the Sky Mother, but the primordial and great goddess of Egypt was Mut, the source of all life and the mother of all. The mound of earth from which life sprang was Mut.
In Theosophy, the Earth Goddess is called the "Planetary Logos of Earth".
In Wicca, the Earth Goddess is sometimes called Gaia.[24] The name of the Mother Goddess varies depending on the Wiccan tradition.
Carl Gustav Jung suggested that the archetypal mother was a part of the collective unconscious of all humans, and various Jungian students, e.g. Erich Neumann and Ernst Whitmont have argued that such mother imagery underpins many mythologies, and precedes the image of the paternal "father", in such religious systems. Such speculations help explain the universality of such mother goddess imagery around the world.
The Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines have been sometimes explained as depictions of an Earth Goddess similar to Gaia. [25]
In Native American Indian storytelling, "The Earth Goddess", is one of several Creator-based titles and names given to the Spider Grandmother.
In ancient Hawaii, Nuakea was a mother goddess of lactation.
In fiction
In Gore Vidal's ironic dystopia, "Messiah", a new death-worshiping religion sweeps the world and wipes out Christianity. Yet at the conclusion of the book, a woman named Iris, who was among the new religion's founders, starts to be worshiped as a new manifestation of the Mother Goddess, although there was no such concept when the religion was founded. Vidal's point was clearly to show that worship of the Mother Goddess is an immemorial institute and it would find a manifestation within whatever religion emerges.In Robert Graves' 1949 novel, Seven Days in New Crete, a mother goddess is central to the religion of a quasi-matriarchal future society.
The Mother Goddess is referred to throughout the novel, The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
In the 2009 movie, Avatar, the indigenous species at the center of the drama, the Na'vi, worship a mother goddess called Eywa.
In the 2009 video game, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, a goddess known as Mem Aleph wishes to restore the Earth to its ancient worship of mother goddesses, and is opposed by the patriarchal Law faction.
In the universe of Warhammer 40000, there is the cult of the Great Sky Mother. The problem is that this cult worships an intergalactic Hive mind. And the name that the rest of the inhabitants of the galaxy give to this cult is genestealer cult. [Source: Wiki.]
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