Covenant of the Divine Mother®

The Great Goddess is Timeless. She is Eternal. She is Alive.
She is circular, ever spiriling upward.
She IS Life.
She is Passionate. She is Sensual.
She IS Love.

While there is much, sometimes heated, debate among scholars (isn't there always?) about the earliest forms of worship involving the feminine force of the Goddess, the fact remains that anthropologists and archaeologists have discovered much evidence of feminine diety statuary and worship that pre-dates anything they have ever discovered about the worship of a male deity. This does not mean that a form of masculine deity did not exist. It means that the female was seen as important as the giver of life, the keeper of the home and family, the nurturer of the new generation.

Athena, Greek Goddess of Wisdom

Images of female form, either human or deity, have been found in all cultures, even those who strongly identify with a masculine Godhead.

Venus of Lausell
Dordogne, France. 20,000 B.C.
The original is 17 inches tall and was found in the entrance to a cave that was both a dwelling place and a ceremonial site. She was painted red, the color of life, blood and rebirth.

Dreamer of Malta
National Archaeological Museum,
Valetta, Malta. 3000 B.C.

The Mother Goddess, the universal female principle even if it is in its most primitive conception.Upper Paleolithic female figures such as this one are found from the Pyrenees mountains to Siberia, indicating that East and West were once united in honoring the Goddess. The vast majority of human images from 30,000 to 5,000 b.c. are female. Women were recognized as the life-givers and sustainers and they were revered as priestesses.

Kuan-Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion

• Goddess worship is circular and ever-evolving in a cycle of life-death-rebirth; God worship is linear: birth-death and detours not allowed. No wonder more people have, in the past, and are, once again, moving to Goddess worship.
• There MUST be something better than this, we all pray.
• With Goddess, the circle becomes a spiral and which direction you travel in Her Spiral of Life becomes a personal choice only you can make for yourself.

There is, in actuality, only One Divine Being. The One is beyond name and gender, beyond duality. God/dess, light/dark, good/evil, hatever human or superhuman qualities we choose to give the One Divine Being is a way in which we seek to understand something that is beyond human understanding at this time.

Ancient and Modern, Scholarly and Popular, Cross-genre, Cross-Cultural, Across Time and Space, there is the Goddess figure that is prominant in any given culture. She is always there, even in the most patriarchal of faith and belief systems. He is always there, even in the most matriarchal of faith and belief systems. It takes Two to Tango, you know. For what, really, is the one without the other? One cannot be whole without the other. Yin and Yang. Light and Shadow.

The Two Become Balanced as they become The One. New Life. How can the act of creation, of any kind, not be erotic and sensual? Spirituality is absolutely sensual. The words spoken of the highest, deepest spiritual moments are also those words spoken of the deepest, most meaningful human moments.

Try as you might to avoid Her, you will find the Goddess there in an important, if often hidden or "occult" way, throughout time and space. She is Earth (Mother Earth). She is Us (ALL of Us). She is Mother/Goddess (Mary, Mother of God). SHE IS ALL SHE IS.

BE OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES OF HER LOVE, GRACE, AND COMPASSION

The Divine Mother Goddess embodies the feminine maternal qualities of Unconditional Love and Compassion, yet She also has her Warrior side which She is certainly willing to use to protect her children and loved ones. Unlike many of the male gods, however, She does not wage war for the sake of war, for the sake of greed, or for personal material or other gain. She lives within the heart and soul of every woman and man. She Is Compassionate and Non-Judgmental. She Loves Unconditionally and with Passion. She is Powerful, Strong, and Courageous. She Breathes Life into All Creation.She Nurtures All Life.

The Goddess is present in every religion and culture. She assumes many faces and many forms throughout the history of humanity. Here are some of the names by which She is Known. The Many Names and Faces of the Goddess.

Hindu Goddess Durga

For many millenia humanity has been known primarily as "man" (and masculine Force) and man has worshipped a strictly male diety. This God of Man is the embodiment of a Masculine Force that is Uncontrolled Power and Strength. The God of the Old Testament was Fierce and All Powerful. Yet this God of Man is also a God of unconditional love and compassion. In the Christian world, Jesus was the embodiment of this Love and Compassion (more like his mother, Mary, wasn't he).Uncontrolled Power and Strength without the Balance of Love and Compassion is counter to Life. The Fierce and All Powerful God of Man has ruled with an iron fist and we now have a world filled with violence, hatred, religious strife, prejudice, intolerence, and lack of sufficient resources for all (especially where women are concerned). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this is not the direction we want to continue heading if we are to continue as a species.

Only Balance can heal the world and all of humanity.

Artwork by Artemis-Artist.com

We MUST now seek Balance between Masculine and Feminine if we are to survive and evolve as a species.

The time has come for the Divine Mother Goddess of All Life to heal the ache that lies within the minds, hearts, bodies, and souls of all humanity, male and female. She is the Divine Feminine Force that will nurture our planet and humanity with unconditional love and compassion. She loves ALL of her children equally and She provides the Compassion to balance the Passions of Humankind. Think about it -- we refer to Mother Earth, Mother Country, Mother Land as Benevolent and Good. Yet "man" has treated his Mother poorly in the name of God the Father.

Hecate, Greek Triple Goddess of the Crossroads
Hecate originally derived from the Egyptian midwife Goddess Hekat. In Greece, Hecate was one of the many names for the original feminine trinity ruling Heaven, Earth and the Underworld. Greeks tended to emphasize her crone or underworld aspect. Hecate was called "Most lovely one", a title of the moon. She was associated with the moon in all three of her aspects. Some said she was Hecate Selene, the Moon in Heaven; Artemis the Huntress on Earth and Persephone the Destroyer in the Underworld. Sometimes she was part of the Queen of Heaven Trinity: Hebe the Virgin, Hera the Mother and Hecate the Crone.

It is no coincidence that there has been a worldwide resurgence in Goddess worship in the past thirty years. It began to take hold in Europe and spread to the United States where it is now one of the fastest growing forms of spirituality. Goddess worship and spirituality is compatible with any religion in its truest form. Women, and many men, are finding empowerment and courage within themselves as a result of their intimate connection with the Goddess. It is the Feminine Balance that is so sorely needed in this world torn apart by hatred and violence brought forth in the name of an all-powerful, domineering masculine God.

Green Tara
Tara's name means "One Who Saves". She epitomizes the influence of the older mother-goddess cults upon the Buddhist Mahayana religion. Her concept evolved in India and later she became the most important goddess in the Mahayana pantheon. She holds a very prominent position in Tibet and Nepal.

The Divine Mother exists in all cultures. Even Christianity, a strictly male-dominated religion since it's inception, refers to "Mary, Mother of God." Where would Jesus, and Christianity, be without Jesus' mother, Mary? And Mary Magdelene played a highly significant role in Jesus' life and ministry. These two Mary's, while essential to Christianity and the Ministry of Jesus Christ, are the essence and embodiment of the Divine Mother Goddess. How can it be that a religion that places so much significance on this feminine figure at the same time push Her aside into a secondary (at best) role?

The Divine Mother Goddess exists in other male-dominated religions as well. Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam all have prominant female goddess figures that are worshipped by adherants to those religious faiths. Native American and indiginous spirituality also include many prominant examples of the Divine Feminine.

Links:

The Shrine of the Goddess Athena - a museum on the history and mythology of the Goddess Athena.

Beliefnet.com (do a search for spirituality goddess, there are prayers, meditations, articles, and more). It's a really wonderful site.

Goddess - The Divine Mother of the Universe

Women of the World - Divine Mother Meditation

Josephine Wall - an incredibly gifted artist whose artwork of the Goddess captures the many faces and facets of the Divine Feminine. Her painting of the Moon Goddess (below) is just one example of the depth and beauty of her art. (click on the image for more of her Goddess art).

Goddess Gift

Religious Tolerence.org

Mother Goddess Gnostic Society

Sacred-Texts.com