On the Changing Role of the Goddess

Collection: Goddess

Today I reflect on the presence or absence of the goddess in religion and society, and how that affects how we view humanity and participate in nature as a result. 

This post is inspired by “The Myth of the Goddess. Evolution of an Image” by Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, and especially by its final chapter “The Sacred Marriage of Goddess and God: the Reunion of Nature and Spirit.” This dance of integration of apparent opposites is essential to my work.

Role of the Goddess in mythology

The book begins with an outline of palaeolithic and neolithic mother goddesses of sky, earth and water. Then there are several chapters that delve into regional specifics of Crete, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, or centre around archetypal initiations. These include the cycle of life-death-regeneration, the mother goddess and her lover-son, journey through the underworld, and the sacred marriage in many forms and manifestations. 

Baring and Cashford link the journey of the goddess to the evolution of consciousness. They ask how consciousness tells its story through these images, and what it means that there is currently no formal goddess myth in western culture.

This is something I’ve long pondered, missing a female presence in the sober protestant church I grew up in. I often wondered if I had been better able to embrace Christianity if I’d grown up in a Catholic family, in which Mary has a much more prominent role and the practice of sensory rituals has been kept alive. 

I had to actively un-learn praying to god the father only, and it took me about 13 years to feel comfortable to address my prayers to god the mother, or simply mother, or goddess.

Four Phases

Baring and Cashford describe the presence of the female divine principle in four subsequent phases in Goddess mythology.

Phase 1

In the first phase, the world and everything in it is considered sacred, and animated with soul. This world is born from the Great Mother – all by herself. All beings come from, and are part of, her divine body, including nature, humanity, and other gods. There are no apparent dualities, as everything is considered part of the same identity.

This seems to have been the case in paleolithic and neolithic times, and also in bronze-age Crete. In contemporary indigenous cultures this view is still prevalent.

I imagine that this cosmology of a solo-life giver originally emerged because the process of semen fertilising the egg remained mysterious for a long time – since not every intercourse results in pregnancy. 

Phase 2

The narrative then shifts to the interaction between the Mother Goddess and the God. Born as her son, in time he grows up to become her lover and consort. Everything is still considered alive and sacred, but now there is a perception of change, of time, a difference between eternal and temporal, of seasonal growth and decay. This is when duality comes in, of “that which endures and that which changes” (p. 660). This leads to a differentiation between energy and form, and later to distinctions of spirit and nature, mind and matter, soul and body.

Some examples of this phase are the myths of Inanna and Dumuzi (Sumeria), Ishtar and Tammuz (Babylonia), Isis and Osiris (Egypt), Aphrodite and Adonis (Greece), Cybele and Attis (Anatolia).

I’m curious, how many of you have heard of the respective consorts? It appears to me that they are much less well known, which would still place the goddess centre-stage. The creational, life-giving process results from the meeting of the sacred couple. This seems to me closest to the process in nature and in our own bodies.

Phase 3

At some point, the Mother Goddess is killed by the God, who then creates the world from her dead body and sometimes the human race from the blood of the dismembered consort.

For example, the body of Tiamat, the Babylonian goddess of the Bronze and Iron Age, was split to create heaven and earth. Here, creation becomes separate from the creative source.

Creation also follows destruction, and there is a shift to power over rather than power from within. The world is no longer seen as alive and sacred, but as inert, inanimate matter that can only be organised by spirit which is considered sovereign.

I am a little confused here, because it seems that either the lover-god turns self-destructive, or such myths introduce a third, impersonified god who didn’t have anything to do with the original couple. That would be more akin to phase 4 below.

Phase 4

In the final stage, it is a male god who is self-sufficient. He creates the world without any female involvement, coming full circle after the first phase that only recognised a goddess. There are several examples of this, often connected to sound or word.

The Egyptian Atum copulates with himself. The tongue of the Egyptian Ptah “translated the thoughts of his heart” (p.661). The Hebrew Yahweh-Elhom “made heaven and earth in the beginning and saw that it was good” (p.661). 

The Christian version (a sub stream in the fourth phase) separates the world even further from the original creative and sacred source. Adam is first made from inanimate clay, so not from a divine body. He only comes alive when “spirit is breathed into him” (p.661). Eve is then shaped from one of his ribs.

In this view, humans are animated by a disembodied, pure and transcendent spirit. However, animals, plants or minerals don’t receive this (questionable!) honour and remain inanimate. They are referred to as ‘it’, and considered inferior to the spiritual nature of humanity — which at least had been breathed to life by the disembodied god essence.

In the Hebrew, Islamic and Christian traditions, the mother goddess plays no role in creation, and has mostly disappeared into the shadows (apart from a symbolic role of Mary, which fluctuates in the many different Christian doctrines).

What do you think?

I would love to hear your reflections! What stage(s) do you most resonate with? Which are similar to your own experience and practice? Are there any other doors that opened through this reflection on Baring and Cashford’s inspiring work?

The small print...

• Baring, Anne and Jules Cashford (1991) The Myth of the Goddess. Evolution of an Image. London: Viking (Penguin Group).

• Image phase 1 Venus of Laussel, by Eline Kieft. Musée de l’Homme, Paris. Arts and Prehistory Exhibition from 16.11.22 to 22.5.23

• Image phase 2 Isis and Osiris, by Eline Kieft. British Museum, London. Feminine Power: the divine to the demonic Exhibition from 19.5.22 to 25-9.22

• Artwork phase 3 Divine Alchemy: From Tiamat to Gaia, by Enkidu Alkanaan, January 2024. Connect via Instagram to see more of his amazing art!

• Artwork AND Image phase 4 Sound In-Forms by Eline Kieft, July 2020.

• This post first appeared in the Feminism and Religion blog.