More on Goddesses

There's a long history here and it's natural that man, struggling in the wild, fighting tooth and nail for a niche in the wilderness should take special note of women, for their procreative powers, and the land, for its ability to bring forth fruit and meat. So we have the beginnings here, even if only in our imagination, of both the worship of females as 'mother goddesses' and of the land and animals thereon for their sustenance. It is equally obvious that fertility is aligned with the phases of the moon, so goddesses will align with the moon as well. The worship of the sun is equally obvious, and if we take into account the lack of television 50,000 years ago it's no wonder that the heavens above held us in awe and fascination. It's not hard to see why these things prompted beliefs, especially when no explanation was readily at hand. Thinking again of snakes, it's not that hard to see the phallic shape and skin-sloughing as signs also of birth and rebirth. It's conjecture, sure, but what else would man (or woman) have thought about before books, TV and supermarkets?

What's slightly more surprising is that we still do it. Plenty of people believe in "the stars" (astrology) and many more pay their respects to patron saints who hark back to earlier, much earlier, beliefs. There's even the apparent Christian worship of the 'goddess' Mary to consider. Christianity not just the worship of a god, Elohim, Yahweh or Jehovah, but of a son of god, Jesus, his virgin Mother Mary and a host of saints and martyrs. It's a complex set of intertwined beliefs that split off from Judaism 2,000 years ago, and like most religions it supplanted previous beliefs. In so doing it took over important festivals and dates; it also adapted previous gods and goddesses to serve new purposes. How close is Mary to Aphrodite, for instance?