Matriarchy - Return To Balance

Matriarchy - Return To Balance


Recently the theme of my columns seem to reflect Women Issues - The Creational Goddesses - The Earth Mother who created the Universe - Luna Energies - The Return of Feminine Energies to restore balance to our DNA and ourselves. This is the true journey back into the feminine energies.

Consciousness - originated in higher frequency - descended through the fibonacci spiral. As it did we entered the Patriarchal Societies - dominated by male Games or lower frequency emotions - testosterone - war, anger, hatred, jealous, greed, fear, etc. Feminine energies are usually thought of as soft, loving, yielding, nurturing, and, above all, compassionate. How much we seek love, compassion and understanding from those around us. We seek to find a partner who is there 'for us' and considers us the most important person in their lives.

This energy has remained with us for a long time - not allowing us to be who we are as spiritual beings able to manifest and see through the vowels of illusion.

Archaeological excavations in Europe and West Asia have uncovered female figurines from as early as 30,000 years ago. Based on these images, women have revived the earth goddess in religions that borrow from many traditions and that create an alternative mythology of peaceful matriarchal societies.

Some people write that for approximately the past 13,000 years - this is based on the Precession of the Equinoxes - Age of Leo - The Lion - The Crown - The King. This is shifting to the feminine frequencies in the Age of Aquarius.

The Aquarian Age is an age meant to reconcile ancient dichotomies, to integrate male and female energies, and to coordinate heart and mind and right and left hemispheres of the brain. Wherever polarities exist, we have an opportunity to raise consciousness and find a higher perspective from which to view life-a more balanced position, if you will.

In the last era of equality, male and female powers were of equal importance. Just as in our time we see masculine force misused, evidence is that at a certain time in the past, woman over-reached her power. We recall the swing of the pendulum, as we create an age of enlightenment in the Aquarian era. We work today to recreate appreciation for the feminine that is to express through both the male and the female body form and personality.

The symbol of the moon with two faces touching, blending, becoming one. Cosmic sexuality is the power of attraction that pulls both active and receptive into the game of life. Life is maintained in harmony only so long as each element or being dances and dips in time with its partner.

To be positively feminine, a woman cannot be anti-male, nor can a true man be anti-woman. The time is approaching when these opposites will admire and honor, embrace and enjoy one another, and value their differences. Then will follow an age of peace and harmony and the wise use of creative powers.

In the physical world - we work with the slower moving frequencies - the lower chakras which are often referred to as male chakras.

As each of us raises our frequencies - which now vibrate faster - we move our conscious awareness into what is the called the feminine aspects of who we are - the higher chakras - heart, throat, third eye, crown, and above.

There is an association with lost civilizations linked to higher frequencies such as Atlantis.

When discussing the Matriarchal Societies we often find information that leads back to Atlantis - Isis and Osiris and other metaphors that help us remember what is happening now - we are spiraling back up the consciousness tree of life!

Some people consider this the time of the return of the Matriarchal Societies as most of the people live in a Patriarchal Society dominated by male energy.

Since the fall of the Twin Towers - global reality has shifted with an emphasis on women, particularly in Afghanistan. Freedom For The Women of Afghanistan. It is as if one of the main reasons for the war with Afghanistan was to bring to the world the plight of The Abused Woman.

This war has much to do with woman evolving into their own power. Since the towers fell many women on the planet have been triggered into a new sense of freedom - detachment from the old thinking patterns and a move into something new - though they are not cure what it is. None-the-less it calls to them in a way of awakening.



The symbolism of the Tree of Life of the kabalistic tradition - on the feminine pillar is Binah, the sea filled with potentialities-forms or seeds for all that can be. On the same pillar, but on a lesser level, is Geburah, the stern mother training and disciplining in right and wrong, with tough love, as necessary. Below that level on the feminine pillar, Hod is almost "instinctual feminine." There is much more to each of us than meets the eye.

Throughout history humankind has revered the Divine Mother principle that personifies the universal love and nurturing spirit that immortalizes the natural bond between mother and child. Mary, Mother of Jesus, historically has represented this divine principle for Christian and non-Christian alike. Mary represents the ideal woman, the perfection of the female principle, and the incarnation of the eternal feminine aspect, a part which we all have within our being. Contemplation in the heart, a spiritual technology, increases our understanding of the benefits that accrue as we regain respect for the feminine principle. We find a reservoir of healing, comfort, tenderness, sensitivity, and protection. As we strengthen our appreciation of feminine dignity and purity, we begin to reestablish worthy, spiritual role models to empower the woman of the new age. We turn to feminine strengths and invoke a restoration of balance, wholeness, sensitivity, and the shaping of values.

The Babaji that Paramahansa Yogananda talks of in his Autobiography of a Yogi spoke regularly of the Divine Feminine influence as Divine Mother. While embodied in Haidakhan, India, Babaji emphasized the need for us to turn our hearts to the Divine Mother in the form of Shakti. Receive Shakti from Divine Mother and this grace will protect those attuned to her.

The principle of the Divine Feminine has endured in traditions worldwide. In Buddhism the "White Tara" symbolizes the highest form of spiritual transformation through womanhood. Tara is revered as "she who in the mind of all Yogis leads out of the darkness of bondage," the primordial force of self-mastery and redemption. On the lower plane she is Shakti, while on the higher she is Tara "who leads happily across." Especially venerated in Tibet, she is considered the Mother of Buddhism, leading the soul across the river of samsara to the far shore, which is nirvana.

Today much mental rationale has been developed that we must now stimulate an equal amount of love-compassion to offset the prevalent callousness. The traits of excessive masculinity have moved into negative over-expression. Competition without compassion, brute force, power without temperance, war without mercy or nobility, and lack of respect for emotion, nature, and the life of the Earth are all part of the absence of love for the Divine Principle. We must manifest the love humanity needs to thinketh in the heart.

The Events Surrounding the Decline of the Matriarchal Society in Egypt

To understand a society, we must look at the myths and the religions produced by that society. By examining the changes wrought upon a society's myths throughout its history, we can come to a greater understanding of what life must have been like on a daily basis in that society.

Thus, when we examine the Neolithic Period of Egyptian religion and mythology, and trace the changes that occur in that mythology as the years pass, we can see a pattern emerge portraying a slow shift in the balance of power from women to men.

The matriarchal period of Egypt appears to have extended from prehistoric time up until the first appearance of Osiris c. 3000 BC. This gradual introduction of a male deity into a society parallels the slow colonization of Egypt by foreigners from the north. However, the paradigm shift from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society does not completely overtake Egypt until the very beginning of the New Kingdom, c. 1570 BC.

Throughout all areas of the near and middle east during the Neolithic period there appeared to have been a widespread Goddess cult, based on the recovery of the so-called Venus figurines from widely scattered archeological sites. The similarity of style in these figurines suggests that a similarity of worship and rituals could also have existed. This Goddess cult could very well have been the origin of all matriarchal societies, especially those of an agricultural bias, such as Egypt and its neighbors to the northeast in the Mesopotamia.

The clans of Egypt were matri-lineal, in that the mother was seen as the primary parent of her family, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge regarding the processes of conception. If this were so, the act of gestation and of giving birth must have seemed a magical act. Thus it was that family lineage was traced through the female gender, going from mother to daughter instead of from father to son. After countless generations of this type of culture, it is easy to understand how the oldest ancestors of any given clan could have first been revered, then deified, and finally mythologized into becoming a proto-goddess.

If this were the case, it would help explain the similarities and the differences in Goddess worship throughout prehistoric Egypt. Prior to c. 3000 BC, Egypt was divided into Upper Egypt, where the Goddess was known as Nekhebt, and Lower Egypt, where the Goddess was known as Ua Zit. Nekhebt was personified in the form of a vulture, while Ua Zit was personified as a cobra. In fact, the vigil of a cobra eventually came to symbolize the word Goddess in hieroglyphic writings.

Then, c. 3000 BC, there is evidence of an invasion of Egypt by people from Mesopotamia. These people brought with them the concept of kingship, as well as the technology of brick building and writing, as well as the introduction of Mesopotamian motifs into Egyptian artwork. They also brought the concepts of a male deity.

Up until this invasion, Ua Zit and Nekhebt were the supreme deities in Egypt, but after the establishment of a kingship, and the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king, Ua Zit and Nekhebt were demoted. Interestingly enough, as this first introduction of a male pantheon was underway, there was the formation of a religion based around the Lady of the Serpents on the isle of Crete. This seems to indicate that refugees had fled the formation of the First Dynasty of Egypt, bringing with them the worship of their Goddess.

Ua Zit is also known as Hathor, who was the primal serpent believed to exist at the beginning of time, and who made the heaven, the earth, and all life. Hathor also threatened to destroy all of creation and return to Her primal state as a serpent behind all things. This legend of creation seems to be another form of the legend of Tiamet, from nearby Mesopotamia, which also indicates the cultural influences of this time in Egypt.

It is during this period of religious and social upheaval that a great deal of changes in the pantheon of the Egyptians takes place. Pictures from this time show the sun God Hor-Wer riding in his boat of the heavens. This deity is also known as Shu, or Lord Air. Through examination of the hieroglyphs, we see that the sign for air is a sail, and the sign for the word God is a series of banners or pendants, such as those seen at the prow of boats. Therefore, this first male deity can be seen to be arriving in Egypt as a part of an invasion force, rather than an indigenous deity arising from amidst the population. Even as the glyph for Goddess is rooted in the concept of the serpent, as the cobra, so too the glyph for God rooted in the concept of war banners.

The followers of Hor-Wer, or Horus, as He eventually came to be known, formed an aristocracy of through conquering and unifying Egypt. This aristocracy, known as the Shemsu-Hor, came to influence all the political aspects of Egypt. Records from this time indicate that men with red hair were sacrificed at the grave of Osiris. The red hair seems to indicate that these men were foreigners, and the symbolism behind their sacrifice ties into the legend of Osiris, Horus, and Isis.

Isis is also a composite Goddess. It is important to note that the name Isis is actually Greek, and that Her Egyptian name was Au Set. In human form, Isis also wore a cobra upon her forehead, much like Ua Zit, and is represented as wearing the wings of Nekhebt, indicating that She is the culmination of both deities.

Isis is attributed with the invention of agriculture, with the establishment of the laws of the land, and, until the arrival of Ptah, is credited with the creation of the cosmos. She also appropriates the position of Nut and Hathor.

Prior to Hathor, Nut was said to have existed when nothing else had been created, and that She was responsible for all that had come into being. Once Hathor became an important deity, Nut's importance was lessened, until Isis appropriated the personality of Hathor. Nut was thereafter known as the mother of Isis.

Because Isis was a later incarnation of Ua Zit, She was also an incarnation of the Goddess Hathor, the primal serpent. It is interesting to note that the symbol of a serpent as a symbol of a priestess or prophetess still appears in our language in the word 'pythoness'.

Isis was not the only female deity of the time, however. Maat, who represented the order of the universe and all that was righteous, retained her own individuality by becoming a possession of the male deities. Maat became known as the Eye of Horus at first, then later was known as the Eye of Ra, and finally the Eye of Ptah. Maat is also understood to represent the embodiment of the cobra, the essence of wisdom. Along with Maat, there were countless other lesser Goddesses, such as Bast, Iusaset, and Sekhmet.

Isis, however, was still in charge of Egypt, at least in a mythological sense. This fact is reflected in both her title as The Throne and in the dominance of the Queen over the King in terms of political power. Even wives enjoyed authority over their husbands, the husbands having agreed formally in the marriage contracts of the time. Anecdotes recounted by Herodotus indicate that the women went to the marketplace to carry out business affairs while their husbands stayed home weaving on their looms.

Daughters, not sons, inherited the royal throne, and all property went to the female line, from the rulers on down through the social structure. The woman was the mistress of the house, in complete control of all decisions regarding her property. Egyptian women even did all the wooing and often deliberately intoxicated men to weaken their protestations.

Eventually a subtle shift came about in the ruling class, whereupon brother-sister marriages developed, allowing sons to gain the royal privilege. As this shift in policy came about, it was reflected in the myth of Isis and Osiris. Osiris, who was Isis brother, also became Her lover.

Then, c. 2400 BC, a series of aggressive invasions began to move through Canaan down into Egypt. These Indo-European invaders brought their own religion with them, a patriarchal religion which worshiped a supreme Father deity. These invaders introduced the concept of light as good and dark as evil. This was a time of war, for the invaders appear to have been involved in a religious crusade of sorts.

The God which these invaders worshiped seems to have been the Zoroastrian God Ahura Mazda, also known as the Lord of Light. In light of this fact, the simultaneous appearance in the Pyramid Texts of the equation of Horus with Ra becomes important. Ra, much like Hor-Wer, is portrayed as the sun that rides the heavens in His sacred boat, and is known by the name Lord of Light.� This indicates that the God of the Indo-European invaders had invaded the mythological structure of Egypt.

This illustrates the proposition that religion and politics were identical, that no major event or battle could occur without being replicated through cultural mythology. As the invaders gained more territory, the theologies of the area became intertwined. Despite the conqueror's efforts to belittle and destroy Goddess worship, Isis and Her many masks of divinity continued to draw followers.

One example of this war between male and female deities is the legend of Ra and Zet, later called Apophis. Zet was the serpent of darkness Ra fought daily when the sun rose. The undercurrent of this myth can be seen as a struggle between the primal Goddess, a serpent, and Ra, the new God from the north.

Another tactic in this struggle between conflicting ideologies was the introduction of the God Ptah. Ptah was credited with the creation of all existence through an act of divine masturbation. This then eliminated the need for either Isis or Nut in the creation myths of Egypt. It was a deliberate attempt to establish the male deities as either the dominant husbands or the divine assassins of the female deities.

Then the northern groups, c. 1900 BC, brought cuneiform to Egypt. The introduction of cuneiform to Egypt at this time, when the patriarchal forces were clashing so severely with the matriarchal, suggests that existing tablets of laws could have been changed to fit the patriarchal beliefs. This would account for the gradual changes in the society of this time.

From c. 1900 BC up through c. 1570 BC, women lost their right to choose their own partners at will, and the wife became subject to her husbands lordship. It was also during this period that children became members of the father's kin, as opposed to the mother.

By c. 1570 BC, the patriarchy was firmly entrenched in Egypt, and the rulers had begun accepting wives sent to them from neighboring countries as a form of tribute. Hittite, Hurrian, and Kassite princesses married Egyptian kings. It was also during this time that there were no priestesses available in the temples, and the word pharaoh came to be applied solely to the king rather than the royal house. This drastic change in the social structure culminated in c. 1300 BC with the religious revolution of Akhnaton.

Akhnaton not only rejected all deities but Ra, who he renamed Aten, but he also relocated the traditional seat of power to El Amarna. In doing this, he succeeded in finally establishing a patriarchal society, nearly seventeen hundred years after the first introduction of male deities to Egyptian theology.

This did not completely decimate the worship of Isis as a deity. Followers of Isis spread outward in a variety of directions as the years progressed. A Roman era temple of Isis on the banks of the Thames in the British Isles attests to this very fact. But it did signal the end to the era of the matriarchal society in Egypt.

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