Power of the Goddess

So we have been discussing the word of the goddess through the old and new testament. I find it so interesting that in the way of "fertility goddesses" we went from Inanna and Ishtar whose temple practices involved copious amounts of sexual activity, a generous blurring of the lines between genders, and the consecration of any virginity or loss there of to the goddess herself.

As we moved into the new testament we have the goddess Cybele who still requires copious amounts of sexual activity for her worship but it is done in such a way that there in no fertility. Meaning that the sexual activity was between same sexes making it impossible to produce a child. Then we found Artemis to really be the antithesis of fertility in that she required anyone who worshipped her to never marry. This wasn't for virtuous reasons, this was because of the refusal to be attached to any man. Not only that but if one did marry and have a child it was quite possible you would suffer her wrath. Remember any woman who died in childbirth was attributed to Artemis. Their tunics would be taken to her as sacrifice. {according to the picture above maybe it was their bodies too!?!}We also discovered the eerie connection between a known abortion causing herb of the ancient world wormwood and the goddess. The herbs Latin name was Artemisia Vulgaris.

So we can really begin to see how the devil made a special embodiment in the goddess through the ancient times to destroy all that a woman was to be. All that God had created her to be. So what was the draw? Why did so many woman follow after these goddess and go to great sacrifice to become her priestesses? Well the short answer...power. Lets no forget that God's plan for the world as he created it was that both man and woman would have equal dominion. Then the devil came along and changed all that. He caused a brokenness in relationship between man and God and a brokenness in relationship between man and woman. He capitalized on this brokenness by creating the goddess to be worshipped instead of a God.

Now we all assume that the devil chose to tempt Eve because she was the one who bore the seed. She could have been in affect the enemies first fertility goddess. Not only using her dominion that God had given her but also her power to reproduce. But I would also like to propose another reason the devil chose to tempt Eve or likewise the reason Eve chose to talk to the serpent. It was because Eve could see the serpent! Not because she was an evil woman, but because she{women} had been created by God with a gift to perceive things in the spirit. Notice during the whole interaction in the garden Adam doesn't say a thing. I'm wondering if he could even see the serpent at all. Notice also that Adam blames Eve for the fruit but Eve blames the serpent...could Adam even see the serpent? Adam{man} on the other hand was given by God the gift of evaluation. Remember it was Adam that names all the animals. He could look at an animal, evaluate it and then name it. So together Adam and Eve were to use their giftings as a team. Eve to perceive in the spirit, Adam then to evaluate that perception so that they could judge the situation together as a couple in a Godly manner.

As we know from the story Eve didn't have the benefit of Adam's evaluation{he didn't say anything}. So Eve's perception couldn't stand on it's own and in turn she was deceived. If they both would have used their gifts and worked together maybe proper judgement of the situation could have been made. That is the scolding that comes from God in Gen. 3:16 it is not directed at only Eve. God is saying Eve desire your husbands evaluation and Adam, evaluate for goodness sake! {as discussed in other posts, there were also many other things being addressed here}

Now I'm not saying that men have no ability to see in the spirit. {Although there are a few times in the bible where the woman could see the angel and all the men saw was a man}. I am not saying that woman have no ability to evaluate a situation. What I am saying is that men and women by default have different abilities and even when they have the same abilities one may be stronger than the other. Which is exactly why God gave both of us dominion in such a way that we would need each others gifts to exercise proper dominion as He intended. But that had all been ruined. They devil used the rift between man and woman to create a great chasm between the sexes. He used men to war in the physical and women to war in the spirit. Hence the birth of the goddess.

Men used their physically strength against woman so in turn women sought spiritual power to fight back. What we so casually call "mother's or woman's intuition" today was a well known and greatly powerful connection to the spirit world in ancient times. That is how goddess worship was able to continue for as long as it did. As we have been discussing it was the goddess who was the principle deity of several ancient civilizations. Kings would come to the priestess to ask for advice and counsel trusting that she knew the will of the gods. Even King Saul in the bible consulted the witch of Endor who was most likely attached to the Canaanite goddess Anat or Astarte. Jezebel was another with strong attachment to Asherah. Then of course my favorite Deborah who with Godly perception lead her people out of a dark time.

By the time that we get to Greco-Roman times women priestesses were the ones that the emperors based many decisions on. The oracles at Delphi were renown for their prophecies and predictions. They were called the pythia after the great Greek serpent Python. People would travel for days just to hear them speak. This was the only way for women to have any sort of "power" in a male driven world. Their natural ability for the supernatural was being used to do the devil's dirty work. Woman were drawn to this not because they are evil but did it all in hopes to be equal to men.

In Greece a woman was totally reliant on a man for her home, food, clothes etc. She could not choose a husband or live on her own. She was not allowed to work or own anything. So she always had to be under the rule of her father or the man he chose for her to marry. For the most part {unless she was going to the temple} she wasn't even allowed to leave the house; neither seen nor heard. Priestesses on the other hand were given great privilege. They could own their own property, have their own money. They were invited to social events such as the theater and sports with the elite of the day. These woman were well respected far beyond their "housewife" counterparts.

So again we have the devil who works as the arsonist by night and then the hero firefighter by day. He worked society in such a way that women were treated so poorly by men that they sacrificed all womanhood just to be treated with some respect. Remember in many situations the priestess could not marry or have children. In excavations done at Delphi, Greece they found the bones of 600 woman and only like 10 children. Abortion was wll known! One the other side of the coin we have the huge groups of prostitutes in the ancient world who would sell their sexuality at the cost of intimacy just to be free from the rule of a man and have their own money. What a mess the devil had made of woman! But is it a wonder that Greek women were flocking to the temples of Aphrodite, Cybele or Artemis as if they were going to Tupperware parties. This is all there was for them.

Until a man named Paul of Tarsus began to speak of a man named Jesus...