Goddess in the Grass: Serpentine Mythology and the Great Goddess

Goddess In The Grass:

Serpentine Mythology and the Great Goddess

by

Linda Foubister

Spirrea Publishing

Copyright 2011 Linda Foubister

All rights reserved

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Foreword

Every heroine must reclaim the power of the snake. The words of Jean Shinoda Bolen in her book, Goddesses in Every Woman: A New Psychology of Women, struck me as extremely significant. What is the power of the snake?

I began to search for images of the Goddess and her sacred serpent. To my surprise, I found ties between the two in prehistoric times, in ancient myths and images, in the Middle Ages, and in the present day. When I looked at the myths of Asia, Australia, and the Americas, I again saw the correlation between Goddess and snake. Clearly, the symbols and images have been with us for a long time.

This book pulls together the varied myths and tales of the Serpent Goddess to illustrate the meaning of this prevalent icon. It is my hope that readers will gain an understanding of the power of the snake, and will use the knowledge in reclaiming this primordial power in their own lives.

This work is a revised version of the 2003 print edition published by Ecce Nova Editions. It incorporates editing changes and additional content. The 2003 version is now out of print but copies may be available at most online retailers.

Table of Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 The Primordial Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 2 The Serpent Goddess Overthrown

CHAPTER 3 The Renewing Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 4 The Fertile Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 5 The Prosperous Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 6 The Copulating Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 7 The Womb of the Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 8 The Deadly Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 9 The Two-Faced Serpent Goddess

CHAPTER 10 The Contemporary Serpent Goddess

A Dictionary of Serpent Goddesses

Bibliography

Introduction

In the ancient past, the Great Goddess was worshipped as the personification of the universal life force. Her sacred symbol was the serpent. Over time, as goddess worship was suppressed by the rise of patriarchy and her serpent was devalued, eventually becoming a symbol of evil. Yet, the roots of the life-giving, life-taking Serpent Goddess can be seen in prehistoric artifacts and in mythology, folklore, and art. These will be discussed in the following chapters as we explore the sacred nature of the Serpent Goddess.

The Serpent Goddess symbolizes a multitude of values. Initially a symbol of the cycle of life, she became associated with prosperity, protection, prophecy, and healing. Unlocking the mysteries of the Serpent Goddess can reveal how myths of the western world trace the dimming power of the Great Goddess over thousands of years, until her replacement by the one male Judeo-Christian god. Vestiges of the Serpent Goddess and her symbolism are also found in Asia, Africa, the Americas (pre-Columbian) and Australia (pre-European).

The Great Goddess Theory

Artifacts from the Paleolithic Period suggest that prehistoric people worshipped a Great Goddess. Hundreds of small female figurines carved from stone, bone, antler, ivory, and fired clay have been found over Europe and Western Asia. Known as Venus figurines, they were made between 29,000 and 23,000 years ago. They were stylized, rather than portraying individual women, and portable, fitting into a hand. Most appear pregnant, with exaggerated breasts and abdomen, suggesting fertility and an abundant supply of food.

The presence of the figurines alone is not sufficient to suggest the widespread belief in a Great Goddess. For example, some theories hold that the figurines were merely amulets to be held in the hand for good fortune during perilous times, such as childbirth. However, it is important to note that the female figurines predominated. Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas postulated that the primordial deity for our Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors was female, reflecting the sovereignty of motherhood. In fact, there are no images that have been found of a Father god throughout the prehistoric record.¹ Additional support for the Great Goddess theory appears in references in surviving myths and folklore, and from ritual practices.

The Great Goddess is not a distinct anthropomorphic figure, but rather represents the feminine principle in nature. She may be conceptualized as Mother Earth, or be known by a thousand different names, such as Devi, Ishtar, Asherah, Isis, Athena, and Bona Dea, each representing different aspects of the sacred feminine.

In the last century, the work of psychologists, such as Erich Neumann, has lent credence to the view of the Great Goddess as the mother of all life. Erich Neumann states that the Great Goddess…is the incarnation of the Feminine Self that unfolds in the history of mankind as the history of every individual woman….² The Great Goddess is a prevailing archetype. Archetypes, first conceptualized by psychologist Carl G. Jung, are universal images that appear in myths and dreams. The concept of the mother can be considered in both evolutionary and personal terms. According to Neumann’s theory, the psychological development of humans began with the Great Mother as the dominant archetype, with the unconscious mind directing the psychic processes of individuals and groups. The unconscious mind is symbolic, mythological and feminine. As masculine consciousness replaced feminine unconscious as the dominant part of the mind, the feminine element was devalued. However, the experience of the Great Mother is shared by both individuals and humankind in their collective unconscious, and emerges in dreams, myths, and artistic creations. Study of art throughout history reveals the presence of the Goddess as a recurring mythological motif.

The Great Goddess was worshipped for over 2,500 years. She was worshipped by Paleolithic groups of hunter-gatherers, who led a nomadic existence, following the herds of the mammals they hunted. Their religious art was portable, due to their nomadic life. In areas where the people came together for seasonal hunts, they painted animal and human forms and geometric shapes on rocks and in caves, perhaps to illustrate their stories, which served to reinforce memories of the time and places where food sources were abundant.

Women and men had differentiated roles. Men were the hunters and would periodically leave the home base to hunt large wild animals. Women, tied to the home base by the need to bear and care for infants, would forage for food and hunt small animals.

There is no evidence to indicate that Paleolithic cultures, or any later culture, were matriarchies, where women dominated as leaders and decision-makers. Both genders had valuable roles to play supporting the family group.

The people of the Paleolithic era were vulnerable to the forces of nature. The concept of divinities arose from the need to understand these beneficial and destructive forces. By praying to these forces, they hoped to influence the outcomes favorably. The Great Goddess embodied the fertility of nature and the life-giving, life-taking earth.

In ancient Europe and the Near East, fertility was associated with rain and water, as were the early symbols of the Great Goddess, symbols such as zigzags, wavy lines, and meanders. The zigzag is the earliest symbol found, dating to around 40,000 BCE. These symbols, significantly, were also used to represent the serpent. According to Gimbutas, the

...dynamism of the serpent is a very ancient and recurrent human preoccupation. The snake’s energy, it was believed, was drawn from water and the sun. The archaic metaphor that pairs the magical power of the serpent with the creative force in nature must have crystallized very early from a natural intuition.³

The Serpent as Snake and Dragon

In scientific terms, a serpent is a snake. Serpent relates to the biological classification sub-order, Serpentes. All snakes belong to this sub-order, which includes different snake species, such as adders, vipers, pythons and boa constrictors. In general terms, serpents may denote larger, more dangerous snakes. Small innocuous snakes, such as garter snakes, are rarely referred to as serpents. The word serpent derives from the Latin serpere, to creep.

Serpents are more often considered to be the creatures of myth with symbolic significance. There are strong associations between serpents and dragons. In fact, the word dragon is derived from the Greek word drakon, which means serpent. In the King James Version of the Bible, for example, Revelations 12:9 equates a dragon to that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan.

In many cultures, dragons are considered to be large serpents, and early illustrations of myths often show them as such, or as snake-like creatures with legs. The Chinese dragon, or lóng, often takes the form of a serpentine figure with four legs and a horse-like head. Oriental dragons are associated with water and good fortune, unlike the monstrous fire-breathing dragons of the west. Some Chinese dragons are composites of nine different animals, having, in some instances, the head of a camel, horns of a stag, eyes of a hare, ears of a bull, neck of a snake, belly of a frog, scales of a carp, paws of a tiger, and claws of an eagle. The Chinese lóng is often equated with the Indian naga, from the Sanskrit word for snake.

Where the description or illustration of a dragon is consistent with the characteristics of the serpent symbol, I have interpreted the word to refer to serpent. The same holds true for the word, worm. In Old English, wyrm, old German, wurm and Old Norse, ormr may refer to a serpent, a dragon, or, indeed, a worm; the old German word for dragon, lindwurm, literally means snake-worm.

The Symbolism of the Serpent

In addition to the connections of both goddess and serpent to life-giving water, both were associated with the moon. The moon undergoes periodic rebirth in the sky every 29½ days, much as the snake undergoes rebirth when it sheds its skin, and women shed menstrual blood in a lunar cycle. The snake is also associated with blood, in that some types of snake venom act as anti-coagulants, allowing blood to flow freely.

Ancient peoples believed that menstrual blood coagulated to form a baby and thus, was linked symbolically to the mysterious act of creation. Menstrual blood was also associated with death. Prehistoric tombs were often covered with red ochre, the colour of blood, representing life and death. Taboos about the menstruating women exist to this day because of the fear and mystery surrounding this monthly bodily function.

Early cultures were more attuned to lunar time, which was experienced as a repetitive cycle. The solar calendar, experienced as linear time, did not take precedence until agricultural food production demanded predictability for planting and harvesting crops. The image of the snake biting its own tale, known as the uroboros, captured the essence of cyclic time. The coiled snake, or the spiral, was an ideal image to represent the recurring cycle of life.

One of the earliest representations of the spiral was found in Mal’ta, dating from 25,000 BCE. Mal’ta, a well-known archaeological site from the Paleolithic period, is located in the Lake Baikal region in present-day Siberia. Among the ivory carvings found in a children’s grave was a plaque with three serpents on one side and seven spirals on the other. The number seven has magical attributes, and so this may be an early example of the fascination with numbers. The spiral and serpent imagery represented rebirth, and was thus associated with the Great Goddess. Triplism - life, death and rebirth - was expressed by the three snakes, a concept associated with the triple goddess as maid, mother and crone.

Religious historian Mircea Eliade notes:

The lunar cycle was analyzed, memorized, and used for practical purposes some 15,000 years before the discovery of agriculture. This makes more comprehensible the considerable role of the moon in archaic mythologies, and especially the fact that lunar symbolism was integrated into a single system comprising such different realities as women, the waters, vegetation, the serpent, fertility, death, rebirth, etc.⁴

This symbolic integration is illustrated by the rock carving of the Venus of Lausell at the entrance of a cave in the Dordogne region of France, dated circa 20,000 BCE. It shows a woman holding a bison horn marked by thirteen notches, representing the thirteen days of the waxing moon and the thirteen months of the lunar year.

The relationship of the snake to the phases of the moon is depicted at Knowth, a double passage tomb in Ireland (3500-3200 BCE). Knowth features kerbstones engraved with snakes and lunar cycles. The full moon, represented by a spiraling snake, was carved in the center of two opposing crescent moons. The waxing moon was represented by a winding serpent, with fourteen to seventeen turnings for the number of days the moon waxes. The longest snakes may have up to thirty turnings, equal to the days in a lunar month. Gimbutas notes that it is certainly possible to view the snake coil as a polyvalent symbol, being at once the full moon, a symbol of the source of energy, the spiral of eternity within the field of time, as well as the Goddess herself.⁵

The Snake Symbolizing The Feminine

Strong evidence of a link between the Feminine and the snake was also found at Abri Pataud in France. A combination of serpentine images and vulvas were carved on a large block of limestone, nearly 3½ feet high (105 cm). Archaeologist and writer, Alexander Marshack, reported that the serpentine image in the Ice Age was often, in context, a symbol and sign of time and periodicity. It was…a generalized image, apparently related both to processes in the sky, to processes in nature, and ultimately to the process of notation itself.⁶ Marshack theorized that the symbols, geometric motifs, and depictions made by Paleolithic people represented a seasonal form of ritual marking. These time-factored symbols were featured in story telling, which would pass on the knowledge of seasonal food abundance at different sites. In a hunter-gatherer society, these symbols would have been sufficient to predict the seasonal flow in order to meet food and shelter needs.

As the women of the Paleolithic era gathered food, they would have become familiar with the properties of plants for nutrition and healing. Women were viewed as magical, as they had the ability to create life. Together with their understanding of plant magic, they served as shamans, linking humans to the sacred and to the otherworld–the world of the dead and the deities. The serpent often served the same purpose: female shamans would represent the Serpent Goddess as the mediator between the worlds.

An example of the belief that women could communicate with the spiritual world may be illustrated in one of the female figurines found at the Balzi Rossi.⁷ Estimated to be about 25,000 years old, the figurine, known as The Couple or Beauty and The Beast, portrays two arched bodies back to back and joined at the head, shoulders, and lower body. One body is that of a Venus-type figure. The other is a beast with the triangular head of a snake, a waist, tiny arms, and horns. Carved from serpentine and highly polished, the figurine is about 2 inches (4.7 cm) tall. The artifact, merging woman and beast, may indicate that women represented the mysterious conduit between humans and nature.

The Goddess herself may have taken the form of a serpent, or she may have been accompanied by a serpent. One of the earliest examples of the Serpent Goddess image was a painting of a large fanged serpent in the cavern of La Baume-Latrone, France (about 26,000 BCE), with a body resembling the rounded curves of a woman.

In Paleolithic times, images of snakes and birds were linked, thematically, both appearing as symbols of spring renewal on carved batons. Neolithic shrines have also been found which honour both the Snake Goddess and the Bird Goddess; the Snake Goddess was often seen as the manifestation of the earth, while the Bird Goddess symbolized the sky and the heavens. The images eventually merged, and were depicted as winged serpents, or as dragons, in later myths and art.

Over time, early societies expanded their hunter-gatherer role to include horticulture. It would have been a logical step for women to progress from gathering plants to growing them on a small scale. Eventually, horticulture grew into agriculture and the large-scale cultivation of crops, marking the change between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic eras. The introduction of agriculture led to a number of key changes in people’s lifestyle, in gender relations, and in the deities they worshipped.

Early agricultural communities remained under the influence of the Paleolithic Great Goddess. Her symbols continued to predominate. Many of the artifacts from areas, such as Old Europe and Minoa, indicated that women played significant roles as queens and priestesses. Although these cultures were not matriarchies, in which women made all the decisions, some women had leadership or advisory roles. The sister of the male chief could be very influential, as mother of the royal lineage, for instance.

Evidence of matrilineal cultures, with succession to leadership and inheritance through the female line, has been found in ancient Greece, Rome, the Basque and North America. Burials suggest that many areas were matrilocal, with men living in the home communities of their spouses. There was, intriguingly, a notable absence of images of warfare and male domination. Mythologist Robert Graves wrote:

Ancient Europe had no gods. The Great Goddess was regarded as immortal, changeless, and omnipotent; and the concept of fatherhood had not been introduced into religious thought. She took lovers, but for pleasure, not to provide her children with a father. Men feared, adored, and obeyed the matriarch; the hearth which she tended in a cave or hut being their earliest social center, and motherhood their prime mystery.⁸

A figurine of the Serpent Goddess as a Mother Goddess was discovered during excavations of Ubaid sites, the culture occupying Mesopotamia from 5400 to 4000 BCE. The image of a snake-headed mother suckling a snake baby may have been the prototype for the Serpent Goddesses worshipped in the Middle East and Greece.

The Serpent Goddess was a distinct image in the culture of Old Europe (7000-3500 BCE). She was anthropomorphic in form and decorated with stripes or spirals. Her arms and legs were often shaped like snakes, or she might have had snakes entwined around her. An example is a clay figurine from Neolithic Crete (6000-5500 BCE), which shows the Serpent Goddess with snakelike legs, seated in a yogic posture. She often was depicted wearing three necklaces or three arm rings, recalling the idea of the triple goddess, seen earlier with the three snakes carved on the plaque from Mal’ta. The repetition of the three elements served to emphasize the symbolism.

A large shrine dedicated to the Serpent Goddess was found in the western Ukraine (4800-4600 BCE). In the form of a house, it was about 70 square meters in size. At one end was an altar shaped like a bench, on which sixteen snake-headed figurines were found, seated on horn-back chairs. Only one of the figures had arms, and she was holding a snake-like infant. A total of thirty-two figurines were found in this temple, all replicas of the Serpent Goddess. This shrine is thought to have been used for initiation rites related to seasonal renewal or death and regeneration.⁹

Queen imagery was also associated with the Serpent Goddess. The heads of the Serpent Goddess figurines usually wore crowns or snake-coil curls. A snake head with a crown was found in Sesklo, Greece, dating from 6300-6100 BCE, and in Minoan Crete, where a terracotta head, from about 2000 BCE, wears a five-tiered crown that is conventional from the front, but is a mass of writhing snakes in the back. Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas observed the following:

A belief in the magical crown of the snake queen still survives in European folklore: whoever catches hold of the crown will know all the secrets of the world, find enchanted treasures, and understand the speech of animals.¹⁰

All major goddesses are called ‘Mistress’, ‘Lady,’ or ‘Queen’. From the Early Neolithic, the Snake Goddess wears a crown, a symbol of her omnipotence and omniscience which still exists in 20th century folklore.¹¹

As agriculture developed, the snake acquired a new role as the protector of grain from animals, such as rodents. This gave rise in agricultural communities to the worship of the Serpent Goddess in household shrines as protector of the house. The Serpent Goddess was often worshipped together with the Bird Goddess, in the same shrines, and examples of these have been found, dating to circa 6000 BCE. The two goddesses, representing the cycle of life, linked the family to their ancestors from the early days of agriculture, and became the protectors of both the home and hearth.

The Rise of Gods

In the early agricultural societies, the nourishing role of Mother Earth took on greater prominence. The cycle of crops led to the development of mythologies in which food plants and trees grew from the dead body of a sacrificed deity. Such myths have been found in many regions, including the Near East, Egypt, Europe, Oceania and North and South America.

With the domestication of some animals, the male role in procreation was recognized. The Great Goddess was joined by gods. Consequently, the concept of the sacred marriage (or hieros gamos) surfaced in Mesopotamia in the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. In the sacred marriage, the Goddess is joined with a god in sexual union to promote the fertility of the land. For example, the Sumerians, who lived in southern Mesopotamia from 3400 to 2000 BCE, worshipped the goddess Inanna, together with her consort, Dumuzi, an early god of grain.

The sacred marriage was expressed in ritual in ancient Mesopotamia during the New Year festival in the spring, when the king would lie with the high priestess,