The old belief considered earth fertile, reproductive and nurturing like women, and all creatures were safe in her nurturing arms. Woman is the director of life, birth giver and feeder of the off-spring. In terms of power, woman is like the goddess of earth During the time, the word mother was not only referring to human mother female , but the word was deemed as the origin of the creation of anything like the mother of nature, mother of universe, motherland and became common in human literature.
Our predecessors perceived earth as the woman or mother and sky was representative of male gender or father in their belief. The abovementioned idea is primarily associated with agriculture and farming communities. This issue is inevitably related to earth. Women give birth to children, just as the earth gives life to plants. Women feed the children and the earth does the same.
Therefore, the magic of women is the magic of earth. In other words, they are joined together. The power that creates and feeds the creatures is truly a feminine force. In the agricultural world of ancient Mesopotamia, the Nile in Egypt and in cultural systems of farming, the goddess has a mythological representation In Europe, hundreds of goddesses' effigies belonging to Neolithic era were found and the goddess is the only celestial creature depicted at the time.
When you have a goddess as the creator, then the universe is her body. She becomes one with the universe. The body of goddess Nut in Egyptian temple conveys the same message. In Indian religion- where the study of the semiotics of goddesses is still dominant- female is the symbol of Maya. Everything is inside her and deities are all her children In ancient times and matriarchal mythology, woman was the origin of fertility and life, forgiveness and mercy. Ancient people connected the concept of female gender with the earth since women were the first farmers and seed collectors on earth and survival of the tribe depended on their activity.
Therefore, besides their natural role, continuation of the human race was in the hand of females and people used to worship this gender as a goddess and constantly asked for her support. At that time, women had a superior social, political and economic position in comparison to men Therefore, in some ancient periods, the generation of offspring was attributed to mother.
Even during the Elamite period, though there was no matriarchal system, the people used their mother or mothers' names instead of their fathers' names for introducing themselves In this month, the buds are green and the earth revives.
Hence, Iranians selected this month, especially the fifth day of the month, for honoring the fertile earth and women Through the study of mythology, we realize that women always had a fertility role.
The statues remained from goddesses belonging to ancient times, all have indications of female reproductive organs. Even weeping of women in funerals is related to their fertility. In fact, as the water reaches the ground and fertilizes the seed in the soil, when we weep for the dead, they will find a new life; accordingly, women have important roles in mourning 8.
Child delivery on the ground is a common tradition in many nations. In China and some parts of Caucasus, when child labor pain starts, the woman sits on the ground and delivers her child. Gender and intercourse were deemed as the celestial forces which fertilize the earth. In primal myths of the Neolithic era, harvesting the crops was the result of a sacred marriage. Soil was female and seed was the embryo formed by sky and rain, the sexual intercourse of sky and earth.
Ritual sex relationships during crop cultivation were customary for men and women. Their intercourse which was considered sacred could revive the fertilizing power of the soil; it resembled plowing of the farmer which was similar to the penis that goes into the womb of the earth and fertilizes that. The Bible indicates that ritual threesome sex in ancient Israel was performed until the sixth century BC though prophets Hosea and Ezekiel were angry about the act.
In a temple in Jerusalem, in a house belonged to sacred prostitutes, particular customs were performed to celebrate Asherah, Canaan goddess of fertility However, in early days of Neolithic era, earth was not always considered feminine. In China and Japan, there was no specific gender for the universe. Later on, probably due to the maternal role of women, earth was deemed as a female entity and a nurturing one.
In other parts of the world, no sex symbol was assigned for the earth but was regarded as a sacred entity. Earth generated everything in its womb just the same way as the women give birth to following generations. Some of the myths of creation in Europe and North America were based on the belief that the first human beings, like the plants grew from the earth; similar to seeds, their life started from the world underneath until new people came up to the surface like germination of the flowers and then they were collected by their human mothers.
Once in a while people imagined climbing mountains to reach the sky, but now they touched something sacred on the earth. Some of the discovered labyrinths in Neolithic era are like the tunnels in Stone Age in Lascaux. However, the worshippers who travelled to the underground caves, instead of watching the sacred animals there, felt they have entered into the womb of Mother Earth and imagined they returned to the source of creation The same pattern can be found in Egyptian mythology.
The slight difference was that Isis was not as capable as Anat. Osiris, the first king of Egypt, taught the knowledge of agriculture to people. His brother, Set, who wanted access to the throne, killed the king and his sister and his wife, Isis, wandered in the world to find the corpse of the king.
When his body was found, he could only live for a short time and Isis became pregnant from the king. Horus, their son, was the only person that could sustain the dynasty. Then Osiris' body was torn apart and the pieces like seeds were buried in different locations throughout Egypt. He became the ruler of the underworld and responsible for harvesting the crops. Every year as a particular ritual, his death and tearing of his body parts is celebrated in harvesting and threshing corn season.
The god of the underworld is the god of harvesting as well and it indicates that life and death are inseparably intertwined together The abovementioned idea is also manifested in Greek myths about Demeter and her daughter Persephone.
Demeter is the goddess of harvest who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. When Hades, the king of the underworld, robs Persephone, Demeter left the Mount Olympus and mournfully wandered in the world.
She was furious and impeded the harvesting of the crop. She threatened to kill the people through starvation unless her daughter, Kore, would be returned to her. By this warning, Zeus, messenger of the gods, sent Hermes to save Kore, but unfortunately when Kore was imprisoned in the underworld, she had to spend four months of the year with Hades who was now her husband.
When Kore was returned to her mother, Demeter, she ended the fertility embargo and earth became fertile once again The Greeks and Romans regarded fertilizing of women like the cultivation. Indians considered the furrows in the land like female vulva and the semen as the seed The words shovel and penis have the same root in Sanskrit langala.
Sometimes woman is symbolized to land's furrows and the penis to plough Women in the matriarchal era were responsible for the cultivation and the word has the same root with the word cultivation in Indo-European languages Considering the grains as having female gender or ascribing agriculture to a goddess was the result of the role that women had in early agriculture Rural women in Finland irrigated the furrows of the farm with the drops of their breast milk before sowing the seeds.
They believed that female fertility could influence the fertility of the cultivated land. It was well known that if a pregnant woman does the act of sowing, the product will be enhanced, but this woman must be chaste In many regions, during drought, women run naked on the farm to stimulate the male sky until it rains.
In Uganda, infertile women are a danger for gardens and fields and their husbands can ask for divorce only for this economic reason In addition to plants and earth, waster is an important symbol of fertility in ancient mythology. Water is the first element from which everything is created and is an old symbol for the fertility and womb of the women. In many ancient cultures, water is the source of creation and rain is the symbol for mothers, the conception force of the celestial god 24 , The main differences between Iranian and Greek mythology are related to various narrations of creation myths.
As stated before, in Iranian mythology, creation starts from the fusion of plant and earth. In ancient Iran, the role of this element gradually became more prominent; so Anahita, the goddess of the waters, was recognized as the symbol of fertility. In Iran, ArdivisuraNahita is the source and the goddess of all waters on earth. Anahita was the purifier of male sperm, refiner of the female womb and the circulator of milk in the breasts of all mothers 15 , Anahita had many temples in Anatoli and based on Strabo, the Roman historian, the girls of aristocratic families were engaged with sacred prostitution before marriage.
However, this tradition which was the result of combination of both Sami customs and worship of Nahid, was not popular in Zoroastrianism or the country of Iran 15 , Zoroastrian religious texts strongly condemned and denounced prostitution and some people believed that this severe denunciation is indicative of the spread of the activity.
The nuns of Anahita were famous for nobility and virtue. In Iran, Anahita was highly praised and considered as the source of life.
In fact, ArdivisuraNahita was the goddess of water, rain, abundance, blessings, fertility, marriage, love, motherhood, birth and victory and was the symbol of a perfect woman in Iran.
Aban is a special ceremony in honoring Anahita. It is held in November 10th day of Aban month and people used to go to the beaches, rivers or springs for worshiping Anahita.
In India, Zoroastrian girls and women still go to the beaches and rivers and celebrate the day 15 , Evidence based study of history revealed something that shocked the establishment.
Subjects like archeology revealed cultures much older than what was referred to in the Bible. In the 17 th century, for example, an Irish Archbishop called James Ussher, based on literal reading of the Bible concluded the world began on October 23, Sunday, BC.
Later writers said it happened at 9 am precisely. So naturally, the idea that there were people roaming around the world and painting on cave walls at least 10, years earlier did not go down well with the religious-minded.
Further, subjects like paleontology or study of fossils revealed that humans had evolved from animals. The Europeans started the formal education system in India. Here history and science was taught. European and Indian archeologists discovered the Indus valley civilization and Ashoka until then known only in Buddhist legend and established the history of India.
However, it must be remembered, that it is only after that most Indian schools taught this Indian history. Until then most Indians were taught European history. This led to many freedom fighters arguing that Ramayan and Mahabharata is actually history.
If the Exodus was historical fact, so was the war at Kurukshetra! Traditionally, Ayodhya was a sacred idea, a thought that uplifted the human mind.
The Europeans demanded that it be located in history and geography to be true. So like fundamentalist Christians in Europe demanding a ban on the study of evolution, fundamentalist Hindus in India started demanding that Ramayan and Mahabharat be taught as part of history.
European science started exploring psychology only in the 18th century, and realized there is more to the mind than what religious authorities and ancient philosophers spoke of. Thanks to the works of Freud and Jung in the 20th century, another branch called psycho-analysis came forth with studies on stories and dreams, which greatly valued epics and stories.
These hitherto non-existent subjects provided frameworks that gave Ramayan and Mahabharata new meaning. Maybe it was not about history at all, but about psychology. Ancient Indians were perhaps were not so much interested in mundane political events as much in psychological matters that shaped human history. The answer is hidden in an INR75, crore war chest. How to break through the transmission bottlenecks for small non-banks. Choose your reason below and click on the Report button.
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