Sharon Paice MacLeod - The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe : Goddesses, Sacred Women and the Origins of Western Culture

ALSO BY SHARON PAICE MACLEOD

Celtic Myth and Religion: A Study of Traditional Belief, with Newly Translated Prayers, Poems and Songs (McFarland, 2012)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-1392-5

2014 Sharon Paice MacLeod. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: a painting (by the author) of a medieval woodcarving of a Green Lady or Spirit-Goddess of Vegetation, 1300s Britain, with original harvest-theme colors added back in

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

To all the remarkable women in my life

To my mother, my sisters and aunts,

cousins, nieces and great-aunts

To friends and students,

colleagues and mentors,

shamans and healers,

wisewomen and teachers

To my grandmothers and great-grandmothers

from Scotland, Britain, Ireland and beyond,

who passed on their courage, wisdom and strength

And to my father,

who helped me know that

I could be anything I dreamed

This book is a scholarly exploration of evidence for the veneration of the Divine Feminine in ancient Europe, from the prehistoric era through the late medieval period. It utilizes the most current research in archaeology, anthropology, history, and the study of religion, to bring to light a new and more detailed understanding of the subtle and complex ways in which people perceived, represented and honored spiritual beings in female form. This includes the worship of ancestors, spirits of place, and goddess figures, as well as religious roles of women in those societies.

Each chapter examines a separate time period in early European history, and in some cases focuses on differing regions where the evidence warrants such a division. The reader is provided with historical and environmental background on the time period in question, as well as information about how early cultures lived and interacted with each other and with their surroundings. Their connection to the land, and social reactions to climate change, deeply influenced the forms, beliefs and practices associated with the veneration of the Divine Feminine.

During the prehistoric eras, evidence from archaeology is supplemented with comparative research in sociology, anthropology and the study of religion in order to augment and more fully and accurately explore the physical evidence. Later chapters include additional evidence from written records, including ethnographies, histories, mythologies and other pertinent cultural, social and historical information.

A number of themes run throughout the work and are evident in almost every time period. These include indigenous perceptions about the connection between the physical world and non-physical world(s) of spirit; the importance of living in right relationship or balance with the perceived inhabitants of the spirit worlds; the role of human beings as stewards of the natural world; the importance of honoring and protecting the landscape and the environment; and the existence of female and male spiritual beings (deities, ancestors, and tutelary spirits) within a complex and holistic system of belief.

Each chapter begins with a quotation from a member of an indigenous culture or a relevant scholar that conveys an important theme relating to the events of the time period covered in that chapter. In addition, a fictional narrative is provided prior to the scholarly discussion that is intended to bring that time period to life. The narratives draw on the same scholarly evidence as the discussion and include archaeological, historical, anthropological, and cultural sources of knowledge.

This work is important in that it provides an objective exploration in every time period of the available evidence for actualrather than theorizedveneration of the Divine Feminine throughout Europe. The recognition that indigenous European cultures included female spiritual beings in their religious practice and theology changes our understanding about the origins of Western culture and civilization. These sacred figures were an important part of varied and sophisticated spiritual traditions, and along with male deities or divine figures, figured in a complementary system of belief and practice.

The existence of these female figures was in many cases (but not all) associated with features of the landscape and the natural environment. However, categorizing all female divinities as Earth Goddesses or Mother Goddesses would be inaccurate, and an incomplete representation of the widely varied roles they played throughout Europe. Goddesses, tutelary beings and ancestral figures were associated with life, death, fertility, destruction, prosperity, magic, wisdom, knowledge, healing, battle, prophecy, leadership, and many other social and spiritual concepts.

In this day and age, there is an increasing focus on restoring balance in the world, both in terms of preserving and protecting the natural world and in restoring balance to peoples physical, mental, emotional and spiritual lives. Religious ideologies that emphasize male deities or holy people can be viewed as biased and exclusionary, and may not provide women (or men) with a balanced view of the totality of sacred life. They may also be found to be lacking in terms of their ability to provide people with role models or spiritual figures to honor or learn from.

Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in womens history, womens spirituality, and womens personal and social empowerment, as well as ancient history, indigenous cultures, and alternative spirituality. These may be seen as understandable reactions to perceived or experienced imbalances in social and religious life, as well as a general disconnection from nature, native wisdom and community.

I became interested in this topic after my undergraduate work as I began to explore my family history, which most recently originates in Scotland, Ireland, Britain and Wales. It also includes Dutch and Norse ancestry, and undoubtedly, farther back, other ancestral European lines. There are many strong women in my family, and even though fathers, uncles and grandfathers were officially the heads of families, I could see the myriad ways women in our family influenced the course of events and got things done according to the way they envisioned life should be. I began to read about Celtic history and culture, and the farther back in time I went, the more interesting it became.

All around me were women who lived up to their social obligations, but also, with their own brand of wit, wisdom and courage, frequently stepped beyond social norms and accomplished remarkable things. My Scottish great-great-grandmother (a MacLeod) and her daughter were born into economically disadvantaged positions in northeast Scotland. Rather than becoming fishwives, they started a dancing school (or so the family stories say). My Scottish grandmother was a Highland dancer and toured Canada as a professional at a very young age. She and I shared stories about the performing life, as I am a trained professional musician (a male dominated field). My mother was extremely capable and intelligent; there was nothing on earth she could not manifest once she set her mind to it. It was not much of a leap to exploring extraordinary women in history, including the social and spiritual roles women have played in the past.