WiccaLesson_ONE_Plus.pdf

INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD RELIGION

LESSON 1

I. GODDESS RELIGIONS IN THE OLD WORLD

A. Gravettian-Aurignacian Cultures (25000 BC-15000 BC)

1. The Upper-Paleolithic period, though most of its sites have been

found in Europe, is the conjectural foundation of the religion of

the Goddess as it emerged in the later Neolithic Age of the Near

East.

a. There have been numerous studies of Paleolithic cultures,

explorations of sites occupied by these people, and the apparent

rites connected with the disposal of their dead.

b. In these Upper-Paleolithic societies, the concept of the

creator of all human life may have been formulated by the clan's

image of women, who were their most ancient primal ancestors.

(1) It is believed that the mother was regarded as the sole

parent of children in this culture.

(2) Ancestor worship appears to have been the basis of sacred

rituals and ancestry is believed to have been reckoned through

the matriline.

(a) The beginnings of Roman religion were based on survivals

of the Etruscan culture and ancestor worship was the earliest

form of religion in Rome.

(b) Even today, the Jewish people determine who is and is not

a Jew through the matriline.

2. The most tangible evidence supporting the theory that these

cultures worshipped a Goddess is the numerous sculptures of women

found throughout most of Europe and the Near East. Some of these

sculptures date as far back as 25,000 BC.

a. These small female figurines, made of stone, bone, and clay,

most of which are seemingly pregnant, have been found throughout

the widespread Gravettian-Aurignacian sites in areas as far apart

as Spain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia.

(1) These sites and figurines appear to span a period of at

least 10,000 years.

3. Johannes Maringer, in his book 'The Gods of Prehistoric Man'

says- "It appears highly probable then that the female figurines

were idols of a Great Mother cult, practiced by the non-nomadic

Aurignacian mammoth hunters who inhabited the immense Eurasian

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territories that extended from Southern France to Lake Baikal in

Siberia."

a. It was from this Lake Baikal area in Siberia that tribes are

believed to have migrated across a great land bridge to North

America about this time period, and formed the nucleus of what

was to become the race of American Indians.

(1) This tends to support the observation that European

witchcraft and American Indian shamanism have similar roots.

B. The Roots of Western Civilization

1. Western Civilization began in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley,

where it traveled into Palestine and Greece.

a. From Greece civilization traveled to Rome,and as the Roman

Empire grew it spread to Spain, France, Germany and England.

2. Mesopotamia ( 3500 BC - 539 BC )

a. Mesopotamia ("the land between the rivers") is the name used to

describe the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the

southern area of which is mostly lowlying swampland and marshes.

(1) The fertile lands of Mesopotamia lie between the desert and

the mountains. The northern part has regular rainfall while the

southern part, stretching down to the Arabian Gulf, suffers dry

scorching summers from May to October.

(a) In what is now the southern part of Iraq, Sumer existed

as one of the world's first civilizations.

b. Between 2800 and 2400 BC the city-states of Sumer were at their

strongest and wealthiest.

(1) The Goddess was worshipped under various names which were

epithets, or characterizing phrases, such as 'Queen of Heaven'

and 'Lady of the High Places'. The name of the city or town that

She was the patroness for, was often attached to Her title

making Her name even more specific.

(a) An example of this is the temple erected about 3000 BC in

the city-state of Uruk which was dedicated to the Queen of

Heaven of Erech.

(b) This city was made a major power and rival to its sister

city Ur by Gilgamesh's son.

c. About 2350 BC an ambitious king, named Sargon, attacked

Sumer, and made it part of his huge Empire. His capitol of Agade

gave us the name by which Sargons empire is known- the Akkadian

Empire.

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(1) The Akkadian Empire was the first successful attempt to

unite a huge area under the rule of one man. It eventually

gained supremacy in about 1900 BC and gradually superseded the

Summerians as the cultural and political leaders of the

region.

(a) The Akkadian language of the Babylonians became the

international language of the Near East, just as French

would become the language of diplomacy thousands of years

later.

(b) The new Babylonian culture incorporated the Sumerian

religion, and the Sumerian language was adopted as the

language of the liturgy much as Latin is used as the

language of liturgy for Roman Catholics.

and Irnini, evolved into the great Babylonian Goddess

Ishtar.

d. Approximately 1600 BC Babylon was sacked by an Indo-European

people known as the Hittites who came from Anatolia, off to the

northwest.

(1) During the confusion that ensued, the Kassites seized the

throne of Babylon and ruled peacefully for 400 years.

(a) Ishtar's power waned as the Babylonians were influenced

by the warlike Hittites and Her temples were taken over by

a male-dominated priesthood, which called the Goddess

Tiamat and wrote stories of how their god Marduk had killed

Her in the struggle for control of the region.

e. In the centuries following 1103 BC the Assyrians rose to

power and expanded into most of Mesopotamia from their homeland

which lay between the cities of Asher and Nineveh on the Tigrus

River.

(1) In the eighth century, the Assyrians conquered most of

Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia and had invaded Egypt as far as

Thebes (Luxor) before the Egyptians drove them back.

(a) Looking to legitimize their new empire, they 'married'

their god Asher to Ishtar, whose followers had secretly

kept Her worship alive.

(b) The joining of Ashur with Ishtar produced a son named

Ninurta, and this is the first formally recorded triad of

Goddess, Consort, and Divine Child in the Near East.

(2) From 631 to 539 BC much inter-city warfare occurred as

the Assyrian empire fell apart.

(a) In 539 BC Nabonius, the last king of Babylonia,

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surrendered to Cyrus II of Persia who was busy building

the greatest empire ever attempted.

3. Anatolia

a. Anatolia, which is also called Asia Minor, is a broad peninsula

jutting westward from the Asian continent itself. To the north

lies the Black Sea, to the south the easternmost part of the

Mediterranean. At the entrance to the Black Sea are the

Dardanelles and it is here that Asia comes closest to the

continent of Europe. Not surprisingly, Anatolia has always been

the main link between the Orient and the Occident.

b. In Neolithic Anatolia (present day Turkey) the Great Goddess

was worshiped in the shrines of Catal Huyuk around 6500 BC.

c. Anatolia was invaded sometime before 2000 BC by the Indo-

Europeans and a group of them settled in a part of Anatolia known

as Hatti. The invaders and local people came to be known

collectively as the Hittites.

(1) These are the same Hittites who sacked Babylonia in 1600 BC

and suppressed the worship of Ishtar in favor of their god

Marduk.

d. Most of the references to the Goddess in the literature and

texts of Anatolia alluded to the older Hattian deities despite the

fact that the only records allowed to survive were written after

the conquest of Anatolia by the Indo-Europeans.

(1) One of the most important female deities to survive was the

Sun Goddess Arinna. After the conquest she was assigned a husband

who was symbolized as a storm god.

(a) At the time of the Hittite invasions of other lands, many

of the people who were Goddess-worshippers may have fled to

the west. The renowned temple of the Goddess in the city of

Ephesus was the target of the apostle Paul's zealous

missionary efforts (Acts 19:27). This temple remained active

until 380 AD.

4. Crete

a. The Aegean Sea is an area of the Mediterranean, lying between

the mainland of Greece and the western coast of Anatolia. The

Aegean Sea is dotted with a great number of mountainous islands

and the largest of these is Crete, which is just about 60 miles

southeast of Greece.

(1) Crete was the society that is most repeatedly thought to

have been matrilineal and possibly matriarchal from Neolithic

times to the Dorian invasion.

(a) Reverance of the double headed ax as a symbol of the

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Mother Goddess and a reverence for the sexual vitality of

bulls were two notable aspects of Crete's early culture.

(b) Bull leaping is thought to have been the origin of

Spain's bullfighting, although in Crete the bull was never

harmed.

(2) After viewing the artifacts and murals at Knossos, the

Archaeological Museum at Iraklion and other museums in Crete,

there is little doubt that the principal sacred being on Crete

for several millenia was the Goddess and that women acted as Her

clergy.

5. Egypt (3100 to 30 BC)

a. Egypt is a hot, desert land divided by the fertile valley of

the Nile river. Hardly any rain falls there and the summers are

scorching hot. Even today, most of Egypt is arid desert.

(1) The Cultivation, a strip of land on each side of the Nile

river, is one of the most fertile stretches of land in the world.

(a) Although the Cultivation is only 12 1/2 miles wide, it

runs for about 620 miles from Aswan in the south to the broad

farmlands of the delta where the Nile empties into the

Mediterranean.

b. In prehistoric Egypt, the Goddess held sway in Upper Egypt (the

south) as Nekhebt and She was depicted in the form of a vulture.

(1) The people of Lower Egypt, including the northern delta

region, worshipped the Goddess as Ua Zit (Great Serpent) and

depictions of Her show Her as a cobra.

c. From about 3000 BC onward the Goddess was said to have existed

when nothing else had been created.

(1) She was known as Nut, Net, or Nit which was probably derived

from Nekhebt.

(a) According to Egyptian mythology, it was the Goddess who

first put Ra, the sun god, in the sky.

(b) Other texts of Egypt tell of the Goddess as Hathor in

this role as creatrix of existence, explaining that She took

form as a serpent at the time.

d. In Egypt the concept of the Goddess always remained vital.

Eventually the Goddess evolved into a more composite Goddess known

as Isis.

(1) Isis (Au Set) incorporated the aspects of both Ua Zit and

Hathor. Isis was also closely associated with the Goddess as

Nut, who was mythologically recorded as Her Mother; in paintings

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