The Will to be True Blog

Matriarchal Prehistory

I am a believer in the matriarchal prehistory. I am a feminist spiritualist. These two
statements feel real to me. They do not represent a false vision of female power
and domination. They are visions of an ancient undocumented society in which
men and women worked in partnership to protect and nurture a fragile,
misunderstood life span, where the supernatural was reality and danger lurked at
every corner.
I am not an intellectual but I love to read. I am not an artist but I can appreciate art in many forms but mostly I am not a scientist where proving the validity of a myth becomes critical. Myth and lies are not synonymous.
No one has to convince me that stories which are told over and over and believed to be true are true! Perhaps their original meaning was lost and perhaps not. What is to be gained from the story is the essence. If women were always under dogs in this world of ours there would have been no need to systematically destroy their credibility over the last five thousand years. The mysteries of women will always frighten. Our power to nurture life, in particular, is still as unfathomable to men and often to ourselves, as any other mystery.

I can say with absolute certainty that many factors brought about these changes in the way that culture has divided the two genders of humans. We are essentially the same mass of cells. And, so far, we have not been able to find another way to reproduce our species. Yet we still struggle with the idea of female and male being equal partners in the life cycle of humanity. We are so blessed. Where is our love?
The millions of women, men and children who died fighting for a women’s right to be respected and honoured should not die in vain. The ‘burning times’ of witch hunts and the Inquisition was but one example punishing women’s connectedness to earth and her appreciation of natural laws in health and healing. What started as a blatant control of religion soon turned into a hate-filled, fear-based, accusatory tirade against some women and their families for two to three centuries. Devil worship, magic, sorcery, evil, were all words which could bring women to trial and punishment. The ultimate sacrifice often included death by fire or drowning.

Women today are still abused, beaten, killed, and used mercilessly even in so called ‘civilized’ societies. For the last six thousand years, dehumanization of women has been perpetuated in the name of a deity who happened to be
identified as a male. I doubt that the Goddesses of ancient lore would have singled out and sacrificed female energy in their quest for power. Even if the prehistoric life was not idyllic, as least there was the benefit of feminine role
models. Mythology has many stories of women in power, women deities, and warrior women who fought for human rights. We know that our ancestors paid homage to the great mother. Earth was seen as nurturing and life giving.
Life cycles were normal, connected to the moon, easily explainable in the context of daily life.The first menses was celebrated and understood. Women learned to move in a natural cycle. When did these events become unclean and dirty? Conception, childbirth and child-rearing were carried on within the love and support of a community. Life may have been a struggle but it was a shared endeavour.
Nothing much has changed! We may control much of our life today but we still need to honour and appreciate ourselves. No one needs to tell me that women had a different life before history was written. We were there, in the cells of our mothers and grandmothers that have been handed down to us. In the context of history and time, we stumbled but found a way to right ourselves and now we will walk tall again.

As I read the literature that is written by many western – born authors, and read by women who struggle with understanding their history (or herstory), I am amazed at how simple it was for me to believe in a natural and enduring feminine courage and strength. Intuitively, I knew that despite an unproven and undocumented time in our distant past, women and their mysteries were the main thread in the fabric of life.