As a woman in my seventy�s who has more or less become a spectator on the world stage, I know I am not alone when I ask; what is happening to women today? I know I must become concerned about this because as a Mother and Grandmother I am still involved to a certain extent. I also have sons and grandsons and so I cannot just out of hand take the side of women. Yet I feel that I must try to reason out what I see is happening to women, and why, and what the results may be.
I feel sometimes as if I am watching a world going mad and doing its best to self distruct. Yet, when I look at my own family I see just hard workers trying to hold their own and survive. And I know in my heart that all around the world that is what most of the people are doing. Yet I know that in time they too will be affected by the madness going on around them. For that reason I would like to understand what brought us to this pass. I know that women do not exist in this world alone. She lives in a mans world so it is impossible to seperate her history from that of men. But in order to understand what is happening to women today we need to look at the world of women as it was forced on her by man. And also the world she created within it for her own reasons.
Our modern world is the culmanation of the last two thousand years of Christianity or to be more precise, of all those religions that sprang out of the jewish concept of one god. If we are going to look at its affect on womens lives then we will have to limit ourselves to the common people, not the elite. In any age and in any country in the western world the elite have always had more freedom and more control than the common women over their lives. Only in some area�s and times did the elite share the same fate.
Between Judism, Christianity and Mohamadism women became �things�. Beings without rights or respect or freedom. Not once in 2,000 years has the male in these religions accepted the responsability for putting her in that role. Yet at the same time, when he lowered her, he lowered himself. Since religions are unprovable mental concepts of God or Gods that are not standard around the world, they cannot claim authority for behavioural rules or laws of conduct. By that, I mean that there really are no natural laws of behaviour set down by some god at some time in our past. We created the rules. We did this for social reasons. Until recently most of the knowledge of how and what is a womans role in society was given to us by men.
Today we think we are haveing a say in our roles. We think we have attained freedom. I think I can prove to you that whatever freedoms we may have gained have been subverted.
All life on this planet reproduces itself. Out of all species of living things only human females are barren, prevent conception, kills its unborn. The only exceptions are those animals that are controlled by humans. In all cases these conditions are brought on by male interference in the natural order of things. In most cases this is the result of religions designed by men out of their own fears and desires.
After the conception of a child, women carry them to term on their own. They do not need a man to help them carry a fetus. With or without help she gives birth. She feeds and raises it. It is THE mystery of mysteries and man is not in control of it so he has done his best to try and control conception in order to gain status.
A womans body is the focal point of mans needs and pleasure. Again she is the hidden mystery. He has tried to control that also. By controlling access to women he has tried over the ages to put the mystery into his own pocket so to speak. For with control of the source of the mystery of birth goes control of life.
Along with sex and birth, women enjoyed a third mystery; Psychic ability and awareness. She was the go-between for the unseen world and the mundane. The high-gods were female in all cultures: Shiva, Ashera/Astarte, Athena, Isis, Quan-yin. Males controlled the elements,females were in control of life. All life.
I doubt very much that the present world can truly understand what that means in terms of the human ego. I have been sitting here for two hours just trying to imagine living in a world where the female principal ruled. I get glimpses of what it implies. How it would affect the inner soul of men and women, but it is too far reaching to even come close to an understanding. But those few glimpses are enough to make me realize that our picture of the world beyond 800 B.C. is all wrong. It is a historical lie written by men of the fifteenth century onward who are products of a Roman Christian world.
Women ruled existance before that time. A female was in control of existance in all aspects of life. Female gods were in charge of fate, war, crops, rivers, birth, and death. All of the places of mystery were run by women. The Sybils were the spokeswomen for the gods or the unknown. Only a few male gods were in charge of forces that interested men. And some of those were minor gods under the control of females, or were their sons. The Seas and Oceans were under male domination only in its life threatening aspect. Triton was the cause of storms and therefore death. His daughters were probably in charge of the life forces of fish and food.
When the Hebrew came on the scene with a male diety in control of their lives and in control of their woman they may have been envied but they were not copied by other nations. Why? Because at that time they maintained that he was a personnal god of the Jews only. They still maintain this fact! Before the advent of Christianity made up its own rules, the Jews never claimed he was a God of all the races of man. Powerful yes! But only interested in their race. Why else could Judism have been around for over 1500-2300 yrs without making converts of all males within reach of his power over women as manifested in their religion? Hera/Athena/Isis/Ashera or whatever name was given the great mother still ruled the heavins and mankind; the birth of children, plants, and game. Even in the heart of Judism the idols of these religions were all over the place. Solomons wives never abandoned them for the male religion and male god. Nor did he make them.
Then along came Jesus.
A man who taught other men and women that they were really in charge of their own lives and destinies. He taught the triad of creation. Male, female, and creator. He could not have taught anything else. It is not possible to have only a male principal creation. Our minds reject it. The bible rejects it. If it were so we�d have only Adam to back up the belief. A God who can create man can also create him to reproduce, but he didn't! He created the female as a partner.
So how did the male gods come to dominate our lives? There is enough evidence around to show that Ashtorath in all her forms was around and thriving up until the time when the new God Appollo usurped the Delphic oracle. This new god thrived in Greece and then moved into other realms when Alexanders army marched through the middle east. Around this time a new little male god reared his head in Persia. Wasn�t this the home of the first male God introduced by Abraham? Of course it was. The western world wanted a male god to worship but not the one the Jews had. Before Rome conquered the near east the soldiers adopted Mithra. But on the q.t. so to speak. The Oracle at Delphi may have been taken over by a male god but it still spoke from the lips of a women.
Women diety�s still ruled the middle east to a great extent. It is my firm belief that the Hebrews and their god were not as well known as they would like us to believe. He was not that well known in the nation that had conquered the entire middle east. And Romans prided themselves on being up to date on the latest news. By now the Romans were finding out the jews were not the only nation to have a male diety. When Rome conquered western Europe it came in contact with Odin. But the Norse also had female gods. And they were more powerful than the male gods in the early history of their race. The people were becomeing confused about their beliefs. The minor religion of the followers of Christ was a pain in the butt to Rome but not something they couldn�t handle. Modern historians would like you to think it was a great force sweeping the land but that is drival. Great forces don�t take 300 years to get off the ground. Unless there is a push from some other cause of course.
There were three events that gave it that push; the Jews were scattered and no longer a force in Israel.Christianity was centered in Syria and Greece. It was realized at last that Christ�s words couldn�t stand alone without the information contained in the Jewish Torah. Oh, the people took to his teachings but since he never founded a church or religion of worship himself there was no real need for a priestly heirarchy and through that a house of mysteries
Christ taught principals of life - not a religion! He taught love and respect and the consequences of our actions. Both good and bad. He taught mysteries and miracles for the man in the street. Not the heirarchy of religion. I do not believe that Christ ever said to Peter: On this rock I will build my church. He was a Hebrew, a Rabbi. Not once does he tell anyone to leave the temple.
When the Hebrews came on the scene, with a male diety in control of their lives and in control of their women, they may have been envied but they were not copied by other nations. Why? Because they maintained that He was a personnal God of the Jews! He was looking after their nation, not any other nation on Earth. If we are to believe their bible record, they were a powerful force in the near east from the time of Moses onward. While no one can agree on the date of the Exodus, most claim the date around 1300 - 1700 B.C. for him. Yet they left no record of their existance in the histories of any nation. King Solomon�s fame did not reach Greece. Nor did it reach Eqypt. He is not mentioned by any nation. Nor is Moses. They appear in the History books of other nations in a negligable fashion. Before the advent of Christianity made up its own rules, the Jews never claimed he was a God of all the people and races of man. How else could Judism have been around for over 1500 - 2300 years without making converts of all the males within reach of his power over women as manifested in their religion? Because he was seen as only a minor diety. Hera/Athena/Isis/Astarte, or whatever name was given the great mother, still ruled the lives of the common man and women.
Then along came a God named Apollo!
He took over at Delphi and all the other female centres. Things went downhill after that. All sorts of male deities gained power. We are going back quite a ways in our history to a rather dim time of great upheaval and little or no records, but it appears that at some point in time a son took over from a mother goddess. Horus/Isis, Appollo/Leta, Mars/Juno.
(A few years back I read a book by a man with the last name of Brown(I think?) who claimed that he had found by his researches that women were the rulers of this earth. That they mismanaged that rule and men rose up and took over. Very interesting but I have not been able to find the book since.)
This was the situation in the business of religion at the time of the death of Christ.
There is a period of 300 yrs or so when the followers of Christ like any small group of people followed their own path. They were really congregations of people, not a church. And in those congregations women were on an equal footing with men because that�s what Jesus taught. But all of this was taking place in Greece and Syria and parts of Italy.
Peter and Paul have been made much of by Rome but their lives certainly did not go past 80-90 AD. Peter died in Rome as a martyr and so that made his burial place a memorial spot. Which may have been what brought it to the attention of Constantines Wife. Little is said about her influence on the rise of the Church in the records Except to acknowledge her being a Christian. But a wife of the Emperor of Rome would not have been a lowly member of a congregation in any temple, church, or religion. Logic says that she would have had a leading part in a belief that saw women as equals, Pauls ranting aside. One has only to read the epistles to see the unbalanced mind of a fanatic. It isn�t hard to see where Paul was coming from. As a minor Roman Official eager to get ahead he would have been as corrupt as any before his conversion which indicates he may have been Homosexual or at the least leaned towards men. For a man of his standing in the jewish world not to have a wife is odd. Not unheard of but still odd. This was fairly common in the Romanized Israel of his time which saw the likes of Caligula, Nero, and Herod. His reformation evidently could not change his attitude towards women in the church. This shows in the epistles. Which may explain why, out of all the letters since, his were joined 300 years or more later to the end of the testament. There is no other reason to append them to the books of Jesus!
Think about that and then reread the letters. It was the teachings of Jesus that held the early Church together and made them a special community of love. Why would the letters need to be appended since Jesus�words can stand alone? As a historical proof? As a basis for some form of protocal or precedent? Or to tie in Rome via Paul to the Church of Jesus? Or was it because in the years when the Teaching became a religion Rome wanted a Male dominated priesthood! And Pauls letters back that up. Not the words of Jesus!
Who was this little man who changed the world of women for all time?
It is claimed that he was a priest in the Temple at one time. He may have been as his epistles to the various church's reflect that past. Why then was he sent by Rome to investigate and destroy the new belief if it was a threat to the Sadducees and Rome? He would not have been sent unless he had proven himself capable by a previous job along the same lines. He never saw Jesus in person as Jesus was already dead by the time he arrived on the scene after claiming he was blinded by the light of a miracle. If he had been it would have been the first time in the history of Jesus that someone was injured in the name of God! However it would be a good excuse to observe without being seen to be observing. What he did see was a new kind of cult springing up. How much are we to believe of his miraclous conversion from Rome to Christ? Was he an early subversive sent to undermine the belief then got caught up in the belief? He matters not- the harm is done. What we do know is that the early church had many female Bishops which means that Pauls epistles did not influence the early Greek Church or the Syrian Church after Christ's death. Constantines wife may have been a Bishop or leader in the Church. If so then she may logically have seen a Roman religion that was not dominated by either sex in the true tradition of Christ. Man and woman as partners in life and under God.
When Constantine made Christianity the new religion of Rome, what do you think happened to the High Priests and Priestesses of all the other cults and religions? They were out of very prestigious jobs that gave them power, wealth, and honor!
They were not fools! I imagine that they held many secret meetings to find a way to protect their jobs. And to see that Constantine fell in line or there would be a general uprising.
There was no general uprising and so the High Priesthood of all the temples must have gone along with the new religion. Why?
Because sometime during those three hundred years after the death of Jesus they introduced the Torah into their teachings.As more and more educated converts were made, curiosity and the demand to know where Jesus� authority stemmed from would neccessitate the use of the Torah. The first converts to Christ were made in the Galilee, not deep in the heartland of Israel. The Galilee was close to the influences of Persia and Syria and Greece. It would be interesting to know if these people of the galilee were Hebrews. Or at most fallen Jews who no longer believed in the Torah!(See the 'Bible Retold'.) Continued in part two.
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Last modified on August 26,2005
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