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A Return To God The Mother

By William Bond and Pamela Suffield

With Illustrated Tarot And Quabalah

Copyright Ó 1989 William Bond & Pamela Suffield

Publishing history:

First published by authors (The Joyner Press) 1991

Published by Artemis Creations 1994

Published by Lulu.com as a E book 2007

Published as a printed book by lulu.com 2008 at -http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=786000

Introduction

God The Mother

IN THE WESTERN WORLD, we are all familiar with the concept of a male god, whether the idea comes from Christianity, Judaism or Mohammedanism. When we think of a male god, at the back of our minds is a picture of an old man in the sky, who has a certain set of laws, rules and regulations we must all obey. If we follow these rules we will be loved and approved of by god, but if we disobey, we will be condemned and punished. Even today, when the power of this belief has been weakened, and many do not believe in a god at all, the image of Jehovah from the Old Testament is still very strong. Though we may consciously reject this view of god, subconsciously and within the structures of our society, the idea lives on. When we feel we have done the wrong thing, or 'sinned', we tend to feel guilty or unworthy in some way, and expect punishment. It is so ingrained in us, that to a large extent the 'Jehovah' figure is the only way we can envisage God. We appear to have only two choices; either this male god exists or there is no God at all.
Jesus Christ, through the teachings that have come down to us in the New Testament, attempted to offer an alternative, by describing a God of Love, who loves us all no matter what we do or who we are. Unfortunately, even though Christianity attempts to uphold the teachings of Christ, we find when we discuss the nature of God with many Christians, that they are still heavily influenced by the Jehovah of the Old Testament, and see God as wrathful, judgmental and punishing unless you 'get it right'.
However, in the second half of the Twentieth Century, another concept of God has appeared. This time God is not a man but a woman. Its promulgators talk about 'the Great Goddess' or 'the Great Mother', who existed in the Western World before the advent of male-centred religions and before Christianity achieved its dominance of the whole of Europe. Many books have been written on the necessity for our society to turn towards the Great Mother, who has been ignored in the Western world for millenia.
On the face of it, assessing the idea of a female Creator in a purely intellectual way, it seems quite ridiculous. Why should it matter whether God is male or female? Surely a Supreme Deity is beyond being male or female at all. Eastern religions like Buddhism and Taoism already accept the genderlessness of God. In Taoism, we are presented with the concept of the 'Tao', which means 'The Way'. There is no entity or image which can be worshipped or appealed to. Buddhism is similar, but since its ideas were taught by an historical man, Gautama Buddha, he is the one worshipped, despite the fact that he insisted he was not a God.
If we were assessing the nature of God in an entirely logical way, the concept of 'The Tao' would be the truest representation, since it perceives of a supreme entity as pure energy, beyond all ideas of human form and character. The trouble with this idea is that human beings find it difficult to grasp what the Tao is really like. It is ever mysterious, and beyond the comprehension of our limited minds. We seem to need an image that we can relate to, that we can understand in human terms. The truest representation of God which we can grasp, and which fits in with our growing ideas of a loving deity, is of God as the Great Mother. A masculine god is omnipotent, but judges, condemns and gives only limited love. His power is used to punish transgressors and reward the faithful. Man does the same. However, when you think of a mother, the picture is different. An ideal mother gives her children unconditional love which never changes. No matter what the child does, it will always be loved, supported in its growth, and nourished by the mother. Even if the child abuses her or commits horrendous crimes within society, this love never disappears. A wise mother obviously encourages loving behaviour, and discourages mistakes, but her love never wavers.
When we think of the Great Mother, we are thinking of an entity who will love us all, for ever, because we are her creations, - her children, to use the earthly metaphor. This is a completely different picture from the one drawn by belief in a male god, which relies on the threat of punishment, or withdrawal of love and rewards, to keep us in line. Since it is now time for the 'feminine' side of our Creator to be accepted and valued by men, it makes sense to worship a female deity. Only in this way will we begin to balance our society, which has denigrated and denied The Great Mother's gifts for millenia.
As we all know, in our society there are many people who do not obey the rules of the Church and still escape punishment. Some of them seem to flout all of the laws of society and religion yet still prosper and thrive. Others obey all the rules, behave in a very humble and loving way, yet seem to receive no reward for their actions. They are often despised and taken advantage of. The Church avoids the implications of this by saying that such people will be happy in the afterlife, and the others will go to Hell. Since this is only a speculation, it is of little practical help to those suffering in the here and now. The priests of the god can only offer a better life when we are dead - what they cannot deliver is happiness and joy now. In contrast to this, the priestesses of the Great Mother can promise peace, joy and paradise on this Earth while we are alive.
To be in paradise does not require us to be disciplined and sacrificial for the sake of future rewards; all it requires is a change in attitude. In the world of the god, whether it is the one reflected to us through Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedanism or Science (which is our latest male religion) we are offered a world of conflict and fear. We have to accept rules and regulations to keep us in check; we have to accept the masculine world of aggression and conquest, whether it is conquest of ourselves or others. All harmonious ideas of joy and happiness are looked down on as impossible, leaving us with only suffering as the route to salvation. In this worldview, we learn and achieve only through struggle and pain, so it becomes an inevitable and necessary part of existence.
When we look to the Feminine and the Great Mother, there is a different perspective. The Great Mother will always look after us, no matter what we do and no matter what we believe in or say. There is no requirement to subscribe to a particular religion or way of behaving to 'earn' her love - she loves us all, and equally, anyway. The Feminine is a concept of harmony, of bringing together, of joy and peace. The priests of the god see a world that is out of harmony with itself, where only the strongest survive and the weakest go to the wall. This is not necessary.
The feminine world-view shows us harmony in everything - on Earth, and in the whole of Creation. This idea of the essential harmoniousness of creation was recently brought out very clearly in the book 'Gaia' by James Lovelock. It is interesting that he named his book after the ancient Earth Goddess, who was worshipped as the original deity. Though she was at one time acknowledged as the first to emerge from the primaeval state of Chaos, later male-dominated cultures devalued her and placed the sky gods like Uranus and Zeus above her.
The truth of existence is that how we see the earth we live on and our fellow human beings, shapes our lives. Our desires and fears act as magnets, drawing towards us the reality which we feel is the 'true' one. If we believe in conflict and limited love, that if we do not behave in a certain way we will not be loved or rewarded, then this will be the reality we create. We will become aggressive or defensive towards other people because we expect them to hurt us or exploit us. This in turn attracts to us the very aggression we fear, and confirms our beliefs. If we believe that only the strongest and most ruthless survive, and that this is by divine order, then we will have no qualms about exploiting the earth and our fellow man. But always lurking will be the fear that someone even stronger or more ruthless will snatch everything we have won away from us. If we also allow ourselves to judge others and find them better or worse than us, stronger or weaker, then we live in fear of others judging us. We create a god who does this when we die, sending some to Heaven and the rest to Hell based on his judgement of our worth.
The history of our species for the last few thousand years has been centred on conflict. Our idea of 'right' is based on force, which is a particularly male attribute. A good example of this can be seen if we look at the Falklands war. Britain sent a Task Force to the Falkland Islands to retake them from Argentina, who had snatched them from us. If we had not possessed a strong Navy and Army then the Islands would now belong to Argentina. Each side in the conflict believed that justice was on its side, yet it was superior strength which prevailed. Although in many ways we are more enlightened than in the past, our society is still based on the idea that 'might is right'. The boundaries of countries, the distribution of wealth and land and the use of a particular language, owe their existence to the use of force on weaker people. Within each country, an unwritten law states that the more powerful you are, the more you can ignore the law and the rights of others less powerful than you. Once you have accumulated wealth and power by the use of aggression, then you invoke the force of the Law, the Police and Religion to prevent other equally rapacious people from relieving you of your booty. In such a world, no-one can be happy. Even if you are strong and successful, there is always fear that one day your strength and aggression will fail and you will become prey to others.
But if we were to return to worshipping the Great Mother, our direction would inevitably be towards harmony. There would therefore be less likelihood of aggression towards others, and even less likelihood of aggression towards ourselves. Since we would look for evidence of harmony, it would be there, and since no-one would be perceived as a threat to us, we would not provoke aggression in others or draw it to ourselves. We would be more likely to co-operate with our fellow man and have no reason to exploit him. In a harmonious Universe there is no need to fight for what you need - all resources, whether material, emotional or spiritual, are available to everyone because they believe that this is the case. The idea of scarcity can only exist when there is fear that you may miss out on something that you need, and that only you can provide it, by right behaviour, force or belonging to the 'right' religion or group.
There would be no reason for anyone to feel unworthy, as we do now, because we would know that we are loved by the Great Mother. Though we may make mistakes, this in no way changes her love, and she is always ready to help and support us. We would no longer have the inner conflicts bequeathed to us by the male priests of the god, reflecting in the world as strife and struggle, thus allowing us to live at peace with ourselves and the world.
Unfortunately, throughout recorded history, we have only known a patriarchal society. Though there is some evidence that matercentric (guided by women) societies have existed, we have no real way of telling how they functioned. All evidence that these societies existed, and were harmonious, was ruthlessly suppressed by the male-dominated cultures who took over from them, and where it could not be eliminated, was reinterpreted to support the ideas of the prevailing religion and culture. However, there are stories of a Golden Age, which existed before recorded history, in many religions and mythologies. In the East, the 'Tao Te Ching' talks of a time when everyone lived in harmony, and catalogues the changeover from this period of peace to the present patriarchal society. Initially, in this Golden Age, there was no conflict of any kind, nor any rules and laws. Gradually, these were introduced until we arrived by slow degrees at our present fear-ridden society.
Today, society is yet again changing, and we will in the future progress into another matercentric society. Obviously, there will be those who oppose this, some because they wish to retain patriarchy, and others because they believe that the ideal society is one in which men and women are equal. This is not yet possible, even if we could define what 'equal' means. As recent research has shown, (in 'Brain Sex' by Anne Moir and David Jessel) there is a fundamental difference between the male and female brain, which manifests itself in the way men and women think and feel. While men can ignore feelings, and rely on 'logic' to make decisions, it is necessary for our evolution to move into a female-centred society, one in which we worship a female deity and in which men can learn to care for others.
It is possible that in the far future we will have a society in which neither sex is dominant, but at our present stage of evolution, it is spiritually necessary and inevitable that we move into a matercentric society, as we will explain in subsequent chapters. This will benefit both men and women. At the moment, our patriarchal society, with its many rules and regulations, intolerance and aggression, gives immense advantages to men, because it reflects their way of seeing the world. There is no real way that women, or men for that matter, can achieve equality in such a society. We are seeing a drive for freedom within many countries of the World, and a growing acceptance of other's ways of living. Many patriarchal structures which restrict freedom are being eroded or destroyed. In this climate, women will be far less disadvantaged than before, because they have less need for order and hierarchy than men, and because men will not be able to use aggression and logic in the same ruthless way they are accustomed to. As men see that women's ability to mobilise both intellect and feeling in decision-making leads to greater stability, they will no longer wish to dominate. They will see clearly that they will be far happier directed by women than by other men, and gladly allow them to guide society.

Chapter One

The Path Of The God

ALL HUMAN BEINGS on this earth are children of the Great Mother. Once, we all existed within her in a world of paradise. The story of the Garden of Eden is probably an echo of this world, which is also reflected in the state of bliss we experience before physical birth, in the womb.
But then there came a desire, both from ourselves and the Great Mother, for us to become gods and goddesses in our own right. We needed to be able to create independently. As a result, we were put onto this three-dimensional planet, so that we could grow and learn how to create for ourselves. This was a crucial step. As long as we lived within the Great Mother, we would always be overwhelmed by her Creation, so we had to live in a very limited world, one that was equal to our limited understanding, limited ability to create and limited ability to love.
Because the only way to grow is to do things for ourselves, make mistakes and bring about our own creations, we had to be in a situation completely outside the Great Mother, or at least appear to be. The Mother had to set us free, just as a baby with a mortal mother, on whom he is totally dependant, sooner or later has to be freed to learn to do things for himself and gain autonomy. A wise mother, of course, allows the baby independence, and encourages him to be as free of her as he is able, while remaining always at hand to answer calls for assistance.
This is what the Great Mother has done for mankind. She has given us both freedom and protection, in a kindergarten which is three- dimensional earth. Man, in his evolutionary infancy, lived in a form of paradise, still strongly connected to the Great Mother. When we look at primitive tribes in the rain forests of Brazil, the pygmies in Africa and the aborigines in Australia, we gain a sense of the leisurely and safe existence which man led. He was able to feed himself quite easily by gathering fruits, roots and vegetables, supplement his diet by hunting and build simple shelters using the materials he found around him. Unlike today, there were no encroaching aggressive cultures to threaten him, and dis-ease was unknown because he was still in harmony with himself and the planet. Only later on in our history did life become 'nasty, brutish and short.'
Of course, in time, man wanted more than this, as his drive towards autonomy and self-realisation asserted itself. He embarked on the path of the god, which involves the creation of a feeling of independence and self-worth at an individual level rather than a communal one. This moved him further and further away from the Great Mother. Gradually, he began to create the first simple societies, and later on, civilisations. More and more, he began to control the world about him, to control himself and to control women, because they were still connected to the Great Mother, and represented the symbiotic past he was attempting to leave behind. Slowly, he developed an ego, or sense of self as an individual, and this told him that the way forward was to use his energy for himself alone. In time, as the distance between him and his Creator increased, it convinced him that he was a totally separate entity from others, trapped inside a body which represented the limits of his being. An ancient myth which embodies this growing divergence of men and women relates to the Egyptian deities, Isis and Osiris. Osiris was chopped into thirteen pieces by his evil brother, Set, and Isis had to search the world to find his scattered remnants. She found all but the phallus, which had been eaten by a crocodile, and brought him back to life. This story illustrates the way that man began to divide the world into separate individuals, while women remained whole. Isis loves Osiris enough to reassemble him, and is the only one who can do this, because she remembers what the whole is. In terms of human evolution, woman is the only one who can unite the fragmented universe of patriarchal society, because she has never become totally disconnected from others.
As man moved further away from the Great Mother, his intuitive faculties diminished and he was left with only his growing intellect. He began to question the existence of intuition, and despise women because they seemed to rely on this illogical sense for guidance. Though he looked for devotion from woman, he gave her nothing in return. If he could have dispensed with her, he would have, but he needed her. So she became his slave, and gave him the space he required to further develop his ego, by taking care of many of his needs. She received only contempt and hatred for herself. Everything was owned and controlled by men. Even children, who clearly emerge from a woman, were seen as the property of males. The woman was merely the incubator for male seed. In some patriarchal religions, the child was seen as evil because he was 'born of woman,' and had to be ritually cleansed by baptism. In this way, he is reborn 'of spirit,' and can worship the male deity without the taint of woman defiling him.
As we said in the first chapter, men and women are very different, not only in their physical bodies but within the brain. Man has in fact two brains: one, on the left side, is the cold intellectual brain which belongs to him alone - the other, the right brain, is the intuitive, emotional and artistic side of him and is linked directly to the Great Mother. To enable man to go his own way and become independent of the Great Mother, there is only a very slender link between the two halves of the brain. Man can easily ignore his right brain and behave as if the intellect is the only part of him that exists. This is not true for women, who have a very strong bridge between the two halves. They can not ignore the presence of the Great Mother and disconnect the two sides of themselves so easily.
What this means is that woman has a continuing link to the Great Mother, and functions as Her representative on earth. She acts therefore as nourisher and protector of man. She gives birth to him on the physical plane, and looks after him until he is able to fend for himself, just as the Great Mother did earlier on in our racial history. This makes all relationships between men and women, in essence, one of mother and son. Although we may enumerate other relationships such as father/daughter, husband/wife and brother/sister, the root relationship is always mother/son, because woman is the embodiment of the Great Mother.
This fact, in patriarchal societies, has brought conflict between men and women. Man, in his striving to go forward on the path of the god, has often seen women as his enemy, interpreting her efforts to help him as holding him back. He does not wish to remember that he is a child of the Great Mother, and punishes woman for reminding him that this is the case. He has also often chosen to see woman as his servant, rather than his protector and guide, thus distorting her function in the world and restricting the help he can receive from her. Woman's function is also the reason why men find women completely mysterious, unfathomable and unpredictable. Simply because she is the representative of the Great Mother on earth, she is truly unlimited, and can impart wisdom, when she is allowed to, to help herself as well as others.
Women call on the wisdom of the Great Mother to bear children, to rear them, to look after husbands, and to keep the whole of society functioning. Without women, there would have been no human communities, merely a collection of individuals fighting to gain knowledge, power or pleasure for themselves. Women are in the position of looking in two directions at once. One way, they are looking back towards paradise, when all was harmonious, and are learning from the Great Mother. The other way, they look towards man, see him struggling to create for himself, and learn from him too. On the path of the god, man learns by doing and woman learns by observing and being.
Because man wanted to forget the Great Mother and go his own way, he created a deity in his own image - the god. Man began to move away from the Great Mother on to the path of the male god, to begin the first half of a cycle which culminates eventually in a return to the Great Mother. Unfortunately, the path of the god has also been the way of suffering, conflict and separation. Within the Great Mother everything is one, and that oneness rests within her unconditional love. Everything is accepted and nothing is rejected, leading to total harmony. Man desired independence and separation, so he originated the idea of conflict, in which it is possible for one idea, belief or person to oppose another. Each person began to be seen as separate from others. Having done this, man then arranged the whole of creation, in his mind, into a hierarchy. Some people and things became more valuable than others, leading to feelings of superiority and inferiority, and desires to possess and control. Although the Great Mother is able to give us freedom, unfortunately man on the path of the god is unable to give himself or any other man that same freedom. He fears that he will lose control of himself or others if he does not keep a tight rein on everything in his world.

Everyone is a unique individual, with characteristics which are different from anyone else's. Man on the path of the god cannot cope with this. He sees difference as a threat, to be eliminated by any means possible, rather than a reason to celebrate the incredible diversity of creation. From this attitude came intolerance, repression, violence and wholesale war. Men of similar ideas banded together, however temporarily, to impose their ideas on others. Control was exerted to force people to think, feel and behave in certain ways. Protest was met by the setting up of laws and moral codes so that dissent could be outlawed - whether it was religious or political.
The process of man's loss of innocence on the path of the god is clearly documented in the Tao Te Ching. It says,

As the Great Tao declines
Morality and laws come into being.
As wisdom and knowledge arise
They make way for lies and deceit.
When there is conflict in families,
There is obedience and duty.
When countries are in turmoil
Warriors are praised.
When Tao is, all is one,
When Tao is lost,
All is divided.

Unconditional love for all has been replaced by rules and structures of behaviour within a society which sees some people as worthier than others. Intuitive knowledge has been replaced with intellectual learning, and harmony has been lost, leading to conflict between people who have forgotten their connection to each other.
All this has come about simply because mankind has only a very limited mind. The mind of the Great Mother is completely unlimited, and can accommodate all ideas and all people, without fear. She has given us parts of her wisdom, and everyone has access to this. But man only feels safe in a world where he understands and therefore can control everything. The unknown or the uncontrollable are very fearful to him, and women, as the representatives of the Great Mother, are the ones he wishes to control the most.
When we look at the beliefs of mankind in Mediaeval times, we can see how limited he was. The earth was seen as the centre of the universe. The sun orbited the earth, and the moon and stars were seen as lights in the sky. It was a small safe cocoon. As man's knowledge of the cosmos has increased, the horizons of his universe have expanded, allowing him to see even more possibilities. He now accepts that the earth orbits the sun, (although even that fact is not entirely true,) that our planet is only one of several within the solar system, and that he inhabits a vast galaxy, only one of the millions within the universe. Mediaeval man would not have been able to grasp this, not only because he lacked the technology, but because the information would have both terrified and expanded him beyond his limits to cope.
Even though our beliefs and knowledge have changed, we still want to control the world we live in by setting limits on its possibilities. This is exemplified by the deterministic view which was widely held by scientists until the close of the Nineteenth Century, and which still has an influence today. Determinism sees the universe and everything it contains as an intricate clockwork mechanism, whose behaviour, provided we know the rules, can be predicted with absolute accuracy. Although Quantum Physics has shown us that the universe is fundamentally unpredictable, many scientists still use a deterministic model. Medical researchers, for example, talk about 'the mechanics of disease', implying that the human body is merely a machine. Historians , though not strictly scientists, also see events as having been determined by specific causes, disregarding the myriad factors at work in a particular situation. Although this may be satisfying to their limited minds, and expedient, the result is that any event seems to have as many causes as there are historians. The 'whole story' is impossible to see. Our limited mind is something we are reluctant to admit to.
Bill: This was brought home to me as a young man when I joined an organisation in Australia called Rostrum, which is a kind of debating society. At each meeting, three speakers would discuss one particular question. Each would put his argument as convincingly as possible, and persuade you he was right. Then the next speaker would attempt to destroy the case of the other speaker, changing your point of view again. The third speaker behaved in exactly the same way, so that you were once more convinced that this was the truth. This fascinated me, and I soon realised that a good speaker can convince you of anything by selecting which facts he presents to you and interpreting them to support his ideas.
All of us, because we are limited, can only retain a certain amount of information, which then shapes our perception of the world. For this reason, all patriarchal religions and political systems use censorship and propaganda. They control very carefully what information reaches the general public, suppressing anything which might threaten their power, usually under the guise of serving 'the common good'. This applies to so-called free countries as well as to those where the oppression is very visible.
What this all adds up to is that because of our limited minds, we can never know the truth about anything. To see the truth requires an ability to perceive the whole of something, and we only have partial vision. Women are well aware of this because of their strong link with the Great Mother, and do not usually strive to use their intellect to solve the riddle of existence. Man is not like this. With typical arrogance, and a burning desire to know so that he can control or use, he sets out to find immutable laws and formulae which will explain the universe. Even when his motivation is to bring peace and harmony, he cannot use his intellect to solve one problem without creating another. He may develop technology, for example, to eliminate poverty and disease, yet create a fresh difficulty, over-population, as a result.
When we look at the recorded history of mankind (or even today's newspaper) and see the appalling stupidity which has occurred, we may be tempted to turn away in despair at ever achieving happiness and peace on this planet. What we must remember is that an amazing amount of learning has also taken place. Like the Prodigal Son, man has had to learn how poverty stricken he has become on the path of the god, before he can swallow his pride and return to the Great Mother, who has never ceased to love him. The return journey is the path of the Goddess, and we will discuss it in the next chapter.

Chapter Two

The Path Of The Goddess

IN SOME WAYS the path of the Goddess is easy to understand simply because it is the exact opposite of the path of the god. What is true on the path of the god is false on the path of the Goddess, and what is false on the path of the god is true on the path of the Goddess. They are total opposites.
The path of the god involves movement away from the Great Mother, into separation for the purposes of independent creation, and the path of the Goddess returns us to the Great Mother, to harmony and wholeness. This creates problems for anyone who begins the path of the Goddess, because for thousands of years, through different reincarnations, men have been brought up to believe in struggle, in independence, in control of themselves and the world about them, including their fellow man. Though women have been encouraged to see themselves as the inferior nurturers of men and children, they too have adopted patriarchal ideas. When the time comes in their development to assert their own needs, they feel that only struggle and conflict will achieve what they want. At the beginning of our journey home to the Great Mother, men must voluntarily give up competitiveness, relinquish their feelings of total independence, and simply surrender to Her, acknowledging their interdependence with everything which exists. They also have to learn unconditional love, for everyone on the Earth. This is how the Great Mother loves.
This last idea is exemplified in John Donne's poem, "No man is an Island."
Bill: I remember when I was a young man and read Donne's poem, I found the whole idea quite ludicrous. How could what I was doing affect others far away, and how could it be true that "every man's death diminishes me?" Now I am on the path of the Goddess, I have arrived at a position where I can see that I am part of everyone else, but I can also understand those people who are not yet ready to accept this.
The return to the Great Mother involves us in learning to do consciously and with awareness what we unconsciously did when we were a part of the Goddess. We must consciously love, accept and join with everything, through our free will, instead of, as we did originally, in an instinctive and intuitive way.
We also have to learn about harmony, which is an alien or unlikely idea in a patriarchal society. A person on the path of the god believes, consciously or unconsciously, that everyone's strength is pitted against him, though this belief only reflects his own internal conflict. There seems to him to be disharmony everywhere, both in society and in Nature. Man fights with man, country fights with country, and within Nature, only the most competitive, or 'fittest' animals survive. There seems no way out of this constant battle for survival, leading him to the inevitable conclusion that it is an intrinsic part of the human and world condition.
When we turn the corner and move on to the path of the Goddess, we find, eventually, that everything is in harmony with everything else, and the whole works together for the good of everything within that wholeness. At some level, we begin to realise, there must be basic harmony. The balance within Nature, without our interference, is clear to see. Within our bodies, the harmonious activity of all the constituent parts enables most of us to live without any conscious need to regulate that harmony. We take it for granted that our hearts will beat, our food be digested, and our lungs take in air. Even our societies, for the most part, operate in a harmonious way, even though we ourselves might concentrate on the disharmony within them. The natural order and balance of the universe is apparent to us through both the astronomer's telescope and the electron microscope. All this order and intrinsic harmony is natural. Without man's conscious interference, there would be no disharmony. Even though he often meddles with the best intentions in the world, because he is unaware of the myriads of factors affecting a particular situation, he cannot change one part and know what the eventual outcome will be. This truth is acknowledged in Chaos theory, which designates certain areas - the weather for example, as being beyond man's capacity to control. There are simply too many pieces of information to be considered when predicting or controlling what the weather might do.
On the path of the Goddess, man will realise that if he asks to be reconnected with his source, the Great Mother, then none of his actions will cause disharmony or imbalance. It will be a great relief to him to realise that if he surrenders to the Great Mother, and consciously follows her guidance, all of his actions will be utterly harmless. Man has moved too far from the Great Mother to be able to survive any longer without Her assistance. His recognition that this is so will allow him to accept Her help, through women and intuition, and reestablish harmony within himself. That harmony then will be made manifest within society and Nature.
As with the ideal human mother, once the child has established a separate identity, then the child and mother are free to come together on a different basis, allowing the child to grow further with the continued help, co-operation and love of the mother. When it finally happens, that man reconnects fully with his source, the Great Mother, then it will be possible to have Heaven on Earth. Heaven and Hell are really only states of mind, not places. Hell is the state of mind of the god, which involves conflict, punishment, judgment and division. Heaven is the state of mind of the Goddess, in which harmony is so total that no conflict can occur. There are no decisions to be made, no idea can oppose another idea, and no-one can be hurt in any way. As unbelievable as it may seem to someone on the path of the god, we really do not have to struggle for our existence, for enlightenment or for love. We do not have to earn it by being 'good', fight for it through sacrifice and competition, or strive to understand it. Love, the Great Mother's gift to us in its myriad forms, is freely given. We only have to allow it to happen. There is no effort involved, only acceptance.
So it is possible to have a life of complete joy if you accept the help of the Great Mother, and relinquish 'trying.'
Bill: I have found this to be true in my own life. I was brought up by my father to believe in struggle. I was told that I would never achieve anything unless I worked very hard towards my goals. But personal experience has taught me that whenever I struggle to make things happen, nothing ever works out. When I have merely 'followed the flow' of whatever life brought towards me, then everything seemed to resolve itself in a harmonious way. My father had the same experience. He had worked hard all his life, as the god dictated he should, but for little result. Then he became too ill and depressed to continue. He gave up and surrendered. Suddenly life began to work out for him and he became happier and more successful than he had ever been before in his life.
Though illness and depression are not inevitable precursors of surrender, we are sure that most people who have a deep spiritual understanding could tell a similar story. In Christian mysticism, it is called 'The long dark night of the soul,' the point of deepest despair when you realise you know nothing, followed by surrender and peace.
We can see the same theme repeated in the life of the Buddha. When the Buddha was a very young man, he questioned the need for the suffering he saw around him, and tried to understand why man felt he needed to suffer at all. He gave up his privileged position as a prince, and went on the road to find spiritual enlightenment. After trying various disciplines and spiritual philosophies, to find some understanding, he became so disenchanted with his search that he simply gave up and surrendered, despairing of ever finding an answer. At that moment he became enlightened.
The same idea is found in the New Testament. Here we see a spiritual man, Jesus Christ, on the path of the Goddess. It is obvious that this is so from his teachings about a God of Love, and from the whole symbolism of the New Testament. This never caught on particularly well with Christians, who largely worship the old Jehovah god of the Old Testament. Jesus is crucified, descends into Hell, then rises again after three days. This encapsulates the whole cycle of man's development. The agony which Jesus experiences is the path of the god, one in which sacrifice and suffering are necessary. His death on the cross is the death of this path, offered to all human beings, so that they will not need to embrace suffering any longer. His resurrection on the third day follows his surrender to the Great Mother, which brings rebirth in a changed form. Our patriarchal way of thinking needs to die, as Jesus died on his cross, so that we can return to the Great Mother.
The story of the Prodigal Son continues the same theme. A man leaves his home and ventures out on his own, where he becomes more and more impoverished. His misery allows him to realise that he is far worse off now than when he was at home, so he returns. His fear that he will not be welcome is dispelled by the joy his father expresses when he arrives. The New Testament calls the parent 'father,' to satisfy the patriarchal society of the time, but nevertheless the point is clear. We journey away from the Great Mother, until, poor and unhappy, we realise we need Her. Then we surrender, give up the fight, and go home. We find that only love and acceptance are waiting to meet us. There is no punishment for our 'sin' in leaving, or for our mistakes and failures along the way.
Also in the New Testament we have the Virgin Mary, who continues a long tradition from earlier religions of being both a virgin and a mother. Of course, the Great Mother is the only one who can give birth without a male, but Mary allows us to see a very watered-down form of Her power and love in a religion which in every other respect totally devalues the feminine. Though the Christian Church emphasises Mary's sexlessness and celibacy as an inducement to women not to express their own sexuality, millions of people have prayed to her for help and compassion, thus reaching to the Great Mother through this action.
Mary Magdalene is another woman in the New Testament who represents a facet of the Great Mother. She was said to be a prostitute, one of the most despised occupations for a woman in patriarchal society. Jesus chose not to condemn her, and in fact she seems to have been one of his closest disciples. He is accepting of her because she, like the Great Mother, can give unconditional love to any man yet not be possessed by one. In the temples of the old matercentric religions were sacred prostitutes, or qadishtu, who saw sex as a celebration of life and creativity, not as something sinful. They might temporarily or permanently reside in the temple, and their children were not disparaged as 'bastards.' The idea that a woman should be restricted to sex with one man to ensure his property was left to his own children could not be important in a society which was matrilineal -i.e. titles and property came down through the mother, not the father.
Yet another trace of the Great Mother in the New Testament is the idea of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This represents the three aspects of the Great Mother found in the stages of a woman's life; the Mother, Daughter and Wise Woman. Many of the old matercentric religions had a triple Goddess who was 'three in one' in the same way Christianity is. These three faces of the Goddess were represented when Christ was crucified as the three Marys. It is also interesting to note that when he became resurrected, he appeared firstly to a woman, Mary Magdalene, before showing himself to the male disciples.
The most important point we can make about the New Testament is that its teachings are more in line with the path of the Goddess than the path of the god. Later on, Christ's message was distorted by the Church to fit in better with patriarchal society, and to preserve the power of the Church hierarchy. Jesus, because he was connected to the Great Mother, attempted to help people avoid needless suffering and separation. He was crucified for this, because people wanted their full measure of sorrow, pain and humiliation, even if it happened to be someone else's.
If you find this difficult to believe, think of how many people today are fascinated by stories of violence, murder or rape; how many enjoy plots involving oppositions such as cowboys/indians, cops/robbers, or other variations on the goodies/baddies theme. Many films and T.V. programmes are minor variations on the old Roman circuses, with the difference being that we are not physically present to witness the bloodshed. News reports also concentrate on disaster and violence, and filter out the peaceful and harmonious events occurring everywhere. While we are fascinated by fear, conflict, suffering and hatred, we are on the path of the god, and likely to create these themes in our lives. We are bored by harmony, because it is not exciting in the way 'fighting for right' is. To paraphrase Shakespeare, all the world's a stage, and while we are on the path of the god, we play the game of fear, aggression and hatred for real. Having forgotten that we all write our own scripts, we believe it is necessary.
Even on the path of the god, in the midst of the apparent conflict, there is an underlying harmony, which we cannot disrupt. Although newspapers present a picture of a world in constant turmoil, most of life is ordered, harmonious and balanced. Though we may choose to focus on disease and disharmony, the universe continues to operate in a perfectly balanced way. When we move on to the path of the Goddess, we begin to appreciate this. We see that Nature has an innate balance, that the world we see through our telescopes is as mysteriously ordered as the one glimpsed by sub-molecular physicists. An underlying yet invisible balancing mechanism exists, which ensures that everything works together in a continuous state of harmony. Even though an infinitesimally small sub-atomic particle appears to have an element of unpredictability surrounding it, something like our own free-will, at the larger level, there is always order.
The conflicts within the patriarchal system also show a drive towards harmony. Without this, society would be destroyed. Extremes of violence, deprivation and oppression cause their own reaction, and move inevitably towards their opposite. Within the larger cycle of human development are smaller ones, all of which show the same tendency to move towards eventual balance and harmony. If we have had a mini-era of sexual restraint, for example, then we swing back into a time of sexual freedom, which then moves into another era of repression, hopefully not as severe as the first.
Although harmony is real, we are free to believe otherwise, because the Great Mother has given us free-will. Until we choose to change our beliefs, no-one can alter them, and they continue to produce a world which inevitably proves them true. On the path of the god, it is pain which prizes us loose from our entrenched attitudes, and eventually forces us to grow, though we may endure a great deal of it before rebelling. On the path of the Goddess, joy and trust give us the confidence to welcome change and learn.
The conflict of ideas and beliefs which exists in patriarchal societies is not a true one. The Great Mother has given each of us a part of the truth, and since we are all unique, we each have a different part of the truth. All truths are true, and we have no right to tell another person that theirs is wrong. However, that is not the end of the story. All the pieces of truth given to us are part of a vast jigsaw puzzle, and we will never see a wider picture until we put the pieces together. This can only happen if we restore communication between the separate parts of the Great Mother's creation, this time with full consciousness. Each person will then have access to the truths possessed by others, and be able to see the whole picture instead of the tiny fragment of the totality which is his personal truth. Until we do this, we wander around with a little bit of sky, tree or earth, insisting that the whole puzzle is this piece.
The very limited truth available to patriarchal men is illustrated by the figure of The Hermit in the Tarot. The Hermit stands alone, like the patriarchal man who does not trust others, fears his god, and is trying to become completely divorced from the Great Mother. In his hand he holds a light, which represents his conscious mind, and with this feeble beam, he is attempting to see the whole of truth. Because the light is only a small one, he is very limited in what he can see.
Around the Hermit is a vast darkness, which symbolises all he does not know, or does not want to look at. In the darkness is the Great Mother, because the Hermit no longer wishes to acknowledge Her existence. As he moves further away from Her, he begins to see darkness as frightening. There is so much of it, and he can neither understand it or control it. He also fears punishment by the Great Mother for leaving Her, which intensifies his determination to forget She exists. The darkness becomes peopled with evil spirits, which represent the parts of himself he has discarded as 'bad.' The further he moves away from the Great Mother, and the brighter his personal light becomes, the more menacing the darkness appears. His reaction is to dump more and more of himself into the darkness of non-acceptance; his fears, 'sins,' love for others, and women. His god becomes a god of light, and darkness is equated with evil. Women in particular are seen as 'dark' and evil, which in a sense is true. Since they still often operate in an instinctive and intuitive way, despite patriarchal conditioning, they have very little 'light' in them, in the sense of intellectual and ego development.
People on the path of the god have a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. Like the Hermit with his tiny lamp, they illuminate a small part of All That Is, and call it 'good.' The variety of behaviours and beliefs designated as good by this process is fascinating. One man may see compassion and caring as 'bad,' because it is 'unmanly,' and weak, while another man sees it as a true Christian quality, and castigates 'selfish' people as evil. Like the Hermit, we keep ourselves focused on the known, and avoid the darkness of the unknown. Even scientists, who could be considered explorers par excellence, will often avoid investigating areas which they fear might lead them into revising deeply entrenched beliefs.
We keep ourselves stimulated and 'busy' because we fear that if we opened up to the unknown, all our unacceptable thoughts and feelings might come flooding back. What is worse, we might not be able to control them. This is one of the fears of men who refuse to look at the oppression of women. If women are given too many freedoms, where will it all end? They may no longer be susceptible to the control and domination of men. It seems safer by far to avoid looking into the darkness, since we cannot see that it has anything of value in it.
One of the accompanying phenomena of the refusal to accept our whole selves, by looking beyond the conscious mind, is scapegoating. We search for someone to blame for the evil in the world, or for our own personal deficiencies. If you look around you, you will inevitably see people who do this to an inordinate degree.
Pamela: One of the places I have found to be a rich source of 'it's not my fault' is a prison. When I was working in one for a time, I was amazed at the number of crimes which were completely excused on this ground. Rape is an obvious one. Many men blamed their victims, who were 'asking for it' in some way, and showed no recognition that a woman had any rights. Another favourite, and not quite so simple, was to defend a long list of burglaries, violence etc on the grounds that 'hard' drugs such as Heroin are illegal, and so you 'have to' rob people to buy them from your dealer. As far as the men were concerned, this was the sole cause of their being in prison. One might argue that there is some substance in what they say, because the Law is what makes us criminals by designating certain acts as illegal, but they extended this manoeuvre into almost every area of life. The fact that they could never see their own failings in a given situation, which allowed them self-esteem in a degrading prison system, was also the reason why they could never abandon their patterns of behaviour and the justifications they used for them.
The Jews traditionally practised scapegoating in a ritual whereby the sins of the people were passed on to an animal. When the animal was freed, it ran away, taking the sins of the community with it. Christians use this mechanism too. They see Jesus as having absolved them from sin through his crucifixion. Later on, the Devil took the blame for all the temptations people had to commit sinful actions. Women too are scapegoats. Eve's disobedience of the god was seen as the reason for man's fall from a state of grace, and women have been punished for this ever since. Their carnal nature was often seen as particularly suspect. Their sexual magnetism drew men towards them, leading to lustful, corrupt and weakening sexual activity which was definitely not the fault of men. At times, women were not even seen as deserving of the status of human beings, and did not have a soul.
Today, we still have scapegoats, but the movement towards the Great Mother is well-advanced in many individuals. We are less afraid of the darkness, in all its forms, and more willing to look at our fears and inadequacies. The awareness and acceptance of what psychologists call 'the unconscious' is now commonplace, though for some people it remains an intellectual toy rather than a tool for self-discovery. While many people are uneasy in the face of silence and darkness, others are beginning to listen to the voice of the Great Mother. The trouble is that the 'still small voice' tends to reverse the accepted wisdom of patriarchal society. No wonder it has been seen by so many people as the voice of the Devil. This is unfortunate, because if we were to trust this inner link to the Great Mother, it would take us home again to Paradise.

Chapter Three

From The Path Of The God To The Path Of The Goddess

IN THE MIDDLE AGES, in Europe, the majority of people were on the path of the god. Most were involved in situations of suffering, conflict, intolerance and fear. Practically everyone had a belief that they lived in a hostile world, where co-operation was either impossible or ungodly. The separative aspects of human nature were at their height. However, in the last few hundred years, many new ideas have sprung up which have changed the status quo in patriarchal society. The concepts of freedom, liberty and equality have found wide acceptance, for example. These are all matercentric ideas, because they eventually produce a harmonious and co- operative society.
To make matters worse for patriarchal society, the concept of evil has been eroded. Back in the Middle Ages, everyone had a strong sense of evil. It was relatively easy to see your fellow man as being possessed by the Devil, which justified all sorts of cruel punishments in the name of the god. Naturally, those who held most power decided what was good and what was evil, and used both force and propaganda to reinforce the distinction between the two.
Nowadays, however, we have a society in which the demarcation lines between good and evil are far more blurred. We can consider criminals who persistently break the law in minor ways, for example, and see that they are merely misunderstood, inadequate or unhappy, rather than evil. We can accept them more and judge them less. Perhaps, we think, we should not merely punish them, but help them. Perhaps we should not beat our children when they disagree with us or disobey us, and instead, show them more understanding. Maybe we should be more tolerant towards people who are different from us, instead of condemning them out of hand. Even more radical is the thought that we could allow women greater equality within society, instead of confining them to a few roles chosen by men.
All these ideas are changing the face of society in the West, and bringing about a great deal of confusion, simply because there are two forces within society, moving in opposite directions. There is the force of the god, moving away from the Great Mother, and emphasising men, the individual, and intellect, and there is the force of the Goddess, returning us to the Great Mother, emphasising women, co-operation and intuition. These forces are colliding within present-day society at many levels,- within the individual, within large organisations and between nations. As a result, we have structures and belief systems which attempt, totally unsuccessfully, to combine both matercentric and patriarchal ideas. For instance, within left-wing politics, we have the belief that everyone is equal, and should have equal rights and opportunities. This is a matercentric idea. Unfortunately, socialists and communists who gained power by promising to promote equality, frequently created vast bureaucracies with a leader at the top, who would, in theory, dish out the proceeds of society equally, and ensure fairness by multifarious rules and regulations. Because the socialists used patriarchal methods - control and hierarchies- to bring about a fair society, harmony did not result, and their opponents were able to accuse them of naivete in believing that Utopia is at all possible, human nature being what it is. There is a similar story over on the right wing of politics, where the belief is in the freedom of the individual. Again, this is a matercentric idea. But at the same time as supporting freedom, the right wing politicians are also endorsing the status quo in patriarchal society. The result is selective freedom, given only to people who are acceptable to those in power, and a reinforcement of their freedom to exploit others, within the old hierarchical system. So we see an undermining of the very freedom which the politicians seem to be advocating.
Children come in for a confusing time because of the mixture of matercentric and patriarchal ideas within society. They may have a parent who firmly believes that children should be given the freedom to develop in an atmosphere with as few restrictions as possible. They explain everything to the child, coerce as little as possible, and never use corporal punishment. Then the child visits granny, or attends school, where another set of beliefs may be in operation. This time the child is told exactly what to do, and punished if he fails to comply. No explanations or consultations come into it. A totally patriarchal male child would be thrilled by the first situation, and run rings around his exhausted but 'caring' parents, as he indulges in mind- boggling tantrums, and exhibits utterly selfish behaviour. He will obey and grudgingly respect his granny or his schoolteacher, because these are the rules he knows about, however despicable they may seem to his parents. He has been given the opportunity to see both ways of being, but no-one can force him to become a co-operative and caring child if he doesn't want to be one. Another child may need the freedom of a matercentric environment in order to survive and develop. A home or school in which your opinion is never asked, and where you do as you are told, or else, does not fit them. Families in which everyone is different give us opportunities to grow. If we are the ultimate 'caring, sharing' parent, and we have an utterly patriarchal child, male or female, then we are being faced with a part of the human community which is different from us, and represents that part of us which is still patriarchal. There are no accidents in who we get as parents, and the children we bear are also reflections of a learning opportunity we have given ourselves, however unconsciously.
However, despite all the confusion within society, there is no doubt that we are moving towards a matercentric society. There is no way that anyone can stop this, because it is the will of the Great Mother, and ours too. All we can do is to allow the transition to take place in a smooth and easy way rather than a painful and traumatic fashion. One of the factors which will help in the changeover is a recognition that men and women are fundamentally different, and have to be treated in entirely different ways. Women, for example, have no need of a pecking order, unless they have been brain-washed by patriarchal society. They do not need to be as closely controlled as men do, because they are more in tune with the Great Mother. Men, however, will still need guidance from women for some time, if they are not to harm themselves and others, until they learn unconditional love.
In a patriarchal society, men undoubtedly have a great advantage over women. The reverse will be the case in a matercentric one. To begin with, women may control society in much the same way men have done, using law, structure and morality. This is partly because they will still have some patriarchal values, and partly due to the numbers of patriarchal people still on the path of the god. It will not be possible, initially, to allow people complete freedom, simply because they will neither desire it or believe in its possibility. There will be many people who wish to continue living within a patriarchy, and it must be recognised that they have to be treated differently from those moving into a matercentric way of life. People on the path of the Goddess will respond to love, consideration and tolerance with acceptance. Although they may have parts of their belief systems still rooted in patriarchy, they have turned the corner, and are moving back to the Great Mother. People on the path of the god do not want tolerance and understanding in their lives. They are used to conflict, judgment and intolerance, and the drama of the patriarchal way of life. We must accept their continuing need for friction, control and aggression, until they choose otherwise.
The Women's Liberation Movement has attempted to achieve equality for women in our patriarchal society. But while the structure of our society is designed to fit the needs and desires of men, women will always be at a disadvantage. So for women to achieve equality, the whole structure of society needs to change. This is beginning to occur already, even though the motives of those accommodating women's needs and nature can often be selfish. An employer who is short of workers and introduces a creche to his workplace may be accused of opportunism, but nevertheless changes have been made to society by this action. As change continues and becomes less superficial, more and more women will come to the fore and begin to assume positions of control. Undoubtedly, many of these women will be largely patriarchal in attitude to begin with, but as time goes on, and fundamental change continues, they will be replaced by women who are truly matercentric in their strong connection to the Great Mother.
Since the whole of patriarchal society is built around concepts of control -- through force, law and morality, it is inevitable that a matercentric society will weaken that control. This is already happening. During the Middle Ages and before, the kings and princes who controlled society were often worshipped as gods, and their word was law. Although ambitious men might challenge their power through insurrection, the majority of the common people accepted their rule, having been convinced through propaganda or the fear of punishment that this was a good idea. Times have changed, however, and we are now realising that the people who lead us are not gods but fallible human beings. There is more desire on the part of many people to be in charge of their own lives, rather than handing it over to someone else who may make mistakes or simply not care. Alongside this, there is still wide acceptance of patriarchal values, leading to desires for a 'strong' leader, repressive laws, and a return to former certainties about everyone's place within society.
When people turn on to the path of the Goddess, there can be a dramatic shock, resulting from the realisation that they neither want nor need someone else to make decisions for them. They begin to see that politicians and other power figures cannot be relied upon to lead in a way which results in happiness for everyone. As a result, they begin to take charge of their own lives, and experience greater harmony and love.
Another facet of patriarchal society which is currently changing is inequality. At one time, it was relatively easy for a small group of people to own a high proportion of a country's wealth and land, without awkward questions being asked. The inheritance of privileges of all kinds, and the inequitable provision of opportunity within a society was seen as right and good. The god had decreed that every person had his station in life, and this was not to be questioned or changed. The common people were encouraged to defer to those above them, and even seen as sinful because they were poor, or of lowly birth. Those with inherited wealth, social status, or power, came to see themselves as god- like beings, more fitted to rule than those below them. Occasionally, the inequalities were moderated by a few men who saw their role as protectors of their inferiors. They ensured that there was no mistreatment of people within their sphere of influence, and behaved with kindness and tolerance towards them. Others simply accepted the advantages inequality had given them, and felt no compunction about continuing to promote it and exploit it.
It would be foolish to pretend that inequality has ended. In the U.K. 95% of wealth and assets (land, property etc) is owned by 5% of the population. In many Muslim countries, repression of women is still very strong. In India, riots took place when the Government suggested giving some rights to the Untouchable caste. All over the world, people are being discriminated against in every conceivable way. But inequality is at least being questioned in some societies. The poor do not accept their lot quite so humbly as they once did. They are beginning to ask why society is not giving them a fair deal, and why it always appears to be their fault that they are not more successful. Women, of course, question the inequalities of a society which still sees them as inferior and second-rate. All sorts of 'isms' - racism, ageism, sexism etc, are being pointed at, with the result that those who are discriminatory are beginning to have to justify themselves, rather than having a totally free hand to practice their prejudices. Even some of those in power are beginning to wonder whether what they are doing is the right thing, and asking if there is a more co-operative way to run society. Conspicuously wealthy people, who at one time might have used their riches to impress others, are now finding that they receive more brickbats than bouquets. They find themselves having to justify their disproportionate consumption of the world's resources, and answering searching questions about the manner in which they acquired their money. It would no longer be acceptable, for example, for a society lady to exist on the revenues from slavery, as it was in the Eighteenth Century in Britain. As a result, many wealthy people are keeping quiet about their affluence, or even pretending to be poorer than they actually are.
In a patriarchal society, the aim is to have control of everything, up to and including, if possible, people's thoughts. In a matercentric society, we will control nothing. There will be no leaders, in the sense we know them at present, no policemen, no lawyers or law, no vast bureaucracies, no organised religion, with a fixed dogma, and no moral code except that love should be the key to all behaviour. Even that will not be a rule, as such, but spring from connection to the Great Mother. All kinds of behaviour will be possible which would be frowned on by present- day society, yet no-one will be in any way harmed by this, because the motivation for everything will be unconditional love.
Each person will have the freedom to choose a way of life which fulfils them, without encroaching on the freedom of others to do the same. This is not the same as the so-called freedom of patriarchal society, which is often a thinly disguised cover for oppressing others or behaving irresponsibly in the name of personal freedom. In a matercentric society, no-one will either desire to or be allowed to, override the personal will of another individual. Instead of looking to others for decision making, each individual will take the reins in his own life, and be responsible for it in complete freedom.
At first sight, this scenario appears to be totally anarchic. No rules, no laws, no leaders - surely society cannot function without them? We need them to make life safe for us. But the truth of the matter is that we need all of these structures and regulatory devices because of a lack of trust in ourselves and others. We believe that without law and order, chaos would result, leading to an appallingly uncivilised society in which everyone fights openly to grab what they want. Our opinion of human nature is very low. We feel we cannot stop our selfish behaviour without punishment as a deterrent, and even more so, believe that other people would have great difficulty in restraining themselves. Our laws, unfortunately, do not work. Even though we are heavily socialised against crimes such as murder and theft, and there are severe penalties for being caught committing them, we have had no success whatsoever in wiping them out. This is simply because our patriarchal consciousness is responsible for the desire to steal and kill, and only an inner and outer change to a matercentric way of being will eliminate them, not bigger and better laws. Our laws are a substitute for love; there would be no necessity for them in a world in which trust and love predominated. When we trust the Great Mother to provide us with all our needs and make us happy, there will be no desire to take the property of others, if indeed we have any wish to see anything as belonging specifically to one person. We are surrounded by everything we could ever need. To steal from another person when we realise this, is akin to grabbing a drink from a person's hand when all around is an ocean of freely available water. Pointless.
The impulse to murder, which is the most heinous crime in society's eyes, will similarly disappear in a matercentric society, without the necessity for any laws regarding it. Since anger, greed, fear and possessiveness will no longer exist, the motives for ending the life of someone will not be there either. As with all of the changes in society, the elimination of crime, law and the policing of people will not happen overnight. Not until there is enough trust and love on the planet will those who cling to these things abandon their faith in them. There will be a long slow evolution into a free yet secure society, with many people continuing to invest their faith in patriarchal structures until they are convinced that they are not necessary, either for themselves or for others. Those who enjoy rules because it is exciting to break them, for example, will take time to learn new ways of being. They may see a female -led, free society not as anarchic and frightening, but as boring. Currently, they need something to defy and outwit, and the structures and laws of our society fit the bill admirably.
So the solution to any difficulties within society is not to bring out new laws, but to change mankind itself through the evolution of the soul, such as is already happening. There is on earth today, an enormous number of people who have completed the path of the god. They are no longer interested in violence, conflict, hatred and intolerance. Now changing to the path of the Goddess, they are looking for harmony, love and peace. As more and more people become willing to live together, guided by unconditional love, all our patriarchal structures will deteriorate and die.
Although the seeds of the matercentric society have been sown over the last few centuries, the 'hippy' movement of the sixties was the first major push towards it on a conscious level. Of course it did not last long, because it was too far ahead of its time, and it was compromised by too many patriarchal attitudes. However, another, similar movement is inevitable, since the present generation of young people are more matercentrically inclined than ever before. This will be very important, because there are so many people today who are dissatisfied with the quality of society: they are not happy with their lack of freedom, they are not willing to be told what they can and cannot do, or how they should lead their lives. Those who uphold the present structures of society are coming increasingly under pressure. No matter how they try, nothing seems to be right. Fundamentally, movement towards the Goddess will erode and destroy all structures within society. Finally, when a group of people can come together and demonstrate that they can live together in peace and harmony without any patriarchal structures, all systems will begin to disappear.
There are many well meaning religious cults today who are attempting to live in a loving way. Unfortunately, the mistake they are all making is that although they want to live in peace, they still build patriarchal structures to make it happen. There seems to be an underlying belief that without some form of organisation or leader nothing can be achieved. They need to realise that the structure itself destroys any possibility of harmony, because it is always a form of limitation. All that is really required is recognition of and surrender to the Great Mother, and a realisation that she is always there to give us unconditional love. We have to give or receive love from our fellow human beings and then get on with our own lives, without attempting to change or control ourselves or others. This sounds a radical and dangerous concept, but in truth it is not. If we truly believe in the unconditional love of the Great Mother, anyone on the path of the god will avoid us like a bucket of pigs offal. We will essentially be uncontrollable, and therefore of no interest. We will not be threatening to them, because we are not competitive or violent. Anyone on the path of the Goddess will realise the truth of what we are trying to do and cooperate.
The essential problem for the male ego, when the movement towards the Great Mother begins, is the acquisition of humility. Most patriarchal men are extremely arrogant. They believe that they can solve not only their own problems but every other person's too, usually by the use of control. When they begin to move on to the path of the Goddess, they have to learn to let go and recognise that they do not have a solution to all problems, that we have to look to the Great Mother for help and understanding in all situations. A patriarchal society embodies Murphy's law, - that whatever can go wrong does go wrong - but it is possible to reverse this. In a matercentric world, the law is that if it can go right it will go right, - but only if we do not consciously interfere.
All of us have been brought up to believe in discord and disharmony as an unalterable fact of life, and the notion that we can live harmoniously is foreign to us. If we can surrender, and accept the possibility that letting go of all our cherished problem-solving strategies might result in greater success, we will inevitably find it is true. This is another reason why women will become the guiding sex in future. Simply because they are used to bearing and nurturing children, they are more accustomed to following their instincts and feelings than men are. During the birth of a child they have no choice but to let go and allow Nature to take over, for example. They tend to make decisions based not on ' calm clear logic ' but on intuitive and emotional response. This has earned them the contempt of men, who criticise them as hysterical, weak, sentimental and biased by feelings instead of reason. In some ways they are justified. A woman reacting through fear, who is not strongly connected to the Great Mother, may behave as foolishly as a man who solves all difficulties using his intellect. However, those women who can use their intuition to tap into the Great Mother, can and will show us the way forward.
This does not mean that men will have to relinquish logic and reasoning. What it does mean is that they must not attempt to use them to control situations and people. They must offer up their intellectual capabilities to women, who will then use intuition to decide what should happen, and they must begin to develop their intuitive links to the Great Mother. This does not occur at the moment, resulting in an unbalanced society.
Nor do we have to abandon Technology and Science, but we must ask in a given situation whether they might be disharmonious. In a patriarchal society, we tend to go by the maxim 'the end justifies the means', but in a matercentric society the means and the ends are the same. All technology will have to be used in a harmless way, and the very idea of utilising it in a destructive or harmful way to create peace and harmony later on, will be seen as totally stupid. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Science and Technology, or logic and reason. The fault lies in their misapplication. Women, who are better balanced between reasoning and feelings, will be a more competent judge of how to use technology. At present this is not recognised. Our over evaluation of men's ability to create on a scientific and technological level has blinded us to the fact that women have special and invaluable gifts too. A woman who has a well- developed intuition, is more likely to be denigrated as illogical than consulted on important questions by patriarchal man.
This being so, how will we arrive at the position where women guide men? If a matercentric society is one in which there is no coercion or control, it cannot come about by those means. The answer is that women will have to do nothing to achieve leadership, even though many women are under the misapprehension that they have to 'fight for their rights.' Men on the path of the god will never relinquish control to women. To coerce them only leads to a later backlash. But men on the path of the Goddess will gladly surrender to women because it is the Will of the Great Mother, and they will be in tune with Her Will.
We can see if we look carefully at our present day society, how powerful forces are operating to make it possible for women to gain advantages, despite strong opposition from patriarchal society. There is only one requirement for women in order to achieve a matercentric world. They must accept the Great Mother within themselves, and recognise that they are Her representatives on earth. Once they do this, men will begin worshipping them and accepting their authority without question, for the greater good of all.

Chapter Four

The Goddess In Our Present Day Society

ROBERT GRAVES made an observation in his book 'The White Goddess,' that a poem was a true poem if it gave you a 'tickly' feeling when you read it, and that the feeling would come when the poem was related to the White Goddess. It's what the author James Joyce called 'the agenbite of inwit,' and can be experienced through art, music and dance, as well as through literature and film. The feeling has no accepted label in our society, but can be described as a recognition of truth, which is felt at an emotional or intuitive level. It arises from connection to the Great Mother, who is the whole of truth, and reminds us of Her existence. The words re-cognition and re-mind show us that we are remembering something which we have forgotten, since the prefix, re, means 'again.' The form in which the 'aha!' is experienced varies enormously, but in essence it is always a reconnection to the love we experienced when we were fully one with the Great Mother. Often, it can be painful, since it reminds us, however briefly, of the time when we were blissfully happy, in union with Her and with All that is. As a result of the pain of separation from the Great Mother and each other, we may look for Her in outer things; in money, in sexual activity, in drugs; all the things which seem likely to give us a taste of joy. We have forgotten that the capacity for joy comes from within, and we move from one transient pleasure to another, seeking, but always looking in the wrong place.

Some popular music taps into our connections with the Goddess, since it is not only 'classical' or 'serious' music which has a monopoly on this. John Lennon, for example, in songs like 'Woman,' or 'Imagine,' could reach a wide audience with his insights. Even 'Heavy Metal' music, often derided as mindless sexist garbage, sometimes contains images and sounds which reach to the part of us crying for help from the Great Mother. Just because a song seems banal to us on an intellectual level, does not mean it is valueless. It may be extremely helpful to those who wish to find a way home to the Great Mother, and absolutely right for them.
Many love stories through the ages have also evoked the Goddess; Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet,' for example. Although Romeo and Juliet had a matercentric concept of love for each other, they lived within a patriarchal society; their families were more interested in conflict and control than love. The secrecy which resulted from this, led eventually to the tragic deaths of the lovers. Obviously, many patriarchal commentators on the play have come to different conclusions, explaining the tragedy as having been caused by the impulsiveness and inexperience of two teenagers, who have unrealistic and probably temporary feelings of love for each other. There have been thousands of love stories which paint a similar picture. In them, lovers desire a world in which they can freely express themselves, yet this is denied by society, which insists on setting love within very firm boundaries, and controlling the way in which it is expressed. Other love stories show another aspect of the Goddess - one in which She works through a mortal woman to act as the inspirational Muse for a writer or artist. The Italian writer Dante exemplifies this. He fell in love with a woman called Beatrice, whom he had only seen from a distance. His immense feelings of love gave him his creative energy, even though there was never a 'proper' relationship between them.
Over the years, all great artists have attacked patriarchal society in one way or another, whether by focusing on its narrowness, greed, selfishness and disharmony, or by seeking themselves to live life differently, in a more life-affirming way. It is unavoidable that they do this, since the vision and genius which makes them great writers and painters, comes directly from the Great Mother, even if the patriarchal side of them distorts the information they receive from Her. Society has attempted to counteract their vision: by making their art into a religious activity, interpreted and controlled by the rulers, by censorship, or by turning their work into a bland, watered-down version of itself, acceptable to patriarchal society and thus no threat to it.
It is not only art which patriarchal society seeks to suppress. Anything which reflects the Goddess is fearful to the rulers, and must be eliminated or controlled. This is particularly true of sexuality. In no other area of life is there so much fear, conditioning, secrecy and hypocrisy. A President of the United States can remain in office despite his secret dealings with the enemies of the state, yet could not survive any sort of sex scandal. Our laws on pornography, to give another example, are riddled with fear, confusion, and very strong emotions.
In a male-dominated society, it is easy to see why pornography which reduces woman to a two dimensional image is popular. It allows men solitary sexual stimulation without the tedious business of having to relate to a flesh and blood human being. It also allows fantasies to be explored which cannot be acted out in real life. Prostitution offers the same advantages to men. What is difficult to understand is why some men oppose it, and pass laws to eradicate it. In many ways, pornography can be quite useful, in that it shows us the gap between behaviour and fantasy. We may wish to be a certain kind of person, and control our actions to fit in with this, but if we have not suppressed our fantasies, they show us where we're really at on the level of desire.
Bill: I had experience of this some years ago, when I began to realise that some of my sexual fantasies were quite sick. My first reaction was to suppress them. I was not 'that sort of person.' This worked for a time, then they returned, stronger than before, showing that this was not the way to deal with them. I surrendered to them, and used them for masturbation, whereupon they lost their power to attract me. I found that my 'sick' fantasies gave me an awareness of myself which enabled me to grow, and that opportunity would have been lost had I censored them as unacceptable and pushed them from my awareness.
If we look closely at pornography, it reveals not only a great deal of information about ourselves, but about our society and the Great Mother. A common male fantasy, for example, is of using a woman sexually in a selfish and disposable way. This may be acted out by visiting a prostitute, or it may stay firmly in the realm of ideas. What it shows, is that part of the man is still firmly on the path of the god, and whatever his outward behaviour, is still desiring to use women rather than serve them.
Another fairly common male fantasy is of seducing a virginal child or inexperienced girl. The scenarios vary. Sometimes force is used, sometimes not. Sometimes the girl responds with delight, thus boosting the man's ego, or she responds with fear, giving him a sense of power in a different way. Other men have heavily sadistic fantasies, of raping or torturing women, or, another favourite, watching two women making love. These are all fairly solidly patriarchal fantasies. The man is not yet ready to see women as anything other than objects for the gratification of his ego. He may of course go even further in his desires, into the realms of the totally socially unacceptable, and be stimulated by the idea of sex with small children or animals, by violence to the point of death, and by things like excreta, urine and fetishistic objects.
Not all pornography paints the same picture. It ranges over all the possible levels of development, and gives us a truer vision of our society than observable sexual behaviour does. We can see for example, that when a man turns on to the path of the Goddess, his sexual fantasies change. Many will begin to dream about a dominating woman, who initiates sex, or one who uses him as a sex slave for her own pleasure. In their 'ordinary' lives, they may still behave in an entirely patriarchal way, yet have a strong desire for punishment by a woman because of their misuse of her over the millenia, and act this out with a prostitute or through pornographic literature. Others may have taken their development further, and at the fantasy level, adore and worship women. Possibly, in 'real' life they cannot find a woman willing to be worshipped, or they wish to test out what it feels like in fantasy, before risking it in actuality.
There is, of course, a similar pattern with women. Patriarchal women commonly have rape fantasies, or ones in which they are irresistibly taken over by a man who skilfully and excitingly makes love to them. If they have been conditioned almost entirely out of sexual desire, this may be transmuted into fantasies of meeting a man who is loving, caring and sensitive, without any sexual element being present. Some imagine making love with a group of men, who may restrain or force them, yet they enjoy the experience. The common thread is the passivity. Sex is something which happens to them, and they do not initiate it, even though in daily life they may be relatively assertive women. In some cases this passivity may be a denial that they want sex, and in others it may be a lingering hope that if they do remain 'good' girls, the Prince will come, and they will live in bliss for ever.
When women move on to the path of the Goddess, their fantasies also change, just as men's do, but they move into a more active expression of desire. They may dream of humiliating a man, by having sex with someone else in front of him, or physically punishing him. They may fantasize about choosing a partner from ten willing sex slaves, and having total fulfilment without the need to consider the man's satisfaction all the time. The common factor is that they are now willing to acknowledge their sexual desires, and take steps to satisfy them, rather than waiting meekly for a man to do this.
Fantasy and pornography do not only show us some of our levels of development, they also display clearly some of our internal conflicts. A man who has the extremely common fantasy of wishing to use a woman sexually, without any concern for her consent or pleasure, also wants, although he may not be conscious of it, the unconditional love of a woman. Many women who have been raped can support this contention. They report that the man, after brutally raping them, asked for love and forgiveness. It would be easy to say that this desire is quite easy to fulfil for men. Women seem to adore men who are utterly selfish, and will endure all kinds of mistreatment at their hands without ever wavering in their affections. The problem is, that at the level of the unconscious, the man is completely dependent on the love of the woman, however independent he appears to be at the conscious level. If she withdraws her love, which sustains him in ways he does not recognise or admit to, his security is lost. Out of fear at losing this unconditional love, which is of course coming to him from the Great Mother via the woman, he seeks to control her, while at the same time giving all sorts of reasons other than the true one for his actions. He is unaware of the true reason. Since unconditional love, by its very nature, can't be controlled, he is either unsuccessful, or what is more likely, he ends up receiving only conditional love from the woman, mixed in with a large dollop of fear and guilt. Because her nature is unlimited, the woman would love all men, and this is unacceptable to a patriarchal man, who does not want to share her. He truncates her nature through his jealousy, possessiveness and fear, and the result is that he does not get what he wants - unconditional love, but a severely limited version of it. The woman herself restricts her natural way of being because the man tells her it is correct, and yet she knows intuitively that something is wrong.
We see this phenomenon more widely in patriarchal society, where man wishes to completely control the Goddess in the form of Nature and the earth. Though he knows he is entirely supported by Nature, and can't exist without her, he still distorts that knowledge, and attempts to make her subservient to him. Because Nature has not so far resisted this control has blinded him to the fact that he is trying to make something far greater than him bow to his will. In his arrogance, he rapes and despoils the planet in the same way he rapes and controls women.
So far we have only discussed heterosexual fantasies, but homosexuals also show their level of development by what they dream about. Gay men often see the Great Mother so clearly in women, perhaps due to a dominating mother, that they are terrified. They do not see the unconditional love, because of their fears, and focus on the dark side of the Mother, whom they see as engulfing them. Other men seem much safer than this. They may also be fascinated by strong women at the same time, and have friendships with them in which there is no overt sexual element. There is an attraction/repulsion energy, which shows an internal problem with females, and men do not have to be practising homosexuals to exhibit it.
Nearly all men have a strong reaction to powerful women, even though there are so few examples in our society to point towards. Margaret Thatcher is an exception. She remained as leader of the Conservative Party for fifteen years and was Prime Minister for eleven. She survived politically despite various periods of unpopularity, and dramatically changed the image of women through this. Almost no-one was indifferent to her. She provoked loyalty, loathing and admiration, in equal measure. She is clearly a dominant woman, who enjoyed political power, and was adept at hanging on to it. Her behaviour reversed almost all the old stereotypes we have about women, which appals some people and delights others. Many like to imagine that the men in Cabinet grovelled before her, and reams have been written about why this was so, whether the men secretly enjoyed this, and what such actions do to harm democratic procedure. Also, much has been said about her apparent reluctance to include women in her Cabinet, and her habit of encouraging other women to return to their homes, to resume their old roles as wives and mothers. Did she dislike competition from other women, fearing they would not succumb to the same tactics as used on male politicians, or, as one author has suggested, did she actually see herself as a man, with the same attitude towards other women as a totally patriarchal male has?
To many observers, Margaret Thatcher was a traitor to her sex. Though she is female, they say, she has in fact worsened the lot of British women. Because she was the leader of the Conservative Party, which upholds the status quo within patriarchal society, she encouraged and advocated behaviour which has led to an even more uncaring and materialistic society. Other commentators focus on her leadership qualities of determination and toughness, and applaud her unwavering resoluteness in the face of opposition. She is seen as having put the 'Great' back into 'Great Britain,' especially after her actions during the Falklands War. The problem is that a woman has to play the patriarchal game to get any power in our patriarchal world.
[The authors disagreed over the role of Margaret Thatcher in writing this book, which was written while she was still Prime Minister. Bill hoped she would start a new trend of strong female leaders. Pamela disagreed and greatly disliked her, because she wasn’t a ‘sister’ as she passed anti-feminist laws. Also Pamela thought of her as just a ‘man in a frock’ because of her and ruthless and uncaring behaviour. Pamela’s fears have since proved correct because since Margaret Thatcher no-one in Britain seem to want another female leader, because they fear she will be like another Margaret Thatcher.]
The more that women gain control and power within patriarchal structures, the more those structures will deteriorate and die. It does not matter that it is only women who are still highly patriarchal who occupy these positions, and appear to uphold competition and conflict - it would be impossible for a truly matercentric woman, if in fact they exist at all, to be successful within politics or business today. It has already been noticed that when women begin to enter prestigious occupations, the status of that profession diminishes. In the U.S.A., where most doctors and surgeons are male, medicine is a highly regarded profession, with great financial rewards for some. In the U.S.S.R., most doctors are women, and the status of the profession is low. It is not only that an occupation with women in it has less status because women themselves are held in low regard by society; women, by their very nature, change the internal structures of the profession. Patriarchal men are able to behave in a way which allows them to acquire status, power and wealth without internal conflict. It is perfectly easy for them to care about no-one but themselves. They build job structures to reflect this. To begin with, when women enter such structures, they have to toe the line. They may in fact agree with the rules, and if they are suppressing unconditional love, be every bit as tough and competitive as men. However, if they have power, it is the power of the Goddess, and sooner or later, their fear will die away, enabling them to both care for others, and have some status and reward within society. Before this, it will have looked to them that it was an either/or situation - either they could love and nourish others, or they could have something for themselves. When they reach this realisation, the ethos and therefore the organisation of their profession begins to change, attracting more similarly minded women, and the rot sets in as far as patriarchal society is concerned. Once a profession begins to care about the welfare of people, both within and without it, and loses its ruthlessness, patriarchal men lose interest. They begin to choose other occupations, which still allow them to be selfish and competitive. Eventually, there will be no place to run for the patriarchal individual, but that time is a long way off.
If the image of a strong woman like Margaret Thatcher is disturbing to men, it is even more disturbing to women. Women in our society are not accustomed to the idea of being dominant, and if they are, they will often conceal the fact. Actresses who have impersonated Margaret Thatcher on stage or television, have reported feeling surprised at the amount of power they sense in themselves when assuming this persona. It is an unusual sensation for women in our society.
Patriarchal society, over the last few thousand years, has quite successfully undermined the self-esteem of women, and the number of strong, confident females is minimal. It is considered acceptable and indeed desirable, for a man to be assertive, but a woman is still largely expected to be 'nice' and compliant. This causes problems for women when faced with a real life example of a bossy woman like Margaret Thatcher. Some are likely to reject her completely because she does not fit the patriarchal image of women, who place children and husband before self. If they were to allow that she was right to seek political power, then it makes their life of sacrifice to a man's ambitions look like foolishness. Other women accept that it is o.k. to want power, but criticise the lack of compassion they see in Mrs Thatcher. They wish to see a woman who is clearly caring and co-operative in a position of authority. In this they are not wrong, but unrealistic about just how successful such a woman could be in the merciless jungle of present day politics. Another group of women are fiercely loyal and devoted to Margaret Thatcher, because they see her as a role model for the emergence of similar females. They endorse all of her patriarchal attitudes, and see the way forward in terms of women becoming like men .i.e. individualistic, competitive and tough. The last group of women also favour Mrs Thatcher, but in this case only because she is a woman. They are grateful that there is a strong woman around, and do not care what her politics are, even if they disagree with them. To this group of women, she is a ground breaker, and they are happy that she has had the courage to be herself and pursue her ambitions. It will not be clear for some time what effect she has had on society, but for these women, it can only be good. She paves the way for other women, and they applaud her for that.
Attitudes towards a woman who is turning onto the path of the Goddess, despite the way we've depicted it, is never simple. There is always a mixture of emotions, both negative and positive.
Pamela: Both my mother and my ex mother-in-law have shown me this ambivalence in equal measure, and confused me because of my own lack of certainty. When I was a full-time professional 'career woman,' my mother was both proud and approving. My mother in law was uneasy. She felt I should be bearing and raising children as she had done. She couldn't wait to be presented with grandchildren, and for me to become a 'proper' wife. When I finally had a child, however, they united. My priority was my daughter; therefore I should work only a little, if at all, they agreed. Since I was guilty about my desire to resume my career, I was in conflict, and resolved it badly by going into an emotional decline which was only reversed by taking a part-time job. It was the best I could do at the time. When I separated from my husband, both women again changed position. My mother saw it as common sense that if I was going to be a single mother, I should re-enter my profession as quickly as possible, before my skills became rusty and unacceptable. My mother-in-law demanded that I go back to work because otherwise her son would be burdened with substantial maintenance payments. For my part, the very thought of working in a tough profession when I was physically and emotionally bankrupt, was an impossibility. Eventually I had no choice, because my husband, backed up by a judge, paid such a tiny amount towards the maintenance of his child that I was forced to return to work. In the long run, this may have been the best course of action, however unfair it seemed at the time. I was made to become self- sufficient, which was painful and exhausting, yet from it I drew great strength, which only now do I realise came from the Great Mother.
It is difficult for a woman to realise the power she will have over men if she draws on the Great Mother. We are accustomed to the sexual 'pull' of a desirable woman, and the way this can be used to manipulate men, but we have not as yet thought of other ways in which power can be manifested or used. This is mainly because women have not dared to think what they might want if somehow their desires could be fulfilled. It will be interesting to see what form the wishes of women will take, once they realise that they can choose for themselves, rather than being told by men what it is they want or are.
One of the ways in which women's power will benefit society is by the proper use of men who are geniuses. We have spoken before of how the man's brain is designed. He can access his intellect or his intuition, but not both, unlike a woman, who is able to balance both sides of the brain and use them at the same time. When a man manifests genius, he uses his intuition, leaving his intellect out in the cold. This often causes instability, and sometimes madness, since the intellect is needed for everyday life in patriarchal society. All patriarchal men are also unstable, of course, even when they do not employ intuition. The exclusive use of the intellect, however, is such a fundamental bed-rock of society that they are classed as sane. Many male geniuses have died young, committed suicide, drunk themselves to death, or been incarcerated in institutions for the insane, because they could not cope with the flood of information coming from their right brain. Those who have survived, either switched back and forth between intellect and intuition, or relied on a strong and stable woman to take care of them. While women had no power within society, the insanity of both intuitive geniuses and intellectually orientated men went unchecked. When men made moves towards contacting the Goddess, unless they managed to fit a stereotype of creativity, they would be repressed. Young men who like to gamble or drive cars very fast, for example, are not necessarily being 'macho.' These activities are ones in which the intellect is of no use after a certain point, and intuition is important, yet they can still be included in the activities 'proper' to a full-blooded male. When women have more power in society, male geniuses will be able to tap into the Great Mother without fear, because they will always be looked after. At present, there is a huge reservoir of untapped potential in the human race, because the rigidity of our society prevents its development. This will not be the case in a matercentric society, in which men are voluntarily subservient to women, because there will be no fear of uncontrolled men wreaking havoc and destroying the fabric of society. Men will be free to use both intellect and intuition, knowing that neither they nor anyone else will come to any harm.
Another growing manifestation of the Goddess is the increasing number of male mediums. In patriarchal society, most mediums have been women, because it has been easier for women to contact their intuitive side and receive information from the Great Mother. There is no guarantee that the information will not be distorted by the medium of course, and many women have been guilty of this. Now that we are moving into a matercentric era, many men are becoming mediums. They are likely to be much better mediums than women, provided they are stabilised and allowed to feel safe by the control of a strong woman. The reason for their success is that they are able to go more deeply into the intuitive side of their brain without the information being censored by the intellect, as happens in women. The possibilities opened up for mankind by this direct contact with the Great Mother are tremendous. We will be able to travel far, far beyond the limited universe discovered by patriarchal society, into realms of timelessness undreamt of until now. Many science fiction writers have explored the possibilities of time travel, parallel universes and faster than light journeys, to name but a few ideas. These will seem ordinary in the light of new knowledge revealed by the deepening contact with the Great Mother. Our future is unlimited, and the only barrier to reaching it is our fear of the unknown, which causes us to live in a closed and tiny world.
The future will not only bring an exploration of our true potential, but an end to suffering and illness on earth. These two things are caused by control and conflict. If you impose your will on another person, and attempt to make him fit a pattern he has not chosen for himself, suffering and dis-ease is the result. The same occurs if you do this to yourself. Illness is not caused by viruses or malfunctioning bodies, but by disharmony. If this lack of harmony between desire and action is not resolved at the spiritual level, it moves to the emotional level, where we have nameless fears and desires. If nothing is healed at this stage, we move on to the mental level. Here we try to understand our fears and desires. But if we fail, or refuse to deal with our dis-ease, then we move on yet again, to the physical level. If it is still not resolved, physical disease and death is the result. In a sense, we allow our conflict to kill us; in a natural state, our bodies would be perfectly healthy. When conflict reaches the physical level, it is followed by symptoms of illness, which is a cry for help from the body. If we listen to its messages, and find time to address the problems which are indicated by illness, we recover. Even rest and relaxation helps here, since we take time off from all our worries in order to get better. If we do not do this, the symptoms will reoccur, until the point at which the body cannot hold any more disharmony. It then dies. Even death from old age has the same cause. The only difference is that we have accumulated pain and suffering slowly, over a lifetime, and the body is no longer able to hold it.
We have all heard of the concept of Freewill. This was a gift to us from the Great Mother, who created us, and was meant to allow us to create freely in a similar way. Instead of choosing to do what best fits our natures and desires, however, we have given away our freewill to others, or have taken over their wills by propaganda and force. We do what pleases others, or what the law, social expectations and our religious belief says we must do. As a result, we spend most of our lives in a strait-jacket. Even if we follow the form of right behaviour, in many cases, because the actions do not spring from our own freewill, they have no love in them. We are too afraid at the moment to do much about this. Those who control society fear that chaos and loss of power for themselves will result if we remove the strait-jacket. People will run amok, being nasty, brutish and selfish, and allow the carefully built up social structures to fall into ruin. Women in particular, with their unfathomable emotional natures, are seen as likely to cause trouble to the rulers, because one of their demands is for men to become more loving and emotionally responsive to them. Even those whose actions are already more loving, and who are trying desperately to save the planet and its life forms, are afraid of Freewill. In their case they are afraid that if they do what they want, they will hurt others. They cling firmly to duty and responsibility for the needs of others, fearing that they would become selfish and dictatorial if they removed the guilt they feel at having any desires at all.
The movement towards the Great Mother in society will force those who are not exercising freewill into doing so, and those who are imposing their will on others into stopping. This will not happen overnight, and there will be much anger, fear and possible violence as the balance is restored. The best that anyone who is evolving can do is to pray to the Great Mother for help, and accept that changes are necessary and inevitable. Those who are selfish must listen to and love others more; those who are unselfish must allow that they have a right to the fulfilment of their desires. Both groups will have tremendous emotional adjustments to make because of this, but the result will be harmony, happiness, and freedom from suffering of all kinds.
As we have said several times, men will come under the domination of women in a matercentric age. This is not the same kind of dominance that we find in patriarchal society, in which a few men impose their will on the majority of people. It is difficult to find a word which expresses clearly what we mean, because we are using language developed by men, who are interested in control and hierarchies. The sovereignty of women, to try another word, will be much like the influence of a loving mother over her son. The mother wishes the son to be happy. The son knows this and accepts both his mother's love and advice, out of an awareness that she is wiser than he. To do this, patriarchal man must go through many changes. From despising and using women, he must turn to revering and obeying her. This requires that he accept her guidance, and relinquish his ego, which is telling him that women are inferior to him, and that his only hope for happiness is to fight others for it. Women, in their turn, must learn that they are the representatives of the Great Mother, and accept their task of guiding men for everyone's happiness.
The changes already apparent in our society, as it moves onto the path of the Goddess, are incredible. As more souls leave the path of the god, there will be huge leaps in understanding and love. Society is only a reflection of the state of mind of the people within it, so changes will happen automatically. The Great Mother does not ask us to be anything more or less than our true selves, warts and all. As we realise this, we will stop trying to be perfect according to some image we have of what she requires.
It seemed to us on the path of the god that we needed to struggle to survive. Independence and individuality had to be fought for. Now, for increasing numbers of people, this has been achieved, and their way forward is into acceptance and harmony. Those on the path of the Goddess will have to show understanding towards those still on the path of the god; it will be part of their learning process to allow them to continue with their suffering, if that is what they choose. This does not mean a kind of hard- hearted shrugging off of the pain of others. If we are in touch with the Great Mother, we can't help but love others and feel their pain. What it means is that we extend ourselves to assist others, if we wish, but without all the patriarchal trimmings, such as feelings of superiority, self-denial in their favour, and coercion of people 'for their own good.' We must respect the choices of other people, yet be ready to help when help is genuinely asked for. It will be difficult to do this, especially for women, who readily empathise with others, and wish to 'make it all better.' This might not be the right thing to do for a particular person's growth. We must realise that, while on the path of the god, it is impossible for an individual to learn except through suffering. This gives them the necessary growth to realise eventually that suffering is not required. Until they reach that point, any interference will slow their development. Compassion requires us not to intervene when our help, however well-meaning, is resisted.
Pamela: To give you a concrete example of what we mean, I will draw on my experiences with women in Refuges, who are in flight from brutal husbands. Those who work in such places will readily tell you that a woman who has been repeatedly abused by a man, sometimes over thirty or forty years, does not change overnight. It might seem sensible to us that she should leave such a man. She may agree with us whole-heartedly, on an intellectual level, then return to him for another beating almost as soon as we have all decided that the situation is intolerable. It does no good whatsoever to force the woman to change her behaviour. Only when she has genuinely had enough of suffering at the hands of a man will she begin to listen properly to the advice given to her. Even then it may take years to build up enough self- confidence to leave him, or to eradicate the ingrained habits of expecting or indeed welcoming violence from men. To be judgemental about women in this situation does not assist them, nor does it say much for the level of development of the one doing the judging. We all have areas in which we are still patriarchal, and only pain seems to work in bringing us to the point of scrutinising them. Just as physical pain makes you aware that a part of the body is requiring attention, so emotional or mental pain directs us to distress in the emotional and physical bodies. Once we have learned that we can grow through joy, we abandon pain as a teacher, but until that stage is reached, we crucify ourselves.
It is not only patriarchal people who must be allowed to live how they choose; so must those on the path of the Goddess. Already, groups of like-minded people are forming communities which reflect ideas about living that do not fit in with patriarchal society. Some of these will undoubtedly fail, but it will be a learning experience for those involved, if they are at all willing to grow. What we need is a sort of truce between matercentric and patriarchal groups, which says, 'I'll live my way, you live yours.' It may be that there will be patriarchal and matercentric countries in the future. Perhaps that is also what happened in the past, when the changeover went the other way. We don't really know, since records have been lost or destroyed - if they ever existed. However, there is still a whisper left that there were matercentric societies in the past, and we shall discuss this in the next chapter.