Great Mother The Great Mother is an umbrella concept referring to the idea of “The Goddess”and different major goddesses around the world, usually but not necessarily related to vegetation (i.e. fertility). Erich Neumann in The Great Mother adopts Carl Jung’s view that the Great Mother is an archetype expressing the anima. The term was also used in the ancient world to refer to nurturing, life-affirming female deities worshipped in public places. While in prison awaiting his execution, Boethius was visited by a female apparition called Philosophy. Boethius’ ‘eternal feminine’ comforter and guide conforms to Jung’s idea of the anima, as does James Lovelock’s choice of the name Gaia (Greek Mother Goddess) to depict his view that the earth behaves as if it were a self-contained living organism. In the contemporary and ancient sense, the Great Mother has a “terrible” side, wreaking vengeance and punishment on the sinful. In India, the goddesses Kali and Durga are regarded by many as the Great Mother. The Virgin Mary is often wrongly placed in this category, described by non-Catholics as a goddess. But representations of Kali and Mary, for instance, reveal clear differences. Kali, mouth dripping with blood, wears a garland of human heads which she has decapitated, whereas Mary stands serenely on top of creation (and the serpent), disseminating God’s graces from her hands. Other differences are more subtle. Mary and the goddess Isis, for instance, are both represented suckling their sons, and the Chinese bodhisattva, Kwan-Yin, holds a child. But the beliefs and metaphysical implications of the different religious traditions from which these female deities emerge are quite dissimilar (despite their representational similarities). In simplest terms, Mary is a venerated saint who intercedes for God, while The Goddess is believed to be the source of all creation–that is, God or a form of God. » Buddhism, Catholicism, Cybele, Demeter, Goddess vs. goddess, Greek Orthodox Church, Hinduism, Isis, Medusa, Yoni
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