Search Results for Great Mother
Great Mother
A silver female statuette, possibly representing mother goddess, from tombs in Alacahöyük, an archaeological site in Turkey via Noumenon at Wikipedia
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, and by implication, fertility.
The celebrated archeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) argued that behind all representations of prehistoric goddesses lies a single, Great Goddess.
Gimbutas identified diverse Paleolithic and Neolithic female representations that she believed depicted a single universal Great Goddess. She also recognized that these complex representations stood for a range of female deities (e.g. snake goddess, bee goddess, bird goddess, mountain goddess, Mistress of the Animals) that were not necessarily ubiquitous throughout Europe.¹
In a tape entitled “The Age of the Great Goddess,” Gimbutas discusses the various manifestations of the Goddess which occur, and stresses the ultimate unity behind them all of the Earth as feminine.¹
A mother goddess statuette from Canhasan, which is an archaeological site in Turkey. This figurine, along with other mother goddess figurines found in Canhasan, is thought to be an evidence of a continual matriarchal society in central Anatolia during the Chalcolithic age - via Noumenon at Wikipedia
Gimbutas also believed that excavations from Neolithics sites in Europe and Lithuania suggest a society were women were dominant, in both the worldly and spiritual sense. Her views, although still debated among scholars, gave great impetus to aspects of the feminist movement, mostly among woman scholars, academics and intellectuals who shared her point of view.
Erich Neumann’s 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 (circa 480-525) wrote Consolation of Philosophy, in which he’s 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.
La Gran'mère du Chimquière, the Grandmother of Chimquiere, the statue menhir at the gate of Saint Martin's church is an important prehistoric site in the parish via Wikipedia
In the contemporary and ancient sense, the Great Mother has a terrible side, wreaking vengeance and punishment on the sinful. In India, the bloodthirsty goddesses Kali and the bellicose Durga are regarded by many as manifestations of 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. And there are still regular animal sacrifices at the Kali temple in Kolkata (where the distasteful odor of animal blood certainly did not elevate this author’s mind and soul to high places).
Other differences between Mary and non-Christian goddesses are more subtle. Mary and the goddess Isis, for instance, are both represented suckling their sons, and the Chinese bodhisattva, Kwan-Yin, also holds an infant. But, despite their representational similarities, the religious beliefs and metaphysical implications behind these female deities differ significantly.
In the simplest terms, Mary is a venerated saint who intercedes for God, while The Goddess is the source of all creation—that is, God or a manifestation of God.
Related Posts » Buddhism, Catholicism, Cybele, Demeter, Goddess vs. goddess, Greek Orthodox Church, Medusa, Yoni
¹ The first citation is a paraphrase of a passage at Wikipedia that could have been written more clearly. The second, a direct quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marija_Gimbutas
Related articles
- Goddess vs. goddess (earthpages.wordpress.com)
- Earliest image of Mother Goddess found (thehindu.com)
- Mother Worship -Tantra Goddess Worship (soundhealingifc.com)
- Mary, the virginal mother of God, and feminist theology (insightscoop.typepad.com)
- The Goddess of the Western World… Where is she? (divinaturism.com)
- Durga Devotional Mantra (prophet666.com)
- Angelic Words to connect with Mother Earth | Angelic Words from RenamixTech (angelicwords.wordpress.com)
Durga
Dancer of Sri Devi Nrithyalaya depicting Durga: the right hands holding the trident, while the left hand’s 3 fingers’ mudra represents the head of the trident. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Durga is a Hindu goddess with both maternal and terrible aspects. Often depicted with eight or ten arms, Durga has been worshipped throughout India since at least 400 CE. As the consort of Shiva, some sacred scriptures called the Veda depict her as riding the back of a lion, symbolizing her immense power to confer grace on sincere seekers of God, and conversely, punishment on the ignorant and demon-deluded.
Prior to the annual fall celebration of Durga puja, a Hindu priest may conscript local youngsters to canvass for donations in order to construct an effigy of the goddess. For several days the life-size doll is promulgated throughout cites and towns on a cart, often accompanied with Hindi pop music blaring from a portable sound system. This event epitomizes India’s unique synthesis of the ancient, the sacred and the contemporary.
Related Posts » Great Mother
Related articles
- Work or Worship…? (chaoticsoulzzz.wordpress.com)
- Durga Puja, Fall, Kashful and the city (bottledworder.wordpress.com)
Goddess vs. goddess
Goddess by junibears via Flickr
Goddess vs. goddess
Some popular writers like Barbara G. Walker argue that the ancient view of the Goddess differs from contemporary male interpretations. Not to be confused with goddesses, Walker says the Goddess was seen by the ancients as a Great Creative Source of All Being.
Nicole Loraux in Duby and Perrot’s A History of Women, Vol. I points out that, with the exception of Sappho, there’s a dearth of women writers in the ancient world, making our view of the ancient understanding of The Goddess come from mostly male accounts.
Walker says that contemporary spirituality would more correctly depict the Deity with female instead of male terms and images.
Along these lines, some feminist writers believe that the idea of the Goddess emerged before and is more authentic than male God imagery. Other feminists look back to cultures where the Goddess or women were apparently dominant (e.g. Samos, Amazonia) to promote alternatives to male-influenced God images.
Marija Gimbutas
The celebrated archeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) argued that behind all representations of prehistoric goddesses lies a single, Great Goddess.
Gimbutas did identify the diverse and complex Paleolithic and Neolithic female representations she recognized as depicting a single universal Great Goddess, but also as manifesting a range of female deities: snake goddess, bee goddess, bird goddess, mountain goddess, Mistress of the Animals, etc., which were not necessarily ubiquitous throughout Europe.
In a tape entitled “The Age of the Great Goddess,” Gimbutas discusses the various manifestations of the Goddess which occur, and stresses the ultimate unity behind them all of the Earth as feminine.¹
A mother goddess statuette from Canhasan, which is an archaeological site in Turkey. This figurine, along with other mother goddess figurines found in Canhasan, is thought to be an evidence of a continual matriarchal society in central Anatolia during the Chalcolithic age - via Noumenon at Wikipedia
Gimbutas also believed that excavations from Neolithics sites in Europe and Lithuania suggest a society were women were dominant, in both the worldly and spiritual sense. Her views, although still debated among scholars, gave great impetus to aspects of the feminist movement, mostly among woman scholars, academics and intellectuals who shared her point of view.
Jung and beyond
The Jungian Erich Neumann sees The Goddess as an archetype of the Great Mother.
Meanwhile, Naomi Goldenberg rejects Jung’s entire idea of the archetype, especially archetypes pertaining to an “eternal feminine.” Goldenberg says they constructs are overly generalized, unduly metaphysical and sexist.
In The End of God (1982) Goldenberg suggests the need for depth psychology to develop perspectives about the imaginal (symbolic, inspirational) and literal (physical, social and political) realities of women who find traditional goddess imagery to be an outdated patriarchal legacy.
Apart from the idea of ‘The Goddess’ we also find the minor, small-‘g’ goddess—that is, a female god. Contemporary archaeology points to a tremendous diversity of attributes for a plethora of goddess statues and images discovered around the world. And, to some, attributing all of these different manifestations to a single “Goddess” seems questionable.
Most scholars – male and female – agree that a good number of goddesses are localized, individual deities that emerged from other forms, while other goddesses are, indeed, more universal.
Perhaps most interesting, some goddesses are vindictive, petty, lustful and cruel, just like many of their male counterparts. Meanwhile, others goddesses and gods, alike, are nurturing, loving, chaste and compassionate. So the gender issue arguably could take the form of equality being the right for women to be just as kindly or nasty as men have always been (but this still doesn’t make being nasty right—for women or for men).
The Goddess is also understood as major small-‘g’ goddesses. These major goddesses are often associated with fertility deities in agrarian societies. Some suggest that small-’g’ goddesses are prominent in matriarchal rather than patriarchal cultures.
Graham Harvey conveniently outlines several different attitudes toward the idea of the Goddess. First, it refers to a spiritual unity (Goddess) in plurality (Goddesses), where the plurality is encountered more often than the unity.
Goddesses by Leslie "LC" Cowger via Flickr
Second, Harvey notes that some contemporary women advocate traditional notions of “femininity” in contrast to the idea of “empowerment” as found within much Goddess theology.
Third, Harvey says Cynthia Eller implies that Feminist Goddess discourse dislocates women from ordinary time and traps them in an obsession with a comforting Golden Age.”²
Harvey also refers to Emily Erwin Culpepper, who is critical of glossing over diversity into some kind of mythic unity:
[With] any monotheism of ‘The Goddess’…She tends to become ‘The Great Mother’ and sweep diverse realities into one cosmically large stereotype.”³
The Virgin Mary
Many writers say the Virgin Mary is a goddess not unlike the Egyptian Isis or the Hindu Kali.
Intercession of Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary (1714), Ceiling paintings made by Johann Michael Rottmayr (1654-1730) for the Karlskirche, Vienna via Wikipedia
Catholic teaching, however, clearly states that Mary is not a goddess, but a “mediatrix” (mediator) between God and mankind. While Catholic rosary devotions are directed to Mary, these emphasize her humility and “fullness of Grace.”
Unlike Isis, Mary is a saint and cannot bestow boons from her own power. Indeed, Catholicism clearly indicates that all honor, power and glory belongs to God.
—
¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marija_Gimbutas
² Contemporary Paganism: Listening People Speaking Earth. New York: New York University Press, 2000, p. 82.
³ Cited in Contemporary Paganism, p. 83.
Related Posts » History, Great Mother
Related articles
- The Bearded Goddess (armidabooks.wordpress.com)
- Goddesses (kariluvcats.wordpress.com)
- The Goddess (romancingthebee.com)
- The Goddess of the Western World… Where is she? (divinaturism.com)
- Goddess of the “Week” (openingthebroomcloset.wordpress.com)
- Goddesses by Sue Jennings,Ph.D (themagickallibrarian.wordpress.com)
- Crown the Golden Goddess of the Grammys – Who’s Most Fab? (fabsugar.com)
Gaia Hypothesis
A rendition of life on planet earth via Wikipedia
The Gaia hypothesis was proposed by the British scientist, author and environmentalist James Lovelock (1919-). It suggests that the Earth, itself, is a self-regulating entity geared toward sustaining life.
In his own words, Gaia is
a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.¹
This view is alternately accepted and rejected by various scientists. And it’s often mistaken for Lewis Thomas‘ speculation that the Earth, if viewed from space, looks like a single cell.
The Gaia hypothesis is also used out of context by some New Age enthusiasts who uphold it as support for the pantheistic idea that God and the natural, observable world are identical.
—
¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
Related Posts » Great Mother
Related Articles
- Bestselling green titles of the decade (guardian.co.uk)
- The best-selling green books of the decade (guardian.co.uk)
- Blog – Artificial Life Shares Biosignature With Terrestrial Cousins (technologyreview.com)
- Giving Misanthropy a Bad Name: (brothersjuddblog.com)
- Vivienne Westwoods London (theglobeandmail.com)
- Craig K. Comstock: Will Our Species Survive Another Century? (huffingtonpost.com)
- NASA Symposium Marks 50-Year-Search for Signs of Life in Universe (prnewswire.com)
- Not just tilting at windmills (thebrightlibertarian.blogspot.com)
- Earth at the Tipping Point: Global Warming Heats Up (time.com)
- Vivian Westwood doc is a trip and a half (thestar.com)
- Gaia (earthpages.wordpress.com)
- Gaia is a tough bitch… (panokroko.wordpress.com)
- Guest Post: Kenneth G. Bennett – author of the Gaia Wars (diaryofacambridgestudent.wordpress.com)
- Project Gaia (sweet-symbiosis.com)
- Apocalypse 2012: The World After Time Ends (DVD Review) (epages.wordpress.com)
- The Gaia Wars Blog Tour: Author Interview! (thebookgeeksreviews.wordpress.com)
- Lynn Margulis 1938-2011 “Gaia Is A Tough Bitch” | Conversation | Edge (plexity.wordpress.com)
Gaia
Anselm Feuerbach: Gaea (1875). Ceiling painting, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna via Wikipedia
Gaia (also Ge) is the Greek Goddess of the Earth who arose from Chaos. She was worshipped at Delphi, where her temple was guarded by a Python. The temple was rededicated to Apollo after he destroyed Gaia’s serpent.
Gaia gave birth to the Furies, assisted by heavenly intervention. She was also the mother of Uranus, with whom she gave birth to the Titans and the Cyclopses. She also gave birth to the Giants and other monsters. Her Roman equivalent is Tellus.
Some anthropologists believe that Gaia was worshipped in Neolithic times as a Great Mother, although this academic position has been disputed by most contemporary scholars. Gaia’s Roman counterpart is Tellus.
In the 1970s, the British scientist, author and environmentalist James Lovelock proposed the Gaia hypothesis, where the planet Earth, itself, is seen as a self-regulating entity geared toward sustaining life.
In his own words, Gaia is
a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.¹
Today, Neopagans revere Gaia as The Goddess.
—
¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
Related articles
- Guest Post: Kenneth G. Bennett – author of the Gaia Wars (diaryofacambridgestudent.wordpress.com)
- Lynn Margulis (telegraph.co.uk)
- Gaia Wars by Kenneth G. Bennett – Excerpt (diaryofacambridgestudent.wordpress.com)
- Headmaster freezes schoolkids for Gaia (junkscience.com)
- Apocalypse 2012: The World After Time Ends (DVD Review) (mclark.wordpress.com)
Isis
Isis giving milk, Musée du Louvre, photo by Rama via Wikipedia
Isis was the central goddess of ancient Egypt, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus.
Her cult spread throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world, where she was linked with many mystery cults that were popular at the time.
In sculpture she’s often seen suckling the infant Horus. From this, Isis is regularly (and arguably wrongly) equated with the Virgin Mary and Kwan Yin by writers like Joseph Campbell and others who believe it’s valid to lump together different mythic beings on the basis of a few similarities in artistic representation. (In this case what’s similar is a woman suckling an infant, which is hardly unique considering many women have done this through the ages after having a baby).
Some feminist and New Age writers also subsume the different figures of Isis, Mary and Kwan Yin into a general idea of The Goddess.
In the Star Trek mythos, Isis is the name of a telepathic black cat and female partner of a time traveler, Gary Seven, who travels to 20th century Earth to prevent nuclear war.¹
—
¹ For more on this, see http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Isis
Related Posts » Death and Resurrection, Dismemberment, Goddess vs. goddess, Great Mother, Juvenal, Osiris, Theosophy
Related articles
- Goddess of the Day for Aug. 19th – ISIS (witchesofthecraft.wordpress.com)
- Deity of the Day for August 16th is Seth (witchesofthecraft.wordpress.com)
- Deity of the Day for September 15th – HORUS (witchesofthecraft.wordpress.com)
- Why did Isis and Osiris get married (wiki.answers.com)
- Sirius-ly ? (urbanintell.com)
- The Eleven Most Neglected Deities in Egyptian Mythology (glitternight.com)
- Naomi Campbell is Going To Live In A Magical House Shaped Like An Ancient Egyptian God [Rag Trade] (jezebel.com)
- More Food 4 Freedom (urbanintell.com)
- Why did the Egyptians worship the Egyptian gods (wiki.answers.com)
- What does the living horus mean (wiki.answers.com)
Kali
Hindu Goddess Kali. This photograph was taken during Kali Puja at Naihati, a town in West Bengal, India, byPiyal Kundu via Wikipedia
In Hinduism it’s believed that the goddess Kali is a manifestation of God‘s destructive side. She is also regarded as the Great Mother, the giver of life.
The Hindu god Siva, known as the cosmic dancer, also has a destructive side. In fact, Siva’s dance is known as a dance of destruction. But Kali’s power is believed to be so great that she is often depicted in popular art as standing on top of a subdued Siva.
Kali’s name has been associated with the Vedic god of fire, Agni. Devotion to Kali, a goddess of violence and grace, is most prominent in W. Bengal. New Age and feminist thinkers around the world have become interested in her potential as an icon for apparent spiritual ‘realism’ and sociopolitical liberation.
However, it’s doubtful that animal rights activists would use Kali as an icon. Her temple in Kolkata still practices regular animal sacrifice by cutting the animal with a knife.
Some Jungians, scholars and writers try to equate Kali with other female deities like the Chinese Kwan Yin and the Egyptian Isis, and also with The Blessed Virgin Mary (who is not a deity but a saint).
Related Posts » Anima, Death and Resurrection, Goddess vs. goddess, Great Mother, Ramakrishna (Sri), Yuga
Related Articles
- Women as gurus I: the Kali Practice (enfolding.org)
- INDIA-PAKISTAN: The Trial of Kali (time.com)
- Kali Mantra (prophet666.com)
- How the west interprets India’s sacred texts (vmohanty.com)
- Early mystic experiences of Sri Aurobindo (auromere.wordpress.com)
- Indiana Jones Chalice of Kali Prop Coming! (gadgets.gunaxin.com)
Lovelock, James
Painting by artist Christine Lovelock (daughter of the Gaia Theorist James Lovelock) "View of Craigenputtock in 2006" via Wikipedia
James Lovelock (1919-) is a British scientist, author and environmentalist best known for his proposal of the Gaia hypothesis, where the Earth, itself, is seen as a self-regulating entity geared toward sustaining life.
In his own words, Gaia is
a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.¹
This view is alternately accepted and rejected by different scientists. And it’s often mistaken for Lewis Thomas‘ speculation that the Earth, if viewed from space, looks like a single cell.
—
¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
Related Posts
Related Articles
- Bestselling green titles of the decade (guardian.co.uk)
- The best-selling green books of the decade (guardian.co.uk)
- Blog – Artificial Life Shares Biosignature With Terrestrial Cousins (technologyreview.com)
- Giving Misanthropy a Bad Name: (brothersjuddblog.com)
- Vivienne Westwoods London (theglobeandmail.com)
- Craig K. Comstock: Will Our Species Survive Another Century? (huffingtonpost.com)
- NASA Symposium Marks 50-Year-Search for Signs of Life in Universe (prnewswire.com)
- Not just tilting at windmills (thebrightlibertarian.blogspot.com)
- Earth at the Tipping Point: Global Warming Heats Up (time.com)
- Vivian Westwood doc is a trip and a half (thestar.com)
Saint
Calling all Saints... by CHILDREN AT RISK FOUNDATION - CARF
Saint
(Latin sanctus = sacred ) The word saint has several meanings.
In everyday usage, saints are unusually kind, ethical people who perform good works on a local or grand scale which most everyone can appreciate.
The term also denotes the faithful Jews of the Bible and the body of Christian believers.
Moreover, saints may be Buddhist arhats (monks having achieved Nirvana) and bodhisattvas (monks forgoing entry into Nirvana in order to help others reach that threshold).
Saints also refer to Taoist, Confucian and Hindu sages and gurus (Skt. guru = teacher), African and Amerindian elders, as well as the Shamans of Central and Southeast Asia, Oceania, North America and the Arctic.
In Islam the righteous departed are said to mediate between heaven and Earth.
Robert Ellsberg regards great figures like Galileo Galilei, Leo Tolstoy, Stephen Biko and Dante Alighieri as saints in his book, All Saints.
Some believe that all public figures called “saints” are equally holy but this view arguably is more of a human hope than God’s assessment of individual holiness.
In Catholicism, the canonized saint leads an exceedingly holy and humble life serving God, is often persecuted, may be martyred and performs by the power of God at least two verified miracles.
Catholic sainthood often involves the idea of intercession. Intercession is the belief that God’s divine power and grace may be mediated by one soul to other souls on Earth, purgatory and hell.
Catholics also believe in the communion of saints, the idea that all souls, except for the damned, are united in a “mystical body” with Christ as head. From this we can see that the idea of interconnected souls is not necessarily something of the occult (unless one views Catholicism as a Satanic cult, which some do).
Another essential element of the Catholic faith is the belief that individuals cooperate with God’s Plan of Salvation through vocal and mental prayer (i.e. interior contemplation).
Prayerful saints cooperate with the Divine Plan but do not effect salvation through their own power.
Some Protestants object by saying that the Catholic saint is just a manmade god or goddess. Catholics reply to this charge that saints are friends and servants of God, not a god nor God.
Many Protestant Christians pray for other people yet object to the Catholic idea of interceding saints. To this Catholicism replies: If someone on Earth can pray for another on Earth, why can’t someone in heaven pray for another person on Earth?
According to Catholic teaching there are many unrecognized saints. These unsung heroes of the spirit are said to achieve a great degree of spiritual purity without ever having set foot in a monastery or abbey.
This is good to remember. Otherwise we might misunderstand some individuals in contemporary society not primarily concerned with sex, wealth or raising a family.
Considering the great diversity of individuals and spiritual paths throughout the world, to insist on rigid criteria for sainthood seems both arbitrary and, considering the world today, unwise.
» Brahman, Clairaudience, Confucianism, Faith and Action, Fasting, George (St.), God, Goddess vs. goddess, Great Mother, Guru, Heaven, Hinduism, Holy Rosary, Icon, Intercession, James (William), Jewish Mysticism, Karma Transfer, Koran, Meditation, More (St. Thomas), Mysticism, Numinous, Social Darwinism, Solitude, Targ, Taoism, Russell, Vivekananda (Swami), Wisdom, Yogi, Yogini
Add more, report errors or voice your opinion by commenting
Virgin Mary, The Blessed
The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ, wife of St. Joseph.
According to Catholic teaching, Mary was conceived immaculately and born without the taint of original sin.
The Greek Orthodox Church accepts devotion through Mary but not the idea of her immaculate conception.
Catholics believe that Mary always was and will be a virgin. That is, Mary and her elderly husband Joseph remained perfectly chaste.
The virgin birth refers to Mary’s conceiving Jesus after she freely chose to accept God’s miraculous intervention. This took place before her marriage to Joseph and Mary most likely suffered from the misunderstandings of Joseph and others who initially saw only scandal.
From reading the New Testament and Apocrypha, many believe that Joseph and Mary had sex and four other boys and two girls after Jesus.
But the Catechism of the Catholic Church says Mary bore only Jesus.
For believing Catholics, the “other Mary” mentioned in the New Testament bore James and Joseph, the so-called “brothers” of Jesus.
Catholics say the term “brother” (Greek: adelphos) is in keeping with Old Testament usage, meaning “close relation” (i.e. kith and kin) and designates spiritual instead of physical brotherhood.
Catholics believe that Mary is a mediator between Christ and mankind, not a goddess. The idea that Mary is a mediator between mankind and God has been traced to the 3rd century CE.
When praying to Mary through the Holy Rosary, Catholics do not worship her but rather request that she intercedes for them–as the Hail Mary Prayer says, “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”
Some Protestants and Fundamentalists complain that Catholics have got it all wrong because, so they say, Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and Man. But these very same people freely ask their friends and associates to “pray for them” which to any thinking person is clearly a request for intercession.
The Catholic reply to this contradictory Protestant and Fundamentalist charge is that if you can ask souls on Earth to pray for you, why not souls in heaven?
In the New Testament Mary instructs Jesus to perform his first miracle at a wedding ceremony at Cana (John 2: 1-11).
Jesus hesitates – “it is not my time” – but performs the miracle of turning water into wine at Mary’s insistence.
Mary is depicted musically in Stabat Mater, the “standing mother” (at the foot of the cross of her crucified son). The composers Palestrina, Pergolesi, Rossini, Haydn, Verdi and Dvorak have written unique works, each called Stabat Mater. While Pergolesi’s work is the most popular, all compositions are based on the same New Testament account of Mary’s grief while witnessing Jesus’ execution at the hands of the Romans.
Since 1727 the devotional poem Stabat Mater Dolorosa (“A mother standing, grief-stricken”) has been set to a plainchant melody in the Catholic Mass.
Mary became widely venerated throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. The devotion of monks and religious during this period was enthusiastic to the point of their sometimes being taken as madpersons.
In 431 the Council of Ephesus defined Mary as Theotokos, a Greek term meaning “The Mother of God.”
The doctrine of Mary’s bodily assumption (i.e. her rising at death) into heaven was formed around the 6th century CE by orthodox theologians. It became sanctioned by the Catholic Church in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.
The idea of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s immaculate conception was hotly disputed in the Middle Ages but generally accepted by the 16th century. The doctrine was defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854, stipulating that Mary was born free from “all stain of original sin.”
Many lay and religious persons around the world claim to have witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary, the most publicized being those at Fatima, Lourdes and Medjugorge. For a good summary of Marian apparitions, see http://www.apparitions.org/.
Some religious scholars and lay people, alike, equate Mary with the Egyptian Isis, the Roman Demeter, the Hindu Kali or the Chinese Kwan Yin, among a host of other goddesses.
Likewise, C. G. Jung and Joseph Campbell somewhat dubiously equate Mary with various goddesses, envisioning all as archetypal images of an underlying and some say sexist “feminine principle.”
But even a casual study of these various female deities reveals striking differences. And to equate them as if they were all the same, as so many New Agers and pop psychologists do, seems facile.
» Adam, Anima, Assumption, Brahman, Fatima, Goddess vs. goddess, Great Mother, Greek Orthodox Church, Hail Mary Prayer, Heaven, Icon, Infallibility, Knight, Koran, Madonna, Nicene Creed, Sister
Add to this, report errors, suggest edits or voice your opinion by posting a comment
![Waterfall [Explored #5]](http://static.flickr.com/8539/8751148332_defc2d71b7_m.jpg "Waterfall [Explored #5]")
