The Great Mother

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By Tala Bar

The human figure was not the only one representing the Great Mother. The best known of them all since the earliest times of human culture is actually Mother Earth. The earth itself is considered a good mother who gives birth to her children, humans and animals, nurtures them as any good mother would do. In many cases, mountains have been considered as the Earth as pregnant, as is particularly expressed in the Hebrew words "har" for mountain, and "hara" for a pregnant woman. In India, it was Nanda Devi who was considered Mountain Mother, from whose belly the sacred river Ganges was born.

In the Larousse Encyclopedia it is said that in the Finish mythology Earth deities were called "mothers", and figures of Mother Earth are known all over the world. The Slav one was Mati-Siera-Zemlaia, which means "wet Mother Earth"; other Earth Mother Goddesses were the Phoenician Broth, the Irish Kasair or Kassara, the Tibetan Khon-Ma the Arabian Al-Lat, and Nigerian Ala. The Hindu Privithi was considered a very ancient Earth Mother. In Greece it was Ge, or Gaia (also Gaea), whom the Neo-pagans have taken as their own modern Mother Goddess.

A special aspect of this idea can be observed when the Goddess gives birth to her Son god in a cave; the cave is well known in psychology as a physical metaphor for the womb. In a site called Atlantis, the cave is mentioned as part of some Amerindian myths: "The Navajo religious system is intricate. Like most Amerindian nations, they claim to have come from a subterranean world through caves or vents that connect with this upper world ... The idea of a subterranean Creation — one in which Mankind somehow originated underground and later ascended to this earth in some manner — is peculiar not only to the Navajos, but to most Indian nations of the three Americas."

A number of deities are known to have been born in caves. Among them are the Greek gods Hermes and Zeus. Zeus' mother, who gave birth to him in the cave of Dicte in Crete, was the daughter of the Earth goddess Gaea, and was considered one of the most prominent Mother Goddesses in ancient myths. In ancient Rome, as told in a site of Roman Mythology, it is said that "The Lupercalia was an ancient festival originally honoring Lupercus, a pastoral god of the Italians. The festival was celebrated on February 15 at the cave of the Lupercal on the Palatine Hill, where the legendary founders of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus, were supposed to have been nursed by a wolf." The idea is also expressed with the following story, taken from a site called Solar Mythology and the Jesus Story, as will be further explained below: "Jesus is crucified and placed in a cave. It is the end of the story. A sad ending. But have faith. Jesus, the Sun, will arise again — a new year will begin. Three days after Jesus is placed in the cave he will arise again. This is the prophecy."

Mother Earth is also the Mother of the World, to which she has given birth, and many Mother Goddesses carry this appellation. Such goddesses were the Sumerian Nanu, the Hindu Kali-Ma, the Lydian Omphale and the Tibetan Chumu-long-ma, which is the name given to Mount Everest. There are many Creator Mother Goddesses all over the world, from Africa to America and from Europe to Asia. The Egyptian Snake goddess Uadjit was the protectress of the Pharaoh and Lower Egypt and said to be Mother of Creation; the Aztec Goddess of Creation was Tlalteutli, of whom it is said, as about the Babylonian Tiamat that, "At the beginning of Time, the Universe was made of Her body".

It is only natural to see Mother Earth also as Mother Nature, the mother of all living beings on Earth. The best known of these may be the Biblical Eve, who is called in the book of Genesis "Mother of all Living" (3, 20). In the Maori myth, Father Sun fertilized Mother Earth, who gave birth to humans and animals; and the Hindu goddess Saranyu gave birth to all animals. Such Mother Goddesses sometimes appears in the shape of various animals, which are sacred to her; one of them was the Mother Bear Goddess who guarded the forests of Northern Europe; the Vedic Mare Goddess who was the mother of the Centaurs; and the Egyptian Mother Goddess of the Nile, Taueret, who appeared in the shape of a hippopotamus and was in charge of childbirth and nursing. The Mexican goddess Chicomecoatl was said to be the "Heart of the Earth and ancestress of all peoples". Aztec Malinalxochitl, on the other hand, is said to have been the "Primal Mother of Aztec mythology, ruler of men and beasts".

The Earth is the mother not only of all life but also of inanimate things, and particularly of all kinds of waters: seas, springs, rains and snows, etc. One prominent Water Mother Goddess was the Babylonian Tiamat, who was the mother of all the gods; but as it was said that the Earth was created from her body, she must have been first a general Mother Earth. Another Water Mother Goddess was the Aztec Chalchioehtlicue, who held dominion over all running water, including rain.

This idea connects Mother Earth with the weather, but particularly, with the seasons of the year; the Chinese goddess Chang-shi, for instance, was the mother of the twelve months of the year. When farming began, the Goddess of Nature took charge of all the kinds of corn humans started growing in various parts of the world, which have become the main human staple diet, as is pointed out in Sir James Frazer's book The Golden Bough. Among the Mother Goddesses of Corn are the Greek Demeter, whose name means "Mother Barley"; the Amerindian Chicomecoatl, who was a Maize Goddess and "wore a large four-sided headdress and carried a double maize cob"; and the Canaanite Corn (wheat or barley) goddess whose name may be Anat or Athrat, seen in an image carrying sheaves in both hands. In African Gabon there was the goddess Imama, who was in charge of growth in general.

From being the mother of all life, the goddess is sometimes taken as the mother of special life, like that of the special people who are named after her. Such are, for instance, the Acadians, called after their Mother Goddess Aka; the Celtic Tuata de-Danaan, who carry the name of their Mother Goddess Dana; and the Latin peoples who are called after the goddess Lat. The Chinese Serpent Goddess called Mat Chinoi is said to be the "Mother of the Chinese", and Mictecaciuatl is the "Eponymous Mother Goddess of Mexico." Besides giving her name to peoples, the Mother Goddess sometimes gives her name to places. In this way, the city of Athens is called after the goddess Athena, and the whole European continent after the Greek figure of Europa (for an interpretation of this myth see The Myth of Europa).