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The Goddess
Elaine Charkowski. A hard working comrade who educates people about our herstory.

 

Dear Sister of the Goddess,

Thank you for your interest in the Dianic Temple of the Goddess! Her temples are everywhere! They can be seen when we look in the mirror! Our beautiful bodies, in all shapes, sizes, colors are beloved and sacred to Her. Her temples are our home altars where women worship Her – without paying for the privilege, as is required at men's cosmic piggy banks (wealthy churches run by men for men).

Dianic Goddess worship is a woman-born-of-woman only religion. Unlike Pagans, (women and men) who worship the Goddess and Her male consort the Horned God who represents positive, non-violent male energy, we Dianics prefer to worship only Her and only in the company of other women. This is because women have been (and still are) being spiritually wounded during more than 4,000 years of patriarchy. We need and welcome Her healing energy expressed in life affirming, female centered spirituality.

The eight major religions are Judaism, Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, the Islamic faith (Muslim) and Shintoism. All developed after the usually violent destruction of indigenous Goddess or female centered cultures. All 8 religions are patriarchal (male supremacist), all claim their male gods created the universe and everything in it; that men were given the “divine right” to control not only the earth, its resources, but women and children as well. This means ALL 8 religions share many woman hating/subjugating principles: The supremacy of male gods • The absolute denial of female Goddesses or the complete subjugation of them to male gods The supremacy of men over women including the absolute enslavement of women in many cultures, (such as under the Taliban and conservative Christianity)• All male supremacist religions control or heavily influence the political, legal and social norms of their cultures. For example, $87 billion is spent on war while Americans are homeless, schools crumble, battered women lack shelters, and more than 20% of American children live in poverty • All patriarchal religions deny positive, empowering role models for women • Women can never be as important or as deserving as men because “god,” not men ordained it.

Male supremacist religion is used to keep women subjugated and for controlling society. This is psychological abuse and spiritual blackmail committed against women. “God” is the perfect tool of perpetual male domination since you can't argue with an eternal “god” whose “commandments” are also eternal and unchanging.

If women are to break the bonds of patriarchal belief systems, all of which are woman hating and enslaving, women must question the so-called “divine rights of men” as ordained by ALL the male gods now worshiped. Women need to question whether or not there have been female deities, what power they held and when, where they originated, why they were eradicated, and what these answers mean to us. Once every woman has answered these questions for herself, patriarchal religion may not be a viable choice.

 

The Religious Basis of Worldwide Patriarchal Beliefs

Patriarchy is a psychopathic, male supremacist social system that has polluted societies worldwide. It grants men an overwhelmingly large share of power. Today's male dominated power institutions are: government, finance, global economy, military, technology, education, medicine, media, law and religion. Most of the news is men talking about what other men do. Male dominated medicine results in women being used as guinea pigs (Dalkon Shield, early birth control pills that caused cancer, dangerous breast implants, and a dangerous hormone that suppresses menstrual periods marketed without adequate research as to its safety. Under patriarchy, women's bodies don't matter unless being used for child bearing or cheap labor.

Carol P. Christ who wrote, “Why Women Need the Goddess” said religion shapes culture and culture defines the values of a society and its people. Religious symbolism has both psychological and political effects. For example, religions centered on the worship of a male god create moods and motivations that keep women in a state of psychological dependence on men and male authority. Male religious symbolism enforces the idea that women are inferior and can never be whole or fully human (Aristotle said women have no souls!) Men are supposedly closer to god than women and have the “god given right” to dominate them. Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade said when a society worships a dead man murdered on a cross, the belief system focuses on death, destruction, fear, and anger. This ultimately leads to warfare.

Societies, such as ancient Goddess cultures who worshiped woman's ability to create life and her instinct to nurture all living things, focused their technology and social activities on life enhancing and self empowering spirituality. This enabled these cultures to live in peaceful coexistence for hundreds, and sometimes thousands of years. Compare this with today's world where war and the preparation for war is unending!Imagine the joyful feeling, awakening daily to a world without war and male domination!

Religion is the most powerful of the power institutions. Education and government take their queue from religion. Radical Islam enslaves women in Afghanistan and other parts of the Mid-East. The Taliban forbids girls an education and burns down their schools. In the West, conservative Christianity is used to pass legislation to mandate pregnancy. The under funding of women’s-shelters forces many battered women to remain under virtual house arrest. This is intentional. To break free of male domination, women must transform the sick beliefs of male supremacist religion into peaceful, female empowering and Earth loving Goddess imagery.

Resources The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler. The destruction of Goddess societies by patriarchal nomads. Cites archaeological evidence of Goddess societies. • The Crone, Woman of Age, Wisdom and Power by Barbara G. Walker. How to start Goddess temples with step-by-step instructions on creating a woman friendly society.

“Women who join together with each other to deny the male god who cursed their sex and to reject his demands for obedience, praise, service and money automatically free themselves from one of the most potent psychological traps men ever set for them! Without god to tell that they must serve and obey abusive husbands, their fetters turn to sand, and they can step away from what seemed a prison. Without god to order them to bear children they don't want, they take personal control of their bodies. Without god to call them guilty for experiencing sexual pleasure, they gain new confidence and trust in their own physicality. And if the world's women joined together to reinstate a full three-dimensional feminine divinity with Her own authentic theology, life on our planet might be quite different. The Crone. • Gyn/ecology  and Beyond god the Father, by Mary Daly. The radical politics of witchcraft. • www.zbudapest.com. Z Budapest's Dianic University where women learn about the Goddess. “We honor the Female Principle of the Universe of ten thousand names. The most often prayed to aspects are Maiden Goddess: Diana, Artemis, Luna, and Athena. Queen Mother Goddess: Hera, Juno, Minerva, Nu Qua, Kwan Yin. Crone aspects: Hecate, Magera, Kali, and Innanna. The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries, Grandmother of Time, Summoning the Fates, and Celestial Wisdom for every Year of Your Life.

A Woman's Book of Choices by Carol Downer and Rebecca Chalker. How to control your fertility. Discusses RU-486 and menstrual extraction-a process by which menses are gently removed using a Del-Em device invented by Lorraine Rothman. Menses may be removed before camping trips, athletic events or honeymoons. It will safely remove the fertilized egg up to nine weeks into pregnancy. How to form groups to safely perform menstrual extraction which can be used in cases of rape, incest or failed birth control.

www.sisterzeus.com “The child Being and the mother’ have agreed to come together. If conception is refused, the child's soul leaves, to return in another pregnancy, if and when it is time to incarnate. Or, the Being of the child may choose another mother. No soul or Being is wasted or lost.” Barbara G. Walker. Thus, mandating pregnancy is a male supremacist religious belief that denies a woman's freedom of religion.

The Women's history of the World by Rosalind Miles. Horrors committed by men against women for thousands of years. A disturbing read, but necessary to get in touch with our righteous rage we were brainwashed to suppress. This tactic diverts our anger from patriarchy to ourselves, a sick form of spiritual aikido! Anger turned inward can cause depression and self abuse. The patriarchs know the volcanic rage of billions of women will shake patriarchy to its foundations! Deep down they FEAR us! There's much to learn about the Goddess and women's former respected place in society! Let's learn about our past and create a woman friendly world, once again! Goddess religion precedes Patriarchy by 20,000 years. Thousands of ancient representations of women have been unearthed from archaeological sites worldwide. Shaped from stone or clay, painted on cave walls or etched in plaster, many are more than 25,000 years old. Scholars once thought they were merely graphic expressions of male eroticism or artifacts used by fertility cults. However, Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade, questions these shallow interpretations; “Do these prehistoric sculptures tell us something important about ourselves, about how both women and men once venerated the life giving powers of the universe?” When humans expressed awe of the natural world, their first depiction of earth based divinity in human form was female. Our ancestors revered the ability of females to give birth and nourish their young. The monthly cycle of menstruation called to mind the phases of the moon, adding power and mystery to the Feminine. The natural world was the Goddess, the Great Mother who created and sustained her children. Both priestesses and priests invoked the Goddess for many reasons; to insure the births of healthy children, a successful hunt or a bountiful harvest. The male principle was also honored; “The young god, the son consort of the goddess plays a recurring part in the central miracle of pre-patriarchal religion, the mystery of regeneration and rebirth,” said Eisler. In Goddess worshiping “partnership societies” women and men shared power. Eisler avoids the term “matriarchy,” which is erroneously believed to mean a female dominated society. Although lineage and inheritance was matrilineal and women played leading roles in all aspects of life, “There is little indication that the position of men in this social system was in any sense comparable to the subordination and suppression of women characteristic of the male dominated system that replaced it,” said Eisler. However, after tens of thousands of years of earth based spirituality which revered feminine aspects, nonviolent male power and nature, humanity took a 4,000-year detour toward “dominator” societies. These were, and still are, based on brute force or “might makes right.” Eisler documents the destruction of the Goddess worshiping partnership societies and the rise of patriarchy (male supremacy), between 4,300 and 2,800 years ago. Artifacts unearthed from the ancient cities of Catal Huyuk and Hacilar in Turkey yield evidence of their destruction by Kurgans, warlike nomads of Aryan and Indo-European stock. These barbarians produced nothing of their own and only existed by plundering. The early Hebrews, with their fierce and angry Jehovah, shared this barbaric culture and violently destroyed partnership societies in Canaan (Palestine). Tombs unearthed after the invasions contained skeletons of women with broken forearms (evidence of deflected blows) and broken ankles (to prevent them from running away). Murals in Crete which once depicted peaceful activities for over 1,500 years, portrayed war and destruction after the invasion. Both Kurgans and Hebrews worshipped violent, vengeful male gods who lived in the sky. These “sky gods” legitimized the “virtues” of male brutality (war, rape, murder and plunder). Worshiping violent male gods redefined what it meant to be male. “Being a man” is taken to mean being a violent, dysfunctional man. This view is so widespread that dysfunctional male behavior is regarded as “normal,” while men of peace who are sane are scorned and ridiculed. Spirituality was also removed from the Earth and relocated “up there,“ such as Valhalla or Heaven. This devalued the Natural World and had a disastrous effect on how modern society regards both women and the environment. Why should humans care about Mother Earth, the plant and animal relatives if the sky god is going to destroy Earth during Armageddon? Male supremacist religion views Earth as expendable, merely a “rest stop” on our way to Heaven.

The dogmas of today's organized religions claim male gods created the universe and gave men the right to control not only Nature, but women and children as well. How does the global worship of male gods affect women? Anthropologist Clifford Geerts says religious symbols shape cultural ethics by defining the deepest values of a society. In Why Women Need the Goddess, Carol P. Christ said, “Religions, centered on the worship of a male god create moods and motivations that keep women in a state of psychological dependence on men and male authority.” The greatest harm male supremacist religion does is teaching women that god gave men the right to dominate them. ALL of the world's major faiths are male supremacist, having male gods who rule by threats of violence (Hell, god's punishment, etc.). Male supremacist scripture casts men as closer to god than women and legitimizes women's enslavement at the hands of men: “Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church.”— Ephesians 5:23-24. “One should only make use of a necessary object, woman, when needed to preserve the species or to provide food or drink, since for all other purposes, man would be better served by other men.” Thomas Aquinas, 1300 (Catholic's made him a saint).“If a woman grows weary and at last dies from childbearing, it matters not. Let her only die from bearing, she is there to do it.”– Martin Luther, 1538. Some Christian sects even require a battered women to stay with the man who abuses her and her children since its “her cross to bear!”
More male supremacist hogwash: “A woman must never be free of subjugation.”– Hindu code of Manu V. “A woman's heaven is under her husband's feet. –Bengali proverb. “The body of a woman is filthy and not a vessel for the law.”– Buddha.” In pain shall you bear children, yet your urge will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. -Genesis 3:16. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. Suffer not woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man.” –Timothy 2:11-15.“Your women are fields for you to cultivate, so go to your field as you will.”– Koran 2:223. “Women have weak memories, are undisciplined, impulsive and dangerous when given authority over anything.”– Catholic Church's edict against “witches.” “I thank thee O lord, that thou has not created me a heathen, a slave, or a woman.” – Orthodox Jewish prayer.
If today's women had the political and social power of women in early Goddess societies, would the U.S. government spend $450 billion every year killing people while the homeless shiver in the cold, battered women have no shelters, schools deteriorate and children live in poverty? Since father gods “gave” men control over children, women have been required to sacrifice them upon the alter of war. This recalls the sacrifice men's jealous psychotic sky god required of Abraham!!
Nermina Kurs Pahic, a writer in Sarajevo said, “Many women accept the role of being mothers of warriors.” She said the epic poems help mold values in her part of the world typically portray ideal women as mothers who show pride if their sons die “heroically.”Wars continue because male supremacist brainwashing can overcome a woman's desire to protect her children. The world's male supremacist nations deny women reproductive rights in order to use the uterus as a factory farm to produce a steady supply of cannon fodder for their idiotic wars.

However, the hardships of modern war are changing women's role in society and are destroying the monstrously obscene tradition of being proud if their children die in battle. Dr. Ismet Ceric, director of Sarajevo’s main psychiatric clinic said, “This myth has collapsed for the first time. Now women will care more for their children and their home than national myths. They will also understand that political decisions are so serious that they will never again leave them solely to men.” Women must also challenge male supremacist theology. Since religion has such a compelling hold on the psyches of so many people, women can't afford to leave religion in the hands of the “father gods” that legitimize the oppression of women, children—and Mother Nature by male supremacists.

Goddess symbolism legitimizes the concerns of women much as father god symbolism supports male interests under patriarchy. However, unlike male supremacist patriarchy, the Goddess religion does not require the enslavement of one gender by the other! Fortunately, increasing numbers of women are getting courage and inspiration by invoking the Goddess, wearing Goddess images in public sends a positive message to women struggling under patriarchy's temporary reign. Inundated by images of male gods, women get the false message they're farther from divinity than men and thus, have less value; hearing male created negative messages about ourselves for more than 4,000 years, women need the healing power of Goddess. Spiritual wounds inflicted on women by the worship of gods must be healed. Goddess worship and feminine values must be restored before male supremacist insanity destroys the Earth.

Goddesses Remembered

Lilith—As recorded in the Talmud, Lilith was Adam’s first wife. Though divorce laws didn't exist, he “married” a second woman, Eve, who subsequently became the “mother of the first sin.” Adam married Lilith because he was tired of coupling with beasts (a common Middle-Eastern herdsmen's’ custom). When Adam attempted to force Lilith to lie beneath him, Lilith refused. God tried to convince her to be subordinate but failed. Lilith left Adam and returned to her home by the Red Sea. Because she refused to obey Adam's god, scripture recast Her as a demon.

Shekinah — The Jewish cabalistic version of Shakti, the female soul of the male god who could not be perfect until he could be reunited with Her. She is envisioned as the female in essence, as the brightness, or aura of god. Cabalists said it was god's loss of his Shekinah that brought about all evil.

Sophia — The Gnostic Great Mother, the spirit of female wisdom, symbolized by the dove — which was later transformed into a sign for the patriarchal holy ghost. Sophia represented god's female soul, his source of power and wisdom. Many Greek churches were dedicated to “Hagia Sophia,” or “Holy Wisdom” including the great basilica in Byzantium. “Hag,” derogatory word for an elder woman, came from “Hagia.”

A creation myth states Sophia gave birth to a male spirit, Christ, and a female spirit, Acamoth. Acamoth gave birth to Ildabaoth, Son of Darkness, (known as Yahweh or Jehovah) along with five planetary spirits later regarded as emanations of Yahweh/Jehovah. These were: Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi, and Uraeus. These spirits produced archangels, angels, and finally humans.

Yahweh/Jehovah (called Ildabaoth by the Gnostics) forbade people to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, but his mother, Achamoth, sent her own spirit to earth in the form of the serpent Ophi to teach people to disobey the jealous Yahweh/Jehovah. The serpent was also called Christ, who taught Adam to eat the fruit of knowledge despite Yahweh/Jehovah’s prohibitions. “Christ” means, “anointed one.” Jesus was one of many “Christ's. Sophia being female, was not acceptable to the later development of the all male church. Of the three mighty female powers in the Gnostic creation myth, all preceded Yahweh/Jehovah. Two of them opposed him as a tyrant, overruled his taboo and saved humanity from ignorance.

Eve —In Assyrian scriptures, entitled Mother Womb, Creatress of Destiny who made both the first human male and female out of clay. They called her Nin-Evah, “Holy Lady Eve” for whom the Assyrian capital city was named. Her Tantric names- Adita Eva, “the Very Beginning.” In northern Babylonia, Eve was known as the Divine Lady of Eden or Goddess of the Tree of Life. Unlike Talmudic scripture, the original Eve had no spouse. According to Gnostic scriptures, Eve was obliged to punish Jehovah who so arrogantly pretended to be the sole creator. As the Mother of All Living, she existed before everything, but god forgot she had made him and had given him his powers. Eve was one of the common Middle Eastern names of superior feminine power. To the Hittites, she was Hawwah, meaning “life.” To the Persians, she was Hvov or “Earth.” Armaeans called her Hawah “Mother of All Living.” In Anatolia, she was Hebat or Hapat, “Hebe” is the Greek word for “Virgin Mother Earth. A Semitic root of her name was “hayy,” a matrilineal kinship group once considered the “life” of every tribe by direct descent from the Creatress. “Eve, “serpent” and “life” are derived from the same root in Arabic. Some of the once-sacred books made Eve superior to both Adam and the creator. It was Eve, not god, who gave Adam his soul and brought him to life. It was She, not god, who cast down the evil deities from heaven and made them demons. And She, as the eternal female power, would eventually judge the god she created and find him guilty of injustice and destroy him.

Earth Mother — The Essence personification of Nature, harmony with which was central to their faith. Their cosmos consisted of the Heavenly Father and his Angels of Eternal Life: Creative Work, Peace, Power, Love and Wisdom — and the Earthly Mother with her corresponding Angels of Earth: Life, Joy, Sun, Water, and Air. It was believed that humans stood at the point of interaction between the two complementary groups of forces and must become attuned to both. Note the ancient recurring theme of female power restraining and balancing male power. The Friday evening communion began by saying, “The heavenly Father and I are One,” while the Saturday morning communion began, “The Earthly Mother and I are One.” Peace with her kingdom was contemplated at Sunday noon.

Mary —The Christian mother of Jesus by divine impregnation. Mary is really a composite of Mariamne the Semitic God/Mother Queen of Heaven, Aphrodite-Mari the Syrian version of Ishatar, Juno the blessed Virgin of the Romans, the Isis as Stella Maris or Star of the Sea, Maya the Asian Virgin Mother of the Redeemer, and as the Moerae, or Trinity of Fates. Mary’s closest resemblance was to that of Isis and her divine son Horace. Mary was elevated to Mother of God to counter Isis worship which had spread throughout the known world. Mary took over Isis's attributes and titles; Star of the Sea, Redemtress, the Virgin, Queen of Heaven, etc. The first churches dedicated to Mary were requisitioned Isis temples with repainted statues. After Mary was admitted in to the Roman church, the Fathers stripped her of divinity and motherhood to disassociate her from the Great Goddess and the popular worship of the “mother figure.” Mary became the Virgin who never engaged in sexual intercourse. The “Fathers” introduced the acceptance of Mary as a way to convert the heathens and to control women, who up until then, had refused to follow the new all male church.

Ashera/Asherah — The Semitic name of the Great Goddess, possibly from the old Iranian word “asha,” or “universal law,” a law of the Matriarch. Sumerians called her Sahnan, “Strength of All Things and “ Kindly and Bountiful Maiden.” Her sacred city Marash appears in the bible as Mareshah (Joshua 15:44 She was believed to be the wife of Baal. Others worshiped Her as his mother Asherat-of-the-sea. She was called “Mother of the Gods” which tends to link her to the Canaanite’s “Qaniyatu Elima,” She Who Gives Birth to the Gods, or “Rabbatu Athiratu Yammi” Lady who Traverses the Sea (meaning the Moon, which the Goddess is closely associated with). The word “rabbatu” was an early female form of “rabbi.” In Egypt she was known as Ashesh, “Law-giving Mother and Great Lady of Ashert and Lady of Heaven, the Queen of the gods. It is believed that for 240 of the 360 years that Solomon's temple lasted in Jerusalem, Ashera was worshiped in it along with Jehovah as his bride and sister. Her wooden image was publicly displayed. When Elijah slaughtered the 400 priests of Baal on Mount Carmel, he left those of Ashera unharmed. The tribe of Asher was named after Her, it was the most sea conscious of the twelve tribes of Israel, holding a coastal strip about 55 miles long and no more than 10 miles wide, centered on Acre.

The Black Goddess Mawu-Lisa (6,000-7,000 BC.) was androgynous, male and female, self fertilizing and seen as the earth and the rainbow. Africans believed the earth is ultimately more powerful than the sky and its gods. The sky can withhold rain, but Earth is the source of the life force itself. The Gaia hypotheses of environmental science confirms this ancient concept. The sky is in fact created by the earth. The envelope of air and moisture surrounding us is really the earth “breathing.” As in the ancient African beliefs, the sky gods are creations of Mother Earth. She breaths them out — and can breathe them back in again. This is a fundamental belief in all Goddess religions throughout the world.

Innana (Sumerian Goddess). Innana is the oldest known creating goddess in human written record. The god of the Hebrews and Christians, Jehovah or Yahweh originates from Innana. His name, Iahu’anat is derived directly from her name.

The basic differences between Goddess worshipping cultures and the last 7,000 years of male god patriarchal (male supremacist) which have infected societies worldwide. Goddess cultural beliefs

• The earth was and is the Goddess' body. The earth is a living breathing entity and all life forms are sacred. • People are connected closely to nature, its cycles, power and beauty. Life was celebrated in all rituals; there were no blood sacrifices or violence.

• Cultures were nurturing, non-violent, dependent upon each other and therefore respectful of each other's needs. •Cultures were based on equalitarian or partnership social and political structures. There is no evidence of power over or domination/subjugation relationships. • Resources were used for life enhancing technology. Inventions and creativity were used to help people enjoy life and the Earth's bounty. • Possessiveness and inequitable property distribution are not evident.

Women were free to change sexual mates, bear or not bear children without social guilt or shameful stigmas attached to their actions. •Women controlled the religious, social, political and legal institutions which were all focused on community improvements and equitable distribution of wealth and work. •The Goddess was seen as a changing, evolving deity who did so to fill the changing needs of both individuals and society as a whole. •Individuality was highly regarded and religious beliefs and rituals enhanced that quality. •Spirituality was as individual as people were. A wide diversity of rituals and symbols were shared in homes and temples. •Sexuality was sacred for both partners and considered a gift from the Goddess. Women were valued for their individuality, not their childbearing capacity. •Access to political, economic, religious, educational and social power were open to all. Every woman was required to work as a priestess for varying amounts of time each year. Men were on all important community councils, though women were given the highest honors. •There were no weapons of violence, no fortifications surrounding Goddess communities, and no warfare. • Children were highly valued by both men and women and they participated in many rituals. There were no "illegitimate" children. • Arts, science, and life enhancing technologies were continually created improved upon and shared. • Communal activities for all were standard.

Male god cultural beliefs • Male gods were/are believed to live in the sky. •The Earth is not sacred. It was/is devalued as a temporary stop on the way to "heaven," the final goal to be attained only after death. Hence, environmental destruction, since Earth matters less than heaven. The Earth is owned by the gods and given to men to control, along with women and children. (A man's home is his castle, etc.) • God was/is separated from nature and so were/are his followers. •Blood sacrifices, including human, were required to prove religious belief and to honor god. Today, giving money to the church serves the same purpose. • Personal wealth was/is a sign of god's favor (the Divine Right of Kings). Poverty was/is a sign of unworthiness. People are poor because they do not enjoy god's favor. Hence the cruel and indifferent treatment of homeless people who are said to "choose their lifestyle." The homeless are social outcasts (social Darwinism). If they die in the cold, it's their own fault or god's will. Thus, more fortunate allow them to suffer poverty and without guilt. • Possessiveness, ownership, and inequitable distribution of resources increased as patriarchal power increased. • Religious, political, educational and social structures were/are rigidly hierarchical, with strict rules and laws dictating who can and who will never gain access to wealth and power. •Male gods’ were/are rigid, unchanging, authoritarian who dictate every aspect of their peoples' lives. • Individuality is seen as breaking away from the male god's right to rule and was/is generally not tolerated. • Religious symbols and rituals were/are clearly defined and strictly adhered to. Anyone not following the strict laws of the male gods were either cast out of society or killed. Today, disobedient people are still shunned and excommunicated from their patriarchal churches. •Women were/are seen as inferior to men in every way. They were/are not allowed to have as much religious, political, or legal power as men. Educational opportunities were/are limited or completely denied, (modern-day Afghanistan where they are forbidden to attend school or to learn to read).

•Marriage to one man was/is strictly enforced and was/is difficult or impossible to end. The Catholic church frowns on divorce, even from a man who rapes and beats "his" wife. •Women were/are considered to be male property, especially their uteruses. Hence, obsessive male stalking and murder of women who leave them (If I can't have her, no one can, etc.) All male gods had/have strict rules against women's sexual habits, including birth control and abortion. Having many children is a source of male pride, hence overpopulation. George W. Bush cut funding for abortion and birth control in impoverished nations. •Men's sexuality was encouraged and exalted. Their pleasures are guaranteed by the economic power they had/have over women, often a matter of life and death for impoverished women. •Weapons designed for violence and destruction were/are abundant. Defense fortifications were/are standard features due to constant warfare. •Only select (perfect male) children were always allowed to live. Female infants were/are left to die or were/are sold as child prostitutes or slaves. Trafficking girls for the sex trade is booming due to the Internet. Female fetuses are aborted in China, where sons are favored, and girls are often killed. • Arts, sciences and life enhancing technologies are usually inferior to those of the Goddess cultures. The media, movies and literature are obsessed with violence and carnage. Men killing women are often part of movie plots. Hard-core pornography featuring the torture and killing of women (snuff films) is rampant. • Men's activities were/are encouraged. Most news is men talking about what men are doing. Men control ALL the power institutions (finance, military, technology, education, government, medicine, and religion the most powerful of all since it controls by fear of god's punishment — the Big Cop in the Sky. (Now that surveillance technology is so advanced, is god obsolete?