{"id":6390,"date":"2020-03-09T21:30:46","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T05:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/?p=6390&lang=en"},"modified":"2020-03-13T21:31:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T05:31:44","slug":"the-goddesses-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/women\/the-goddesses-in-us\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"The Goddesses in Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having been in the company of young and adolescent girls and women (in most cases in violent situations and conditions of inequality) who are in varying stages of healing and regaining power in Guatemala, I frequently ask myself .\u00a0 .\u00a0 .\u00a0 \u00abAt what point do we women move from being goddesses, sacred beings, sources of wisdom to being oppressed, excluded and abused merely for having been born female?\u00bb\u00a0 How were we viewed previously?\u00a0 The power that women have had in diverse ancestral cultures for millennia is contrary to what occurs in our \u00abmodern\u00bb era — those internal goddesses are being held hostage by a machista<\/em> culture and misogyny.<\/p>\n

Goddesses, warriors, wise women and grandmothers<\/strong><\/p>\n

A variety of mythologies, narratives, legends and histories exist in the different cultures of the world where women appear in a variety of roles.\u00a0 Because the topic is so broad, I will speak only about women and feminine energies which contributed to history through two great civilizations:\u00a0 the Mayan and the Greek.<\/p>\n

Greek mythology cites twelve Olympic goddesses and gods of which six are female.\u00a0 According to the Greeks these gods and goddesses were the most powerful.\u00a0 And they called them Olympic because they met to discuss topics on Mt. Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The goddesses of Olympus, as Jean Shinoda Bolen cites in her book, The Goddesses in Every Woman,<\/em> are Athena, Artemis, Hestia, Aphrodite, Demeter and Hera.\u00a0 They were revered deities above all by the women of ancient Greece.\u00a0 Each one is devoted to a particular aspect or vocation in life.<\/p>\n

Athena<\/em><\/strong> is the goddess of wisdom, science and strategy.\u00a0 She is personified in logical women who are guided by reason with a balance between emotions and thoughts.\u00a0 She inspires leaders, warriors and strategists who utilize the political, academic, economic and social.<\/p>\n

Artemis<\/em><\/strong> is the goddess of the hunt and of the moon.\u00a0 She personifies the independence of the feminine spirit, inspiring women to search for their own goals in areas of their own choosing.\u00a0 She was the protector of the young, especially adolescents that suffer continual abuse.<\/p>\n

Hestia <\/em><\/strong>is the goddess of the home, offering a feeling of harmony.\u00a0 She is the keeper of the fire in the temple, the light of spirituality and feeling in life.<\/p>\n

Aphrodite<\/em><\/strong> is the goddess of beauty, love and sexuality.\u00a0 She motivates women to be creative and symbolizes the power to transform and the creativity found in love.<\/p>\n

Demeter<\/em><\/strong> being the protector and the generous one, represents Mother, the one who nourishes the other goddesses.\u00a0 She is mainly associated with nature, agriculture, and fertility of the earth and is the one who brings the seasons.<\/p>\n

Hera <\/em><\/strong>is the goddess of marriage and birth.\u00a0 Her strength and power lie within happiness and pain.\u00a0 She is concerned about marriage and the union of couples–committed to marriage, the spouse and life as a couple.<\/p>\n

The goddesses are our extended family, not only for having human attributes such as emotions, conduct and physical appearance, but also for their archetypal value, i.e. they symbolize models for behavior and accomplishment which we subconsciously recognize as collective.\u00a0 Goddesses represent diversity, power, antagonism, particularity, challenges, and diversions.<\/p>\n

The presence of goddesses and\/or feminine energy is also found in the narrated cosmology of the Mayan peoples in the Pop Vuh.\u00a0 Three principal goddesses are named in the Sacred Book of the Mayan<\/em>:\u00a0 Ixmukane, Ixchel and Isquic; each having exercised their talents in the myth about the creation of the earth and the human being.\u00a0 These goddesses are named during Mayan ceremonies, during the process of healing and inclusivity.\u00a0 Many women bring them in through calling them by name.<\/p>\n

Ixmukane <\/em><\/strong>is the goddess who is the giver of life, the goddess of the maize, good-natured and loving.\u00a0 She is considered the creator of human beings along with her companion Ixpiyacoc.\u00a0 Ixmukane is considered one of the oldest grandmothers in Mayan time.<\/p>\n

Ixchel<\/em><\/strong> is the goddess of the moon, fertility and water.\u00a0 Her energy governs births, weaves together destinies and she is referred to as the ancient waxing lunar crescent.\u00a0 The Goddess Ischel manifests in four colors:\u00a0 red, brown, yellow and white, colors associated with the four cardinal directions of the universe.<\/p>\n

Ixquic <\/em><\/strong>represents feminine evolution, strength and vitality.\u00a0 According to the myth of the maiden of the underworld she is personified as the goddess of curiosity, demonstrating the process of germination by ascending from the underworld to the earth’s surface.<\/p>\n

Mayan cosmology offers an important vision of duality and complementarity, opposing forces that attract one another and are complementary to each other.\u00a0 Two of these forces are feminine energy and masculine energy, vital for creation, harmony and equilibrium in the universe, and offering a clear premise of equality if we think about it from the point of view of gender.<\/p>\n

How did we lose our powers?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Myths and narratives about the lives of goddesses invite us to reflect on existence during the \u00abpre-patriarchal\u00bb times when male gods governed the earth, heavens, seas, and the abilities and powers of goddesses were mostly tied to family, sexuality and fertility.\u00a0 Nevertheless, what made these goddesses, grandmothers and feminine energies powerful was their procreative role, not only around fertility, but beyond that, as creative, curious, courageous, strong, blessed and powerful; adaptable to changes in the course of their story.<\/p>\n

Many goddesses are found trapped in women due to stereotyping, prejudices, violence and inequality.\u00a0 One or more goddess resides in each woman, yet, the outside misogynist, racist world oppresses and suppresses the powers of each of these goddesses which affects energy, lives and aspirations of women globally.\u00a0 This effect comes from different places — culture, from the social, economic situations, politics, from the professional, from academia and the spiritual.<\/p>\n

How can we reconnect ourselves with our internal goddess?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would like to cite three of many principal ideas which Jean Shinoda Bolen (from her book) attributes to the goddesses in each woman:<\/p>\n

\u00abEvery woman has a fundamental role in the development of her own life story.\u00bb\u00a0 This means that \u00a0power is regained when one has the right to decide, and that this power becomes stronger when used collectively, to make decisions based on aspirations, dreams and one’s own motivation, collectively, freely without being bound to \u00abwhat will people say\u00bb or the demands of family members or the usual stereotypical and unequal archetypes of being female.\u00a0 In other words, making decisions from one’s own sense of internal power.<\/p>\n

\u00abWomen are the protagonists and the heroines of the story of their own lives\u00bb.\u00a0 Each woman lives the reality and condition of her own distinct life:\u00a0 some as heroines, some as warriors, some as creators, leaders, healers, etc.\u00a0 So it is important to recognize that we can be what we want to be by manifesting our sacred ancestral powers which accompany us through life.<\/p>\n

\u00abWhen women become conscious of the internal powers that influence them, they reach a corresponding level of owning that power.\u00bb\u00a0 What female models have influenced you?\u00a0 Are you conscious of the goddess or goddesses that reside in each of you?\u00a0 To recognize our internal goddesses gives us the gift of a transformative and powerful paradigm to understand and see ourselves as sacred beings, courageous, strong . . .<\/p>\n

Historically, women have been confronted by difficult times, times of femicide, violence, discrimination, exclusion . . . And so, I invite each one of you, so that together, we change this discourse, as warriors, as strong and powerful individuals, women who take on decision-making, creators and on and on, all the adjectives the permit connection with our internal goddesses.<\/p>\n

Karen Segrand-M\u00e9ndez is a community psychologist who is a frequent collaborator with EntreMundos Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having been in the company of young and adolescent girls and women (in most cases in violent situations and conditions of inequality) who are in varying stages of healing and regaining power in Guatemala, I frequently ask myself .\u00a0 .\u00a0 .\u00a0 \u00abAt what point do we women move from being goddesses, sacred beings, sources of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[455,422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pagetwo-en","category-women"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/diosas-mayas-1.jpg?fit=736%2C506&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ljt7-1F4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7665,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/culture\/indigenous-language-learning-aesthetics-and-resistance\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":6390,"position":0},"title":"Indigenous Language Learning, Aesthetics, and Resistance","author":"EntreMundos","date":"18 octubre, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Reynaldo Rivera Guerrero The views that people held about indigenous languages some years ago have changed for the better in Mexican society. 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