Reinstating the Divine Feminine

During thousands of years both masculine and feminine values were included in the worship of gods and goddesses by almost every culture in the world. In the past one thousand years only the masculine values are recognised as of being of primary importance which can be clearly seen in the major world religions which are all patriarchal religions including Christianity, Muslim, Jewish, and Buddhism. As a direct result of the dominance of male values we now also see in most societies across the world the primacy of male values including war, the exploitation of women and the importance of money and success over love and happiness. In this article I show examples of the power of the divine female as was expressed for thousands of years before the folly of valuing only the masculine in religions. 

Goddess Brigid and Saint Brigid in Ireland

Brigid was the daughter of Dagda the Good God, who was a giant and the most important god of the Tuatha Dé Danann who descended onto the emerald isle of Ireland along with the tribe of gods from the sky surrounded by black clouds that shrouded the sun and sky in darkness for three days. Her brother was Dian Ciecht the most powerful healer in Ireland and together the three formed the divine trinity considered important in mysticism and religion. The Tuatha Dé Danann  brought with them knowledge and skills of farming, healing, forging, magic and much more. Goddess Brigid was responsible for a wide range of human behaviour with the abilities to inspire creativity especially in writers, encourages fertility in both humans and the land, encourage abundance, the protection of children and could also be called on for success during battles as she assisted warriors. Goddess Brigid could also influence the work of smiths, farmers and healers. She was strongly associated with serpents, snakes, domesticated animals, sacred wells and a cross made of reeds the Saint Brigid`s Cross which can often be found in Irish homes even today. In Celtic lore Brigid is credited with uniting the warring factions of Celts who were fighting each other in Ireland and Europe. Due to Brigid’s strong affinity with serpents some believe there is a connection with Minerva whose head of hair was turned into snakes by Athena and a possible connection with Athena also who both supported human communities and went to war against humans.

African voodoo culture also has a connection with Brigid in the form of Maman Brigitte who is the spirit of both fertility and death, the name is remarkably similar to Brigid. Maman Brigitte also represents similar qualities of offering protection and she is also symbolised by a cross. Britannia is a name connected with Britain which also has similarity with the name Brigid. The symbolism connected with the Hindu religion is similar to that of Brigid with the use of diamond and flame symbols. The Jewish religion is particularly focused on the diamond symbol seen very clearly in the Star of David. In Christianity Archangel Metatrons Cube includes two diamond symbols combined which is used as a manifestation tool. The symbol of the diamond conveys the necessity of immersing the ego nature into the unconscious, the North tip being the ego and the South tip the unconscious, so that the gifts and qualities of the unconscious can emerge including prophecy and even creation itself. As Carl Jung observed the projection of the unconscious in the form of universal archetypes used by humanity are the building blocks of human reality. The use of the diamond symbol then represents the birth and death of the Self, birth and death are associated in paganism by the divine feminine. The awareness of the universe, soul and systems infinitely greater than the ego can then develop. The divine feminine is expressed in world religions including Christianity far more pervasively than might be believed. 

Goddess Brigid formed a bridge between paganism and Christianity as she became personified in Christian Ireland as Saint Brigid. It was said by Saint Brendan that Saint Brigid when standing in the light of the sun it was as if she were hanging her emerald green cloak on the rays of the sun so bright she herself shone with flaming bright orange and yellow hair as goddess Brigid is described in Irish folklore. Saint Brigid was said to glow with the light of the sun and the stars. Saint Brigid was credited with founding a monastery, the first of its kind for both monks and nuns by Brigid`s Well in Kildare. Saint Brigid was known for her deep spirituality and caring nature and had strong abilities of healing. The Saint is considered to have been a real person with great influence among the Christian patriarchy, Saint Brigid was an abbess and some believe she was made a bishop while others say she shared the power of the position of bishop with a male conferred bishop. In my opinion, this is not a major issue to decide on because Saint Brigid as abbess of the first monastery for both males and females is proof of her influence which also encouraged her popularity to spread through Ireland. She often toured the country with bishops to give speeches promoting Christianity, her abbey and in time established the Cult of Brigid in which she had developed her own brand of Christianity. Bishop or not, some allege she did not even exist, but a book by Noel Kissane Saint Brigid of Kildare Life, Legend and Cult  strongly supports the belief Saint Brigid was a real individual and a caring yet powerful one. Perhaps Saint Brigid embodied many of the qualities of Goddess Brigid, in this way the power of the goddess was reflected by the powerful Saint Brigid. 

Interesting facts are that Brigid is the name used by 100 towns in Ireland which makes the name of Saint Patrick second popular to Brigid. Brigid has 116 holy wells associated with her, is patron of 113 Roman Catholic churches and 14 protestant churches. Saint Brigid was patron saint of Ireland together with Patrick and Colm Cille. She is patron saint of over 100 Irish schools, patron of dozens of Gaelic Athletic Association clubs and various charities and cultural centres (Noel Kissane Saint Brigid of Kildare Life, Legend and Cult 2017).  

The current world situation, with the most popular world religions worshipping a male god means that male archetypes are being transmitted throughout humanity including the priest and the emperor archetypes resulting in the dominance of male values and so war has become widespread, intolerance is a daily feature of the lives of most people. Individuals experience these archetypes psychologically and emotionally which leads to a skewed perception of the world and their fellow human beings, reality reflects individual perception as psychologist Carl Jung and psychoanalyst Freud discovered and wrote about.

Fig.2 Goddess Brigid 

Goddess Athena

Athena was not known for mercy; she was the goddess of war. However, Athena was also goddess of wisdom, it was to Athena the Athenians and Greeks looked to for making problematic decisions. Athena was goddess of abundance and prosperity who supported her believers well, Athens has through history been among the most prosperous of cities.

The Nile Goddess

Religion, magic, nature and humans were all brought together in the ancient Egyptian beliefs. Even sunrise and sunset were intense magical and religious moments for the ancient Egyptians.

The Nile was considered a deity, she fed the Egyptians, her waters created bountiful harvests which kept Egyptians alive. Therefore, the Nile also supported Egypt herself because without the Nile`s flowing waters Egypt could not exist in the hot desert climate. Egyptians could not survive on desert sands. The Egyptians daily prayed to the Nile, making sacrifices to the deity who personified the Nile, Goddess Anuket, while fearing and revering her powers.

The Goddess Anuket could cause life or death depending on whether she chose to let her waters flow so that food could grow, Egyptians could eat and drink. During other years death spread through Egypt if the Egyptians had fallen out of favour with the Nile and she chose not to allow her waters flow causing drought, disease and death. In years to come human sacrifices were made during the real event recorded in the Bible, the Egyptian seven years drought.

The Nile was the life, the blood and the body on which Egypt and Egyptians needed to survive and often thrived due to the generosity of the Nile. Nature was sacred, nature determined the life and death of every Egyptian ordinary and royal.

Fig.3 Statue of  Athena Temple of Athena in Athens Greece 

Fig.4 Goddess of the Nile Anuket 

The Christos, the Intercession to the Aeon Sophia and Humanity

The story I will write is a Gnostic story who were pre-Christian druids, even older than the European druids. It is an encouraging story for today`s times so read on and you may see why.

Sophia was a form of alien, an Aeon, one of three Aeons, who lived in what`s called the Pleroma, a residence of pure white light on the edge of the Universe. These three Aeons were involved in the process of creating planets, stars, and other elements of the universe. Sophia fell into the middle of space and began to transform into Planet earth, at times she was happy, other times scared and lonely and even experiencing terror as the surface of her light body transformed into Planet Earth.

An Aeon from the Pleroma the Gnostics called Christos felt concerned for Sophia and decided to intervene in her fear, worry and terror. The Christos launched into space toward the new forming Earth and hovered beside Sophia. “The Christos, acting in full respect of Sophia`s powers assisted her to formalize the vital processes unfolding in her world, and healed the pain of her passions by detaching her from them, but not so much that she could not call them to mind if she wished.” wrote John James Lash in his book Not in His Image. The life forms on the developing Earth had already taken on form and were self-maintaining. The Christos Aeon`s intervention was primarily to create the biological plans, or instincts of all plant animal and even human life, the development of life through time that Sophia could have conducted. This meant that the Aeon Christos could intercede to assist Sophia in her plans for all of life including humanity.

The story goes further in the Gnostic paper the Gospel of Thomas to include a doomsday scenario. Humanity is born through Sophia but they live in a dream world, having not remembered the intervention of the Christos or the true nature of Mother Earth as the powerful Aeon Sophia. It is not so much a dream world as a nightmare that lasts it seems for eternity.

The Christos Aeon returns again this time to wake up humanity.Many human beings are each more and more terrified of the nightmares that are their world, ignorant of the supernatural spirit of Sophia. The masculine joins with the feminine as one, a very important concept in mysticism which brings enlightenment, peace and happiness. Humans themselves want to wake up, not needing to be woken, the Christos breathes light into their bodies. They wake up. The nightmares of other humans torturing them fade as the light continues to be breathed into them by the Christos. These devil like humans fade and disappear.

Each human being joins the light of all the other human beings filled with light evolved humans transform into bodies of powerful loving light.

Fig.5 Sophia 

Gabriel Woods 

Gabriel Woods is the author of eight published books including the popular and very positively reviewed The Golden Age Trilogy. Gabriel has obtained a Degree in Psychology, a Masters in Aidwork Management from University College Dublin, a Certificate in Counselling from University Maynooth Ireland. He is a fully qualified FETAC life coach in Ireland as well as a full-time professional author.

He has travelled around the world, living in Dublin, London, Edinburgh, Sydney and Brisbane in Australia. He has also explored sacred places of aboriginal culture. He explored important religious and cultural Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim sites of India. He has learned about the spiritual of the people that live and worship there. He has travelled widely throughout mainland Europe including Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Netherlands and Germany with a focus on areas of cultural importance. These sites throughout the world that Gabriel has visited have had a profound effect on him which he expresses as he writes about these areas in his novel.

Gabriel Woods The X-Gates articles include history, culture, society, paganism, magic, and a wide variety of other topics. 

Gabriel has returned to Ireland. He worked voluntarily for Aware helpline that supports people experiencing depression and anxiety. He lives near the banks of the River Barrow in Ireland. Gabriel Woods latest book published 2022 is COVID and Lockdown Stories.

Gabriel Woods books can be found in Irish libraries, Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Baker and Taylor, Kobo, Tolino, Overdrive, Bibliotheca, Vivlio and BorrowBox.

Connect with Gabriel Woods

Email contactgabrielwoods@gmail.com

Facebook Books By Gabriel Woods

View my articles published with The X-Gates, click on “The Most Popular” author on The X-Gates homepage.

Follow Gabriel Woods on Twitter, Tumblr, Instigram, Pinterest, Wordpress, LinkedIn and Quora