HERSTORY

In the beginning - Civilization began as a matriarchy, where women were healers, inventors, creators, leaders within the tribal society. In the time of the early matriarchies, healing and religion were deeply connected and religion was based on the feminine. The act of women giving birth was closely equated with the Goddess' act of creating the world. Every culture has a creation story and inevitably those stories revolve around giving birth to the earth and universe. From the Goddess' womb, chaos was given form and created every species of living thing. Respect for the human mother and the birth process was a form of worshipping the all creative Goddess.

A further connection of women with the Goddess and healing came from the menstrual cycle. The Goddess embodied the earth, the universe, and in particular the moon. The cycles of the seasons, the moon, agriculture and birth were observed to closely follow the 28 day menstrual cycle. In early times, when there was no artificial lighting to confuse women's cycles, women menstruated in a regular way, ovulating together on the full moon and menstruating together on the new or dark moon. Women, aware of this natural cycle, used the lunar cycle to guide and control conception. The moon cycles also reflect women's life passages - the new moon as beginnings and birth; the waxing moon is childhood to first menstruation; the full moon as ovulation and motherhood; and the waning moon is the celebration of menopause(the end of menstruation) the crone or wise woman.

The peaceful matriarchies ended when nomadic tribes from the north moved southward about 15,000 years ago. These nomads were a patriarchal warlike culture which used the wheel, domesticated horse, and weapons to take over and destroy the peaceful agrarian cultures.This beginning of modern culture slowly evolved into the male priest dominated religions (Judaic, Christianity, Islam), which devalued women and the cycle of birth, life and death. Creation was stripped of its female and birth roots, substituting Adam as the first male ancestor, created by a motherless god from dust. Misogyny increased to the point where women were burned at the stake, stoned, treated as unclean, kept uneducated and constantly pregnant to die (usually during birthing) at an early age. This all came to a horrible "final solution" with the Inquisition, where over nine million women were murdered by the male dominated political leadership/priesthood. These women were accused of witchcraft simply because they practiced herbal medicine and midwived their sisters during the birthing process.

Despite this persecution, women kept their spirit alive through secret oral traditions behind closed doors. Women practiced their healing skills and midwifery, kept doctrines of love and peace alive, passed on from mother to daughter in secret. Today, women in westernized societies are reclaiming their rights and are activists fighting for human rights, female empowerment, and the healing of the earth. However, many contemporary women remain repressed in those cultures which continue to practice sexism and misogyny. One only has to look at those country/states which are run by fundamentalist zealots, to see first hand the continued cruel treatment of women by patriarchal politics.

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