Matriarchal Societies of the Ancient Past

Feb. 11, 1996

   The topic for today is feminine mysticism and I will address all of the questions which have been posed on this topic. In the Atlantean society there was a matriarchal base. It was not only matriarchal, there were also other influences, but it was primarily a matriarchal society. The matriarchy that developed in the old European region was a part of the matriarchal heritage of that era. So matriarchy was well developed at an early time, long before recorded history would specify. Matriarchal societies progressed down through the ages until perhaps 10,000 or 11,000 years BC when these societies one by one began to decline and be replaced by more aggressive, warlike and patriarchal societies. But before that time they were in their heyday.

   Now, some of the matriarchal societies did survive past that time but in general they were somewhat degenerate after that period. That is to say they were not having the full scope of power that they previously had. You know, it is a fact that there are different ages on the planet. In the different ages and in the different Yugas there are different energies upon the planet. The astrological energies, the planetary configurations and spatial energies, are different and the development of the consciousness upon the planet changes and so there are different ages. In the different ages there are the predominance of different types of energy patterns that are sometimes called archetypes. These archetypes are configurations of energy patterns. So during this period from approximately 45,000 BC to approximately 8,000 BC you will find there was the predominance of matriarchal societies upon this planet. Most of the societies of that time, be they simple or complex, were matriarchal. After that period there became the steady increase of patriarchal domination at large and many changes took place in human culture.

   During the time of the matriarchal societies, there were a variety of independently developed cultures. Human beings had already by that time spread throughout the world and were living in all parts. There were in the beginning both the present human forms and the proto humans, both lived at the time. The proto humans, at the time of the development of matriarchy, were a dying species in the main. The present day human was the rising form, the rising star of that time. The number of humans upon the planet was small and so, as they spread to the different parts, they became isolated and developed independent languages and independent cultures. But there were some streams that were brought together in development. And it is a fact that there was also extraterrestrial influence in this development.

   Now, in the beginning of matriarchy, the human beings lived primarily in very simple conditions. They were hunters and gatherers. They roamed the countryside getting their food from the abundant earth around them. These people were primarily organized in clans or tribes and the different tribes were small. If they became too large, they would strain the food resources of a particular area and they would break apart and again become small. In this way the small bands of people, small tribes, spread out and out to inhabit the earth.

   Now, there were tribal identities. So many of these small clans would belong to one tribe, so many to another and they would have their primary territories. But there was quite a bit of land, many natural resources, and life was abundant upon the planet so there was not much competition between the people. What was the strength of a clan was the health of its children who would be strong boys and strong girls to hunt and to bear children and to preserve the clan. So the role of the mother became very significant. There was no marriage system, the clans were ruled by the mothers. All knew who their mother was but who the father was, was unclear. It was a communal situation, there was no marriage per se. So the mother was the great figure. All could remember and honor the mother who took care of them in their childhood, but as to the father, this was a mystery. No one knew, no one cared. All that they knew was the link to the mother. This was true in almost all of these societies. However, when they became more developed, this changed. But for many thousands of years, there was no note taken to fatherhood, only to motherhood. The children would look to the mother. And a women who had ten sons and daughters was a very wealthy person for she would have the honor of all ten children, were they healthy and strong and living to their adulthood. With the children themselves having children, the mother would become highly honored in the clan.

   Now, all of her children and her children's' children would look to her and say, "Oh there is my mother, and there is my mother's mother. She is so great, she is mother of my mother." She would get much praise and much honor from her loving children and so her place in the clan would be very high. In this way the clan mothers gained very much status in that society and those that had the most children had the most status. Those who bore healthy strong children, who bore many children and who lived through child bearing became highly honored and they were respected for being mothers, for having born the children. This was their great feat in life.

   So there became the worship of the mother, who was the source of nurturance, the source of love and compassion, and the protector and care giver for the clan. And then there came a kind of ancestor worship, "My mother's mother's mother was a great women. She had fifteen children and she could keep us all safe throughout the coldest winter. She did so many wondrous feats." So there became the worship of the mothers of the past and this ancestor worship became the first religion of these people. The stories of the great mothers of the past grew and grew and pretty soon they were accomplishing great feats and had great powers to protect and nurture the clan. So they were seen as kind of goddesses. Carvings were made to worship them and they were painted upon the rocks. In so many ways they were worshipped. Certain ceremonies began to be performed to worship the mother of the mothers. She became known by different names. There became certain goddesses that were worshipped. But this worship of these goddesses began with ancestor worship. The first religion was ancestor worship. "It was my mother's mother who could do these things." And then it became five generations down, ten generations down and the mother's mother's mother's mother became a goddess. So the people put their trust and love in the mothers and they found comfort and protection.

   All of these mother gods were very protective. Some were very soft and caring, some were very fierce and warlike. But all of them had one quality in common; that is that they protected their children. They were the nurturing protecting force for the clan and when a small band of people live alone in a vast wilderness, they may feel some need for protection. It was found that very mystical acts would occur and then the clan began to develop certain rituals to evoke the protection of the great mothers of the past. They began to develop certain ceremonies, certain chants, certain drawings, certain carvings, certain practices to do to bring the power of the great mothers of the past to nurture them, to protect them, to make sure they had food throughout the whole season, that no one froze, that no one starved, that no one died of hunger. This was the job of the great clan mothers, to protect the clan. So they began to worship the clan mothers and they began to have certain kinds of ceremonies. These were hunter gatherer societies, so it was felt that were the hunt to be good, they must be blessed by the mothers and so certain offerings began to be given.

   There began to be one designated leader. She was often a women who had a number of children and was particularly good at child rearing. She was one who could direct the children and keep their loyalty and faith. And so it began that such clan mothers would guide the clan in its' way, in its' journeys. The hunters would worship the clan mother and they would bring certain treats of meats and fish and wild foods for the mothers. They would make a special place for them to sleep and these women would perform ceremonies to bless the hunters before the hunt, to make them strong and virile, to make them brave, to bring the animals in so that they would be there for the hunt, to avert the dangers. It was felt that a clan that had a powerful clan mother would have a far greater advantage over one that did not.

   It began to be that these women were felt to have supernatural powers and that if there were not a strong clan mother, a clan could not survive properly. If a clan began to have illness, began to diminish in numbers, began to have hunger in the winter, all thought that there were defects with the clan mother and a new mother would be chosen for the clan. For it was the duty of the mother to make certain that her clan grew in number, was strong in number, was healthy, had prosperity and the hunts were successful. These were the duties of the clan mother and she would perform all the ceremonies, all the rites, to make certain that these things occurred. Then the hunters and all of the people of the clan gave great worship to the mother. When the mother died, a statue would be carved and she would be worshipped, put in a special place, kept in a special compartment for those great mothers of the past.

  Then it began to be that the mothers, in order to perform their duties, which were rigorous, for the clan, would evoke the powers of the great mothers of the past. A powerful clan mother was thought to have extraordinary powers to evoke the powers of the ancient ones and to control the birds in the air, the fish in the streams and the animals. If there were a powerful clan mother, it was felt that no wild creature would dare attack the clan and that the hunts would come to them. Such great clan mothers were given great respect, not only in their own clan, but in all the surrounding clans. They would say, "Such and such clan is very great for their clan mother is a great holy women who can perform so many miracles. Their clan will prosper for 100 years." So it was felt that these clan mothers had great capacities and if a clan did not prosper it was for the lack of such a great clan mother.

   These were the ways of the ancient matriarchal societies. For thousands upon thousands of years it went thus. Simple life, friendly life. There was no need for war. What was there was in abundance. Occasionally one clan would skirmish with another or take over another. A clan with a strong mother that was considered to have powerful magic might absorb a weaker clan that had no strong mother to guide it. But generally that was not considered aggressive because that poor clan was without guidance and they were very happy to have a powerful clan mother to help them. So sometimes one clan would absorb another in this way but generally speaking there was a great deal of land; game was in abundance and these people were nomadic. There was no need to fight each other, there was nothing to fight over. These people did not build cities.

   But as time went on and these societies developed more and more, the tendency to nomadic life began to shift. The clans became larger. Those successful clans with powerful clan mothers did not want to disband. They wanted to stay together and so the people began to think "How shall we live in such a way that we will not be apart from each other?" And they began to settle down, to cultivate the earth and to remain primarily in one locale. So, for a certain period of the year, they may go to a different place and then return. Still they began to settle in certain areas and to grow in size so that the clans became tribes and the tribes became small nations, city states that housed many thousands of people. Here the people, having a more sedate life, began to build abodes for themselves, began to till the soil and began to tame the animals for their use.

   Now, the role of the clan mother became somewhat different but not at all diminished. There was not the need for the increased numbers as there was in the nomadic society, but there was a need for blessings upon the land, that the land should bear harvest, that the game should come to them each year, that there be a peaceful and abundant relationship with the natural surroundings. So again the clan mothers ruled the society but they were no longer simple women who had born children with great success. They became priestesses and there became a system of temples and the worship of great goddesses who were originally those ancient clan mothers who became notorious for their capacity to protect and guide their clan and who down through the ages became worshipped as the mother's mother's mother. As their progeny grew in numbers, they became the great goddesses from the ancient past who protected and guided the people. They were, if you will, the patron saints of those societies. So these goddesses from the ancient past required temples to be built, buildings in which there would be exclusively the worship of them because if their power could be evoked, the people would prosper as they had in the original clans in which these great mothers were so powerful.

   So these temples to the different goddesses would be established and in the different city states, there would be different goddesses worshipped. The goddesses would be the ancient mother's mother who successfully guided the ancient clans from whom these people descended. So they would have different goddesses in the different city states. As the system of city states began to develop and the hunter gatherer societies began to settle more and more, many of the societies began to even stop their annual pilgrimage to a different region for the colder months. They began to simply settle in one place. Hence the city states began to be the norm in approximately 15,000 BC.

   This became the popular mode. The entire Mediterranean region was covered with city states. They spread north along the Atlantic up into Ireland and the British Isles and then some scattered states were along what is now France, Spain, and Great Britain. Even into the Scandinavian region there were a number of these city states. Inland they grew around the Baltic Sea and there were some in northern Russia. In India they settled in the Indus valley, along the southern coast near what would now be Bombay, Madras, in the southern coastal region and down to the island areas of Ceylon. In the northern parts of the African region and in the southern parts these city states developed. In the east there were no city states at this time, their development was on a different track. I will speak of it another time.

   Now there were also city states on a continental rift that existed, a kind of long and thin land mass that skirted from perhaps North Carolina down past the Mexican region in the Atlantic. It was long and thin, I would call it a continental rift. It was a fragment of a previous continent that was a mountainous region separated by an inland sea from another portion of the continent which was upon the eastern coastal area and the Gulf of Mexico. Development in this region was somewhat independent but there were connections. Then there was development in the inland portion of the continent which developed south of Mexico, down in the area that is now Venezuela and into the great Andean Mountains. There were several nations which developed, one in the Andean region, one in the Mexican region and one on the outer limb, across the inland sea in what has been refereed to as Atlantis.

   In this rift there were five or six major centers of population. It was well inhabited at that time. When it broke apart, sections drifted in different directions. What is now Florida was part of this continent. What is Greenland was also connected and even a part which drifted south became part of South America as there was a separation of this land mass. There are islands along South America which are part of this. There was an adjustment of land masses.  

   These city states evolved from the nomadic tribes. Their worship of the goddesses evolved from the powerful clan mothers and the ancestor worship. Still there was no system of marriage. Only in very rare pockets was any credence given to the husband. The warriors were greatly worshipped for their capacity, men had their place in those societies, but all those men loved their mothers and no one knew or cared who was the father. They were the sons of their mothers and though they had power of their own, for they were the hunters and they were very strong in the clan, they always gave to their mothers. For a good son loves his mother and does for the mother and so these were the sons of the mothers. Thus it was matriarchal and the women's' status increased as she bore children and was honored by her children and by the friends of her children. Every girl knew that, were they fortunate and blessed by the mothers, they would be able to bear children successfully and themselves acquire this status.                               

     So there is a place for both the men and the women. For the men in that society there was status in their professional lives. That is to say, they were very respected for their positions as hunters, as warriors, as guardians of the tribe. They had their own society and their own status among themselves but in these matriarchal societies, all the sons loved their mothers. They respected those elder women who were their mothers and though they were fierce and made many decisions, if there was any kind of problem or serious matter, they would consult the clan mothers. The sons enjoyed the status of directing the tribe, but the major decisions would never be made without the advice of the elder women. The clan mothers must be consulted, for they held the power of the tribe. The clan could not be successful unless the clan mothers gave their blessing to the clan. So there was in these early societies a place for both the men and the women, but their place was different.

      Every girl knew that should she receive the blessing of the mothers, she herself could blossom and bloom into one of these great women. There was no prejudice as to whom could become. But those girls who could bear many healthy offspring and who lived through childbirth would pass the tests to become an elder and a wise woman. Then they would be initiated into the secrets of the clan mothers when they reached a certain age and maturity and it was felt that they had potentiality in this capacity. Those girls who had born many fine children successfully and had become more advanced in their years and in their wisdom would be allowed to share in the secret rites which were performed by the clan mothers. These were elder women of the clan.

     Then these girls would be initiated, and they would perform these rites and ceremonies from which these women gained certain psychic abilities. For the clans very much depended upon their capacity to foresee the future, to guard against enemies, to know where the hunting would be and when it would be successful, and to know when the storms would come and what damage they would do. So the sight of these women was very much sought after and there would be one among them who would stand out in this regard.

      Clans that had a powerful clan mother would thrive and grow and their numbers would increase and their bounty would be great. Clans that did not have such a good clan mother would not be so healthy. When a clan began to decrease in numbers, when it was plagued with illness and difficulty, it would be generally said by other clans, "They have no strong clan mother, that is their problem." And in fact that was usually the case. In those clans they sought to find a woman would could fulfill this role. But at times there would be none available, and then the clan would decline.    

     So you see, in these societies, without this sight of the clan mother, the healing capacities, the wisdom that was developed in the sacred circles, there could be no serious progress for that clan because conditions were often very harsh. There were harsh circumstances of nature - predators to contend with, storms, and cold and hard winters. These clans, were they not well sheltered, could perish all together; were there not women who could bear many children successfully, the numbers would decline.

      So the value of these women was very high to these clans. And so the great clan mothers became the ancestral line, and when the city states came to exist, the ancient mothers of the past were held in very high status and became the guardian goddesses of the various clans. Each clan, each state, would have its own goddess because they had come from a certain origin under so many different mothers back to the original great mother that had made their clan successful. That one would be worshipped as a goddess and there would be sub-goddesses who were mothers of the past who were perhaps not as great as the one, but also were notorious in the lore of the clan to have brought great successes to the clan. So in this way a system of ancestor worship became a system of goddesses who were the protectors of the city-states.

      Around 12,000 BC this type of culture was very dominant. These states developed. Many of them had very sophisticated cultures, complex cultures. They developed fine architecture. They were refined in the arts. There was a great deal of trade between these city-states and the degree of culture and sophistication of these peaceful societies was very high. Interacting with one another through trade routes they established shipping, trade, exchange of merchandise, and cultural exchange, so that in this booming time of the ancient world, in these peaceful city-states, there was a very good life. Most had settled in fertile regions of that time, and game was abundant, the soils rich, the climate gentile, and the people began to flourish. Their numbers grew steadily. Within the city-states, many had fine temples to worship the goddesses, which were the great clan mothers of the past who had become the benefactors, not only in life but in death, of that clan which had now grown in number to tribe and to city-state. These people had very fine weaving. Many of them excelled in the weaving, some in pottery, and in art work. There were many fine artisans in many of these city-states.

     The men of those states continued in their hunter role. They organized and began to form hunting bands which, as the game became less in a particular area, would foray out and out - three days, four days away. They would go out in many of these states for the hunting of large animals. They also would guard the state against predators and other such creatures. Many were also artisans.

     The women likewise were artisans and took the main responsibility of the children. Still in those societies, the men had very little to do with the children as there was no patronage at that time. They would collectively enjoy the children and raise them, but there was no association for any males that this is my child and that is not my child. They would enjoy the children, but the children belonged to their mothers.

      So it was like this that these societies grew and developed, and a complex system began to be in place. The worship of the goddess became quite formalized. Fine temples were often developed. And the simple rites that were done among the mature women of the early clans became more sophisticated and developed. There became orders of women who would ascend to these positions. In the mystical traditions of these ancient cultures, there was variation from one clan to another, but there was an overall pattern that can be observed.

      For the males in these clans there was the development of a kind of ritual of their own, but their rituals were different from the women. Their rituals evolved around the hunt, and they would themselves do purification before the hunting and ceremonies to bring the spirits of the animals to them - to call the animal spirits to them so the animals would come for the hunt - and to worship the spirits of the animals that they would slaughter. So they had their own society and their own rights, and they would consult the mothers and receive their blessing and their guidance before the hunt could begin. There would be a process for this. It would vary from clan to clan.

     Now when the city-states were formed, these rituals became more elaborate, and they became departmentalized as these societies grew in size, in number. In specialty there began to be trades, and there began to be priests and priestesses. So there came a class of people who were the ones in charge to perform the rituals for the hunting, and for the agrarian tasks as well. Then there were those who were hunters, those who were farmers, those who were artisans and tradesmen. So the society became more complex.

     The priests of that society were the ones to officiate regarding the practical matters in most of the city-states. And the priestesses were the ones to guard the goddesses and to bring forth the word, knowledge and wisdom from the goddesses to the people. So these women were of very high standing. It was not as is typically thought, that they were temples of virgins. This was not the case. You must remember, these societies were based upon fertility, and the woman with greatest fertility who had proven herself in child-bearing would have the greatest status. It was cared through even in the city-states. These priestesses were not virgins; they were women with many children. That is how they were chosen to be among the priestess community. They were women who must first prove themselves, then they would be eligible to be selected for that elite community. This community was then dedicated to the worship of the goddess, or goddesses, and the great wisdom of their particular deity would come to the leading priestess, who would then convey it to the priests and to all others.

      Thus these societies functioned in this way. Still blood-lines were traced to the mother only. As time went on, there began to be more pairing of men and women, and the system of marriage began to occur. Slowly over time in many of these cultures there developed the association of the child with a particular father. Then fatherhood came to be a factor. The males were then held accountable to the children. This developed at different times in different societies. At the same time this transition was taking place within the social structures, many of these societies had become sufficiently large that the hunting parties must go far afield in their hunts. There would be large hunting parties. They may meet hunting parties from other states and find they are in competition for the game. This created a certain rivalry between them, and the hunters began to war over rights of the game. Then it became that they would return and certain ones would have been killed fighting over the game and ill will developed. Then it became a matter of territory. When the hunting councils would assemble they became concerned for the safety of their states and for their territory when they discovered they were in competition with a neighbor. This led to the formation not only of hunting parties, but of raiding parties. Then these city states began to discover war.

      At the same time the social structures within many of these states were changing. This disrupted the trade that had been going on peacefully for thousands of years. Some of the internal practices had become decadent at the same time that the social structure was changing. The fathers of the children were acknowledged for their patronage, and they would take responsibility for caring for the mothers and their offspring. So it became looked upon by the children that they had one father to care for them and the role of the mother became greatly diminished. With the changes in the social structure there began to be, in many of these states, decay of culture. They became aggressive; there became a need for protection from aggressors. So the male consorts became more dominant in protecting against aggressors. Slowly, slowly the women lost both status and rights, and the gradual shift to patriarchy occurred.

      Now there was a hey-day of these city-states when their cultures were bright. Trade abounded. There was the development of many fine capacities in a peaceful world that grew and thrived with little competition and much exchange. It was a rich and growing time that lasted for perhaps four or five thousand years in many places, and slowly began to deteriorate. It varied from place to place, but between 15,000 years past and 6,000 years past these cultures blossomed, and then they began to deteriorate.

      So, you see, there was a great cultural renaissance or blossoming at that time. Then with many changes in social structure, with the growth in population and infringing of one state upon on another, the development of war, the development of patronage, and the loss of rights of women - all of these occurred together at the same time - due to friction's between the states and internal frictions within the changing social structures, many of the trade routes deteriorated. Due to hostilities between states, it all degenerated and this great golden time of matriarchy began to come to a close.

   The societies, degraded in culture, became more barbaric, very warlike, war torn. Many of these states died altogether. Many then succumbed to natural difficulties due to the weakening that occurred as a result of these strong competitions. So the people again became more primitive and moved into the tribes. Living standards degraded. Their trades routes closed. Isolated, fending for themselves, they struggled a great deal and had to build themselves up once again. And thus the modern world has been built.

      But these great cultures that existed in the past, though they are not yet well traced, will come to light because they bear significance in the changes that are now occurring. For once again the cycle turns; once again the ages pass and a new energy is coming to this place. It will not return to matriarchy, but patriarchy is falling away also. A new shift, a new paradigm comes. A new energy is about to emerge in which there will be a blending of these two elements that have been strong periods in human history. A third time will come, and of the three periods this will be the greatest time in human development.

      So you should look to the future with high hopes and bright feelings, for a golden era will come to this world in the near future.

 Q: What was the relationship between the natural world and the spirituality of matriarchal cultures?

   The spirituality of matriarchal cultures was based upon the relationship of human beings to their origin, to creation. They were worshipers of the mother, of the goddess, of that which brought them to life and provided for them. So the animals of the natural world became incorporated as a part of the religion in that they were the gifts of the mother to them.

   In most of these societies the hunting groups performed rituals prior to the hunt where they would give offerings to the animals which were to be killed, to the spirits of those animals. For it was felt that those animals were put there by the mother to provide for them. So they were, if you will, egocentric in their view. They saw the natural world as the gift of the goddess to provide for their welfare and they had so much respect for the natural system because to them the whole world is alive, even the rocks. They are all expressions of the great mother, they are all manifestations of the divine, provided to protect them, to guide them, to show them through. So the animals took on a great deal of significance and they were very important to the clan and to the tribe. Those animals were the very life of the people. Without them they would have no fur to protect them from the cold, they would have no meat to feed them in the winter. They had to rely on these animals and they gave worship to their spirits. Those spirits were seen as incarnations of the mother. So, in this way, they related to the natural world. It was very much alive to them. It was a living world, an expression of spirit. There was nothing in the world that was seen as static or dead. This was true in 99% of these matriarchal cultures.

Q: What is the significance of animal motif, in the artistic rendering of the goddesses such as bird, snake and bear?

   You will find that there were many artifacts in the hunting gathering societies that were made in worship of the spirits of the animals and even of the plants, particularly of those animals who were mighty. But in some cultures this was considered taboo because it was felt that the image would capture the spirit and it was a desecration of the goddess. In other cultures these were made very frequently because it was felt that it would draw the spirits of the animals to them, to protect them.

   Now, as there was transition, as these nomadic peoples began to settle in fertile areas and began to become agrarian, the concepts of clan mother became more abstract. The ancestral worship, the directness of the experience of the natural world as a manifestation of the great mother became more conceptual. There began to be more sophistication in the thinking of the people and when this occurred it was accepted fully. .For you see the great mother expresses in the bird, in the falcon, in the bear, in the mighty animals so these spirits were her messengers if you will. So the goddess might be depicted with the eagle on top of her head meaning that she was the controller of the eagle and could be every where to find where the herds would be, where to hunt the game. So if they wanted to go hunting they would do rituals, they would do ceremonies and give their gifts to this goddess with the eagle because she had eyes and could see the hunt. And if they gave a gift, then she would give to the priestess and the priestess would tell them where to find the animals and how to destroy them, because they were helped by the cult of the eagle. And so that the creatures would not flee from them they would call the goddess of that particular herd, or the spirit of that herd, and they would prey to that herd to seek permission to do the hunt and to find the animals. They would do it for success. In this way, natural figures became incorporated in the worship, in the ceremonies and in the artwork. They were seen as expressions, as manifestations of the goddess.

   But there is another aspect to this. The goddess had the eyes of Horace, the strength of the lioness, and the cunning of the cobra. She took animal form for these people with the intelligence of a human being. It was a different age in the world and things were not quite as they are now.

Q: What if any role did invasion from the Russian Steppes play in the destruction of the matriarchal cultures of old Europe and the Mediterranean area?

   Those northern cultures, northern societies were the first to become patriarchal because of the harsh climate and the scarcity of game. These people became very fierce and very hungry so they moved southward. Matriarchal culture was lost while they were still in their northern lands and the clan mothers fell to the dominance of the tribal leaders. Belief in the goddess was not there. It was overthrown for belief in the leader, in the god who could move them forward and protect them from the harsh elements. These people did not settle in states and what state they had was destroyed or forced to be abandoned at an early stage because of harsh conditions and they were forced to move southward. They went first to old Europe and the Mediterranean. Some went across to the Indus valley. Later they went in mass, but these northern people were not the cause of the fall of the matriarchy. They were only the first to make the change. They came with warlike attitudes, seeking fertile ground and food, they were hungry. Naturally, those states that were already there defended themselves, some successfully, some unsuccessfully. This added to the tensions and warlike overtones which were a part of the shift. But this was not all. Matriarchy fell, not due to invasion, but due to social change that occurred within the society at large. The dominance of one age subsided and another emerged. The concept of patriarchy came to exist because matriarchy had become decadent and abusive. It fell due to its own degeneration. The role of the men in the later days of these societies became somewhat diminished. They did not have access to the temples and the inner rites. They became resentful. They began to want rights to children. They began to desire more and were unhappy with their lot in many circumstances. So there was a shift. Patronage became recognized and the matriarchies fell. So they needed to fortify against patriarchal societies and eventually this fortification caused their downfall. War put an end to matriarchy. But there were other factors as well including a great flood caused by the melting of glacial packs and the warming of global weather patterns. This brought the capacity for city states to be formed in the beginning as the climate became more suitable for agriculture. But as this warming continued, there was a period of considerable disturbance. Rising water levels left many cities under water and today they remain there.

Q: Why were patriarchal cultures so harsh in the devaluation and destruction of the value of women and nature and what if any role did the climate changes and ice age play in the rise of patriarchy?

   You see, these matriarchal cultures are not to be revered. It was a time in history and there was both good and evil in that time. There were many good things in those cultures, they were peaceful and there was no war, and that was good. They sought the life in all life and that is good. But they did not, until a later stage, develop in the main sophisticated understandings of the working of the cosmos. There were those isolated cultures where great spiritual leaders had arisen and those understandings had come about but in the main the religions were simplistic, based upon ancestral worship and the worship of animal spirits. Only in certain areas were the societies more developed. And towards the end of the matriarchal period there was a great deal of abuse of power. It is not only patriarchy that has abused power, in matriarchy it was also abused. So you see though there were many good things that developed in that age, it cannot be said that matriarchy was superior to patriarchy altogether.

   These scholars are correct in that they did connect the significance of the development of war and the downfall of matriarchy, for this is indeed very significant. But I would say that it was not only war. The men had been denied their place as fathers. Patronage was not ascribed for thousands of years and when there was the desire on the part of certain men in certain cultures to begin to establish patronage and to begin to have their place, when there was the desire of certain couples to share their children, then this was brutally suppressed in many places and people were slaughtered in order to protect the power of the clan mothers. This was not a peaceful transition and at first it was both men and women who were treated very badly and then later the imposition of patriarchy came with war and violence. So you see, one cannot point at one group in history and say they were the shining light and another group is the dark and evil one. They both have their strengths and weakness. They are different ages expressing different aspects of the manifestation of the divine and now the third age approaches and yet a different aspect will be expressed.

Q: Do you care to comment on some of the social aspects of the coming age?

   There will be in the coming age an integration between men and women so that both will share an equal role, a balanced role in the society. Many other things will change as well. There will be development in the intellectual sphere and in the psychic sphere so that human beings will move out of their infancy into a new stage in their evolution and in this stage there will be an emphasis upon mental development and communications.

     The spiritual and psychic capacities of human beings will become greatly enhanced and there will be much more interconnected, interactive associations. Human beings will become more interconnected so that the emphasis will not be upon individuality but upon collective psychic function. But all of this in good time. It is another stage in the development of this human society.

     We may learn from both the successes and the errors of our forbearers. Matriarchy made a fatal mistake; it presumed the superiority of the goddess of creation over all that is manifest and ignored the vast underlying consciousness which is the fundamental basis of all creation. Patriarchy has likewise made a terrible error; it has ignored the vitality of living expression in all things and treated living beings with disrespect, separating out the abstract god, the pure consciousness, from his creation. This also is a fatal error. So neither matriarchy nor patriarchy presented an entirely whole picture, for the supreme is creative, expressive and unexpressed simultaneously. It is both abstract and concrete simultaneously. The Supreme Purus'a and Prakriti are like two sides of a piece of paper, two sides of a single coin, two aspects of one integrated whole. Let this coming era be one in which this fact is fully recognized, fully understood and conceptually governs the human beings. Alright? I think I am finished for this evening.