Gaia: The PRIMORDIAL GRAND MOTHER
In the beginning there was chaos - elements existing with an absence of meaning. From this emerged Gaia, the ancestral mother Earth, and Eros, the god of love and desire.
Gaia birthed Uranus (the skies) Ourea (the mountains) and Pontus (the seas) by herself. She took Uranus as consort, and together they had the Twelve Titans – Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Thetys, and finally Cronus. They also had two more sets of children, the Cyclopes – Brontes, Steropes, and Arges, and the Hecatoncheires (giants with 50 heads and 100 arms) – Cottus, Briareos, and Gyes.
Uranus feared the possibility of being dethroned by his children, so he exiled them to Tarterus, a deep abyss of torment and suffering. They would beat the walls of Tarterus incessantly trying to escape, which caused Gaia terrible aches because Tarterus existed inside her womb. She decided to conspire against her husband in an effort to free her children and stop her pain. Only Cronus, her youngest and bravest son, agreed to help. Gaia gave him a scythe made of diamond and told him to hide in her chambers. Before long, Uranus arrived wanting to lay with Gaia. Cronus waited for the right moment and castrated him, painting the skies red and sending his testicles into the ocean.
Cronus became ruler of Olympus and freed all his siblings except the cyclopes and hecatoncheires. He then married Rhea, his older sister. Gaia prophesied that he would suffer the same fate as his father, and would be overthrown by his son. In order to prevent this from happening, he swallowed all his children upon birth: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Rhea deeply resented her husband for this, and after becoming pregnant again she approached Gaia for help. Gaia advised her to escape to Crete to give birth and to trick Cronus into eating a blanket wrapped stone instead. That son whose life she saved was Zeus, who would return to Olympus to free his siblings from Cronus’ gut with an elixir Gaia gave him. Zeus and his siblings faced Cronus and the rest of the Titans in the Titanomachy, a 10 years war between the two generations of Greek gods.
During the 10th year of battle, Gaia gave council to Zeus that he would win if he freed the Hecatoncheires and Cyclopes from Tartarus. The Titans were defeated as she predicted, and Zeus sent the giants back to Tartarus shortly thereafter. Gaia, upset again by her children’s confinement, urged her giant children to attack the Olympians, but they were defeated with help from Hercules. Not wanting to endanger anymore children, she accepted Zeus’ role as ruler of Olympus.
“Gaia, mother of all, I shall sing, the strong foundation, the oldest one. She feeds everything in the world. Whoever walks upon her scared ground or moves through the sea or flies in the air, it is she who nourishes them from her treasure-store. Queen of Earth, through you beautiful children, beautiful harvests, come. It is you who give life to mortals and who take life away. Blessed is the one you honour with a willing heart. He who has this has everything.”
did you know HER story? i didn’t.
I attribute this erasure of Matriarchal divinity and power to the patriarchal takeover of history that attempted to undermine the political and economic influences of women…Gaia was an oracle who single-handedly birthed and orchestrated ENTIRE WORLDS. IN CIRCULATING HER NAME AND TELLING HER STORY, WE REAWAKEN THE DIVINE FEMININE WITHIN THAT REVELS IN KNOWING THE ENORMOUS INFLUENCE WOMEN HAD IN FORMING THE ANCIENT WORLD. HIDDEN EVEN DEEPER IN HER STORY IS THE AFRICAN ORIGIN of DIVINE ORACLES/PRIESTESSES LIKE HER WHOSE PROPHECIES FORMED AND SUSTAINED CIVILIZATIONS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.
“HER ‘PLACE’ IS THE MANIFESTATION OF THE ORIGINAL AND NATURAL ORDER AS WILLED THROUGH THE DIVINE LOGOS RESPONSIBLE FOR ESTABLISHING HUMAN SOCIETIES, MORAL LAW, RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND THE SACRED AUTHORITY TO MAINTAIN ORDER ON EARTH. IT IS HOPED THAT IN DOING SO, A NEW PARADIGM MIGHT BE ESTABLISHED.” - MAMA ZOGBE, THE SIBYLS: THE FIRST PROPHETESS’ OF MAMI WATA
“THIS CONCEPT OF GODDESS IS A WESTERN FEMINIST CONCEPT. IT IS A GENERIC ATTRIBUTION TO DIVINE PRINCIPLES THAT HAVE BEEN EMBODIED IN WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT AS THE FEMININE. AND IT IS SYMBOLIZED THROUGH IMAGES OF WHAT THEY TELL YOU ARE GODDESSESS. WELL THAT’S FOR THEM. BUT FOR YOU, THESE ARE YOUR BIOLOGICAL MOTHERS. THEY WERE NOT ABSTRACT FIGURES .THEY EMBODIED THE DIVINE SPIRITS IN THE FLESH. JUST AS A CHRIST, JUST AS AS A BUDDHA, JUST AS A KRISHNA. THAT’S WHO THEY WERE. AND WHEN YOU LEARN YOUR HISTORY AND DISCOVER IT, IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU THINK LIKE THAT. THESE GODDESSES WERE OUR MOTHERS, THEY WERE DIVINE QUEENS, NOT SECOND TO ANYONE, WHO RULED THE WORLD. THEY COULD CALL DOWN THE GODS, THEY COULD RAISE THE DEAD, THEY COULD PROPHECISE BOTH ORALLY AND IN WRITING. THIS IS WHO THEY WERE. BUT BECAUSE OF HISTORY AFTER INVASIONS, PARTICULARLY BY THE GREEKS, THEN THE PERSIANS..THEN THE TURKS..THEN THE SYRIANS...AND THEN THE ROMANS...AND ON AND ON...THEY COMMISSIONED THAT THOSE IMAGES BE REMADE INTO THEIR OWN AND THEN THEY BURIED THE HISTORY OF THESE MATRIARCHS UNDER GREEK “MYTHOLOGY” AND WHAT THEY COULDN’T BURY THEY WHIPPED OUT.
NOW I ASK YOU, HOW MANY black WOMEN REALLY FOCUS ON GREEK MYTHOLOGY? THE WAY IT'S TAUGHT IN SCHOOL IS BORING. YOU THINK YOU'RE LEARNING ABOUT EUROPEANS BUT THAT'S NOT THEIR HISTORY. IT'S YOURS.
AND IT WAS NOT MYTHOLOGY. IT WAS REAL. “
