Un-Earthing the Goddess

Our Body & the Health of the World

Over a decade ago, fatigued by wellness industry rhetoric, I began stepping away from my work as a clinical naturopath. The business of health had become a cess-pit of brand hype and hustle.

It wasn’t so much of a political stance. In truth, I was longing for a more esoteric or ‘divine but deeply rooted’ wellness.

So I did what any healer must do. I went feral and consciously composted myself in Nature and for the first time since being a child I remembered how to be ‘mothered’ by Nature. This opened a whole new paradigm of wellness that changed the relationship I had with the planet, the Mother and my body.

I went onto study the Deep Feminine Consciousness and dived into the somatic world, history and practice of Goddess Worship. This unravelled another aspect of wellness rooted in devotion, ritual and embodied presence. It felt like tying together the loose threads of the triple Goddess.

Maiden ~ Mother ~ Crone.

Earth ~ Body ~ Gnosis.

There are many lineages of Goddess who carry their own rich symbolism, mythology, mysticism and origin. I believe we are drawn to those that resonate with something deep within us - something unspoken and wordless. When I speak of Goddess worship, I speak to all the Goddesses and refer to them as Her, the All-Mother. By which, I mean their stories and symbolism lead us back into relationship with the land, as Her body. I feel it’s important to say that She and Mother is not used as a gender identity but as an archetypal language that best represents the cyclical nature of fertility, birth, life, death, our womb, the moon phases and changing seasons.

For anyone who grew up listening to the parables of faith rooted in Abrahamic religions, I want to make it clear that the Goddess is not just God in a Dress or a female God that lives in the sky. Her teachings are of the body, of the Womb that gives life, of death and sex, of dirt and water. To sift through the sands of era’s gone by, when She, the All-Mother Goddess was worshipped is to find yourself in far-away lands and amid ancient civilisations.

Deep in the sands of the Earth lay the remnants of Goddess worship. Altars, clay statues, poems and prayers belonging to the legacy of the All Mother. These exist in spite of the empires that have attempted to rule over Her. I like to remember, that long after my feet have touched this Earth, She will remain eternal, so long as her stories are told. Some may see Her as the Earth, or that Nature is Her temple. Some may feel that She lives in stories from lands they long to remember. To me,  She is both and more.

I have a particular affection for the Inanna-Lilith-Ishtar-Astarte-Venus-Aphrodite lineage. There’s a lot we can take from its evolution to question themes around Patriarchy, misogyny, and the sexual commodification of Women’s bodies. Though this lineage crosses continents, the origin of Inanna was ancient Mesopotamia - now modern-day Iraq, and Her worship dates back more than 3000 years BC. A time when the Goddess was centred and Women held status as high Priestesses, and complex cosmology was used to shape culture, society and politics.

The myth of Inanna – Queen of the Heavens, was directly associated with the Star (planet) of Venus. Her descent into the underworld to meet her sister Ereshkigal, her death, rebirth and ascent to the above realm was mythologically mapped through the orbit of Venus as it moved between morning and evening star. A story that has endured throughout fallen civilisations, including the bronze, middle and dark ages, to this very day. The cosmic mythology of Venus-Inanna became a blueprint for navigating the underworld of our human suffering, disease and pain but also, our redemption and the gateways to our empowerment. This is how stories of the Goddess transcend the limits of time, and how we can apply these mythologies to our present day lives - in particular during our Rites of Passage as Women.

When Venus-Inanna is absent from our skies it symbolises her descent into the ‘underworld’. This is a period of inner reflection, vulnerability and transformation. Venus-Inanna later returns as the evening star which mythologically signifies her ascent and triumphant return from the underworld. This is a time of reflection, renewal, replenishment, and reclamation of our powers. There is an emergence of insight and strengths with her return, each cycle and as we age.

Like many ancient mythologies and cosmologies, this rich symbolism can be applied in multiple ways to our lives, health, and relationships. It can potentially mend the fractured parts of our deeper psyche and facilitate our capacity to exist more fully as a global community. Over these years, I’ve learned to dwell within the liminal spaces of the Goddess because She exists in every part of my existence. My practice is to presence Her in my physiology and especially in the subtle somatics of my nervous system - which is the sacred work I now teach….

For I am mothered, I am Mother. I am the first and the last.

I am the honoured and the scorned, I am the harlot and the holy one…..

*The Thunder: Perfect Mind. Coptic text, Nag Hammadi