Why are ancient religions more feminine in nature than modern religions?

Question

Many pagan, earth centered religions seem to have a feminine side to them by focusing on nature, fertility, and nurturing. Some of the most prominent modern religions focus more heavily on rules, punishment, war, and wrath, more masculine features. I know these concepts are gender stereotypes, but it's not an uncommon impression.

Julia D, your answer was fascinating and I appreciate it, but I was more referrig to ancient religions before Judaism.

Answer 1

Most ancient religions weren't 'feminine' in nature.

The 'pagan' religions, such as Wicca that claim that early, earth centered religions were more feminine were mostly created in the 19th century at the earliest, based on very sketchy information, wishful thinking, and rebellion against established religions, rather than on any factual data.

The fact is, we really don't know much of anything about most early religions. Being prehistoric, amazingly enough, they don't really have much in the way of written documents that allow us to examine their theology.

The earliest religions we know of, such as the Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, etc. tend to be strongly patriarchal, and would be classified as 'masculine' by these standards. Tied as they are to the development of agricultural societies, and the rise of rigidly controlled societies, these religions were among the roots of the patriarchical, 'masculine' society we have today.

However, just because the earliest hierarchical, codified religions were patriarchical, that does not necessarily mean that earlier, non-hierarchical religions were by definition more feminine and matriarchical.

Answer 2

Paganism is for the people it recognises the masculine (male) and the feminine (female) and celebrates the two. It rejoices in nature and lives within its means. Paganism does not recognise effeminate men or masculine women for these are seen as freaks of nature. Women are celebrated as they give life and nurture; men were the builders the warriors and so on. Paganism in England is now the fastest growing religion. However even Paganism can be corrupted by those unworthy to call them a Pagan.

Answer 3

The monotheistic religions are partly an effort of the ruling class to control, and those in power were men. That's where a lot of Judaism came from--priests wanting to tell others what to do. The other monotheistic religions grew out of that, as well as other aspects of a very sexist culture.


I'm not sure how feminine-oriented some of the other forms of ancient paganism were (all those virgin sacrifices sort of scare me, and there was plenty of sexism in the Near East even before monotheism), but many modern forms of paganism are a form of rebellion (in a good way, of course) against the modern, patriarchal setup. They reject Christianity's sexism at the same time they reject Christianity.

Answer 4

the ancient religions focused on the miracle of reproduction, of increasing the species. Women are the obvious source of babies, therefore those religions tended to focus on the feminine. For millenia, people did not know that it took a man's seed to impregnate a woman. At best it was considered a combination of spirits to make a baby, not the delivery of sperm to the ova.

Answer 5

Early man looked at how women are able to give birth, create new life, and saw something divine. It makes sense to imagine that, because mortal women can create children, the god who created everything must also be a woman. Plus fertility, of both people and crops, was very important to a culture's survival in those days.

Answer 6

The Bible says that part of the 'fallout' of living in a world with sin is that man would "rule over" women. We all struggle against that because it works against both men and women.

Answer 7

I'll leave this one to the Wiccans to answer.

Answer 8

Here ya go. I answered a similar question a while back, so I'll just cut and paste it here:

Back when the Jews had their Temples, a statue of the female goddess Asherah stood in the Temple INSIDE the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was, for MOST of the time the Temple stood.

King Solomon brought the practice to Jerusalem itself. Solomon "loved YHVH" but "also burned incense in high places" - this refers to the practice of burning incense to Asherah whose statues were always placed in high areas, on hilltops, etc. Solomon's heart was "not fully with YHVH" and he "went not fully after YHVH as did his father David".

He also married, for political reasons, the daughter of Pharaoh, a Sidonian Princess, and a Hittite Princess, and Daughters of the ruling elite of Moab, Ammonites, and Edomites. Many of these women came from the old pagan religions that worshipped Asharah/Ishtar, and thus the statues were allowed in the Holy of Holies next to the Ark of the Covenant.

This actually happened throughout the history of the Jewish Temples, not just with Solomon. Jeroboam did the same when he ruled, so did King Ahab who married another Sidonian Princess named Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, King of Sidon, in whose city the "Elath of Sidon" (statues of Asherah) had been worshipped for at least 500 years prior to that.

Then anyway, along would come another King in Israel and take the Asherah out and order that only the male YHVH be worshipped, but then after that, another King would come along and put the Asherah back in.

This ended in the Kingdom of Israel at least, when the Assyrians sacked it in 721 B.C. but there was a remnant of the Israelites who still remained behind in Samaria and tried to continue the Asherah worship along with YHVH.

But, then this fell under the axe of Joshiah, who was a great YHVH reformist who tolerated NO other worship than that of YHVH, and that was the end of the Asherah for the Jews, from then until this day even. "Joshiah destroyed the altar and the high place (bamah) that Jeroboam had made, and burned Asherah", is what is written about the end of the Asherah finally in the Israelite Kingdom.

The same thing happened in the Kingdom of Judah, but with different kings and different YHVH reformists, for hundreds of years, back and forth they went on the Asherah...

Altogether the female goddess statue of Asherah stood in the Temples thus:

1. Asherah introduced into the Temple in Jerusalem by Solomon and his son King Rehoboam, in or around 928 B.C. (the Hebrews had actually been worshipping the Asherah outside of Jerusalem along with YHVH for about 300 years prior to this)

2. The Asherah statue was worshipped in the Temple for 35 years after King Rehoboam placed it there, until King Asa removed it in 893 B.C.

3. The Asherah statue was restored to the Temple by King Joash in 825 B.C. and remained there for a full century until King Hezekiah removed it in 725 B.C.

4. 27 years later the Ashera was put back in the Temple by King Manasseh who installed it in 698 B.C.

5. The Asherah statue remained for 78 more years until the great YHVH Reformist King Joshiah removed it in 620 B.C.

6. When King Joshiah died 11 years later, the Asherah was put back in the Temple yet again where it remained until the Temple was destroyed 23 years later in 586 B.C. (the first Temple)

So, it appears that out of the 370 years that the Solomonic Temple stood in Jerusalem, the statue of Ashera was present for no less than 236 of those years and her worship was a part of the legitimate religion approved and led by the King, the Court, and the Priesthood during those times, and opposed only by a few Prophets who cried out against it once in a while at long intervals.

So it actually stood in the Temple for more years than not!

Today of course the Feminine aspect of God in Judaism is called "The Shekinah" (sheh-keen-ah) said to be God's "wife" or female side, who went with the Tribes when they were scattered around the world, protecting them and watching over them wherever they are. She remains in exile with them until the day they are rediscovered and all brought back together again. There are many prayers in Orthodox Judaism dedicated to the rejoining of the Shekhina Bride with the masculine side of God, it is a "tikkun" a "repair" that is trying to be achieved every single day by Orthodox Jews.

Judaism believes that women are on a higher spiritual level than men actually. BUT does this mean that women are allowed to be rabbis in Orthodox Judaism? Nope. Are they allowed to wear the prayer shawls (tallit) and the straps around the arm (tefillin) that the men wear every single day when they say the prayers? Nope. Are they allowed to be a part of a minyan (a group of ten Jews that are needed for many of the prayers and ceremonies)? Nope.

The reasons given are "women are on a higher spiritual level than men and those things are for MEN'S spiritual repair so women don't need them. It would be like putting eyeglasses on someone with perfect vision."

Ahuh. Nice try. However, the Conservative and Reform sects of Judaism DO allow women to do all of those things, and hopefully the Orthodox will come around one day to it too. There are many women working on it.

As for Christianity, it appears that they just totally threw out the feminine altogether as it doesn't even have a side of God that is considered feminine, as Judaism does.

Hope this helps or at least helps to inform.