Spirit Speaks

10/20/23

I mentioned in the last Spirit Speaks that I was visited by Baba Yaga. No one knows where her story originates, but theories go back to the time when the Slavic people worshiped the Great Goddess. Over time she morphed into a feared witch who rode around on a mortar and pestle. This is not uncommon in patriarchal cultures, the remnants of the Goddess are first diminished then demonized and made into an evil ugly woman witch or demon. In fact Baba Yaga’s name became used to describe women in diminishing and negative ways in general. There are many examples of Great Goddess being demonized as patriarchy took over, usually through torture, violence and mass death. Morgan Le Fay in Arthurian lore, originally was a reference to the Great Goddess the Morrigu. In the early lore she was a benevolent sorceress and helper of Arthur. As the Celts lost their connection to the ancient Goddesses and became more patriarchal, the Morrigu became the lesser sorceress Morgan Le Fay and then an evil sorceress. The stories like this are endless. Astarte the great Goddess of the Middle-East became Ashtoreth the demon of the bible.

What does all of this tell us? Patriarchy is afraid of women’s power. Freud wrongly centered all psychology around the phallus, besides the fact that he was a coked up pedophile (who was raping his own daughter) his obsession with the penis was a reflection of the times he lived in, not the deeper psychology of human beings. When only men are given power than the penis becomes a source of power. As I used to say back at Cal-Arts in the 1980s when Freud was sadly used to deconstruct people’s art (by the way Freud has been proven wrong in pretty much every way now)Freud had it backwards, patriarchy is all about womb envy. The only way to immortality for men (via their family line) is through a woman. The only way you can make sure a that child is yours is to control that woman, keep her chained to you through marriage and draconian property laws. Disable her ability to inherit property, have a bank account, make a living - all things done to women until fairly recently.