Seleyn DeYarus Offers Reflections on 'When God Was a Woman' by Merlin Stone

The following review was originally featured in Regenerative Rising’s Momentum in Regenerative monthly newsletter. In Regenerative Rising Reviews, the Regenerative Rising team collectively brings our reflections on books and other creations from the lens of our developmental work as we create Regenerative Modes of Thought: Foundations Course online learning space. While on this journey, we aim to offer insights, inspiration and nutrients for Mind, Emotions, Body and Spirit of all who venture into our contemplations.

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I recently reread When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone. In my life’s journey I have witnessed perturbations in the status of women but yet, there has been no fundamental healing of ancient biases against women. It is forthright to say that misogyny (ingrained prejudice against women) is very much alive in 2024. In reading this book, I gleaned insights into the probable origins of this bias.

To read this book is to step into a level of scholarly excavation that is both profound and full of merit. Merlin Stone dedicated decades to archeological and cultural analysis of the goddess religions. In applying the Regenerative Mode of Thought: Essence, we can open to the authentic and unique existence of constructs now forgotten. Societies that occupied the birthplaces of the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, were mostly matrifocal, and likely matrilineal. Their god was a woman – the Great Goddess known by many names and honorifics such as Ishtar, Inanna, Kybele, Tiamat, Queen of Heaven, Lady of the Universe, or simply Her Holiness. What Stone discovered, as she studied the ancient relics unearthed and interpreted by archeologists, revealed long standing biases for the notion of a female deity. But nevertheless, it is objectively impossible to deny the evidence of widespread reverence for the goddess and there is no doubt that indeed the first deity of humans was the progenitor of life, woman. The connection between the Paleolithic female figurines and the emergence of Goddess worshiping societies of the Neolithic periods suggest an ongoing progression of a Mother Goddess.

What is powerful for the reader as you begin your odyssey into When God Was a Woman – if you’re able to suspend your rejection of a new narrative – you will begin to bear witness to the birth of the present era. Strikingly, it is the creation myth recorded by the Levites in what is known as the book of Genesis that concretizes misogyny. In the myth, sacred symbolism from the Goddess religion was weaponized against the robust freedom of women in that era. It cast ‘woman’ as the instigator of the ‘fall of man’, and it was she who must bear the shame of this act of betrayal and ‘sin’. To provide more context, both the image of a fruit bearing tree (Genesis’ Tree of Knowledge) and serpent (Genesis’ Deceiver) were each regarded as sacred symbols in the Goddess religion. It was by design of the authors to seek to discredit the Goddess religion and subjugate women to the rule of men, codifying toxic masculinity. This represents a substantive cultural shift in the status of women, who had enjoyed significant leadership roles and expressive freedom in societies that had thrived for millennia.?

Bringing this to the present, I recently attended an Exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was showcasing Impressionistic art collected privately and institutionally by the Dutch. As one entered the room, massive sculptures of male and female figures were on display. The male figures were proud and robust in their bodily expression while all the female figures were postured in shame. It was a potent representation of this underlying attitude, recapitulated generation after generation, of the view of women.

The insights and revelations of When God Was a Woman have extraordinary relevance to the plight of women’s sovereignty and wellbeing around the world. The book, published in 1976, is an ally to lifting up the psyche of women facing an alarming increase of efforts to control and deny self-authority over the sanctity of girls and women’s bodies and lives. It also offers men insight into their indoctrination. In its pages is a needed reminder of the inherent dignity of a female and the profound legacy of female leadership that the victors have tried to erase.

The most dramatic change that could be made on Earth is to acknowledge the inherent equality of value of women and from that mutual respect! The Regenerative Mode of Thought: Reciprocity has tremendous bearing on the idea of mutual exchange between the sexes. The most effective way systems organize for beneficial shared outcomes is to make sure that every player works for all the other players, and thus themselves, as much as possible. For human beings to greet with respect and openness one another – this would be transformational.?

Stone’s analysis demonstrates that the biases rooted in a creation myth thousands of years ago and all that ensued continue to affect the present. As Einstein is reputed to have said, “we cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.” Long-standing misogyny and the subsequent gap between the sexes, is such a problem. My hope is that in reading this book, it will guide us individually toward healing this false narrative that continues to influence the plight of half of humanity and by extension, the whole of life.

Additional reading:?

The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe by Marija Gimbutas?

Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from Around the World by Merlin Stone

Daughters of Copper Woman by Anne Cameron