Sacred Earth Designs Home

Pan Gaia Spring 2004
Appearing in
PanGaia - Spring 2004

Back

Endnotes

1. Dr. Jayne Shatz, "Ice Age Ceramics" Ceramics Monthly, Feb. 1992. p. 78
2. Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989), p. xix.
3. Robert Briffault, The Mothers (London and New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927, 1952), Vol. 3, p. 55.
4. Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor, The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1991), p. 50.
5. Robert Briffault, The Mothers, Vol. 3, p.54.
6. Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988), p. 337.
7. A. G. Cairns-Smith, Seven Clues to the Origin of Life: A Scientific Detective Story (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985) pp. 80-86.
8. Falk, Richard H., Origins of Life, U C Davis Web site: http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/Courses/f01/PLB%2011/PLB11-99/OriginOfLife/Origin.htm. 1998
9. Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, p. 337,
10. Robert Briffault, The Mothers, Vol. 1, p. 466.
11. Erich Neumann, The Great Mothe,r (New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1955, 1991), p. 133.
12.Carol Christ, Rebirth of the Goddess, (New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 53.
13. Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988), p. 69.
14. Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, p. 150.
15. Robert Briffault, The Mothers, Vol. 1, p. 473.
16. Alfred E. Dittert, Jr., and Fred Plog, Generations in Clay: Pueblo Pottery of the American Southwest (Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1991) p. 26.
17. Betty Le Free Santa Clara Pottery Today (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975) p. 9.
18. Robert Briffault, The Mothers, Vol. 1, p. 473.
19. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 472.
20. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 473.
21. Erich Neumann, The Great Mother, pp. 123-124.
22.Ibid., p. 120.
23. Anne Barring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image (London: Arkana, 1991), p. 58.
24. Briffault Vol. 1, pg 474.
25. Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, p. 150.
26. Anne Barring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, p. 58.
27. Briffault vol 1, pg 474.
28. Erich Neumann, The Great Mother p. 121.
29. Anne Barring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, p. 50.
30. Ibid., p. 50.
31. Anne Barring and Jules Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image, pp. 51-52.

Sacred Art, Bloody Clay and the Body of the Goddess

Part Three

Vessel forms, open and receptive, held precious liquids that nourished life, much like the mother's breasts held milk and nourished the child. "In the Neolithic era the Goddess was believed to be the source of the life-sustaining water that fell from the sky as rain and welled up from beneath the ground as spring, lake and river. The vessel holding water or milk was, therefore, a paramount image of the Goddess herself."23 "In southern India, goddesses were commonly represented by pots"24 and a black pot was the symbol of Kali, the black Goddess of death and transformation. 25This tradition continued in Egypt, where a water jar was the hieroglyph for the sky Goddess, Nut.26 Later, in Greece, Goddesses were often worshipped in the form of pots, and were called pot-bearers or kernophorai.27

To emphasize the importance of the vessel, vases or jars often carried a second jar held in the arms or on the head of the Goddess. This emphasized the sacred nature of the vessel and played "a significant part in the ritual of the female godhead."28

While the form itself, seen as the body of the goddess, was sacred, the incised or painted patterns covering Neolithic pottery and goddess figures were also a method of communicating the sacredness of all life. Wavy lines, chevrons, Vs, and meanders acted as kind of shorthand language describing the natural forces surrounding and animating life. They revealed "the imaginative reach of the people, who reflected upon the mystery of birth and related it to the larger mystery of the birth of all life through the 'body' of the goddess."29 During this era images of the labyrinth, spiral and meander were carved on stone and painted on the ritual vessels that were used in shrines and homes."30

"Neolithic artists continued to explore their feeling for the whole through the figure of the Mother Goddess, experiencing earth, animals and plants as an epiphany, or 'showing forth', of her presence....Serpents wind over pots and coil around the womb of goddess figures, undulating across vessels, like rain water falling from above and waters rising up from within the earth. A whole language of signs and symbols emerges - spirals, chevrons, zigzags, meanders and net-like patterns - embodying aspects of the goddess's powers."31

Today, the reemergence of the goddess and the interpretations of these ancient symbols is due in a large part to archaeologist Marija Gimbutas' work. Dedicating her life to excavating, researching and uncovering the life, culture, and artifacts of Old Europe, her research has served to awaken the global consciousness to the ancient goddess religions and meanings of these ancient forms and symbols.

Today, these symbols, rituals, and beliefs are often regarded as superstitions by modern artists. But the inherent wisdom of honoring the earth, respecting its cycles, and in turn respecting our own feminine nature is not obsolete, but highly needed in our secularized society of commerce and materialism. Pottery is a timeless, earth-centered process of creating forms from the earth and giving those forms to the fires of transformation. By incorporating even a small part of its sacred herstory into the modern creative process, one can bring an emotional and spiritual grounding to an otherwise fragmented and mechanized lifestyle.

Mailing List

PO Box 87
Howard, Co 81233
Email -

All text © copyright Sacred Earth Designs 2001
No part of this may be reproduced without written permission of the author.

Sacred Earth Designs Home

All text and photos copyright © Sacred Earth Designs™
No part of this web site may be reproduced without prior permission from Sacred Earth Designs.
Website design by Sacred Earth Designs.