Reading Notes: 7 Secrets of the Goddess, Part B

Gaia's Secret 1.3

  • Rural cultures value fertility while urban cultures value obedience because obedience implies control enforced by men over women 
    • Yin and yang in Chinese mythology explicitly follows this hierarchy
  • Patriarchal society links women with nature and men with culture, where culture can dominate nature
    • Many myths and cultures are rooted in the idea that women must be subservient to men for the good of society
    • Women are the cause of all problems in life (especially prevalent in Christianity/biblical mythology)
  • In urban society, men were valued based on what they had, which included women as his possession
    • Women were isolated from others to protect themselves from other men
  • Shift from matriarchy to patriarchy, where now women who challenged male authority could be killed justly
  • Instances of protecting women not for herself but to maintain a man's honor can be seen in The Ramayana and The Mahabharata 
    • Women are dehumanized and became a symbol of male honor
Gaia's Secret 1.4

  • Urbanization led to disgust of material things
  • "World is seen in feminine terms" where everything within nature is a goddess
  • Humans wanted to escape from earth and go to the heavens, which is masculine
    • In Christianity, there is only the son of god, Jesus, no daughter
    • Female prophets are few and not well-known
  • A popular archetype in Medieval lore is where women are either the damsel in distress or evil
  • In Buddhism, the Buddha allowed women to enter his monastic order when he realized women suffer just as much as men 
    • Before, Buddhism only centered around intellect, but after this moment, compassion and emotion became central as well
  • Before Buddhism, Hinduism put more importance on devas than devis
    • Buddhism brought the rise of balance in Hinduism, where god could not be explained without goddess
  • "Devi is divinity in her own right [...] responding to the gaze of Brahma who seeks to control her, Vishnu who enjoys her, and Shiva who withdraws from her"
    • She lets the men dominate but not have dominion over her, moving beyond the patriarchy
When I watched the first part of these videos, I was admittedly very confused about what they were about. However, after watching these two videos, I finally understood that these stories are meant to explain mythology throughout history and around the world as it centers around women and the shift towards patriarchal society. It was so interesting learning about the gradual shift towards how women became viewed as objects and how even centuries later it is still unfortunately prevalent. I thought Devdutt Pattanaik and Epified did a fantastic job at covering mythology of all cultures in order to explain this sentiment.

The Tridevi: Wikipedia

Bibliography: "7 Secrets of the Goddess - Gaia's Secret" by Epified. Chapters 1.3 and 1.4. Youtube.

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