The cult of “mother earth” and “mother goddess” dates back to prehistoric times and was a widespread phenomenon in most of the world’s ancient societies. There is enough evidence in human history to suggest that we have always believed in living in balance with nature and, in fact, we revere “nature” and “earth” in a motherly way.
Mother Earth: The Rebirth of the Mother Goddess Phenomenon
During the Christian period, the old tradition of reverence for the “earth as mother” or “mother goddess” was largely suppressed and it was only in the 18th century that open references to the female earth as Mother Goddess were again made. In the 19th century there was a widespread revival of the “earth mother and mother goddess” cult. Furthermore, this was also a period when discoveries were made all over the world of native tribes and indigenous peoples worshiping “Earth” as a female deity for thousands of years. In fact, these societies were found to practice the matriarchal form of social organization where the authority of the family or tribe was in the hands of women. In these matriarchal societies, the worship of the “supreme female deity of the earth” was an all-important spiritual and cultural practice. These societies existed in perfect balance with nature and believed in a philosophy of peaceful coexistence with the other manifestations of nature. Research on these indigenous peoples and primitive tribes gives us an indication about the cycle of human evolution. It is now thought that in the early days of human evolution, societies were mostly matriarchal in nature. The various discoveries of paleolithic “Venus” figurines show that, in fact, the first human societies would have been matriarchal in nature. These ancient societies followed a goddess cult and worshiped the supreme female deity in the form of the earth goddess or mother goddess. So we can clearly emphasize that the worship of the supreme female deity in the form of the earth goddess or mother goddess is a prehistoric phenomenon dating back to the Stone Age.
Furthermore, archaeological excavations also indicate that the supreme female deity in the form of an earth goddess or mother goddess was worshiped as a sign of fertility and creativity with immense generative abilities. This can be seen with the emphasis given to the “Venus” statuette from the Willendorf vulva, which was found marked with a red ocher pigment signifying the cycle of life. In this form, the earth mother or mother goddess serves as the general fertility deity who represents the bountiful embodiment of the earth.
Prominent representations of “the earth as mother” can be seen in native tribes and indigenous societies such as the Aztecs. Some of these important representations are the ones mentioned below.
Mother Earth: Itzpapalotl
Itzpapalotl is the goddess who is considered the darkest aspect of the figure of mother earth and is the patron saint of warriors. The goddess Itzpapalotl would have been venerated and summoned by the Aztecs for their numerous territorial expansion expeditions. She is depicted as a mixture of a butterfly and a game bird. She has the claws of the eagle and she also has the fangs. She is shown to grab the sky with her claws. She was worshiped even before Tenochtitlan and was regarded as a prominent Aztec war deity.
Mother Earth: Huastec Deity
This goddess closely resembles Itzpapalotl, the warrior goddess of the Aztecs. She wears a conical headdress and hook earrings common to Huastec figures and many of her features originate from the Gulf of Mexico.
Mother Earth: Coatlicue
The goddess is called “Coatlicue” because it is she who wears the Serpent Skirt. The Aztecs recognized her as a serpentine form of Mother Earth, as well as the mother of her patron deity Huitzilopochtli, the god of war who led the Aztecs to the island in Lake Texcoco from which they would build their empire. The goddess Coatlicue would have been revered as the goddess of creation and her fearsome form, the “skeletal Coatlicue”, would have been regarded as the goddess of destruction. In these depictions, the Aztecs recognized the true cycle of nature that included both creative and destructive forces.
Mother Earth: Skeletal Coatlicue
As discussed above, the Skeletal Coatlicue is the most threatening form of Coatlicue. She is the goddess who is represented as the Goddess of Death and retains the serpent-laden skirt that denotes Coatlicue. She has a deadly stare and looks ghastly in her portrayal.
Mother Earth: Cihuacoatl
The goddess Cihuacóatl is represented as the “Serpent Woman” who wears a cloak that rises to become a serpentine hood. She holds a rattlesnake in her left hand and a snake in her right. Any representation in the form of a snake had a special meaning in many ways. The serpentine form connoted being superior above mortals with immense creative and destructive powers of nature and therefore the Goddess Cihuacóatl would have been placed very high in the hierarchical order of deities. Furthermore, Cihuacóatl was not only the name of a goddess, but also the title of one of the highest-ranking priests in the Aztec hierarchy.
Mother Earth: Aztec Stele of Cihuacóatl
The goddess in this form represents the plumed serpent and she, like the Aztec stela of Cihuacóatl, is an Aztec form of the serpent goddess Cihuacóatl. The goddess’s human face has serpentine jaws and is surrounded by long flowing quetzal feathers. She was one of the most prominent goddesses worshiped for bringing good luck and good fortune. In fact, no other goddess received as many Aztec sacrifices as the stela of the goddess Cihuacóatl.
Mother Earth: Lord/Lady of the Earth
The “Lord of the Earth”, or Tlalteuctli, is closely linked to Coatlicue. This is one of many instances where the divisions between men and women were intentionally blurred, and although the term teuctli generally indicates a “Lord”, it was considered gender-neutral and applied equally to women. The image of Tlalteuctli on the stela here represents her descending to earth. Many Aztec sculptures have the face of a god at the bottom facing the earth and this was considered a reverent tribute to the deities.
Mother Earth: The Monster of the Earth
This is more of a bestial representation of Earth as the great consuming monster. The Earth was seen as an indiscriminate devourer, consuming life to generate it again. Open jaws extend across the top of the piece, although the eyes are both on the same side of the head. These representations and many of their kind show that the ancient tribes and societies never segregated the good and the bad, as seen in the dualism that exists in modern religions. These ancient cultures believed that nature encompassed both the creative and the destructive, just like human beings.
Mother Earth: The Greek and Roman Period and the Royal Mother Goddess Phenomenon
The actual concept of an “earth mother” or “mother goddess” or “great goddess” derives primarily from the Greeks dating back to the 7th century BC. The Greeks worshiped a deep-breasted goddess, the “earth Gaia”, who was regarded as a “firm seat of all things forever” and who, after emerging from Chaos, led to the creation of the universe, including the earth. and its various manifestations. According to theological writings, many shrines were erected in ancient Greece in the name of this great goddess. One of these shrines was the “Earth as Nursing Mother” shrine near the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. After the Greeks, later the Romans worshiped the great mother goddess Gaia as Tellus, or Terra Mater, whom they called “the Great Mother.” The cult of the Great Mother called Magna Mater, later identified with the mother goddess Cybele and by the Greeks as Rhea, was later established in Rome in the 3rd century BC.
Also, in order to understand and study the “earth as mother” and “mother goddess” belief, we need to discuss the following topics in detail.
1. Paleolithic figures
2. Neolithic figures
3. Examples of mother goddess deities in various traditions including Egyptian, Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Greek Celtic, Germanic, Turkish, Siberian, Greek, and Roman traditions
4. Hinduism and Shaktism
5. Christianity and mother goddess
6. Neopaganism and mother goddess
7. Mother Earth
8. The earth as mother in fiction