Finding the Life Force

For some years, I have been thinking about issues of gender inequality and exploring the idea that gender inequality and gender violence have the same root as human violence against nature. In both cases, the violence stems from belief in a superiority that justifies dominance: of humans over nature and of men over women. This has not always been the case because for thousands of years people revered nature and cultural systems did not assume the superiority of men over women. Instead, women were recognized as a sacred life-force. This blog seeks to understand the problems and delve into how contemporary Westerners might go about finding the life force once again.

The problems are formidable. The UN states:
“While the world has achieved progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment… women and girls continue to suffer discrimination and violence in every part of the world. …Providing women and girls with equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large.”

Statistics shows the appalling lack of gender equality:
• every year in Africa there are three million women and girls at risk of female genital mutilation.
• in 30% of cases globally, women suffer violence from their partner within their home.
• More than 33.000 girls become child brides every day. Globally, 12 million girls get married before the age of 18 every year.
• Women are 47% more likely to suffer serious injuries in traffic accidents, because the safety features of cars are designed for men.
• Women in rural areas of Africa spend 40 billion hours a year to collect water.
• 137 women are killed every day in the world by a member of their family.
• Worldwide, it is estimated that around 35% of women have experienced sexual and non-sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.

• Worldwide, women earn on average 23% less than men.
• Women spend an average of three hours a day more than men in household chores and family care in developing countries, and two hours a day more than men in developed countries.

• Single mothers with children make up about 75% of all single parent families and suffer higher poverty rates than single fathers.
• Women are largely excluded from the executive branches of government and are rarely leaders of major political parties.
• only Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia, Luxembourg and Sweden scored high on eight indicators (from receiving a pension to freedom of movement) that influence the economic decisions made by women during their careers.

• Femicide is “intentional killing of a woman following the alleged transgression of gender roles deriving from tradition and social norms. Transgressive behaviour therefore varies according to the social context in which the crime is perpetrated“.

There are the problems of parental leave punished by companies and governments, the consideration of the ‘responsibility’ of women in sexual violence, hatred (also online) for women who are judged by their appearance instead of by their professionalism, etc. The UN estimates it will take another 108 years at the current pace to achieve gender equality.

The question is: Why did Western cultures reject the European Neolithic belief in the female principle as a life-giving source and nature as our Earth Mother? How did we instead a become a culture that subjugates women and degrades the planet?

The European Neolithic culture’s reverence for nature as Earth Mother was expressed in their arts. This took the form of inscriptions on ceramics and their sculptural images that often depicted sacred female forms or goddesses.

These goddesses were powerful deities usually taking the shape of animal/human hybrids that showed the relationship between the female life-force and the forces of nature. Clearly the degradation of women and nature is not an ingrained human attribute, but could be considered a relatively recent development. So there is the potential for humans to return to their earlier more benign beliefs.

In my art practice from 2019-2021, I worked with the art & images of the European Neolithic era that existed between about 6000-3000 BC. Research indicates that early human kinship during this era was everywhere matrilineal. Images from early human societies in what is now Western & Eastern Europe depict figures incorporating human female and animal characteristics that are clearly supernatural and/or divine.

One image used in paintings from my Neolithic series was a female form abstracted so that the arms are like wings and the body narrows down to a point like an insect. My theory is that this figure represents a bee goddess, which often appears in Neolithic art. As we are only now re-discovering, bees may be the force of nature that will determine if life on this planet as we know it continues.

As discussed in another blog, that series of paintings created between 2019-2021 explored the pre-historic alternatives to patriarchal religions.

Patriarchal religions are based on the idea that the human male is made in God’s image, human females can only access God through men, and all other species are subordinate to humans. The theory that inspired this series of paintings suggests that the patriarchal religions are the root of, not only the problem of gender inequality and violence, but the disastrous impacts of violence against the planet.

Michelangelo’s gorgeous painting, shown below, is the powerful and iconic image of this system of belief.

The challenge for the patriarchal religions of the world is to reconcile the conviction that God has passed the spark of divinity directly to human males and no others, with recognition that the rest of Creation is also of divine origin. As our understanding of nature deepens, we are faced with the inevitable conclusion that we depend on the earth and its life-giving force.