THE CULT OF THE GREAT MOTHER

 

The word mother derives from the Latin matrem, accusative of the third declension (mater, matris). A similar term in almost all Indo-European languages, as in English it is mother, in German Mutter, in Portuguese mãe, in French mère, in Dutch moeder, in Spanish mother, as in Italian, and in many others. In all of them the first letter is m, easy to articulate and which denotes the onomatopoeic origin of the word, like mum. In this case, however, mother has a more complex articulation than the term mother because, according to some hypotheses, it derives from Sanskrit and has the meaning of order, of one who orders. Therefore, already in the name there is the regulating function of the mother and specifically in the primordial cult of the Great Mother, a generative female figure is meant, who embodies all aspects of the woman: fertility, generation, the regulation of life. The cult probably dates back to the Neolithic, that is, from 3500 to 7000 BC, and anticipated subsequent cults in which these characteristics are present in different figures. In short, the Great Mother was an immortal, immutable figure, inserted in a mythical matriarchal context. it is an archetype of female authority and the earth it generates. It can then be found in some sacred figures born in different contexts: Ishtar, Aphrodite, Venus, Hecate, Artemis, Diana.

One of the most famous representations of the Great Mother concerns Cybele, the Phrygian goddess of nature and fertility, venerated in Asia Minor and later adopted by the Romans. His cult involved rituals, music and ecstatic ceremonies, including the famous "Taurobolium", a bull sacrifice ritual.

Each goddess embodies a feminine ideal but all, in reality, are associated, albeit in different forms and degrees, with fertility, the cycle of rebirth and death, the seasons, sexuality, the seed, the fruit. All together they lead back to the primordial unity of the Great Mother, to her telluric character, linked to the earth. A universal symbolism that permeates all cultures and still reaches us today, men of the third millennium, who seek answers to the great secret of life. The Great Mother is a hymn to universal love, to carnal pleasure, to life that wins despite everything, like Leopardi's broom. Even the depictions of the Great Mother, found in various parts of the world, represent the so-called steatopygies, that is, women with large buttocks, testifying to a cult dedicated to fertility, opulence and love. A cult linked to the generating earth, to an original animism that still manifests itself today in holistic phenomena, in religious syncretism, in the overcoming of traditional religions, for a unitary and universal vision.