From the beginning of time, the divine feminine has been revered and worshiped as the matrix of creation. The nurturing quality of the divine feminine was related with the ideals of fertility and creation in many ancient societies, and took the form of the Great Mother Goddess. Goddess religion can be found in many places of the ancient globe long before patriarchal faiths took hold. Societies were built and run around these Goddess religions, and they were headed by a group of ritual-obsessed priestesses.
Women played an important role, serving as priestesses and possibly religious leaders. Until the arrival of the warrior societies, these societies were mostly matriarchal and developed peaceful cultures with minimal fortification. The Mother Goddess, often known as Mother Earth, is a matriarchal figure found in numerous religions around the world and commonly portrayed in ancient art. Today, the majority of the world's major religions, including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, worship a male God, and the only evidence for the existence of a wholly other society that celebrates the sacred feminine comes from old artifacts from the distant past.
The Earth was the personification of the sacred feminine for our forefathers. The ancients, who had more direct contact and a stronger affinity with nature, saw the planet as a massive female being that gives birth and continuously creates life. They viewed and witnessed plants and creatures being born on the earth's surface, multiplying, and eventually returning to her, only to regenerate. Birth, death, and rebirth are inextricably linked in a never-ending cycle. Earth sustains the entire ecosystem, including the sky, mountains, trees, oceans and rivers, animals, and humans; she nurtures and cures all. She is the force of creation and destruction, and all life ultimately depends on her. Our forefathers did not take this for granted, but instead considered it as a source of pride.
The first literary reference to Earth as a mother can be found in ancient Greek texts. For the ancient Greeks, Gaia was the supreme goddess and mother of all creation. The concept of Mother Earth or Mother Goddess was first documented in Hesiod's Theogony in the early seventh century BCE. Hesiod tells the narrative of the universe's creation, when it was only Chaos, Gaia, and Eros. The Earth was thus a fundamental deity; she was regarded as the mother of all gods and living beings, and she symbolized Mother Nature's restorative care.
