Yin and Yang, the Act of Balancing and the Need to Awaken the Goddess
By Franco Minatel
Yin-Yang
The ancient oriental symbol of the Yin-Yang is the symbol of perfect harmony and perfect balance. It consists of a circle with a black half and white half but the halves are not semi-circles. The two sides blend into each other with a dot of the opposite colour residing within each half. The symbol is about light and dark, good and bad, hot and cold, inside and outside. Most of all it is not absolute. The wholeness of the symbol can represent the complete person and the two parts can represent, in Jungian terms, the anima and animus, the female and male halves of a person. The white Yang side represents the male or God aspect and the black Yin side represents the female or Goddess aspect.
To believe in one male god provides only half the picture. My question is how can women feel complete without the Goddess? For that matter, how can men feel complete without the Goddess? There is no balance, no harmony. The need to rediscover the Goddess or, more appropriately, to open our hearts to Her has never been more important. In the patriarchal world in which we live, there is a desperate need for the matriarchal influence to return balance and harmony needed into our daily lives, the environment and world around us.
The Demise of Yin
Yin-Yang symbol has morphed into the astrological symbol of the Sun, a white circle with a black dot in the middle which looks similar to the Yang side of the Yin-Yang symbol. In astrology the Sun represents the self, ego, the father. The Sun symbol is male and it represents emission of power outwards. It does so without restraint since there is nothing to temper it. If one has balance and harmony, force can be emitted but it will be countered by an opposite force allowing it to flow and blend naturally. This is the difference between the Sun symbol and that of the Yin-Yang.
When did we start losing the balance? The first hint of monotheism (belief in one god) occurred in the era of 1400 BCE when the Egyptians solely worshiped the male solar deity Amon-Ra. The people rebelled and restored the old order. The worshippers of the monotheism would not have given up so easily and would have probably tried to continue their religion elsewhere. Could the character of Moses actually be an Amon-Ra priest who led a group of followers out of Egypt to establish the monotheist religion in the "Promised Land"?
The balance of the Yin-Yang symbol continued to break down during this era. The religion of Mithrasism, the goddess was eliminated from the pantheon and replaced by an evil male deity to counter the all-good god. Likewise monotheism sought to destroy polytheism and the Goddess. Along with the Goddess, womanhood itself was demonized.
The downfall of the Goddess was not only perpetuated in monotheism, but polytheistic societies started adopting this concept as well. An example of this can be seen in the rebellion of the Greek gods led by Zeus that brought us into the Golden Age. The goddesses' roles were reduced. Hecate once ruled the Underworld but that realm was handed over to Hades and Hecate became a lesser goddess.
With the continued political expansion of monotheism, pagan deities were either demonized or adopted as saints. The early Christian church converted popular aspects of other religions to fit the monotheistic model. As all things try to maintain balance in one way or another, the Goddess did so subtly. For example, in Latin-based languages the word for Easter has roots in the Hebrew word for Passover. In English, the word Easter is derived from the name of the goddess Ostara. Ostara was a fertility goddess whose holiday is the Spring Equinox, a time of fertility and subsequently her symbols are the hare and egg, two symbols of fertility. Did you ever wonder why there is an Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs and what they have to do with Christian mythology? Even in the patriarchal Islam there are traces of the goddess. Many Muslim countries have the star and moon in their flags. Although there were moon gods worshipped in Persia, there were also moon goddess and the Moon is the symbol of Mother Goddess in most religions. The five pointed star, however, is none other than Venus (Astarte, Ishtar), the goddess of beauty and love.
In the Christian religion, the Virgin Mary is interesting concept, considering her cameo in the Bible. There were shrines to this "minor character" early on, as the early church leaders could not easily eradicate all traces of the Goddess. The people would not accept the loss of the Goddess, much like the ancient Egyptians, and they held onto Her. The church leaders reluctantly allowed Mary to be worshipped within their religious practices. Most of the imagery of the Virgin Mary is really that of Isis who was one of the most popular goddesses in the Roman Empire at that time.
These are just a couple of examples, but the more you dig, the more you will notice that beneath the surface of patriarchal monotheistic culture lies traces of the Goddess. It is only now a recent trend in Christianity, a probable heresy a few hundred years ago, to say that God is not a male or a female but a spirit. This is progress and what it represents is the encompassing the Yin-Yang image as whole, but the whole is comprised of two parts.
Rebuilding the Yin
The re-awakening is occurring as a natural process but not without resistance in many cases. Over the past few decades several religions of the Neo-Pagan variety such as Wicca, Asatru, Voodoo/Santeria and Native Spirituality have started to gain popularity. All of these recognize the Goddess and have priestesses on equal footing as priests.
If the goddess has never really gone away and is buried, how do we bring her out? One way to experience Her is to get back to nature or to walk in the woods. Allow me to introduce you to Mother Nature or Mother Earth or Gaia, the Earth Goddess. The energy shift you experience when you walk out of a wooded area back into a city environment is quite amazing. When I exercise, I run through residential streets, across a baseball diamond and then into a park. In order to enter a valley-wooded area I must pass through a treed "hallway" to get to the main part of the park. When I leave the park via the same path, it is like I have been born again. I feel like I have emerged from the womb of the Goddess.
Another way to familiarize you with Her is to read legends of the old goddesses. One problem you will encounter is many of these were written in patriarchal times and the scholars who translated these ancient texts were translating from a monotheistic point of view. However, there are more and more books becoming available written by people who know the Goddess.
Prayer and mediation are good ways to reintroduce you to Her. People find it easy to pray to God the Father, why not try Goddess the Mother. Try focusing on the Yin-Yang symbol. You may notice that it may make a difference in your life and new attitudes may evolve. The scarcity of the Goddess in our society is a considerable part of the reason why we are not whole as individuals or as a society. As small shifts in consciousness occur, the world will slowly work its way back to balance. Restore the balance within yourself first and it will come back to the world. Restore the Yin side of the Yin-Yang symbol!
