Art Works

Work in progress: Apocrypha

Tragically, a similar trend has been at work in the world of Islam, the divine feminine marginalised to the worship of a few minor sects who were then vigourously persecuted. The brothers and respective patriarchs of Islam and Judaism, Ishmael and Isaac, had more in common with one another than they knew. Both of them vaunted jealous male Gods claiming precedence over the same patch of playground. Unencumbered by the mitigating, soothing effect of the Goddess, Allah and Yahweh have been slugging it out for 2000 years or more. Even worse they have regressed in the process. Men go a little crazy in the absence of women. How much more so the Gods? When the feminine is cast out of Heaven it rapidly turns into a cage fight. On a grand and epic scale. Over centuries and continents. War after war is waged and men sent to their deaths as pawns of aggrieved and vengeful gods turned dark with hate.

Of course war is also about human greed, paranoia about resourses (without the Goddess who will feed us?), and territoriality, but when the Gods on either side are suffering the same testosterone overload the result will be divinely horrible. And endless. Having deprived themselves of the balm to their wounded prides that the wooing of their consorts might provide, Allah and Yahweh lash out at each other in frustration instead. Under such a sky men become like wind up toy soldiers in the grip of prepubescent Gods with a grudge.

I have been a soldier in many battles. On the side of  'Good' , of course. Riteousness quells the fear. Divine appointment makes you brave. You are doing God's work. You are part of His plan. You poor fool. On reflection what surprised me most was not just that I survived, but that I went so easily to the slaughter in the first place. It doesn't take much to send a man to his death. He'll go for a pat on the back if he can be made to beleive that God's favour is with him. I wonder if Hokmah would allow us to throw away our lives so easily? Somehow I doubt it. She seems to have a greater reverence for life. It comes out of her after all.

Fortunatly the Goddess will not be ousted so easily. The repressed, to quote Freud, always returns. A papal bull in the mid sixties raised the  virgin Mary's status considerably, effectively alongside that of Christ. The tradition of the Black Madonna has kept the tradition of the divine feminine alive,as has the popular movement centered around Guadalupe in Central America. Pope John Paul had an M carved into his coffin, presumably as a gesture of reverence to the Goddess and women are returning to the priesthood after milleniums of exclusion.

Here is a preview of my latest artwork 'Apocrypha' which is in progress. It is a 2m x 1.5m single panel.

Please click on thumbnails for a larger detail image.

Apocrypha

In the time of Solomon the Goddess Hokmah was revered alongside Yahweh as his bride and consort. Gradually She was driven out. The pair of golden wings displayed on the Ark of the Covenant that symbolised the divine pair was first reinterpreted as the male and female aspects of Yahweh Himself, and then, over time,  as Yahweh and His new bride Israel. Hokmah, also called Sophia or Wisdom, had Her places of worship dwindle to a few sacred groves and mountain tops. Then, in the time of King Hezekiah, even these were attacked. Ash and bone were stamped into the rock of the high places and the groves were burned or cut down. Her priests were killed. Bit by bit Israel supplanted Her. Over the last 5000 years the church fathers have been systematically writing the Goddess out of the Bible. Successive purges of sacred manuscripts finally expunged Her. Almost.

Hokmah was banished. When the tribes of Israel were scattered in the Diaspora many blamed this catastrophe on the desecration that had preceded it. Whatever the truth, nearly all traces of Hokmah were erased from history. Some of her sacred books were buried for thousands of years, recently unearthed at nag Hammadi among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most were destroyed.The few that survived unhidden were pasteurised and collected into a volume called 'The Apocrypha, which at one time was included at the back of the Bible. Then it was removed altogether. The last copy I saw had to be borrowed on inter-library loan and had stamped into the fly leaf, 'last copy in the county.'