The Goddesses of Belly Dance
P.M. Staunton
"The Goddess will not necessarily involve herself in her Second Coming with the same activities she has undertaken in past or current Goddess religions. She may, but she may also manifest solutions for totally new problems." Hindu female deities as a source for the contemporary rediscovery of the Goddess. Rita M Cross.
There are many ways that the Goddess is becoming more apparent to us. There are many things, which suggest that her resurrection in mass human consciousness is both imminent and necessary. It is important that we visualise the Goddess clearly. Icons can become keys that if studied can lead us into realisations and awareness that are difficult to describe. As you think so shall you be. In contemporary western society we are not exposed to the Goddess as an integral part of life. So most people tend not to think of her. In the past images of women pregnant, naked or even exposing genitalia would have been commonplace. The anglo-celtic fertility Goddess Sheila-na-gig, a strange little figure who squatting, appears to be giving birth to the Universe, was worshiped two thousand years ago. Interestingly she was integrated into early British and Irish Christianity. Her image can still be seen in some old churches today. British and Irish women probably had their dance to honour Sheila-na-gig. It could be that feminine gyrations of the hips became taboo in male centred Christian culture and these amongst other things were forbidden and replaced with shame of the body. Dances became limited to the feet, sexuality and personal expression edited out. One of the ways to release the inner Goddess is through belly dance. Through careful consideration of the movements, we can be put in touch with a deep inner divine knowing. Combined with visualisation, ritual and prayer, we can touch our Goddess selves. The Goddess is being reformed through many frameworks including, paganism, feminism, and shamanism and of course spiritual dance.
Although the Goddess is becoming more apparent to many women and men, we are also experiencing in the world a rise of fundamentalist spirituality. If one has a framework of monotheistic spirituality, it will be difficult to understand the true nature of the Goddess. The Goddess has many hundreds of faces or aspects. She is often defined as the triple Goddess, the Virgin, the Maiden and the Crone. However, there is also just one all encompassing Creatrix.
We are all conditioned by mainstream religions, which can be oppressive, particularity to women. Religion has affected the composition of scientific and philosophical ideas. Male philosophers generally create our main intellectual frameworks. Men have invented the written language; so words, the currency of our thoughts, have been mostly created by males. (This concept has been explored and subverted by the feminist author Mary Daley.) Male centred religion describes women, what Simone De Beauvoir identifies as the 'other'. "Our Lady" although beautiful is one sided, passive, idealised virgin mother. She is to patriarchal standards in many respects the perfect woman. Because of this many women find it difficult to understand their divine selves, because they have no iconic spiritual role models. However some Eastern religions involve sex as a way of spiritual elevation. This benefits both men and women, who see each other as God and Goddess. This creates a harmony and respect between the sexes which is healthy on a macro and microcosmic scale. Religions such as Christianity can often make women feel bad about there bodies, their sexual nature and even being assertive. Religions like Christianity and Islam suppress the erotic and hag component of female divinity. This is damaging to the female psyche and to the male anima (inner female). The result of a male centred world that functions on competition is imbalance. The imbalance is manifesting itself in the destruction of the environment. The Goddess is making her presence known to try to correct the imbalance. Unlike religions based on one supreme male Godhead, who must be obeyed out of fear of punishment, the Goddess seems to encourage us to look at our own divinity, and take responsibility for our own actions.
Perhaps Christianity inspired the Descartian principles that separated mind and body. It is this mistaken belief in separateness that prevents the worship of the body as a spiritual vehicle. In the final analysis,every molecule is imbued with the life force of the Goddess/God.
The belief that spirituality only exists after death prevents people from experiencing spirit and life NOW! Dance in its truest form is an expression of this life force. This has been known for thousands of years in the East. In the 'Tao of Physics' Kapra shows an ancient Indian picture describing the dance of Shiva. Amazingly the patterns around the figure described exactly the pathways of subatomic particles, that have only recently been discovered due to technological advances.
During the matriarchal period of human herstory ,women and reproductive processes were regarded with awe and felt to have a divine purpose. The act of sex was not associated with reproduction. This was based on apparently empirical reasons. One woman could have sex with the whole tribe, yet she would never conceive. Some men could not impregnate women yet others could. The conclusion was that procreation was a divine act.
Belly dance in its original, primal form probably pre dates spoken language. The dance encapsulated the spiritual and metaphysical processes associated with creation and procreation. It is widely documented how the dance functions to facilitate an easy childbirth and subsequent recovery. Religions of this period celebrated fertility of women animals and the earth. The body, particularly a woman's body, was divine. Statues of males with erect phallus were worshiped with pregnant voluptuous female figures who seemed to be dancing. Women were highly regarded at this time. It was not till the penny dropped concerning the biological truth about childbirth and the rise of agriculture and technology that women became perceived as the inferior sex. This coincides, according to Friedrich Engels (and others), with monogamy and inheritance of wealth. Men needed to know that they were the father so began to exert more personal and social control over women. Perhaps this is how male centred monotheistic religions could become so powerful. Islam and Christianity seem to portray woman as being represented by the body and man as being symbolised by the mind. Bodily process especially a woman's are regarded with disgust. The woman's body is perceived as something that can be owned by men. In the Koran it says, 'Woman is a field a sort of property that a husband may use and abuse as he sees fit.' In Christianity,it is Eve who is responsible for eating the forbidden fruit. (This is symbolic of knowledge. Why should we not know? Perhaps women have greater access to knowledge which patriarchal religions repress.) In Genesis, it is said that God will, 'Greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children and thy desire should be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee'. This is complete turnaround from the former Goddess religions who regarded the process of human creation and procreation with awe and respect. Studies of cultures where women live collectively (especially Islamic ones) where theories and methods of childbirth still retain pagan preIslamic ideas, show how childbirth can be a celebration. Goddess worship was more prevalent in the Middle East than anywhere else. The fact that Islam has encouraged segregation of the sexes, has ironically allowed women to propagate the women's pre Islamic traditions including belly dance as a birth dance and natural methods of childbirth and natural pain relief during labour. However most Muslim women do not consciously recognise the connection of the dance and the Goddess. However, the feelings of power and ecstasy connect them on other less cognitive levels.
Any icon or focus of divine energy can be said to reflect or represent an aspect of the human psyche. Jung talks about the collective unconscious. This is a concept that suggests that there are ideas or archetypes that exist outside the individual mind. These can be tapped into by any individual. If we look at various cultures we see ideas which repeat themselves. For example, dragons are a metaphysical creature that are apparent in cultures, geographically separated far apart from each other. There are hundreds of Goddesses. It is interesting how Goddesses from a variety of cultures often resemble each other, both in iconography and the magical and divine qualities that they possess. In mythology, we can clearly see how the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy is expressed in mythological themes. We see stories of Goddesses being slain or transmutating into men. In present society ,Islam and Christianity have done much to irradicate the power of the Goddess. Christianity has us worshipping a sadomasochistic image. Pain and suffering are encouraged as a way to spiritual enlightenment. The pleasure of the body is anti-spiritual. The Goddess on the other hand, urges us to live and enjoy our selves. The Goddess says 'all acts of pleasure and enjoyment are my rituals'. Most women in contemporary society feel guilty about giving time to themselves. When women belly dance this is exactly what they are doing. In doing belly dance with a sacred intention we become connected to the divine feminine archetype in our own being.
There are a variety of Goddesses. We all connect or resonate more clearly with certain aspects of the Goddess. Just as there is a variety of ways of being or sub- selves, there are thousands of faces of the goddess. The French philosopher Janet said that the human personality was like a ladder. Which rung we are on is representative of an aspect of our selves. However, we always have a feeling of the consistency of the self. The Goddess is like this she is one and many at the same time.
There are many ways to worship the universal spirit. Dance has always been a way to honour the Goddess. It enlightens the mind body and soul. Once an important feature of community life, many western cultures have lost both the ability and desire for ecstatic dance. Dancing at raves is mindless fun. Dancing with control and feelings and divine intention is ecstatic. The moves of belly dance remind us in our genetic memory of a time when women and our processes were revered, when we freely recognised our connectedness with the cosmos. I am my body and my body is spirit.
ISHTAR
Ishtar is an ancient Sumerian/Babylonian Goddess. Ishtar is very ancient Goddess. She rules fertility, healing and war. She represents a reconciliation
of opposites including male and female. The cult of Ishtar was massive, and spread from the Middle East to the Mediterranean and India. Ishtar incorporated many lesser aspects of the Goddess from a variety of regions. When Ishtar descends into the underworld to find her lover, fertility dies on the Earth. When she returns life is reinstated. To find her lover Ishtar has to shamanically descend to the underworld. Here she has to enter seven gates. To do this she bribes the gatekeepers with seven veils. The human body has seven centres of consciousness (chakras). Perhaps we need to look at all the energetic aspects of ourselves to experience our true fertile self. Call on her to make your dance command the attention of the audience and when you want to be treated like a queen. Ishtar is often shown on a Lion: she represents the Leo energy in astrology.
HEKAT
First worshiped in pre-dynastic Egypt. She is associated with women's knowledge of the mysteries of childbirth, the occult, and the magical side of life. She is also referred to Hekate Selene and is associated with the moon. She is connected with darkness and the underworld. Call on her when you want to project your mysterious psychic feminine energies through your dance. Hekate with her association with the moon death and darkness represents Scorpio.
APHRODITE
Means risen from the sea foam. People worshiped her in Temples in Greece. She is a Goddess of sexual love despite the sex of ones partner. She is beautiful to Gods and mortals. Priestesses of Aphrodite had their own sensual dance using the hips to display their sexuality. Call on her to give your dance a sexy seductive energy. Aphrodite's sensuality is expressed in the sign of Taurus.
ARTEMIS
A very independent Goddess of the moon and the woods. She is a huntress and represents the destroyer aspect of the Goddess. She rules the primeval natural nature of women. She is brave and strong. Her priestesses performed ecstatic rites to her that involved quivering hip movements.
Call on her to give your dance a strong adventurous quality. Artemis as the brave and daring huntress influenced by the sign of Sagittarius.
ISIS
She is the supreme Egyptian deity, she is the great mother, she is the one who holds all magical secrets. Call on her when your dance needs to express a powerful lunar quality. Isis with her connection to the moon and the great mother is connected to the sign of Cancer.
LILITH
Demonised in the Bible, Lilith was Adam's first wife before Eve. Unlike her antecedent, Lilith was created with Adam and not out of him. She was one equal part of a male and female whole. When Lilith left Eden she became an outcast. Her story represents the unification of equal and opposite forces that can create the idealized state, or Jungian mystical marriage of the human psyche. Call on her in your dance when you want to clearly communicate your two opposing sides. As Lilith was like Adam's twin as well as his wife, and she has two aspects (dark and light), she represents the twin aspect of Gemini.
MA-AT
The winged Goddess whose emblem is the vulture. She is what supported the law and foundations of Pharonic Egypt. She rules the skilled craftsperson and artist, she represents both discipline and harmony. As well as limitation, all creation needs form and content. One must dispense with the aspects of one's creative life that are not needed. It is in this way that we produce meaningful work. Ma-at represents the order needed for individual and cosmic consciousness. Call on her in your dance when you need discipline in your movements and to master difficult tecniques. In her role as disciplinarian and teacher we can attribute Ma-at to the sign of Capricorn.
TIAMAT
She is an ancient Babolonyion Goddess and is included in the creation myth. She represents the sea and is the feminine element that gave birth to the world. She represents fertility power and magic. Tiamat represents the emotional power of the sea, which can also represent the expanses of the individual and collective spirit. Call on Tiamat when you want your dance to have an emotional soulful quality. The sign of Pisces rules Tiamat in her connection to the sea, and the power of emotion.
ATHENA
Adopted by the city of Athens in Greece, she is an inventor and maker of Athenian law. She is the bringer of rain. The energy of Athena is intellectual and detached, however she is also sexually attractive. She has concerns for things out side herself. Call on her in your dance when you wish to do ground breaking untraditional movements. Also when you wish to communicate yours and the audiences energy fields. Athena's intellect, inventiveness and association with rain makes her connected to the astrological sign of Aquarius.
BAST
Often represented as a woman with a cat's head. She is the creator of the body in which the spirit resides. Ancient Egyptians admired cats for their agility strength and beauty. Bast is said to personify the sun and some times the moon. She is the Goddess of joy music and dancing, as well as love and touch, health and healing. Bast is shown with a cystrum a sacred instrument to dispel evil spirits. Bast urges women to be light hearted and devote time to pleasure and enjoyment. Call on Bast to give your dance a feline quality, to express joi de vivre or when you are using the dance to heal, and make yourself and others happy. Bast's emphasis on pleasure, art and Enjoyment makes her associated with the sign of Libra.
DEMETER
Represents fertile and cultivated soil. She represents the fruits and riches of the fields. She is often depicted as a corn Goddess. Her legend also involves descent to the underworld. Demeter also civilized mortals. When she looks for her daughter Persphone who was kept prisoner by Hades god of the underworlds. She met the comic Goddess Baubo by a well. Baubo has breasts for eyes and her genitals for a mouth. Baubo made her laugh with her lascivious sexual humor. She reminded Demeter that life not death was the issue. Baubo gave Demeter the strength to continue the search for her daughter. Like Ishtar and Inanna her descent into the underworld to rescue her daughter caused the fertility of the world to dry up only to be reinstated by her return. Call on Demeter for the determination to apply your self to learning your dance. If you feel you can't go on, renew yourself by having a bawdy laugh at Baubo. Demeter by virtue of her association with the harvest especially corn is related to the sign of Virgo.
SEKHMET
Her title is the 'Mighty One'; she was a fierce Goddess of war and bringer of destruction of the enemies of Ra. Orgiastic drinking festivals were held in her honour. She is often depicted with the head of a lioness. She is a fire Goddess whose wrath threatened the extinction of the human race. She represents the protection that comes from destroying hostile forces. She is both Queen of battle and Lady of Life. Call on Sekhmet when your dance needs to be powerful or confrontational, when you need to access the warrior dancer.
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