Words of Power, Women of Power

I am fascinated by language, words, and origins.
My fascination evolved side by side with my love of books, storytelling and myth.

I grew up in a farm house, well removed from civilization, libraries or book stores. It was the age of Radio shack computers and Atari.

Email was in its infancy stages and relegated to military uses only. I was alone with my books and my thoughts, and starved for knowledge.

Since I was a third of my current height, I had my nose stuck in pages of the Brothers Grimm, Robert Graves Greek Myths, Tales of Baba Yaga and the doll Vasalissa and the tale of the red shoes. I couldn't get enough.

By about seven or so I discovered something that has become a life long obsession. I discovered the Big Stories. I noticed that of the constant diet of stories I ingested, none seemed to be original. They all seemed to fall into certain categories, such as Great Flood stories, Stories of the little people, Hero stories such as Hercules or Achilles, Stories of great wars and destruction, of plants granting imortality or wisdom. All these stories were gathered from international sources from various religious and social environments, through mists of time and between vast geographic features. The stories I read be they from legends of Navajo, Vikings, Greeks, African's, or Celts never matter they all echo'd similar events and themes. At eight I wrote an essay (for fun) On the parallels between the Adam and Eve story and that of Pandora and her box. I knew I was onto something.

As I grew, and moved closer to libraries and bookstores, I found I wasn't alone in my observations, and have slowly read my way around the world. One day, I would like to make my way around the world to visit all these ancient story sites.

This internal passion of mine was mixed with my external environment, and I became even more focused on one main theme.

Women with power, and where did they disappear too?

In ancient times I noticed that women, their roles and their qualities were revered as the bringers of life. Then somewhere along the line they became demonized as the bringers of the fall of man. I found it intolerable to be taught by current religious thought and historical books that women were weaker, inferior, incapable, impaired by emotion, more suceptible to temptation and to evil than men.

In my young life, I had witnessed much violence against women and girls if not at the actual hands of a man, then at the hands of a woman who was in the hands of a man, and began to suspect much of what was I considered to be "wrong," in the world, or inharmonious, violent, vapid, cruel and destructive were direct result of male dominated actions. This led me to wonder how could the vast majority of modern religious doctrines, the very ones embraced by our patriarcal societies include such admonistions against women, when the ones with power to create good in the world (man) were so focused on conquest, plunder, and domination of others?

This time of questioning in my young life coincided with the advance of the "Bomb", the cold war, the invasion of Grenada. We were in the grips of nuclear fear. And the hand I saw hovering over the proverbial button, belonged to a man.

I was also deeply involved with teaching women and girls self defence as both a student demonstrator, and as the daughter of the teacher. This teacher used to drag us out of bed on the weekends to participate in rally's and demonstrations against violence against women, and violence against the planet. So generally I was developing a world view dominated by gender wars, and while unwilling to completely condemn the males of the species as evil doers as many others around me at the time had, I did begin to wonder how it all started. I returned to my books.

I found the footprints of great women in the forms of Cretan Fresco's. I found images of bare breasted women, with long luxurious black curls, eyes ringed with cole and long flouncy skirts, and not one ounce of shame.

I became fascinated by these priestesses I would later learn were called Melissae. Priestesses of mighty Minoan Crete. I eagerly tore open my books on Greek Myth and found to my sadness that history was written by those who conquored this vibrant people.

I read nothing about the priestesses then, only about King Minos, the Bull, Pasiphae.
The first glimpse of the women I was looking for were hidden behind archaic symbols and a non existant King. As I grew, and the archeologists and anthropologists uncovered more and more, I was able to learn from them. They discovered that Minos was a general title given to a kind of Cretan Chief. There were no ruling kings then, only ruling priestesses. The chief recieved all powers from the Preistess, and only for a term of office.

Eventually, Crete lost its longstanding trade battle with neighbouring Athenians, and took their place in history as a footnote as a simple derogatory term Cretan: a barbaric lout.

I later picked up the thread of the ancient matriarcal powers in the carnation of the Tuatha De Dannan, and discovered what I learned many scholars believed, a link between the Celtic Tuatha De Dannan and the ancient Minoans. Here is an excerpt I found describing linguistic links between the cultures:

#3 Names cognate with "Athena" appear not only in the Greek-speaking areas, but in almost all areas of the ancient Mediterranean world. In Palestine this same Goddess appears with the names Anatha, Anat, Athanah and Dinah. From Asia Minor she enters the Roman world as Diana. And in the Greek-speaking communities She appears again as Danae, the mother of the Danaans.


Danae, Diana, Duanna.

So now, I think I've finally followed the mystery of who these mysterious women were, and from what traditions and geographical places they came from. From Ancient Mesopotamia through Minoan Crete, through Greece, the Emerald Isles, to the new World, where I stand now.

From Innana who inspired Enheduanna who put down the roles and rules of Queenship, as perhaps the author of Gilgamesh (also of her era) did for Kingship.

I still am looking for what great battle, what great event finally tilted the world in the balance of Patriarchy from that of Matriarchy.

If you are reading this and think you know, please email me!
cocobinah at gmail dot com. Thanks :)