[Stones] Longman of Wilmington Abuse

[Ric]

--- Andy Norfolk <andy.norfolk at connectfree.co.uk>
wrote:

> The archaeologists used to be utterly convinced of
> the existence of a 
> "Great Goddess" worshipped in pre-history across -
> well most of Europe 
> at least. Then they woke up one morning and decided
> she had never 
> existed because there was no hard evidence to back
> up this hypothesis. 
> She used to appear in archaeological books, but now
> hardly even gets a 
> footnote as a historical curiosity of earlier
> theory. At Çatalhöyük* 
> *James Mellaart began his excavations when the Great
> Goddess theory was 
> still completely accepted in archaeological circles
> and his early 
> reports followed the accepted party-line. His were
> work takes a much 
> more cautious approach based on what they have
> actually excavated. 
> Meanwhile... Robert Graves clearly had heard of this
> theory and it is a 
> basic premise underlying his book "The White
> Goddess". Similarly 
> Margaret Murray also used this theory in some of her
> books. Later still, 
> and no less influentially in some circles, Marija
> Gimbutas wrote many 
> books based again on the premise that there was a
> Great Goddess, some of 
> which came out well after she had ceased to be part
> of the 
> archaeological consensus. There were of course many
> very important 
> goddesses in many parts of Europe in pre-history and
> things that we know 
> about them have been worked into the characteristics
> of the "Goddess". 
> So the "Goddess" in question is based at least in
> part on what 
> archaeologists told us up until the early 1970s.
> Some of her attributes 
> come to us by way of Gerald Gardner and many other
> Pagan authors.The 
> story of how the Goddess has come to be who she is
> is long and 
> complicated - and I must go and re-read Terry
> Pratchett's book "Small 
> Gods", which explains a lot about belief in
> divinities :)
> 
> For me - she's real and part of my life and beliefs.
> But that's another 
> story...
> 
> Andy N

i personally believe in a Neolithic Goddess, and i
believe that stone circles are her symbol, but that's
just my personal belief

fell under the spell of Grave's 'poetic history' a
quarter of a century ago, but steer well clear of it
now

thanks,

Ric