Thunder's Little Plastic World - the priest's the teachers

Blessed Be

Laws Of The Goddess

Because our civilization has been patriarchal for millennia, it has forgotten or destroyed most of the law codes laid down by our remote ancestors in the name(s) of the Goddess. She was said to have delivered these codes on mountain tops, to some of her royal consorts, such as Minos or Kingu, thus prefiguring the Moses myth by many centuries. Certain provisions of Goddess law were later copied into patriarchal codes. Others were dropped because they did not suit the more warlike and acquisitive father-worshipers. Most of the Mother-codes were lost. Out of the few hints of pre-patriarchal law still existing today we can see that matriarchal societies long ago established some fairly sensible, humane guidelines for human behavior. Roman jurists even in the classical period described the pre-patriarchal code as the "ius naturale" the "natural law" reflecting mother-right as naturally as a mother instructs and guides her children. Legal codes of ancient Asia were based on the Karmic law embodied in Goddess figures like Kali Ma. Karmic law postulated in effect that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, because the Mother’s universe demanded balance in all things. Therefore evildoing to others would bring down evil upon one’s self. Conversely, beneficence toward others would bring good to one’s self. The principle of Karmic law passed into Buddhism with the precept, "As yea sow, so shall yea reap." Five hundred years later, it was adapted by Hillel who said " Do not unto others as you would not have others do unto you." Eventually this precept was Christianized as the Golden Rule, but it was still just another version of Kali’s law of karma. One fairly extensive version of matriarchal law remains in the form of the Negative Confession or Protestation of Innocence, required by the Egyptian Goddess Maat, whose name meant both Truth and Mother, and whose all seeing eye perceived all actions. It is clear that the biblical Ten Commandments were based on a code very like this archaic law of Maat, and quite possibly derived from Egypt, though the biblical scribes made some notable revisions. A similar Buddhist Ten Commandments also seem to have been taken from older Goddess given rules of behavior. Few modern women know about the Negative Confession. On hearing of it, however many recognize a moral code that harmonizes with the feminine spirit, Even now, after a lapse of nearly 4 thousand years, we can see in such laws the rudimentary beginning of a more just and less violent world than men have created over the centuries of their dominance.
Here is an abbreviated paraphrase of portions of the law of Maat. Like the original it is phrased not in a god’s dictatorial "Thou Shalt Not" but rather in the speaker’s own assumption of responsibility, saying "I Have Not"

I have not told lies
I have not committed fraud
I have not caused violence to anyone
I have not caused anyone to weep
I have not fouled water
I have not driven cattle from their pastures
I have not stolen the property of others
I have not cheated in weighing the grain
I have not forced anyone to do excessive daily work for me
I have not enriched myself at others’ expense
I have not taken milk from infants
I have not harmed animals
I have not robbed the dead
I have not defiled the sanctuaries
I have not caused murder to be done
I have not caused suffering
I have not offended against the holy laws of Maat.

In order to be worthy of a good afterlife, each Egyptian had to stand before the Goddess in the underworld and recite such declarations truthfully, In today’s world, we might add,
I have not polluted the environment
I have not littered the landscape
I have not helped to create weapons
I have not destroyed forests
I have not hunted wild animals for amusement
I have not corrupted children
I have not sold addictive or toxic substances to anyone
I have not been guilty of discrimination against members of any other ethnic group and so on and so on addressing some of the modern problems in detail.

On the whole though the laws of the Goddess made a good beginning. One of the long term functions of women’s spirituality might well be the establishment of just such humane laws, a new moral code for a world DESPERATELY in need of it. A world made safer for women and children everywhere which of course means safer for the human race in general. The morality of their civilization is a subject that all women need to consider carefully. It is too important to be left in the hands of men.

Where shall you Journey? What shall you discover?

Reference material:
Women's Rituals. By Barbara G. Walker.

This page was last updated 4/22/2005