Gynocentrism & Matriarchal Societies: Past and Present
Much of the modern world is, without a doubt, governed by men. While gender equality has improved in many parts of the world, there is still much progress to be made in this realm.
Considering that patriarchy is so normalized today, it may be a bit tough to wrap our heads around the idea that perhaps, at one point in time, women ruled the Earth. It might even seem like a far-fetched concept that’s perpetuated by feminists or idealists.
Whether or not a matriarchy (also known as “gynocentrism”, which literally translates to “female centered”) is a fantasy or reality is still up for debate. However, there is much to explore about this fascinating subject.
The Gynocratic Age
In 1972, Gloria Steinem, a popular feminist author, publicized the concept of the matriarchy, which gained notoriety in the years that followed. While the validity of this theory is still questioned today, it has sparked discussion about the possibility and viability of gynocratic societies.
During a time period known as the Gynocratic Age, women were allegedly worshipped and praised for their ability to give birth. Childbirth was a great mystery at the time, and men, not realizing that they actually played a role in it, held the belief that women “bore fruit like trees, when they were ripe.”
The Gynocratic Age allegedly lasted from around 2 million years ago to 3000 BCE. At that point, it is said that a great transformation occurred, perhaps due to a cataclysm or a groundbreaking discovery, and sparked patriarchy.
The Fall of Matriarchal Societies
As mentioned above, women were praised and worshipped for their ability to give birth. However, it is said that once men discovered their role in women’s ability to conceive children, they began to covet their power. This was the catalyst for the Gynocratic Age’s demise.
Evidence
Archaeologists and other researchers have uncovered much evidence that supports the theory that gynocratic societies once existed:
An 8,000-year-old sculpture discovered in the fall of 2016 depicts some sort of goddess. Some speculate the figurine depicts a fertility goddess, while others believe her plump figure represents a woman of social prominence. Literature such as the Bible (the Virgin Mary) and Homer’s The Odyssey highlight the importance of women in society. The Book of Enoch, a Biblical text that is omitted from the standard Christian Bible, also features more stories of women than other Biblical texts. Scholar Lotte Motz observed that women appear just as frequently as men in ancient artwork.
Skeptics point out that just because women are depicted as goddesses in artwork and literature doesn’t necessarily mean they were equal or more powerful than men. With no written historical records, we can’t be 100-percent sure as to the authenticity of a truly gynocratic society.
Other Gynocentrism Theories
Although Steinem is credited with bringing the theory of the matriarchy to prominence, she was not the first person to position such an argument.
Gynocentrism has been discussed throughout the ages. Female writers Lucrezia Marinella and Modesta Pozzo are credited with exploring gynocentric concepts in their work, namely “sexual feudalism,” which can be traced back to the Middle Ages.
Johann Jakob Bachofen, a Swiss anthropologist, also explored matriarchal societies throughout his work in the 19th century. He often cites the Greek goddesses Aphrodite and Demeter, who held significant power in ancient Greece, as evidence of women’s prominent role in that culture.
Robert Graves, an English poet and writer, was also fascinated with matriarchy in Greek culture. He attributes societal pressure to the eventual downfall of gynocentrism.
Modern Matriarchal Societies
Several matriarchal societies exist today all over the world.
- The Mosuo tribe of China is referred to as the “Kingdom of Women” throughout the country. Unlike most parts of China and the world, the Mosuo women are in charge of everything from finances to land and home ownership.
- Indonesia’s Minangkabau also places women at the forefront of society. When a man marries a woman, he is the one to move into her family’s home, and women pass inheritances such as land and homes onto their daughters like fathers do with sons in much of the world.
- Similar, the women of Costa Rica’s Bribri tribe are the ones who can inherit land. They also enjoy the right to prepare cacao, which is used in various sacred rituals.
- The United Kingdom’s monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has ruled the nation since 1952.
Are these and other modern matriarchal societies representative of a more women-centric past, or are they an indication that matriarchy is on the rise once more?
Society has experienced some pretty dramatic changes throughout history. Only time will tell if matriarchy becomes the norm once more.
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The Transformational Power of the Viking's Runes
The Birth of Runes
The Viking runes came into being when Odin brought them forth from another world. Historians from the National Museum of Denmark explain that Odin ruled over Asgard, which contains Valhalla, “the hall of the slain.” Half the warriors who died in battle were collected by his female handmaidens, the valkyries, who belonged to him. As such, Odin was the object of worship by kings, warrior chieftains, and their people.
In a mythic Viking tale, Odin wounds himself with his own spear before hanging himself from the Yggdrasil—the world tree in Norse culture—for nine nights, drawing wisdom from the Depths of Urd, just below it. From there, Odin sees the runes that existed even before his own coming into being, “a time before time.”
Just as he’s about to die, Odin gathers up the runes and shares them with all of creation and an array of supernatural entities and human beings. Eventually, the runes were given their shapes and phonetic values by subsequent tribal elders. They were carved on weapons, tools, jewelry, amulets, bones, pieces of wood, memorial stones, church walls, and other hard surfaces.
Ancient peoples of the Germanic lands knew the runes to be beyond the time and space with which most people are familiar. Some experts suggest that they were never really “invented,” but are instead eternal, pre-existent forces that Odin discovered through his aforementioned superhuman ordeal.
Historians have linked the runes to areas with a history of Germanic-speaking peoples, including from Iceland to Scandinavia, throughout England, and into Central Europe. Even Constantinople is home to the runes, showing that ancient seafaring cultures had made their way into what is now modern-day Turkey.
Reading the Runes
We may use the metaphor of a tree to assess how the runes are read. Historian Emma Groeneveld noted that “they are generally made up of vertical lines — one or more — with ‘branches’ or ‘twigs’ jutting out diagonally (and very occasionally horizontally) upwards, downwards or in a curve from them. They can be written both from left to right and from right to left, with asymmetrical characters being flipped depending on the direction of writing.
Each rune represents a phoneme (a speech sound) and had a name, made up of a noun, that started (and in one case, ended) with the sound the rune was mainly associated with. Lots of regional and temporal variation existed in the shapes of the letters.”
Experts of Norse mythology explain that, on the surface, runes seem to be letters. However, they are much more, because each one is a symbol of a cosmological principle or power. The very act of writing a rune called upon unseen spiritual forces. In every Germanic language, wrote historian Daniel McCoy, the word rune comes from the Proto-Germanic word that means both “letter” and “mystery.”
The Eternal Magic of the Runes
The runes have been used to link the natural and supernatural worlds, and this gives them the power to enact spells for protection or success. Still, said Olsen in an exclusive Gaia interview, according to archaeological and historical evidence, runes were used as magical tools for healing, transformation, building wealth, and for making the world a better place.
The power of the runes is in their sound vibrations, teaches Olsen. Each runic character represents a letter so that it can be combined with others to form words. The runes are also magical symbols, and each character has its own name and symbolic meaning.
Norwegian historian Marit Synnøve Vea explained that runes are not limited to their carved signs, but are also applied in certain songs, magical formulas, secret skills, and for secrets hidden in Skaldic (Old Norse) poetry. Vea noted that runic magic was used to foretell the future, as a form of protection, to cast spells, to cure illness, to bestow love, and much more.
But where there is power, there is a warning. In the wrong hands and minds, runes carved by unskilled persons could represent risky business. Vea cites a poem from the Old Norse Egil Saga that serves as an ancient warning for the modern generation:
Runes none should grave ever
Who knows not to read them;
Of dark spell full many
The meaning may miss.
Ten spell-words writ wrongly
On whale-bone were graven:
Whence to leek-tending maiden,
Long sorrow and pain
The history of the runes is the history of timelessness, a paradox among paradoxes. Often regarded as tools for parlor games, serious historians have found the deeper meaning in ways the runes can be read and applied for the betterment of life on this planet and the invisible worlds.
