Great Cosmic Mother

This book lays the groundwork for the whole of modern feminism. Must read.

This work begins with the three words 'In the beginning...' (p.2) and ends with the three words '..to the beginning'. (p. 431) and it has 52 chapters (representing the number of weeks and seasons in a year) divided into four groups, namely: 1) Women's Early Culture: Beginnings, 2) Women's Early Religion, 3) Women's Culture and Religion in Neolithic Times, and 4) Patriarchal Culture and Religion. Two women were engaged in its compilation: Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor and it was originally written around a quarter of a century ago. Although there are a few occasions in this work when it might well be perceived that the authors are being somewhat unfair to men, this is hardly surprising when history teaches us that women have been grossly mistreated over the past three or four thousand years by men committed to male orientated religious beliefs. When attempting to 'set the record straight' it's often difficult to avoid 'going a little over the top' at times. Overall I found this work well balanced and a most enjoyable read. There are two matters in which the authors may have got it wrong. One is in their contention that humans are the only animals that sometimes indulge in sexual relations just for pleasure and not always for procreation and the other is their assumption that oestrous has always followed a monthly cycle in women. We now know that bonobo chimps often indulge in sexual activity just for pleasure. We also know that women in some hunter-gatherer communities experience oestrous no more than once a year. Then again, whereas common chimp groups are always led by an alpha male, bonobo chimp groups are always led by an alpha female. Linking onto these now well known facts would have greatly enhanced the case for female-centric religion as made in this great work. The monthly menstrual cycle seems to have developed after humans stopped moving around as hunter-gatherers and settled into farming communities when it became an advantage to have more children to help work the land and make important artefacts. Some great ape mothers (e.g. orang utans) retain a close relationship with a child until it is six or seven years old and will not breed again until it is fully able to take care of itself. These important facts are overlooked in this work. One of the important facts this book does bring out is that women do not need to become like men in order to be great leaders, scientists, writers, artists etc. They simply have to be themselves and do it their way. The saddest fact of all is that there are still too many men on the one hand and too much religious dogma on the other that together are holding women back from realising their full potential in the context of being their true selves. All told, I love this book, not least because it evidences the conception of the universe as a vast, self-regenerating womb- that of the Great Mother herself. This book leads us into understanding how the eternal feminine is at the heart of all that was, is and ever will be. We came from the womb of the Great Mother and, when we die, we shall return into it.

Men often say, "Women have contributed hardly anything of importance for the benefit of Humankind." These men ignore the fact that women, half of the world population have not massacred millions, if not billions of human beings they never met before, but looked/look after the maimed victims of the by patriarchs triggered massacres. The Great Cosmic Mother can show women & men that for 6000+ years of Abrahamic brutal Patriarchy/male supremacy, men have stolen from women all truly valid wisdom accrued by women throughout tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and that with women's valid spirituality, natural sciences and practical knowledge men have been unable to do anything beneficial for Humankind. This for women most important book seriously empowers women, takes women home to their intrinsic brilliance, armors women against the all pervading, never ending women denigrating attacks, guides women safely through the thick anti-women mist that the Race of Women, as well as men have been stumbling through for 6+ Abrahamic-millennia. Monica Sjoo is influenced by Darwinism. I am not. No ape has ever changed into a human being. It is crystal clear that he-god in the sky, The Man did not create first him-self, a man, and then man no.2 and from man no.2 a woman. It's an absurdity. Some people believe that human beings came from some other planet and that's why we are here, but this does not explain who created 'the aliens'. Nature is permeated with cosmic consciousness and is capable of parthenogenesis, self-creates and re-creates sentient beings. This is obvious. For me it is not important how human beings came/come into existence. We come and go, and come again and go again, again and again. I simply trust in Nature's dynamic, unlimited creative cosmic consciousness. To attribute to a he or a she in the sky the creation of literally countless galaxies and all forms of Life is to compulsively box in/make small the Great Mystery of Unlimited Creativity of Cosmic Consciousness. Let IT, let conscious/aware/awake BE-ing remain a mystery. Patriarchy has tried to box-in, to kill The Mystery Of Life, is even replacing the natural birth of babies with machine-produced babies. The patriarch's/man's baby is The Machine, they replace(d) the Mother (Nature) with the godfather, they wanted to, still want to get rid of mighty creativity of The Mother altogether. All problems that men have are "caused" by their Mother (Freud the Fraud), all women's problems are penis-envy (Freud the Fraud). Women always have been, still are the main enemy of the patriarchal box-in everything cerebral-mind. Life Giving and Life Sustaining Conscious Nature, she is being boxed-in & destroyed too, all dynamic forces of life are being straight-jacketed, captured, and as much as possible destroyed by patriarchy. Patriarchy plundered/plunders and enslaves women's brilliance, raped/rapes women by declaring women their property and therefore sex-slaves, exhausts women's essence, nature and energy, slander(ed), stone(d) to death and curse(d) women who break free from their stranglehold. The no-it-all patriarchs mistreat Nature in the very same way, nor do they stop at enslaving, torturing and massacring young & adult men by the billions, they deceive and abuse all men, glorify the bloodbaths. the deaths of the male-youths who are lured with absurd and obscene promises into dying for 'holy' wars. For me it is most important to make sure that all human beings, all living beings, including Nature are treated with great care and with great compassion, that people celebrate human life, honor human and all life, above all honor women who make it possible to experience precious human life, and give women a preeminent position in governing societies, because women only can assure that people live in peace & harmony with each other and Nature. Throughout the last six millennia men have proved that they are unable to do what women did for tens of thousands, if not millions of years, create prosperity (without slavery), valid spirituality, and a relaxed, communal and peaceful life for all.

A must read for every woman and for men who would like to know the actual history of the world, such an eye opening read

An important book. I can't recommend it highly enough. The authors do an amazing job of both presenting the fullest account of this period I've come across, and also of taking information that may not be new to the reader, and presenting it in such a way that highlights important, yet perhaps not previously obvious, connections. I spent a lot of time saying 'wow, I'd never thought of it that way'

Absolutely MUST HAVE read! It has put lot of things into right perspective in my life! Each year I pick one book what have changed my life, and this book is my 2020 transformation book.

This is an amazing life changing book and I was buying a copy for a friends birthday. BEWARE though. This seller is selling what seems like an unofficial version of the book stating it has 'A new introduction and full-color artwork' Even the front and back covers of the book I received stated there was new colour art......but there is NONE. Not one colour plate THIS IS A CON. Monica Sjoo's artwork is incredible and for those wishing to have colour plates of some of her work this is extremely disappointing.

I’m going to start this asap!

A MUST read

Testo molto interessante, un classico imperdibile per chiunque si occupi del tema riguardo al femminile.

When the book arrived, my first impression was that it was fairly thick, with a generous length of approximately 500 pages. However, once I started reading, I found it hard to put down. It is exceptionally well written, thoughtfully structured, and covers every aspect of the subject in depth. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone—it is definitely a must-read!

Good book. Arrived fast and in good condition

A really good book to be read by everyone