Twenty-five thousand years ago, Paleolithic Wo/Man depended upon hunting to survive. Only by success in the hunt could there be food to eat, skins for warmth and shelter, bones to fashion into tools and weapons. In those days, Wo/Man believed in a multitude of gods. Nature was overwhelming. Out of awe and respect for the gusting wind, the violent lightening, the rushing stream, Wo/Man ascribed to each a spirit; made each a deity . . . a God. This is what we call Animism. A god controlled the wind. A god controlled the sky. A god controlled the waters. But most of all, a god controlled the all-important hunt . . . a God of Hunting.
Most of the animals hunted were horned so Wo/Man pictured the God of Hunting as also being horned. It was at this time that magick became mixed in with these first faltering steps of religion. The earliest form of magick was probably of the sympathetic variety. Similar things, it was thought, have similar effects: like attracts like. If a life-size, clay model of a bison was made, then attacked and "killed" . . . then a hunt of the real bison should also end in a kill. Religio-magickal ritual was born when one of the cavemen threw on a skin and antlered mask and played the part of the Hunting God, directing the attack. There are, still in existence, cave paintings of such rituals, together with the spear-stabbed clay models of bison and bear.
It is interesting to see how this form of sympathetic magick survived right through to relatively modern times. The Penobscot Indians, for example, less than a hundred years ago, wore deer masks and horns when performing rituals for the same purpose. The Mandan Indians' Buffalo Dance is another example.
Along with this God of Hunting, there was a Goddess, though which came first (or if they evolved together) we do not know, and it is immaterial. If there were to be animals to hunt, there had to be fertility of those animals. If the tribe was to continue (and there was a high mortality rate in those days) then there had to be fertility of Wo/Man. Again sympathetic magick played a part. Clay models were made of the animals mating, and in accompanying ritual the members of the tribe would copulate.
There are many carved and modeled representations of the Fertility Goddess extant. Generally known as "Venus" figurines, the Venus of Willendorf is one of the best known. Other examples include the Venus of Laussel and the Venuses of Sireuil and of Lespigne. All are similar in that the feminine attributes of these figures are greatly overemphasized. They have heavy, pendulous breasts, large buttocks, and ofttimes swollen belly - as though pregnant - and exaggerated genitalia. There is invariable complete lack of identity with the rest of the body. The face is not defined and the arms and legs, if there at all, are barely suggested. The reason is that Wo/Man was soley concerned with the fertility aspect. Woman was the bearer and nurser of the young. The Goddess was her representative as the Great Provider and Comforter; Mother Nature or Mother Earth.
With the development of agriculture there was a further elevating of the Goddess. She now watched over the fertility of the crops as well as of tribe and animal. The year, then, naturally fell into two halves. In the summer food could be grown, and so the Goddess predominated; in the winter Wo/Man had to revert to hunting, and so the God predominated. The other deities (of wind, thunder, lightning, etc.) gradually fell into the backround, as of secondary importance.
As Wo/Man developed, so did the religion - for that is what it become, slowly and naturally. Wo/Man now spread across Europe, taking the gods along. As different countries developed, so the God and Goddess acquired different names (though not always totally different; sometimes simple variations on the same name), yet they were essentially the same deities. This is well illustrated in Britain where, in the south of England, is found Cernunnos (literally "The Horned One"). To the north the same god is known as Cerne; a shortened form. And in still another area the name has become Herne.(to be continued)
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