Akhenaten and the Divine Feminine

Akhenaten, an infamous pharaoh. He is known for being potentially the first monotheist, attempting to convert ancient Egypt from polytheism to the worship of the Aten alone. The Aten, also generally known as the "Sun God", the sun disk.

The other day, I saw a Facebook post shared by Kara Cooney - Egyptologist. An image of a carving from Amarna, the capital city constructed by Akhenaten in honor of his new religion.

Hands of the Sun, akhenaten, amarna, female

Hands of the Sun original painting and fine art prints available through Saatchi Art. Greeting cards, socks, and a wide variety of other merch available through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

Immediately, I thought, the hands of the Sun are female. I commented, and Kara Cooney agreed. She replied to my comment! Shriek! Kara Cooney talked to me! LOL. But yes, the hands of the Sun are female.

An offering to the rays of the Sun, the Aten, carving from Amarna, currently housed in Berlin.

Beyond Kara Cooney's confirmation on Facebook, research shows that humans are able to distinguish sex based on hands alone with high accuracy. "Experimental data has shown that "human hands can be used as a cue to an individual’s sex even when colour and texture cues are removed and presentations are brief. ...When hands are sexually ambiguous observers tend to classify them as male more often than female. ...“Male bias” arises not from sensitivity differences but from differences in response biases. Observers are conservative in their judgements of targets as female but liberal in their judgements of targets as male." So, if we observe that a hand is female, it is highly likely that said hand is female.

So...the "Sun God", the Aten, has the hands of a female. Was the first monotheist worshipping a Sun Goddess? At least partially, yes. Calling the Aten a "Sun God" is clearly incorrect.

Akhenaten is also known for being portrayed in artwork with exaggerated feminine features. Marija Gimbutas writes in The Living Goddesses that exaggerated body parts were meant to convey different manifestations of the divine feminine. Akhenaten clearly venerated the divine feminine.

Akhenaten with breasts, exagerated hips and belly, and a feminine looking genital area.

Comments

Asherah

An inscription from Khirbet El-Qôm (near Jerusalem) dated to the 700s BCE and translated by archaeologist Judith Hadley reads, "Uriyahu the Rich wrote it. Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh for from his enemies by his Asherah he has saved him by Oniyahu by his Asherah and by his A[she]rah.” ( Source ) Asherah was the Great Goddess of the Ancient Near East. From this inscription and other evidence, it is surmised that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, once had a wife - Asherah. Asherah was also sometimes known as Astarte and was associated with lions and the planet Venus, like her relative, Ishtar/Inanna. Asherah's symbol was the tree of life, and her worship involved sacred groves and asherah poles. Asherah original painting available through Saatchi Art . Stickers, prints, and other merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America. All of the Asherahs in my painting are based on figurines housed in the Isra...

Angrboda

In December of 2020, I took part in a Goddess painting challenge. One Goddess per day to Instagram. I am grateful to that challenge, for sending me down this rabbit hole of research into the divine feminine. On Instagram on December 8, 2020, I wrote: "Hel was today's prompt. In the Eddas , she is the daughter of Angrboda and Loki . She is alternately described as half blue, half black, or half skeletal. I went with blue. " Here, she is a baby, in a family portrait. Mother Angrboda with her darling children in the Ironwood forest of Jotunheim . Baby G oddess Hel, Jormungandr the baby serpent, and cute little Fenris wolf puppy. How would they have grown up if Odin hadn't separated them from their mother and flung them out to the farthest and most desolate corners of the nine worlds? Would they all still crave...

Ophanim

The Ophanim are listed by ancient Jewish scholar Maimonides as the highest of God's angels. In the Bible, the Ophanim are described as sets of nested wheels, covered in eyes, that move next to the Cherubim angels, beneath the throne of God. They never sleep, but along with the Seraphim and Cherubim, guard the throne. The Ophanim See All. Original painting, prints, and merch available via shop link above, or RedBubble or Fine Art America . Ezekiel, in the Bible, describes the Ophanim as sparkling like topaz, high and awesome, full of eyes all around. Sources: Wikipedia The Bible

Sophia and the Apocryphon of John

In 1945, thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by an Egyptian farmer near the town of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. These early Christian texts date from the 3rd century CE, and include writings attributed to John the Baptist. The writings of John became known as the Secret Book of John, or the Apocryphon of John. A translation by Frederik Wisse can be read online . In the Apocryphon, there is a female counterpart to the Father - the holy Mother, Barbelo. "She is the forethought of the All - her light shines like his light - the perfect power... The first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation... she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father." I became aware of the Apocryphon of John after reading a graphic novel by Marisa Acocella, The Big She-Bang, The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother (highly recommended, by ...

Sheela Na Gig and the Power of the Vagina

The Guardian published a piece on Sheela Na Gigs for International Women's Day on Monday. Here's a link. A few weeks ago, I painted two Sheelas. Found on churches throughout the British Isles and Europe, Sheela Na Gigs are "figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva." There are over 100 documented examples just in Ireland. The carvings may be remnants of a pre-Christian mother goddess. They may also have been thought to ward off evil spirits. They're often found over doors or windows, and they're generally smiling. The two I have painted are from the Church of St. Mary and St. David at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England and the Parish Church of Oaksey, Wiltshire. While I was researching the Sheelas I came across other related stories of, as the Guardian so deftly put it, "big vagina energy". The power of women (especially the nude form) to create life, protect it, or - conversely - take it away. My favorit...

Hannahanna

Hannahanna is an enigmatic goddess. She is the Great Mother Goddess worshipped by the Hittites of Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), circa 1800–1180 B.C.E. (Source: Brooklyn Museum ). The word for grandmother in Turkey derives from her name. She may be a grandmother of Artemis of Ephesus and Demeter. All three share a bee connection. Hannahanna is known for saving the world by sending one of her bees to awaken a depressed Telepino, sulky god of agriculture. Another myth tells of how Hannahanna herself disappeared in a fit of anger, causing all the crops to die and parents to abandon their children until, her anger absorbed by the dark side of the Earth (the underworld), she returned. This, combined with the myth of waking the god of agriculture, presents a close parallel to the myths of Demeter and Persephone. Additionally, the priestesses of Persephone and Demeter were known as Melissai or “bees.” Persephone’s nickname among the ancient Greeks was Melit...

Echoing Multiverse

Search This Blog