Saint Helena

I generally blame much of the patriarchy in today's society on Abrahamic religion. I recently started reading Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It, by Janina Ramirez, and I was struck by the fact that it was largely women who first brought Christianity to the English speaking world, and who were the early adopters.

Even before that time, it is widely believed that it was Helena, the mother of Constantine, who convinced her son, the Roman Emperor, to convert to Christianity. Why, ladies?

Today's painting shows Helena, now known as Saint Helena, following her travels to the Holy Land where she built the Church of the Nativity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Church of the Ascension. She's posing with the cross upon which Jesus was crucified, which she located and brought back with her as one of the most sacred relics of Christianity. She has the nails in her outstretched right hand.

Helena has been given a position of honor in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the center of the Roman Catholic Church. Her statue resides in the niche in one of the four piers that support the dome of the basilica. On the plinth upon which she rests is a scallop shell, historically the symbol of Venus, Aphrodite, fertility, and the womb.

Saint Helena, original painting by Echoing Multiverse, available via Saatchi Art. Prints, stickers, and other merch available through RedBubble or Fine Art America.

How did the feminine scallop shell become such a prominent Christian symbol? Was Christianity once significantly less patriarchal than the version I grew up with, that had entirely written the Mother out of the trinity, replacing her with "The Holy Ghost"?

You were such a powerful woman, Helena, why were you so into this new religion? When and why were the powerful women removed?

Comments

Nuwa

Nuwa is the great mother goddess of Chinese mythology, credited with creating humanity. She molded the first people out of clay by hand. Then she got tired, dipped a rope in the mud, and swung it around her head to make more. Thus were made the nobles and the peasantry. She has the body of a serpent. Nuwa, original painting by Echoing Multiverse. Available via Saatchi Art .

According to Wikipedia, " Demogorgon is a deity or demon associated with the underworld . Although often ascribed to Greek mythology , the name probably arises from an unknown copyist's misreading of a commentary by a fourth-century scholar, Lactantius Placidus . The concept itself can be traced back to the original misread term demiurge . An ancient Byzantine source cites the demogorgon is the antecedent of all the gods. Stranger Things stole the demogorgon from D&D, which stole it from mythology. Here, the demogorgons chill out, stop causing chaos for a moment, and dance with a polar bear while an octopus spins some sick beats. Polar Bear Dances with Demogorgons, original painting by Echoing Multiverse. Available via Saatchi Art .

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 ...

Aphrodite

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 9, 2020, I wrote: Goddess 9, Aphrodite, AKA Venus. Aprodite, original painting by Echoing Multiverse. Available via Saatchi Art . I was also learning about hashtags. Here are the ones I added: #goddess #dailypainting #trump #cheeto #melania #ireallydontcare #ifshewasntmydaughter #mace #ivanka #aoc #firstfamily #dumptrump #donthecon #birthofvenus #venus #aphrodite #acrylicpainting #parody #birthofvenusparody #romanmythology #greekmythology #eww #didhereallysaythat #powersuit #igotyou #botticelli #artchallenge #farmerstan #faketan ...

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...

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...

Echoing Multiverse

Search This Blog