Tomb of Eve?

An interesting money-making scam for the local community... (Image: Eve, the Serpent, and Death, by Hans Baldung Grien c. 1520-25 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa). From The New York Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 10, 2008 Filed at 10:09 a.m. ET JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- On a sweltering August morning, a small group of Iranians crowded outside the green metal door of a cemetery. They wanted to go in to look at the remains of one particular tomb: the tomb of biblical Eve. Like hundreds of Muslims who visit Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage in nearby Mecca, the Iranians had heard the legend that Eve was buried in that spot. The two blue signs inscribed with ''The Graveyard of our mother Eve'' flanking the cemetery entrance appeared to add credibility to a story passed on by generations of Saudis but never scientifically proven. ''We hear this is the tomb of Eve,'' said Minoo Ghadimkhani, 45. ''That is why we want to go in.'' There is no archaeological evidence old enough to authenticate the story of Eve's burial in Jiddah, according to many Bible experts. But that hasn't kept the legend from persisting. Some say that the city's name, when pronounced as ''Jaddah'' -- an Arabic word that means grandmother -- is a reference to Eve. No one really knows how the story originated, and many in this Red Sea port city dismiss it as a myth. ''It's a legend, but it is one mentioned by many scholars,'' said Sami Nawar, general director for culture and tourism. Nawar, an expert on the history of old Jiddah, likes to lace a bit of the legend into his presentations on the city to visiting foreign dignitaries and journalists. ''Jiddah is the most feminine city in the whole world because it has Eve,'' Nawar says. The Quran, Islam's holy book, talks about Adam and Eve's expulsion from paradise after eating from the fruit of the forbidden tree. It does not say where they appeared on earth. But Arab tradition puts Adam in the holy city of Mecca, which is 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of Jiddah, where God ordered him to build the Kaaba, the sacred stone structure that Muslims face during their five daily prayers, according to Nawar. God then told Adam to go to a hill in Mecca to repent for his sins, said Nawar. After he repented, God sent him Eve, and the hill became known as Mount Arafat, from the Arabic word that means to know, he added. That story places Eve, Hawwa in Arabic, in the vicinity of Jiddah, which is the entry point for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca. It could explain how the legend of her burial began. Arab and Western historians and travelers have described a tomb outside the walls of old Jiddah that they referred to as Eve's Graveyard. Historian Hatoon al-Fassi said 9th century Mecca historian al-Fakihi reported that two of Prophet Muhammad's companions, Ibn Abbas and Ibn Massoud, mentioned Eve's tomb. The prophet died in 623. Writing about Jiddah in his ''Travels,'' Ibn Jubayr, a 12th century geographer, traveler and poet, born in Valencia, then the seat of an Arab emirate, says that ''in it is a place having an ancient and lofty dome, which is said to have been the lodging place of Eve, the mother of mankind, God's blessing upon her when on her way to (Mecca).'' The passage was quoted by the Arab News, a Saudi paper. The tomb no longer exists. And it's not clear how it was destroyed. Those who have been inside the cemetery say that in its place is a row of unmarked tombs, and there's nothing to indicate the tomb had been there. (The Wahhabi strain of Islam bans the marking of tombs, and women in the Saudi kingdom are barred from entering cemeteries.) William Dever, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern studies at the University of Arizona and a prominent U.S. archaeologist, said there just isn't any archaeological evidence going back far enough to back up the claims. ''The problem is that these are all legends, these are all myths and we can't date them,'' said Dever, who specializes in the history of Israel and Near East in biblical times. ''My guess is the story could go back two or three thousand years, but we don't have any archaeological proof.'' ''There are lots of traditional tombs of saints of various kinds in the Middle East,'' he added. ''But they are never excavated or investigated scientifically.'' Asked if he had heard of any other final resting place for Eve, Dever said, ''No. There are tombs of Abraham all over the place, but I don't honestly know in Israel or the West Bank or Jordan of any Eve tomb in these places.'' On the quiet street of the cemetery, which faces low-rise, rundown buildings, the Eve legend remains alive even though those who grew up with the story don't really believe it. Ahmed Bakoudij, a 32-year-old mechanic, said he called his garage ''Hawwa's Garage'' despite his skepticism. ''I've been hearing about Hawwa's grave since I was a kid,'' said Bakoudij. ''But no one believes it. I have to see it with my own eyes to believe it.'' ''But,'' he added, ''if I ever have kids, I'll pass on the legend to them.'' Grocer Saleh Ba-Aqeel said hundreds of Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Indonesia and other countries visit the cemetery, especially before and after the annual hajj pilgrimage. ''When they come and ask me if Eve is really buried here, I tell them, 'God only knows,''' said Ba-Aqeel.

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"Jaddah" is grandmother in Arabic - interesting. The connection of Adam/Eve to the kaaba is also interesting, since Mecca (Makkah) is an ancient center of goddess worship (the Triple Goddess) prior to the advent of Islam. It goes without saying that the black granite square built on the site of the original goddesses' temple (now inside a giant courtyard enclosed by a mosque) incorporates a sacred meterorite (like the meteorite that was worshipped as the Goddess Diana in ancient Ephesus) was NOT built by Adam who, if he existed, lived hundreds of thousands of years before its construction! Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" contains a lengthy entry on Eve, which I won't post in full here, just some interesting pieces from which I've omitted footnoted references: The biblical title of Eve, "Mother of All Living," was a translation of Kali Ma's title Jaganmata. She was also known in India as Jiva or Ieva, the Creatress of all manifested forms. ... The original Eve had no spouse except the serpent, a living phallus she created for her own sexual pleasure. Some ancient peoples regarded the Goddess and her serpent as their first parents. [for instance, the most ancient myths of China point to a half-human/half-serpent Empress and Emperor who created all living things and all useful arts and crafts for mankind]. Sacred icons showed the Goddess giving life to a man, while her serpent coiled around the apple tree behind her. Deliberate misinterpretation of such icons produced ideas for revised creation myths like the one in Genesis. ... [Eve was sometimes named] Nahemah, Naama, or Namrael, who gave birth to the original man and woman. One of Eve's Tantric names was Adita Eva: "the Very Beginning." In northern Babylonia, Eve was known as "the divine Lady of Eden," or "Goddess of the Tree of Life." Assyrians called her Nin-Eveh, "Holy Lady Eve," after whom their capital was named. ... The secret of God's "Name of power," the Tetragrammaton, was that three-quarters of it invoked not God, but Eve. YHWH, yod-he-vau-he, came from the Hebrew root HWH, meaning both "life" and "woman" - in Latin letters, E-V-E. [Compare to Arabic "Hawwa" mentioned in the article above]. With the addition of an I (yod), it amounted to the Goddess' invocation of her own name as the Word of creation, a common idea in Egypt and other ancient lands. ... Gnostic scriptures ... said Eve not only created Adam and obtained his admission to heaven; she was the very soul within him, as Shakti was the soul of every Hindu god and yogi. Adam couldn't live without "power from the Mother," so she descended to earth as "the Good Spirit, the Thought of Light called by him 'Life' (Hawwa)."

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Where did the horrid fear of women (and their subsequent subjugation and persecution that such fear engenders) that permeates so much religion today come from? Why, for instance, would the particular brand of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia ban women from cemeteries (see article above)!?! Perhaps it is because, like all mother goddesses, Eve not only had the power to create and give life, she had the power to destroy and take life away. In other words, the Mother reflected the natural cycle of all living things: creation/birth, coming to fruition/reproduction, old age/decay, death, reincorporation into the earth/resurrection (reincarnation) into new life. Walker puts it this way: "This was the real origin of the church fathers' fear and hatred of women, which expanded into a sexist attitude that permeated all of western society: Woman was identified with Death. Her countervailing responsibility for birth was taken away, and the creation of life was lad to the credit of the Father-god, whose priests claimed he could remove the curse of death. ... Medieval theologians said Adam was forgiven (for his original sin). ... but for Eve there was no forgiveness. No peace was offered to her or her daughters. Presumably, they were left behind in hell. Christian theologians espoused the same theory as Persian patriarchs, that heaven was closed to all women except those who were submissive and worshipped their husbands as gods." Personally, I'd rather go to hell. Learn more about Eve from Christopher Witcombe.

Goddess: Tamar, Georgian Goddess of the Sky

In Georgian mythology, Tamar was a Georgian sky goddess who controlled the weather patterns. Tamar enslaved Dilis Varskvlavi, the Morning Star, who was master of winter; whenever he escaped, snow began to fall, but annually she captured him and brought summer back to the land. She was an eternal virgin who rode through the air on a serpent saddled and bridled with gold. This serpent-riding sky goddess is also identified with the Georgian goddess Lamara - "eye of the Earth." Lamara is probably a cognate of Lamia. According to Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets": Lamia Greek name for the Libyan serpent-goddess -- Medusa, Neith, Athene, Anatha, or Buto.(1) Lamia was probably a variant of Babylonian Lamashtu, "Mother of Gods" worshipped at Der as a serpent with a woman's head. Though Lamashtu was feared as a Kali-like Destroyer, yet she was also revered as a supreme goddess, called Daughter of Heaven and Great Lady.(2) Greek myth made her another rival of Hera. The Latin Vulgate Bible gave "Lamia" as a translation of Hebrew Lilith, Adam's recalcitrant first wife. The Authorized Version rendered lamia as a screech owl [the owl was Greek goddess Athena's totem animal and is a carry-over from the archaic eye-goddess tradition of paleothic times, where the bird represented a shaman's ability to fly through the three realms of reality: the Earth, the Underworld, and the Heavens]. The Revised Version translated the same word as "night monster." During the Middle Ages, lamia became a general term for a witch. A 15th-century German professor of theology stated authoritatively that lamiae were "demons in the shape of old women."(3) See Vagina Dentata. Notes: (1) Graves, G.M., 1, 205. (2) Budge, A.T., 117. (3) Robbins, 295-96. Medusa - archaic Greek goddess of life and death; Neith - archaic goddess of Upper Egypt who, despite her warrior aspects and control over life and death, introduced weaving and other domestic arts to the proto-Egyptians; Athene - archaic Athene was a fierce killing goddess who sent people deemed worthy to death to be born again, in later Greece she was "domesticated" to a thematic warrior goddess but primarily identified with Wisdom, who in totemic form rode on her shoulder in the shape of an owl; Anatha - archaic mother goddess of the greater Middle East controlling life and death through fertility (cognates: Inanna, Anath); Buto - archaic serpent goddess of the delta region of pre-dynastic Egypt, a goddess of fertility and resurrection and an icon of protection for the pharaohs. You can probably figure out what Vagina Dentata signifies! Hint: Think about the chewing gum "Dentine" and the word "dentist." Both words spring from the proto-Indo-European root word -'den.' Oh, what the heck - here's Barbara's Walker entry on the chomping vagina. Think about the imagery of a backgammon board with all of those "pointy monster teeth"... Vagina Dentata "Toothed vagina," the classic symbol of men's fear of sex, expressing the unconscious belief that a woman may eat or castrate her partner during intercourse. Freud said "Probably no male human being is spared the terrifying shock of threatened castration at the sight of the female genitals."(1) But he had the reason wrong. The real reason for this "terrifying shock" is mouth-symbolism, now recognized universally in myth and fantasy: "It is well known in psychiatry that both males and females fantasize as a mouth the female's entranceway to the vagina."(2) The more patriarchal the society [right now I'm hearing the Village People's "Macho Man" playing through the strains of my mind...] the more fear seems to be aroused by the fantasy. I'm not going to copy the entire entry, which is lengthy but filled with fascinating information: Stories of the devouring Mother are ubiquitous in myths, representing the death-fear which the male psyche often transformed into a sex-fear. Ancient writings describe the male sexual function not as "taking" or "possessing" the female, but rather "being taken," or "putting forth."(7) Ejaculation was viewed s a loss of a man's vital force, which was "eaten" by a woman. The Greek sema or "semen" meant both "seed" and "food." Sexual "consummation" was the same as consuming (the male). [We now see the deep psychological roots for rape, which is not a crime of passion but a crime of fear, a desprate attempt to overcome fear by "domination." And who has not heard the old "wisdom" that a male athlete is not to have sex with a female before a major event, because it will "sap" his energy?"] Distinction between mouths and female genitals was blurred by the Greek idea of the lamiae - lustful she-demons, born of the Libyan snake-goddess Lamia. Their name meant either "lecherous vaginas" or "gluttonous gullets."(9) Lamia was a Greek name for the divine female serpent called Kundalini in India, Uraeus or Per-Uatchet [Buto] in Egypt, and Lamashtu in Babylon. Her Babylonian consort was Pazuzu [Damuzi, Tammuz], he of the serpent penis. Lamia's legend, with its notion that males are born to be eaten, led to Pliny's report on the sexual life of snakes that was widely believe dthorughout Europe even iup to the 20th century: a male snake fertizlizes the female snake by putting his head into her mouth and allowing himself to be eaten.(10) [Too bad so much of western culture is based upon "Greek" ideas - they've really screwed things up, haven't they.] Sioux Indians told a tale similar to that of the Lamia. A beautiful seductive woman accepted the love of a young warrior and united with him inside a cloud. When the cloud lifted, the woman stood alone. The man was a heap of bones being gnawed by snakes at her feet.(11) Mouth and vulva were equated in many Egyptian myths. Ma-Nu, the western gate whereby the sun god daily re-entered his Mother, was sometimes a "cleft" (yoni) and sometimes a "mouth."(12) According to Philostratus, magical women "by arousing sexual desire seek to devour whom they wish."(15) To the patriarchal Persians and Moslems this seemed a distinct possibility. Viewing women's mouths as either obscene, dangerous, or overly seductive, they insisted on veiling them. Yet men's mouths, which look no different, were not viewed as threatening. [I make exception here - as far as I can tell from their art, pre-Islamic Persian women did not wear veils; in fact, they dressed much as Persian men did, in loose-fitting trousers and tight sleeved blouses with over-vests resting at the waist.] "Mouth" comes from the same root as "mother" - Anglo-Saxon muth, also related to the Egyptian Goddess Mut. Vulvas have labiae, "lips," and many men have believed that behind the lips lie teeth. [Gee, how did we ever manage to survive as a race if men were/are so afraid of having sex? Is that why alcohol, in its earliest forms of beer and wine, was invented???] Well, you get the picture :) I'll leave you with this thought: Moslems attributed all kinds of dread powers to a vulva. It could "bite off" a man's eye-beam, resulting in blindness for any man who looked into its cavity. A sultan of Damascus was said to have lost his sight in this manner. Christian legend claimed he went to Sardinia to be cured of his blindness by a maraculous idol of the virgin Mary - wh0, being eternally virgin, had her door-mouth permanently closed by a veil-hymen.(20) Okay, so just why is it that male pilgrims in Mecca kiss a yoni-shaped silver-lipped idol which is part of a meteorite built into Islam's holiest site but was worshipped as a symbol of the Mother Goddess before the advent of Mohammed?

Temple of Cybele at Balchik

More Unique Findings Unearthed in Cybele Temple in Bulgaria's Balchik 23 April 2008, Wednesday A total of four antique statues were unearthed in the temple of the Phrygian Goddess Cybele in Bulgaria's coastal town of Balchik on Wednesday. The team of the archaeologists Igor Lazarenko, Elina Mircheva and Radostina Encheva discovered two Cybele's statues and two other, believed to be statues of Aphrodite and Dionysus. During the excavation works, there have been found also two relieves and a limestone slab with a lion embossment. The first finding in the temple, believed to be the biggest one in Bulgaria, was discovered at the end of April last year, when archaeologists found a 30-centimeter-long marble statue of Cybele. "The statue has no head and part of the goddess' palm is also missing," the curator of the local museum Radostina Encheva said. It emerged that a column with a Latin inscription and an architectural element with bulls' heads were discovered on the same spot. Among the other precious findings, discovered on the spot is a 50-centimeter-high Doric column with a well-preserved inscription addressed to the Roman emperor Valerius Licinianus Licinius. The temple's walls were at least 2.5 meters high, and the base of the building is huge, compared to other important buildings of the same age. A huge fire or a disastrous earthquake destroyed the temple, the archaeologists believe. Originally a Phrygian goddess, Cybele was a deification of the Earth Mother who was worshiped in Anatolia from Neolithic times. Like Gaia (the "Earth") or her Minoan equivalent Rhea, Cybele embodies the fertile earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals. Her title "potnia theron", which is also associated with the Minoan Great Mother, alludes to her ancient Neolithic roots as "Mistress of the Animals". She becomes a life-death-rebirth deity in connection with her consort, her son Attis. *********************************************************************************** From Barbara Walker's "A Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets." Cybele Great Mother of the Gods from Ida - Magna Mater Deum Idea - brought to Rome from Phrygia in 204 B.C. Her triumphal procession was "later glorified by marvelous legends, and the poets told of edifying miracles that had occurred during Cybele's voyage."(1) Her holy aniconic image was carried to Rome by order of the Cumaean Sybil, a personification of the same cave-dwelling Goddess herself. As the Great Mother of all Asia Minor, she was worshipped especially on Mt. Ida, Mt. Sipylus, Cyzicus, Sardis, and Pessinus in Galatia.(2) Her festivals were called ludi, "games."(3) A highlight of her worship was the Taurobolium, baptism in the blood of a sacred bull, who represented her dying-god consort, Attis. Her temle stood on the Vatican, where St. Peter's basilica stands today, up to the 4th century A.D. when Christians took it over.(4) She was one of the leading deities of Rome in the heyday of the mystery cults, along with Hecate and Demeter of Eleusis.(5) Variations of Cybele's name - Kubaba, Kuba, Kube - have been linked with the Ka'aba stone at Mecca, a meteoric "cube" that bore the Goddess's symbol and was once known as the Old Woman.(6) Other names for Cybele assimilated her to every significant form of the Great Goddess. She was the Berecynthian Mother (genetrix Berecynthia). She was Rhea Lobrine, Goddess of sacred caves, known as her "marriage bowers."(7) She was called Augusta, the Great One; Alma, the Nourishing One; Sanctissima, the Most Holy One. Roman emperors like Augustus, Claudius, and Antoninus Pius regarded her as the supreme deity of the empire. Augustus established his home facing her temple, and looked upon his wife, the empress Livia Augusta, as an earthly incarnation of her.(8) The emperor Julian wrote an impassioned address to her: Who is then the Mother of the gods? She is the source of the intellectual and creative gods, who in their turn guide the visible gods; she is both the mother and the spouse of the mighty Zeus; she came into being next to and together with the great crator; she is in control of every form of life, and the cause of all generation; she easily brings to perfection all things that are; she is the motherless maiden, enthroned at the side of Zeus, and in very truth is the Mother of all the Gods.(9) Fathers of the Christian church vehemently disagreed. St. Augustine called Cybele a harlot mother, "the mother, not of the gods, but of the demons."(10) One of her names, Antaea, made her the mythical mother of the earth-giant Antaeus, who was invincible as long as his feet remained in contact with his Mother's body, the earth. Heracles conquered him by holding him up in the air. Churchmen believed the powers of witches came from the same sort of contact with Mother Earth. Arresting officers often carried witches to prison in a large basket, so their feet would not touch the ground.(11) There was a Christian sect founded in the 2nd century A.D. by Montanus (Mountain man), a priest of Cybele, who identified Attis with Christ. [Indeed, the similarities in the myths of both gods are compelling]. Montanus maintained that women were agents of the Goddess, and could preach and prophesy as well as men. This contradicted the orthodox Pauline sect, which followed St. Paul's rule that women must never speak publicly on holy subjects.(12) During the 4th century, Montanist Christianity was declared a heresy, and many of its adherents were slain. Some Montanists in Asia Minor were locked in their churches and burned alive.(13) Notes: (1) Cumont, O.R.R.P., 47. (2) Encyc. Brit., "Great Mother of the Gods." (3) James, 246. (4) Clodd, 79; Frazer, G.B., 408. (5) Angus, 143. (6) Vermaseren, 22; Harding, 41. (7) Gaster, 609. (8) Vermaseren, 27, 53, 83, 85, 177-78. (9) Vermaseren, 86-87. (10) Vermaseren, 181. (11) Robbins, 334; Lea unabridged, 814. (12) Reinach, 278. (13) Chamberlin, A.M., ch. 1. Related: Bibi Nani (Cult of Nania). Compare: Kubaba.

The Black Stone at Mecca

(Photo: the Sacred Yoni, one corner of the Ka'bah at Mecca - the part of the sacred black stone pilgrims kiss).

From prior post about "The Hind of Hinds - Continued:"

From Barbara Walker’s "The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets:"

At Mecca the Goddess was Shaybah or Sheba, the Old Woman, worshipped as a black aniconic stone like the Godess of the Scythian Amazons. The sacred Black Stone now enshrined in the Kaaba at Mecca was her feminine symbol, marked by the sign of the yoni, and covered like the ancient Mother by a veil. No one seems to know exactly what it is supposed to represent today.

The Black Stone rests in the Haram, "Sanctuary", cognate of "harem," which used to mean a Temple of Women: in Babylon, a shrine of the Goddess Har, mother of harlots. Hereditary guardians of the Haram were the Koreshites, "children of Kore," Mohammed’s own tribe. The holy office was originally held by women, before it was taken over by male priests calling themselves Beni Shayban, "Sons of the Old Woman."

What is the black stone of Mecca? Here's the answer from The Edge:
The Black Stone - the Omphalos of the Goddess
Bob Trubshaw

Long-suffering readers of Mercian Mysteries will know of my obsession with 'omphali' - the sacred centres which each civilisation seems to create or adopt. Many of these involve stones - the Lia F il (Stone of Destiny) at Tara or the various 'king stones' (such as Kingston upon Thames) where medieval English kings were crowned. Our monarchs still sit on, or at least above, the Stone of Scone for their coronation. But some of these sacred stones have special interest - they are (or are said to be) black. Such Black Stones also tend to have the legend that they have fallen from the stars. Clearly, meteorites the size of these large boulders would explode into tiny fragments on impact, and also leave a substantial crater. The literal truth is not important; rather the symbolism of such stones being a link between this world and the heavens is an integral aspect of the Cosmic Axis which is invoked by all sacred centres.

Perhaps the best-known Black Stone, and now by far the most revered, is the Ka'bah at Mecca. Ka'bah means 'cube' and this describes the shape of the black stone structure on a marble base which stands in the centre court of the Great Mosque, Masjidul Haram, at the centre of Mecca. It stands about 50 feet high by about 35 feet wide. Set into the eastern corner is the sacred stone, covered by an elaborately embroidered black drape. As any non-moslem in the temple would be slain on sight, and photography is generally prohibited, this stone is shrouded is mystery. However, Rufus Camphausen has succeeded in tracking down three accounts of the pilgrimage to Mecca, two of which do contain photographs [1-3]. What these reveal is a polished black stone of which less than two feet is visible, set in a large, solid silver mount. The whole resembles - quite deliberately, for reasons which will emerge - the vulva of the goddess. That moslems now refer to it as the Hand of Allah does not diminish the urge for all those who complete the pilgrimage to Mecca to touch or kiss this sacred object. [Smile...]

The Black Stone has long since been broken and the silver band holds together the fragments. Tradition holds that it was a meteorite and the stone was white in colour when it first landed and then blackened. The faithful attribute this change in colour to the belief that the stone absorbs the sins of the pilgrims, but it is consistent with known meteorites which are white at first but oxidise over a period of time.

'A principal sacred object in Arabian religion was the stone. . . . Such stones were thought to be the residence of a god hence the term applied to them by Byzantine Christian writers of the fifth and sixth centuries: 'baetyl', from bet'el, 'the house of god'.' [4]

'In north Arabian temples the image of the deity sometimes stood in the open air or could be sheltered in a qubbah, a vaulted niche. . . . Not to be confused with the qubbah is the word ka'bah, for a cube-shaped walled structure which . . . served as a shelter for the sacred stones.' [5]

Camphausen, in his article [6], reveals that the misogynic moslem religion has its origins in goddess worship. Allah is a revamped version of the ancient goddess Al'Lat, and it was her shrine which has continued - little changed - as the Ka'bah. The known history of Mohammed reveals that he was born around 570 CE into a tribe of the Quraysh, who not only worshipped the goddess Q're but were the sworn guardians of her shrine. By 622 Mohammed was preaching the ways of his god, Allah, and was driven out by his own tribe as a result.

The triple goddess
Pre-islamic worship of the goddess seems to be primarily associated with Al'Lat, which simply means 'goddess'. She is a triple goddess, similar to the Greek lunar deity Kore/Demeter/Hecate. Each aspect of this trinity corresponds to a phase of the moon. In the same way Al'Lat has three names known to the initiate: Q're, the crescent moon or the maiden; Al'Uzza, literally 'the strong one' who is the full moon and the mother aspect; then Al'Menat, the waning but wise goddess of fate, prophecy and divination. Islamic tradition continue to recognise these three but labels them 'daughters of Allah'.

According to Edward Rice [7] Al'Uzza was especially worshipped at the Ka'bah where she was served by seven priestesses. Her worshippers circled the holy stone seven times - once for each of the ancient seven planets - and did so in total nudity. Near the Ka'bah is the ever-flowing well, Zamzam, which cools the throats of the countless millions of pilgrims.

In an oasis of always-flowing water, the Black Stone in its mount became an unmatched image of the goddess as giver of life. Only in the Indian continent do such physical symbols for the male and female generative powers - the lingam and yoni - continue to be worshipped with their original fervour.

It is easy to imagine that in pre-moslem times the goddess's temple at Mecca was pre-eminent - whether to celebrate life, ask protection, pray for offspring. Legend tells how Abraham, unable to produce children by his wife Sarah, came here to make love to his slave Hagar. Later, when Hagar came back to give birth, she could find no water and Abraham created the holy well of Zamzam to save the life of his first son.

When Mohammed wanted to surplant Al'Lut with Allah, this was the one Temple he must conquer. Although Mohammed did conquer the Ka'bah, little else changed. The faithful still circle the Holy of Holies seven times (although, I hasten to add, now fully clothed). The priests of the sacred shrine are still known as Beni Shaybah or 'Sons of the Old Woman' - Shaybah being, of course, the famous Queen Sheeba of Solomon's times.

Sheeba appears under the guise of Lilith in the Near East and as Hagar ('the Egyptian') in the Hebrew mythology of the Old Testament. So, rewriting the legend given above, Abraham begot his son, Ishmael - the ancestor of all Arab peoples - by the goddess on the Black Stone of the Ka'bah.

While we are tracing names, Q're (or Qure), the maiden aspect of Al'Lut, seems certain to be the origin of the Greek Kore. Camphausen suggests that the holy Koran (qur'an in Arabic) is the 'Word of Qure'. Even moslems admit that the work existed before the time of Mohammed. Legend said it was copied from a divine prototype that appeared in heaven at the beginning of time, or the Mother of the Book [8]. Al'Uzza, the mother aspect of Al'Lut, may give us the pre-dynastic Egyptian snake goddess Ua Zit [Uadjet] who develops into Isis.

Archaeo-astronomy
Returning to the geomantic significance of the Ka'bah, Professor Hawkins has argued that it is exceedingly accurately aligned on two heavenly phenomena. These are the cycles of the moon and the rising of Canopus, the brightest star after Sirius. In a thirteenth-century Arabic manuscript by Mohammed ibn Abi Bakr Al Farisi it is stated that the alignment is set up for the setting crescent moon - an ancient symbol of the virgin-goddess which still appears in the national flags of many islamic nations. In some flags - Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia and Turkey - the crescent is accompanied by a star, perhaps representing Canopus.

The Egyptian city known as Canopus seems also have been a goddess temple, as the Greek historian Strabo (63BCE-21CE) considered the place to be notorious for wild sexual activities. Such references typically refer to temples where sacred 'prostitution' or ritual promiscuity were part of the worship; invariably sacred objects depicting the genitals of either god and/or goddess were venerated. Such sacred promiscuity continued to be part of the Pilgrimage to Mecca, at least for some moslems. The Shi'ites from Persia were allowed to form temporary 'marriages' for the period of the pilgrimage. Any children born as a result were regarded as divine or as saints - a custom with worldwide parallels (English surnames such as Goodman, Jackson or Robinson perhaps derive from similar sacred unions with god in the form of Green Men characters such as Jack o'the Green or Robin Greenwood; I would also suggest that the original sense of 'godparent' and 'godchild' has similar origins.)

Aniconic black stone once venerated at the Temple of Aphrodite, near
Paphos, Cyprus. From photograph by Bob Trubshaw. [photo not included in this post]

More Black Stones
Deities of other cultures known to have been associated with stones include Aphrodite at Paphos, Cybele at Pessinus and later Rome, Astarte at Byblos and the famous Artemis/Diana of Ephesus. The latter's most ancient sculpture was, it is said, carved from a black meteorite.

The earliest form of Cybele's name may have been Kubaba or Kumbaba which suggests Humbaba, who was the guardian of the forest in the Epic of Gilgamesh (the world's oldest recorded myth from Assyria of c.2500BCE and, as scholars reveal more of the text, increasingly the source of most of the major mythological themes of later civilisations [9]) [10]. The origin of Kubaba may have been kube or kuba meaning (guess what) - 'cube'. The earliest reference we have to a goddess worshipped as a cube-shaped stone is from neolithic Anatolia [11]. Alternatively, 'Kubaba' may mean a hollow vessel or cave - which would still be a supreme image of the goddess. The ideograms for Kubaba in the Hittite alphabet are a lozenge or cube, a double-headed axe, a dove, a vase and a door or gate - all images of the goddess in neolithic Europe.

The stone associated with Cybele's worship was, originally, probably at Pessinus but perhaps at Pergamum or on Mount Ida. What is certain is that in 204 BCE it was taken to Rome, where Cybele became 'Mother' to the Romans. The ecstatic rites of her worship were alien to the Roman temperament, but nevertheless animated the streets of their city during the annual procession of the goddess's statue. Alongside Isis, Cybele retained prominence in the heart of the Empire until the fifth century CE; the stone was then lost. Her cult prospered throughout the Empire and it is said that every town or village remained true to the worship of Cybele [12].

The home of Aphrodite was at Paphos on Cyprus. Various Classical writers describe the rituals which went on her in her honour - these seem to include the practice which is now known by the disdainful term of 'sacred prostitution'. In any event, the tapering black stone which was the object of verneration at this Temple still survives, even if it now placed inside the site musuem [13].

Also on Cyprus is another highly venerated islamic site - the third most important after Mecca and Medina - the Hala Sultan Tekke. This, too, has a black rock, said to have fallen as a meteorite as part of the tritholon over the shrine. The shrine is to a woman - the aunt and foster mother of Prophet Mohammed [14]. Could this, like Mecca, have been originally a goddess shrine? Unfortunately no other clues are forthcoming.

Another site stated to have a Black Stone was at Petra, but I have been unable to discover where this was or who was worshipped there - could any readers who know please write in!

To add a little local flavour, numerous standing stones in the British Isles are reputed to have fallen from the stars. The now-lost Star Stone marked the meeting of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire; an also-vanished stone at Grimston, Leicestershire, was also said to have such an origin. However, whether or not such stones were ever associated with goddess worship we will never know.

It would take far too long to discuss to what extent the cult of the goddess's Black Stone may have been perpetrated as Solomon's bride in the Song of Songs, who is 'black but beautiful' or to come to terms with the black images of Demeter, Artemis and Isis who have their direct continuation in the Black Virgins of Europe - patrons of the troubadours, the gnostics and the alchemists, as well as the present Pope. Those who wish to follow such ideas would do well to read The myth of the goddess [15] which, in a sober but inspirational manner, re-evaluates how the feminine deity has remained with us throughout history.

Further information on these topics appears in a follow-up article by Alby Stone Goddess of the Black Stone.

References
[1] Richard Burton, A personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and Meccah, London 1856.
[2] Hussein Yoshio Hirashima, The road to holy Mecca, Kodansha (Japan), 1972.
[3] Anon., Pilgrimage to Mecca, Sud-Editions (Tunis) 1978 and East-West Publications (London) 1980.
[4] Encyclopedia Brittanica.
[5] ibid.
[6] Rufus C. Camphausen, 'The Ka'bah at Mecca', Bres (Holland) No.139, 1989. My thanks to Rufus for bringing this article to my attention; this article of mine is in large part a synopsis of his longer work. See also 'From behind a veil', Flora Green, in The cauldron No.61 (reprinted from The Merrymount messenger Winter 1991).
[7] E. Rice, Easter definitions, Doubleday, 1978 (cited in Camphausen).
[8] Barbara G. Walker, The crone, Harper & Row, 1985 (cited in Camphausen).
[9] See Robert Temple's recent translation He who saw everything, Rider, 1991.
[10] Anne Baring and Jules Cashford, The myth of the goddess, Penguin, 1991.
[11] Maarten J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis, trans. A.M.H. Lemmers, Thames and Hudson, 1977 (cited in Baring and Cashford, op. cit.).
[12] ibid.
[13] 'Aphrodite's island', Penny Drayton, Wood & water, Vol.2, No.41, Jan 1993.
[14] ibid.
[15] Baring and Cashford, op. cit.

Originally published in Mercian Mysteries No.14 February 1993.
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Created April 1996; updated August 2001

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It's not coincidence that the form of the sacred black stone is generally described as the shape of the sacred yoni (see photo above), formed by two crescent moons crossed over each other, also the form of the fish of the Goddess, the vesica pisces - a well known architectural form incorporated into many of the great cathedrals constructed during the medieval period dedicated to the Virgin Mary - the Queen of Heaven.

For some interesting graphics, see The Goddess, her eternal symbols
Basic information on the Vesica Pisces from Wikipedia
Some more interesting graphics and information at the Library of Alexandria