OG in woman speak is not Original Gangster but rather Original Goddess.
We will never know who the first Goddess on the Earth was. We can infer much about behavior after humans started creating representational art, but it is still inference.
Abstract and intentional, the oldest art with a clear date is from Africa.
Australian art may date back as far as habitation of the continent around 50,000 years ago. Dating is still being done and is mixed. 20,000 years is probable and 40,000 plus years ago is possible.
Indonesian cave art may date back to almost 30,000 years ago.
Cave paintings in Europe have been known for a century and to be 30,000 to 40,000 years old.
But none of these are three dimensional.
We really cannot say for sure that these figures had any religious or symbolic meaning, but it seems likely that the lion-man depicts some sort of shamanic beliefs. And the female, well, she is very womanly. Both of these Southern German representations are pushing 40.000 years old, being between 35 and 40 thousand years old.
The female figure is human and though such figures are often referred to as Venus figurines, the attribution of Venus to them suggests associations that we just cannot infer. This particular female figure is 5,000 years older than any of the other similar carvings of women found all the way from Spain and France to the Russian Steppes.
There were certainly cultural activities akin to spiritual thought involved. The world’s oldest flutes were also found here and were made from Griffon vulture and swan bones.
The female carving is the first fully human three dimensional representation found, thus far. She could have been related to fertility or she could reference a mystical or religious awe of women. It is very unlikely that porn as such existed back then.
I personally have taken to referring to her and others similar carvings as OGs. I think the first fully human statuary deserves the status. And original she is. Perhaps not Gangster, but probably similarly powerful and respected. She is certainly an Original Girl.
Sacred Feminine
To talk about the feminine divine in today’s world, I think it is helpful to look at a basic definition of what sacred means.
sacred
adjective
1 the priest entered the sacred place: holy, hallowed, blessed, consecrated, sanctified, venerated, revered; archaic blest.
2 sacred music: religious, spiritual, devotional, church, ecclesiastical. ANTONYMS secular, profane.
3 the hill is sacred to the tribe: sacrosanct, inviolable, inviolate, invulnerable, untouchable, protected, defended, secure.
The sacred feminine is lacking in today’s world. Is there any treatment of women that shows any inviolable veneration, or reverence, of woman in the world? It is not just men who have no understanding of the sacred nature of life givers, women have lost it too, if we ever had it. Evidence from early human culture suggests that wonder and appreciation of women was present. The red ochre covering the figure when it was found points to the piece being associated with a sacred rite. The figure is feminine. There is some element of the sacred feminine that was evident to those who created it and to those people who look at it today. More than that we cannot know with certainty.
We do not advocate for one view of religion or spiritual interpretation. Women’s legacy takes in all humans and all human belief. We can say that many of the dominant religions have a decidedly patriarchal orientation. We can also say we know that this was not always the case. This does not mean that there was a matriarchal orientation in beliefs prior to that.
Either/or scenarios need not be the predominant understanding of what is correct. Perhaps there is no correct. Wonder, appreciation, respect and value rarely are found in exclusive pronouncements of right and wrong.
As we re-write our legacy to more of what we believe it should be, I personally hope we include the decentralized, communally accessible feminine sacred that resides within the bond between child and mother.
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April A to Z Blogging Challenge, The letter S, Day 19