What's a Great Goddess?

20th century archaeologists have developed a theory of a great goddess, an all-encompassing divinity of prehistoric people. This mythic deity may have watched over all cycles of human life, death, and rebirth in Europe and the Fertile Crescent. Prehistoric art from the early Ice Ages until about 1500 BCE contains animals and symbols associated with the Great Goddess.

About the Artist

I studied art in my mother's studio and at West Virginia University. I receiived my doctorate in adult education from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1989. Following a career in arts administration, I now live in Pennsylvania, working around the cats in my studio.

My work combines my lifelong interests in archeology and sacred art. In particular, I study the art and symbolic language of prehistoric cultures in Europe from 30,000 to 1,000 BCE. During this vast stretch of prehistory the primary image of the divine was female, and thousands of female figurines were created. This artistic record gives evidence for the existence of a powerful Great Goddess of life and death, described by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and others.

I use these native ancient forms and symbols, which I believe still speak to the human imagination, to create mandalas in drawings and relief sculptures. Found in many human cultures, mandalas are intricate geometric designs intended to reflect a meditative link between earthly and spiritual dimensions.

About Mandalas

A mandala is a form of sacred meditative art based on geometric shapes and symbols. It is usually made of concentric circles and a center point of focus for the mind, and often contains triangles and squares. Symmetry and repetition are used to create harmony and lead the viewer deep into the meaning of the mandala.

Many cultures create mandalas to reflect the spiritual principles that are most important to them. Hindus and Buddhists engage in prayerful meditations inspired by mandalas (containing words) and yantras (relying on geometric shapes). Christian architects in the Middle Ages created magnificent rose windows as focal points in the grand cathedrals. Mandalas may also be incorporated into walking meditations through the creation of labyrinths and Native American medicine wheels.

Psychologists have noticed that people with no knowledge of these traditions often draw mandala-like shapes. They speculate that the exercise represents the way in which the conscious mind incorporates information from the unconscious mind.

Whatever their origin, mandalas may be drawn anytime, by anyone seeking to quiet their minds and open their hearts to divine love.

My "Mandalas for Mother Earth" are based on images and symbols of prehistoric Europe. From the time of the Ice Age, ancient peoples created sacred art as they moved across the continent. Thousands of years before the Greeks, these cultures left us rich symbolic artifacts that celebrate cycles of life and nature. I believe these symbols and figures still speak to our human experience, helping us to reconnect with the story of our lives on this planet.

I think of my mandalas as "cosmic snapshots" of spiritual truths that correspond with lessons to be learned from seasons, lunar cycles, and human life cycles. I incorporate into each design appropriate birds, animals, and plants, each with a long symbolic history in art. I also include abstract symbols -spirals, zigzags, triangles and chevrons-which have been drawn since the beginnings of human art and which some scientists think are "hard-wired" into our brains, making them part of our common heritage. The central focus is a usually goddess figure representing some aspect of the Great Goddess of life, death, and rebirth. My simple goddess drawings are based on actual artifacts, engravings and drawings by prehistoric artists.

Each mandala is hand-drawn, not computer generated. It takes anywhere from several days to a week to complete one, in part because the process itself is meditative and intuitive. Sometimes I have a grand scheme for a mandala, which quickly gets thrown out the window as I am led in a very different direction. I often work in black and white, for two reasons. First, I am inspired by the high-contrast petroglyphs drawn by ancient Native American cultures of the Southwest. Also, black-and-white patterning is a fundamental skill of the eye and the brain, which makes it easy to access the image of the mandala.