Painting by Jassy Watson
“When I first saw the Venus of Willendorf many years ago, I was frightened by her fullness. In our society, we get the message that that kind of abundance is absolutely unacceptable. It took me awhile to embrace her. As the archetypal Great Mother, this incredibly abundant and revered woman often makes people uncomfortable. She is so large, sensual, voluptuous and ripe with the fertility of feminine energy and power. Our discomfort with her is a reflection of how we are raised as women-what size we are taught is acceptable and what is not acceptable. I love her now and see her as delicious and nurturing.”
-Linda Reuther
Replies
"It It made me think of how our concept of god would be so different if all along, from the time of the Venus von Willendorf period of prehistory,
roughly 30,000 B.C.E., to right now, we’d never swung around and done a 180 from worshipping the goddess to just worshipping a god.
Think of the sermons! The rituals! The ceremonies! Think of how much they would change if we were equally hearing from both sexes about what it’s like to find god in the body."
- Meggan Watterson, Mary Magdalene Revealed