Primitive man:

• Fertility figures: indicate a reverence for life and the life giving and nurturing capacities of women: Life is sacred, life comes out of women therefore women must be sacred

• Mother Earth: nurtures life, brings forth life in plants which sustain animals and man

Menstruation issues:

Native American: "Female Power" at menstruation: female is separated out during menstruation, kept away from sacred space, not because she is impure/dirty but because she is especially powerful and would interfere with sacred power.

Contrast with attitudes toward women during menses in the large, classical (patriarchal) religions:

• women cannot be priests during menstruation (Hindu, Orthodox Christian)

• cannot participate in group prayer in mosque or temple during menstruation (Islam, Hindu)

• must cleanse/purify oneself at end of period and after childbirth (Jewish mikvah)

Menstruation = uncleanliness. Why? Speculation:

• Blood is life-giving - why be afraid of it? Because it is lost?

• Perhaps, originally, womens’ ability to bear life (indicated by menstruation) demonstrated their superiority over men ("female power")

• Patriarchal religion is a man’s way asserting himself over a woman’s natural sacred power

Women as naturally spiritual:

Women don’t need to be intentionally religious, they are so by their inner nature. Thus patriarchal religion is developed to encourage and advance a man’s spirituality to equal woman’s natural spirituality (in Orthodox Judaism men are required to worship in synagogue, women are not so required)
Men are weak. Women are a distraction to men in worship (women sit behind or out of sight).

Women’s alternative but equally important role in religion: in home and family

• to raise the children in the faith

• to maintain the faith at home (Judaism)

Women as saints and goddesses: the female image in mythical liturature

• "Mother Earth", "Mother Mary", "Mother Kali" (Hindu), female Boddhisattvas in Buddhism (Kuan Yin), Shekhinah in Jewish mysticism

• Diva (female star of stage and screen), Devi (Hindi goddess), Deity, Deos/Theos (Greek/Latin root of "god") = "shinning ones" (stars in the sky?)

Sex and religion:

Speculate: why would sexual relations be antithetical to spiritual life?