The belief among many Christian sects, as well as Jews and Muslims, that pork is “unclean” has influenced to some extent the health focus of the New Age. This belief appears to have been vindicated by the discovery of Trichinella spiralis in undercooked pork, but in fact pigs are not the only vectors of this parasite, which is also found in commonly eaten wild game. The “unclean” label from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant probably did not refer to any primitive understanding of trichinosis in pork. Mesopotamian cooking instructions emphasize the importance of cooking all meat, and a favored Mediterranean way of slandering the tribes outside the city states was to accuse them (probably unjustly) of not cooking their meat. The problematic nature of the trichinosis theory notwithstanding, pork products as they are marketed in the United States often are unhealthy, filled with nitrites and other chemicals or produced in high fat forms such as fried pork rinds. Perhaps the association of pigs with poor diet contributes to the Pagan neglect of pig deities.
Will the Sow Goddess be reclaimed? Doubtless those reviving modern forms of the Eleusinian Mysteries will remember Demeter’s link with the sow, although Graves believes these mysteries originally served to suppress Demeter’s sow cult while stressing her agricultural function. Traces of the sow connection can still be seen in the story of Demeter and Persephone, for instance when the swineherd reveals where Persephone has gone, and when Demeter’s footprints are transformed by a pig following in her path.
One Sow Goddess who gets a lot of attention is the Welsh shape shifting Cerridwyn, who can be many things to many people. She is usually pictured with a cauldron, which features prominently in the one surviving legend which mentions her name. People seem to either not know about the sow connection or to be uncomfortable with it. I took a survey of internet art featuring this goddess and in one hundred pictures found 83 did not include a pig image anywhere. Of the remaining 17 none featured a large or prominent sow, and in four the pig theme was so muted it had to be searched for carefully. Judging from the creative content of these pictures I think very few, if any, left out the porcine theme due to scholarly differences with Graves.
Freya is another popular Sow Goddess, usually pictured as a young woman with her other totem, the falcon. The sow connection cannot be disputed with Freya, but it is often ignored. She is worshiped as a giver of abundance and as one who presides over the dead, two core features of the Sow Goddess. She has a twin brother Freyr, who is a boar. Pre-patriarchal goddesses, when their cults are not weakened by being “married” to a patriarchal god, are usually virgin goddesses or part of a brother-sister (as opposed to husband-wife) dyad.
The Sow Goddess is a very old deity, probably originating as a sow-boar goddess in Paleolithic times. She rose in importance in the early Neolithic period, presiding over agriculture as the now domesticated pig became dependent on the same foods as humans. Her cult was undoubtedly a woman-centered one that patriarchal forces sought to obscure long before Christianity. At this point worshiping or not worshiping the Sow Goddess is a choice, but if we are drawn to goddesses such as Demeter, Nut, or Freya and refuse to acknowledge the sow, we are losing a core understanding of their character. The sow is not just one aspect of the Goddess, but the mother of many.
Read Meet Mago Contributor Hearth Moon Rising.
Hearth Moon Rising is a Dianic Priestess living in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and the author of Invoking Animal Magic: A guide for the Pagan priestess. www.invokinganimalmagic.com. She blogs at www.hearthmoonblog.com.
Sources:
Barrett, Clive. The Egyptian Gods and Goddesses: The Mythology and Beliefs of Ancient Egypt. London: Diamond Books, 1991.
Bottero, Jean. The Oldest Cuisine in the World: Cooking in Mesopotamia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Cooper, D. Jason. Using the Runes. Wellingborough, UK: The Aquarian Press, 1986.
Germond, Phillippe. An Egyptian Bestiary: Animals in Life and Religion in the Life of the Pharoahs. London: Thames and Hudson, 2001.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Living Goddesses. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989.
Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. London: Penguin, 1960.
Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1948.
Green, Miranda. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth. London: Routledge, 1992.
Johnson, Buffie. Lady of the Beasts: The Goddess and Her Sacred Animals. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1994.
O’Sullivan, Patrick V. Irish Superstitions and Legends of Animals and Birds. Dublin: Mercier Press, 1991.
“Pigs,” Ancient Egyptian Bestiary, http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/bestiary/pig.htm
“Pigs in Egypt,” Tour Egypt, http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/pigs.htm
“Welcome to Eleusinian Mysteries,” Eleusinian Mysteries, http://eleusinianmysteries.org/SubjectIndexP_Z.html
We, the co-editors, contributors, and advisers, have started the Mago Web (Cross-cultural Goddess Web) to rekindle old Gynocentric Unity in our time. Now YOU can help us raise this torch high to the Primordial Mountain Home (Our Mother Earth Herself) wherein everyone is embraced in WE. There are many ways to support Return to Mago. You may donate to us. No amount is too small for us. For your time and skill, please email Helen Hwang (magoism@gmail.com). Please take an action today and we need that! Thank YOU in Goddesshood of all beings!
(Click Donate button below. You can donate by credit card or bank account without registering PayPal. Find “Don’t have a PayPal account?” above the credit card icons.)
I should have included this article in my bibliography: The Abominable Pig, by Marvin Harris. http://etnologija.etnoinfolab.org/dokumenti/82/2/2009/harris_1521.pdf
I believe I wrote in part 3 that raising pigs for consumption in the Levant was not a practical endeavor, because grain harvests were not as abundant as in Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Greece.
Dietary restrictions (or lack thereof) are not in themselves evidence of either respect or abhorrence for an animal. However, the prohibitions against pork in Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptures are still used to reinforce prejudices against pigs.
I attended the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and (according to my rabbi/instructor) ancient Hebrews were primarily farmers so, it was probably known that one might become ill from under cooked meat; but the dietary reason for not eating pigs was because they were domesticated family pets. I might add, there might also have been a carry over of respect of the Goddess Sow, since the Jewish religion is closely affiliated to and as a pagan “cross over” religion.