“Take the chain off your brain” – You Gotta Believe, Rose Royce.
Throw open the windows. Let the wind shred the curtains. Let the wind tear this house off her foundations and blow her into the sky so she can soar with the birds. Spoons in the kitchen drawer, rattling a rhythm, breaking free. Kettle, on the hob, screeching an invocation,
“Take me to the river in the sky
Float my mind to an alternate space
Release my words from the chains of patriarchal language
Un-house my mind”
My ongoing search for meaning within the language of cosmic and Goddess symbolism has highlighted a separation of consciousness that I think defines the “patriarchal language” we speak in today. I believe the interweaving of humanity with the divine, including the belief spirit resides in all things, was severed when organized religion built its hierarchies, creating a situation where divine connection was only for the “ones at the top,” deemed closer to god.
The language of ancient symbolism represents big ideas. Many marks and patterns on Goddess figurines are more than decorative. They describe a matrix of human consciousness merging with, and inseparable from, a cosmos in motion and the heartbeat of the Earth. Both were seen as female. As Marija Gimbutas says,
“There is no trace of a father figure in any of the Paleolithic periods.”
Can we conclude the origins of language were once shamanic and matriarchal?
Many images of the Goddess, including the Burney Relief [shown here], are polysemic. A cornucopia of familiars including stars, animals, trees, crops, rivers and even boundaries, both the animate and seemingly inanimate [hold onto these words I’m revisiting them later], merge with divine female consciousness. Goddess language is abundant, fertile, nurturing, creative and seasonal. It is not without wrath, but it is not the language of dominance.
Modern Romance languages (French, Spanish etc) assign gender to nouns, which defines and polarizes, creating sex-based divisions, enforcing stereotypes with every word / thought / breath, even if we are unaware of it. To break gender stereotyping it’s hardly surprising many self-identify as “they.”
Assigning gender to nouns shapes our spiritual thinking. In Spanish, he “sun,” el sol is masculine and the “moon,” la luna is feminine, which may be why polarized images of the moon Goddess and sun gods endure today. Despite there being many sun Goddesses and moon gods, spanning time and culture, our patriarchal language almost eclipses these possibilities.
Romance languages have their roots in colloquial Latin, the language of those expansionist colonizers, the Romans. It is worth noting: Hierarchal religious institutions (using Vulgate Latin), and various men throughout history, had a hand in shaping these languages, including, among others: Dante; Antonio de Nebrija; Racine; the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne and Pope Damasus.[1]
English is rooted in the Germanic languages. German nouns are either feminine, masculine or neuter. As Old English transitioned to Middle English (approx 1150CE) the feminine fell out of use. Only the masculine form endured. I think we can we assume that, in recent history, the language we speak and think in, was shaped my men.
As English speakers we might not talk “Roman” but we do have a vestigial mindset of “Roman” [empire builders]. The word “capitalism” stemmed from capitale, a Latin word for “head.” “Chattel” and “cattle” originated from capitale.
Patriarchal language asserts purposeless capitalism and the vertical, so it is far more insidious than the grammatical gendering of nouns. Patriarchal language is the language of the colonizer, hierarchy and ownership. In her essay An Animist Primer for the English Language [2], Dana O’Driscoll claims “English” is shaped by,
“Power, prestige, Western materialism, industrialism, scientific rationalism, capitalism, the biases of colonialism, monotheism, and anthropocentrism.”
When people are conquered their language is conquered. Re-education could be brutal and institutionalized: boot camps for subservience. Since mind states have been assigned gender according to body parts: Womb / hysteria; male genitals / leadership skills, I’m adding misogyny and male supremacy to Dana’s list.
The example of the Burney Relief, I referenced earlier, as an example of a polysemic Goddess, illustrates how ownership defines patriarchal language. Burney was an antique dealer who once “owned” the artifact (also known as the Queen of Heaven). The patriarch laid claim to language, artifacts, the Goddess and women’s bodies, using a hierarchal God as justification.
In Genesis 1:28 God tells man to “fill the earth and subdue it.” Man has permission dominate, own, exploit and silence every living creature and Mother Earth.
In her essay, There’s a Place for God and it’s in the Bedroom [3], Glenys Livingstone Ph.D. says,
“The term “God” is a verbal wank, a literal dominance. “God” has become so embedded in our speaking, so essential to human expression that most feel left speechless without it.”
I became acutely aware of the need to decolonize (unchain) my brain from patriarchal language when I started to question why, in historical accounts, women’s achievements are often presented in terms of her relationship to the father or husband, as if giving permission for his wife / daughter to learn WAS the achievement, rather than her ability to achieve DESPITE the patriarchal system keeping women down. Introducing women as daughter of, wife of, muse of, infers ownership and a deference to men. An example would be Dora Maar, described as Picasso’s muse [temporary plaything], despite being an artist in her own right.
Taking on the husband’s surname eradicates traces of female lineage. As in symbolism, the dark spaces do the talking. Silencing and the conspiracy of silence is part of patriarchal language. In the extremist society that is Afghanistan under the Taliban, communication / expressing thoughts and ideas is seen as a male domain. Women speaking to women, speaking loudly, reciting poetry, or singing in public, has been banned, under Vice and Virtue laws, enshrouding women in a cloak of invisibility.
In the past, the Catholic Church banned women from speaking in church. 1 Corinthians (14:34-35 NRSV) states,
“As in all the churches of the saints, women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says.”
It gets worse: In medieval England a grotesque iron muzzle was used to silence, punish and humiliate women. It was called the scold’s, witch’s or gossip’s bridle.
In its various guises, patriarchal language has silenced women and pushed us into the shadows.
(To be Continued)