There is a modern tendency to speak about the “divine feminine” as if it were a reaction against masculinity. But when I look back at ancient religions and myths, I do not see a world originally built on opposition between male and female power. I see balance.
In the ancient Greek world, even mighty Zeus was not alone. He had Hera, queen, protector of marriage, guardian of legitimacy and social order. Their relationship was turbulent, yes, but symbolically it mattered that the ruler of the heavens was paired with a feminine counterpart of equal cosmic importance.
In Minoan civilisation imagery, we repeatedly encounter powerful female figures: goddesses associated with snakes, mountains, fertility, animals, and the cycles of nature. Some scholars believe Minoan religion centered strongly around a primary goddess figure connected to renewal and the rhythms of the earth and sky. (Nanno Marinatos)Yet male divinities also existed. The sacred world appears divided into complementary realms rather than ruled by one force alone.
Even in traditions that later became strongly monotheistic, traces of older balances remain visible.
The ancient Semitic god El was often paired with a feminine divine presence such as Athirat or Asherah in Canaanite tradition.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the goddess Al-Lat (Allat) was widely revered alongside other female deities and associated with power, protection, and fertility. Even the linguistic relationship is fascinating: “Allat” may derive from the feminine form of “El” or “Allah,” essentially meaning “the goddess.”
When you begin to look carefully, you notice something else: women in Bronze Age societies may have occupied more visible spiritual and ceremonial roles than later historical periods allowed. Not necessarily as rulers over men, but as holders of different kinds of authority; ritual authority, agricultural knowledge, lineage, healing, seasonal wisdom, connection to land and continuity.
And perhaps this makes sense.
As human societies transitioned from hunter-gatherer communities into settled agricultural civilizations, land became wealth. Wealth required protection. Protection required armies. Physical force became increasingly central to power structures.
Somewhere in that transition, perhaps the value system itself changed.
The ability to defend land slowly became more important than the ability to sustain it.
The sword became more visible than the soil.
And with that shift, women gradually lost forms of influence that may once have been deeply woven into spiritual and communal life.
Not overnight. Not through some grand conspiracy. But slowly, generation by generation, law by law, inheritance by inheritance, myth by myth.
This is not a post about female superiority. Nor is it about romanticising the past. Ancient societies were often harsh and unequal in many ways.
It is about remembering that many of our ancestors once imagined the sacred itself as dual.
Sky and earth.
Sun and moon.
God and goddess.
Creation not as a single voice, but as a conversation.
Perhaps the “divine feminine” is not about reclaiming domination.
Perhaps it is about restoring balance.
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