Although we still can't read Linear A, the script the Minoans used to write their native language, we can read Linear B. It's the script that the Mycenaeans, or their Minoan scribes, used to record Mycenaean, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans borrowed so much of Minoan religion and culture that the Linear B tablets give us some information about Minoan religion, even if most of the tablets are just inventory lists of donations to temples.
The Linear B tablets include the names of deities, some of whom are manifestly Minoan and some of whom look to be a part of the blended Minoan-Mycenaean culture that developed during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete.
Many women are drawn to the image of the Sacred Marriage—perhaps especially those raised in Roman Catholic or Protestant traditions where sex is viewed as necessary for procreation but nothing more, and who learn that the naked female body as symbolized by Eve is the source of sin and evil. In this context, the positive valuing of sexuality and the female body found in symbols of the Sacred Marriage can feel and even be liberating.
Where I live in the northern hemisphere, the wheel of the year is turning inexorably toward Samhain, and my thoughts of course turn toward the ancestors and the Blessed Dead.
Like many other ancient cultures, the Minoans held their ancestors in high regard and honored them in their spiritual practice. But they didn't celebrate Samhain.
Birds of all kinds are a common theme in Minoan art. We find them in natural settings and in ritual art. Some of them probably belong to the iconography of specific Minoan deities. But some of them may point back to the Neolithic Bird Goddess who was worshiped in Anatolia back in the time and place that the Minoans' ancestors came from.
In many cases, the artist depicted the birds with naturalistic realism, to the point that we can identify the specific species. These images include a wild rock dove (upper left), swallows (upper right and lower left) and red-legged partridges:
One of the biggest misconceptions about the Minoans, the people who lived on the Mediterranean island of Crete during the Bronze Age, is that they were Greek. They weren't.
Let's look at where this misunderstanding comes from and find out who the Minoans really were.
One of the dangers of having an ancient civilization as the focus of our spirituality is the tendency to view that culture through rose-colored glasses. That’s especially tempting when it comes to ancient Crete and the Minoan civilization that flourished there during the Bronze Age.
There are so many positive aspects of Minoan culture: Women had high status. Minoan cities and towns had paved streets, enclosed sewers, and flush toilets. The Minoans appear not to have had any sort of military except perhaps a merchant marine, choosing instead to invest all their energy and wealth into what was probably the largest merchant fleet in the Mediterranean at the time, so their society was prosperous and relatively peaceful.
A couple of weeks ago I started exploring some of the ritual postures we find in Minoan art, mostly in the form of bronze and terracotta figurines. I began with the famous Minoan Salute and then had a look at the posture I call Shading the Eyes.
This week I’ve experimented with a posture that’s common in Cycladic art, one that appears to link the user to the Realm of the Dead. You can see an example of it in the photo at the top of this post. These figurines, usually made of marble, show a person (most often a woman, occasionally an intersex person or man) with their arms across their abdomen, the left arm above the right.
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...