Continuing on the theme of how social religious history affects us personally, I am observing that the further back our memory tries to go, the deeper it penetrates also into our souls.
Questions such as those I touched upon last week — differences on the understanding of the Eucharist or the democratization of the religious community — have been extremely important for the religious history of the United States, for example, and keep subtly affecting all Americans. However, when we talk about the earlier stages of our species, such influences on our souls become so much more relevant and intense, even though they are scantily seen and recognized.
Recently, I surprised myself by stating in a class that the original religion of humanity as a whole was shamanism, from which Judaism as well as early Christianity derived a good deal — think about the healings of Jesus.
This notion is not new to scholars of religion, but I wonder how much or how well we have incorporated it into our spirituality.
Some thirty years ago, I went on a trip to the island of Sardinia with two friends. I think I might have been the nerdier, but the other two were not far down from me on the scale. For at least 20 days, each single day, we visited only Neolithic sacred sites, of which the island is replete, sometimes walking miles to get there. Every time we were in the vicinity of Bronze-Age or Iron-Age sites — also very common there — I would shout: “Too recent, not interesting!”
The joke became trite, but the meaning of it was not lost on my friends: we were hunting for the era of the goddess, trying to find remnants of a possible peaceful era of humanity, before weapons of war were produced, and when shamanic practices of union with the cosmos — as well as cosmic healing — were common.
In May 2026, I will be leading again such an exploration (the program can be accessed HERE). It will necessarily be reduced in time and scope. It would be way too challenging to bring a larger group into the wilderness of Sardinia, scouting around for Neolithic tombs and artifacts. The experience will be much deepened, however, through spiritual exercises and art as meditation.
Matthew Fox himself will participate online, offering responses to the experience of the participants. A team of dedicated practitioners of various sacred arts will join me to help each participant relax into the womb of the Goddess — the female fiery aspect of divinity — and thus rediscover forgotten aspects of their (gendered) self or new avenues for their spiritual journey.
Among the places where meditation and rituals will be offered, there will be: sacred hot springs and deep fresh wells, a necropolis hewn in the rock, and a Neolithic temple — perhaps the only one in existence today, at least in such a conspicuous way.
Banner Image: Two different representations of the Goddess point to a variety of cultures within the Sardinian Neolithic. Photos courtesy of Mario Bonfanti.
Queries for Contemplation
How do you approach the shamanic roots of your soul?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Natural Grace: Dialogues on creation, darkness, and the soul in spirituality and science
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God
Meditations with Meister Eckhart
Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
8 thoughts on “Shamanism and the Goddess”
By assimilation with nature, art and the cosmos.
The shamanic roots of my Soul is another way of saying my deepest spiritual journey towards awareness/consciousness of Our Loving Diverse ONENESS with Our SOURCE~CO-CREATOR’S SPIRIT PRESENT within, through, among US in the Sacred Process/Divine Flow of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COMPASSIONATE COSMIC CHRIST~BUDDHA CONSCIOUSNESS….
Your spiritual joy was certainly felt on NO KINGS day. What a pleasure to see human beings of all types gather to enjoy the gift a beautiful planet with people working together with appreciating creative signs of resistance. It made us feel that there is a future for loving each other and “others” if we stop the attack on law abiding people that do “obey the laws” and pay taxes.
At an average rate of 29 years per female generation, a line of 100 female ancestors links us back to Homeric times, and 500 female ancestors to the Neolithic. Every contemporary man is therefore connected by an umbilical cord to a relatively short line of women. 500 female ancestors is rather few compared to the lines we see for the Black-Friday or Boxing-Day “specials”. Thank you, Grand-Mothers!
I have studied with shamans and tried to practice shamanism for a good twenty years, writing a book on an Ecuadorian shaman and medicine man that I knew for eight years and who asked me to do it. It has always seemed more real to me than anything I encountered in church, and the shamans I have known were fine examples of positive and creative masculinity in Matthew Fox’s terms. It has connected me more deeply to nature.
As an archaeologist, I urge Gianluigi that if artifacts are picked up in Sardinia please record where and see they get given to an appropriate museum or educational institution. Random removal of artifacts despoils archaeological sites destroying evidence archaeologists rely on.
I am sorry if I gave the wrong impressione about prelevating artifacts. I never ever intended to do that.
Does this program help us escape warrior duties?
We have only to turn to our women theologians and prophets like the Rev. Dr. Barbara Holmes, of blessed memory, whose lineage as a black woman included the Gullah peoples, who live mostly in the low countries and coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah