[It’s the end of an era and the start of something new. I’ve been primarily working with goddess archetypes as part of my practice since I was fourteen. Now it seems its time for me to move on. But, in honour of the feminine archetypes that have guided me thus far, this is the goddess series.]

Pandora: What gave birth to feminism?

Me: There was a need for it.

Pandora: Did the women of your previous era really think that they could be treated any differently?

Me: Yes, and women are now. It just may not seem like it sometimes. 

In my second year of university, I wrote an essay about the shift in society from the matriarchal to the patriarchal. It was called ‘The Rise of God as the Father and the Fall of Women as the Originators of Sin.’ This has little importance at this time, but whilst researching this, I was reintroduced to the idea of Aeons, that I first came across whilst reading Aleister Crowley. 

The Aeons describe the three phases in human society, using Egyptian deities as representations of those phases. The first Aeon was the Aeon of Isis, marking maternal power over the Earth, the worship of female deities and matriarchal societies. The second Aeon was the Aeon of Osiris, the paternal power of patriarchal societies and the worship of God. The third and current Aeon is the Aeon of Horus, the worship of the Son and individuality.

Whilst researching for said essay, I read about how some historians believed that women facilitated in the shift to patriarchal society, in effect restricting themselves to certain limiting roles. Women, apparently, encouraged farming, in a Felicity Smoak manner I assume. In doing so, made it so that women were only needed for bringing new workers into the world to tend to these farms. Women restricted themselves to the home, made themselves into factories and housekeepers and four-star chefs for the hungry workers.

If that’s over now, if we’re in the age of Horus, past the worship of the Earth, past the worship of God, and present in an eon of individuality, it suggests that society has passed feminism and passed patriarchy. Should we be living in an androgynous age, where gender doesn’t matter, beauty… matters a little bit? Shouldn’t we be living in a liberal, generous, open society? What happened? Has it just not arrived yet?

There’s an argument amongst scientists that says that humans may be the first extinction proof species, due to our resourcefulness and ability to adapt. Some even say that humans have stopped evolving, that we have reached the peak of our biological potential and any further advancement would now be artificial. It’s also argued that if we have stopped evolving, that we may all become like clones, different, but the same.

With the merging of cultures that modern migration and technology has brought, it can be said that we are slowly becoming a monoculture, where diversity is disappearing. In some ways, that would appear to be a good thing, no religious wars, no gender bias, no racism, however casual Mrs. “Why do you need to buy black tights, you’re already black?” (“Really?! Did you really just ask me that?!”) Could it also mean the loss of culture, of identity, of ownership of your own history? What would that mean for writing? There would no longer be a ‘Black Writer’s section’ in Waterstones, that’s for sure, but would there be any point in writing, in sharing a point of view that everyone would already have and understand?

Pandora: You’re afraid of the loss of individuality. I wouldn’t worry about that. No one is an individual, everyone living has been informed and influenced by something or someone else. (Pandora’s auburn hair wraps around the length of her entire body, breaking into rough looking ends at her feet. Underneath it all, I can just make out a sapphire blue dress.)

Me: That’s cynical.

Pandora: And true. You are everyone you’ve ever met. Everything you’ve ever read or seen.

Me: That’s not true. There are people in my life who I swear are only in it, so I know what not to be, how not to behave and how not to treat others. 

Pandora: Things you wouldn’t know if they weren’t there to influence you. I’m not saying there aren’t opposing views and people, just that those people are grouped, not singular. There are other people in the world who think like you, you’re not an individual, just rare…ish.