The Serpent and the Goddess Quotes

“The image of the Serpent, because of its association with life, rejuvenation, fertility, and regeneration, was a symbol of immortality. The coiled Serpent with its tail in its mouth was a circle of infinitude indicating omnipotence and omniscience. The Serpent, depicted in several successive rings, represented cyclical evolution and reincarnation. In ancient philosophy or mythological systems, creation and wisdom were closely bound together, and the Serpent was a potent symbol of both. It is in this capacity that the Serpent appears in the Babylonian and Sumerian mythologies, which contain elements akin to the Genesis story. The Serpent has the power to bestow immortality but also has the power to cheat humankind. In many of the ancient Near Eastern stories—for instance, the Gilgamesh Epic and myth of Adapa—the Serpent holds out the promise of immortality but then cheats man at the last minute.”
― Mary Condren, The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland

“The sacredness of the male mind is allied to the struggle for power in that men, claiming objectivity, can also claim universal validity for their values. In this sense the word man, correctly in their view, can encompass women, although the converse is not true and the word woman can never stand for the general but only for the particular.”
― Mary Condren, The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland

“In the political and theological realms we are still stuck on the merry-go-round of church and state, capitalism and communism, Christian or Jew, Catholic or Protestant. We seem incapable of envisioning anything other than the dualistic and tired stalemate of contemporary patriarchal polity...”
― Mary Condren, The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland

“Nature was passionate and unpredictable and could undermine the relationship between God and man, based as it was on obedience.”
― Mary Condren, The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland

“Now the emerging consciousness of women represents a fundamental challenge to the gods of Western culture. Far from not wanting to have anything to do with religion, a position adopted by some feminists, the voices of women call for a renewed religious consciousness. We must undergo a profound conversion to a spirituality and worldview that honors womanhood and empowers our being; one that reveres the earth upon which all our foundations rest. Such a conversion will require a radical leap of faith into the unknown; we will often confront the ghosts and demons of the past, and all we will have to sustain us will be the barest hope and possibility that our efforts will succeed. Far from knocking at the door of patriarchy to get in, we need to overthrow the patriarchal “gods of displaced responsibility”, together with their warriors and priests if our world is to survive.”
― Mary Condren, The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland