Although the European tribes establish various pantheons from the early days of history, agreement is clear about the Goddess of Life. She is the Earth Mother or Mother Goddess, whose creative power and abundant gifts keep humans alive throughout the ages.
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She has various names including Gaia, ancestral mother of the Greeks; the Egyptian Isis with powers of resurrection; Cybele, who received sacrificial bulls in Anatolia; Nerthe (Erde) German Earth Goddess and the Roman Magna Mater (Great Mother).
Many of the modern Earth Goddess myths derive from the Proto-Indo-European tradition, adapted for local tastes or existing deities. A Sky Father was also widely worshipped. While the concept of the Earth Mother began among the mists of time, it's ubiquitous in the mythology and cultures of people from prehistory to modern day.
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In Hinduism the divine mother goddess manifests herself in various aspects. She becomes Mother Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms and nourishes them through her body. Ultimately she re-absorbs or takes all forms of life back into herself.
Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, festivals dedicated to the Earth Mother celebrate the seasons - winter, when all is dark and cold; spring, when days lengthen and hope returns; summer, clad in lush greenery; autumn, the abundance of the land.
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People depend on the land, farming, herding, agriculture, hunting and warfare to exist. Wealth is many sheep. Gold is pretty, but has little commercial value until c. 1500 BCE, when the empire of Egypt made gold the first official exchange medium for international trade.
The fertile Earth brings forth food, material for clothing and building, wild plants and animals, gems such as obsidian and metals such as copper. About 4500 - 2500 BCE early people live on the Pontic-Caspian steppe between the north Caspian and Black seas.
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The pantheon of these Proto-Indo-European people, who speak the ancestor of countless languages, is based on evidence and similarities across cultures. In the creation myth of early people the mother goddess (Dʰéǵʰōm Méh₂tēr) is considered the origin of life and final dwelling place of humans.
With her guidance Manu creates the physical Earth from the flesh of his sacrificed brother, Yemo, and the first people. Plants and animals arise from the sacrifice of the primordial cow.
During the early Bronze Age the Steppe cultures undertook a massive migration. They went in all directions, east to Russia, west to England, to the North Sea and down to Turkey. This causes crowded conditions and a rise in warfare, as a technology of metals solidify.
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The Mother Goddess is sometimes a trio with the Sky Father and the Sun God(ess). Usually Earth and Sky are the primordial procreators. In the Proto-Indonesian creation mythology they pre-date the physical Earth and help Manu form it.
In some cultures the Mother Goddess is also associated with the Underworld. As she gives birth, so she takes life back into herself for nourishment. The Earth Mother is naturally aligned with death as part of the wholeness of life. This doesn't, however, stop people from trying to find the secret of eternal life.
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