When God Was a Woman

When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone, published in 1976, represents a groundbreaking work of feminist archaeology and religious history that challenged conventional narratives about the origins of patriarchal religion. Stone, an art historian and sculptor who specialized in ancient cultures, drew upon archaeological evidence, ancient texts, and cross-cultural research to develop her provocative thesis. Published during the height of the women’s liberation movement, the book became a foundational text in feminist spirituality and goddess movement circles, influencing decades of scholarship on gender and religion. Stone argues that ancient civilizations widely practiced goddess worship and maintained matrilineal social structures before being systematically conquered and suppressed by patriarchal religions, particularly Judaism and Christianity. The work examines how this religious transition fundamentally altered women’s status in society, transforming them from powerful priestesses and autonomous individuals into subordinate figures defined primarily through their relationships to men.

This study guide refers to the 2012 Doubleday Kindle edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, gender discrimination, religious discrimination, physical abuse, racism, death, and rape.

Summary

Merlin Stone’s When God Was a Woman presents a provocative argument challenging conventional religious history. Stone contends that humanity’s earliest religious traditions centered on female deities and that the transition to male-dominated religions occurred through systematic conquest and suppression rather than natural evolution. Her central thesis explores how patriarchal religions, particularly Judaism and Christianity, deliberately constructed narratives like the Adam and Eve story to counter earlier goddess-worshipping traditions and establish male social dominance.

Stone’s research journey took her from San Francisco to Beirut, examining archaeological evidence across libraries, museums, and excavation sites throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. She discovered that evidence of ancient goddess religions had been largely buried in obscure academic texts and revealed both deliberate destruction of goddess artifacts by later religious authorities and significant scholarly bias in interpreting archaeological findings.

Stone traces goddess worship to Upper Paleolithic cultures dating back approximately 25,000 years, presenting evidence from “Venus figures” found across sites from Spain to Siberia. She argues that early human communities viewed women as the sole creators of life, leading to matrilineal social structures where family names, property, and inheritance passed through the female line.

During the Neolithic period (9000-7000 BCE), agricultural societies continued goddess worship while developing sophisticated civilizations. Archaeological findings at sites like Jericho, Çatalhöyük, and Mesopotamian settlements revealed advanced shrines, goddess figurines, and evidence of female-centered religious practices. These communities developed metallurgy, wheeled vehicles, and urban planning while maintaining devotion to the Goddess.

Stone documents how the Goddess initially ruled alone but eventually acquired a male consort who died and was reborn annually. This subordinate male figure, known by names including Damuzi, Tammuz, Adonis, and Osiris, symbolized agricultural cycles and natural renewal. Different goddess names across cultures—Ishtar, Astarte, Isis, Cybele—represented regional variations of the same fundamental religious tradition.

Stone examines how goddess worship correlated with elevated status for women in ancient civilizations. In Egypt, women conducted business independently, owned property, and, according to marriage contracts, husbands agreed to obey their wives. Classical sources reported that Egyptian women managed commerce while men performed domestic tasks, and archaeological evidence confirmed matrilineal succession patterns.

Similar patterns appeared in Mesopotamian societies, where Sumerian women held high status and some practiced polyandry. The Naditu women engaged in business activities, owned real estate, and may have developed writing systems for temple accounting. In Anatolia, archaeological evidence indicates matrilineal succession and women’s control of religious practices until the Indo-European invasions.

Stone contrasts these goddess-worshipping societies with Hebrew culture, which she argues represents the complete triumph of patriarchal religion. Hebrew women held inferior legal status, could not inherit property, required male consent for vows, and faced death for premarital sexual activity. Hebrew law contained no provision for priestesses, unlike all surrounding cultures.

Stone attributes the transition from goddess worship to male-dominated religions to violent invasions by Indo-European peoples beginning around 2400 BCE. These northern nomadic tribes brought warrior god religions and systematically conquered goddess-worshipping communities across the Near and Middle East. Unlike the established civilizations they encountered, these invaders possessed superior military technology, including iron weapons and cavalry tactics.

The invasions occurred in waves spanning approximately 1,000 to 3,000 years. These warriors introduced worship of male storm gods depicted on mountaintops surrounded by fire or lightning, contrasting sharply with the earth-based goddess religions they displaced.

Mythological accounts consistently feature male deities defeating female deities symbolized as serpents or dragons. Stone traces this narrative through the Hittite storm god defeating the dragon Illuyankas, the Indian god Indra conquering the goddess Danu, the Babylonian Marduk slaying the goddess Tiamat, and similar myths in Greek and Hebrew traditions. She interprets these myths as symbolic accounts of religious conquest.

Stone presents her most controversial hypothesis regarding Hebrew origins, suggesting that the Hebrew people, particularly the priestly Levite tribe, may have had significant connections to Indo-European cultures. She proposes linguistic and cultural parallels between the Levites and Indo-European priestly castes like the Brahmins of India.

Hebrew religious leaders systematically opposed goddess worship through violent suppression and patriarchal sexual codes. Hebrew religious texts contain explicit commands to murder family members who worship other deities, and the Levites ordered the complete destruction of entire towns that served gods other than Yahweh. Stone provides extensive biblical examples of Hebrew prophets using sexual metaphors to condemn both goddess worship and female independence.

Archaeological evidence reveals that goddess worship persisted among Hebrew communities despite official religious doctrine favoring Yahweh. Excavations throughout biblical Canaan uncovered numerous Astarte plaques and fertility goddess figurines dating from 1500-1300 BCE through the seventh century BCE.

Stone argues that the biblical story of Adam and Eve represents a deliberate attack on ancient goddess religions. She demonstrates that across ancient civilizations, serpents were associated with female deities and divine wisdom rather than evil. Archaeological evidence reveals that goddesses served as oracles who provided prophetic counsel.

Stone analyzes each element of the creation story as an attack on goddess religion principles. Where ancient traditions celebrated the goddess as creator, the Hebrew myth positioned a male deity as primary creator. Where goddess religions honored women as sources of wisdom and life, the biblical account blamed Eve for humanity’s downfall.

The Adam and Eve myth functioned as religious propaganda designed to replace goddess worship with male-centered theology. By making sexuality itself sinful and women responsible for moral corruption, the story provided ideological support for patriarchal marriage, male inheritance rights, and the suppression of sacred sexual practices that had characterized goddess religions.

Stone traces how the biblical creation myth became a foundational tool for establishing and maintaining male dominance throughout Western civilization. Early Christian apostles like Paul drew directly from the creation story to mandate wives’ obedience to husbands, while church fathers reinforced teachings claiming women were inherently inferior and dangerous to spiritual life.

Early feminists confronted these religious obstacles directly, with figures like Mary Wollstonecraft (A Vindication of the Rights of Women) challenging the literal interpretation of the Eden story. The 1848 Seneca Falls women’s rights conference explicitly addressed religious oppression, declaring that men had wrongfully claimed divine authority to restrict women’s participation in church and society.

Stone argues that religious conditioning created lasting psychological effects beyond formal church influence. Even as organized religion’s power declined, centuries of biblical teachings about female inferiority became embedded in family structures and social customs. She concludes that exposing how male-oriented religions systematically replaced ancient goddess worship is essential for recognizing the artificial nature of current gender roles and creating genuine equality between women and men.