Minoan Spirituality and the Sacred Breast

[Gary Smith]

I’m an Idaean Minoan Pagan, a researcher of the Classical Labyrinth, and more recently on their culture and mythology. It is internationally recognized now that the Bronze Age people found on the Mediterranean island of Crete are called Minoans named after King Minos who wasn’t a king but an underworld judge. There has in fact been a total absence of kings or chieftains on this island during the Bronze Age.

The Minoans were neither Mycenaean nor Greek, but belong to Old Europe, long before the Indo-Europeans arrived. They travelled far and wide, and made it to Britain in the south of England, and even been credited with the construction of Stonehenge. I prefer to call the Minoans the Idaeans, as I believe that this is what they would have called themselves after the sacred mountain of Ida, now called Psiloritis on Crete.

I have been researching the Labyrinth on the Tor at Glastonbury in the United Kingdom since 1983 from a unique perspective, and published my conclusions in 2013 on my website - www.cretanspiraldecoded.com

The tor is a 518 foot hill on the outskirts of this small market town, which has terraces cut deep into the side of the hill, and is part of what is believed to be an ancient pathway from the Bronze Age, running around the hill, and conforming to the design of The Labyrinth, the Cretan spiral of Minoan legend. On top of the tor are the remnants of St. Michael's church destroyed by an earthquake in the fourteenth century leaving only the tower. The hill is slanted as it rises, and falls off abruptly at the top, and relative to the tower has a breast shaped appearance.

On the island of Thera, now called Santorini, an outpost of the Idaeans archaeologist came to excavate the ruins destroyed by a super volcano on the island in 1628 BCE which lay under the ash. They discovered beautiful frescoes of women wearing a long dress with an open top baring their shapely breasts, and became the most talked about aspect of these people. In Minoan spirituality, the Frescoes illustrate their beliefs, as a ‘Breast Centered Goddess Consciousness,’ and in the world of the Idaeans, men revered women as the Goddess Gaia.

The Idaeans built shrines to the goddess on mountains tops and the spiral on the tor because it was the ideal shape to represent the goddess - a breast shaped hill. The broad breasts of Gaia, Mother Earth supports all mountains.

The Labyrs also plays a part in this goddess consciousness being one of the major symbols of the culture. The Double-bitted Axe was only held by a priestess or seen in the company of women as a floating object. When looking at a map of the whole island of Crete my mind turned to the Adorants fresco in the House of the Ladies on Santorini. The island looks to me, like it’s made up of three parts from west to east, and the Adorants fresco seems to echo this. The veiled girl on the right of the fresco is looking in the direction of the Horns of Consecration on the far wall and perhaps at the same time something in the distance. If we look farther afield, to the east of Crete is the island of Cyprus the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, and the daughter of Ouranos. The god Hephaestus forged beautiful jewellery for his wife, including the Cestus, a girdle which accentuated her breasts in the same way the bodice that the snake goddess is wearing. Greek women a thousand years later would wear Criss-crossed breasts bands on top of their garments to achieve the same result, and does look remarkably like the Labyrs in shape.

Is this the meaning of the Labyrs, the breasts of Aphrodite? The axe is believed to represent the soul in the same way the Butterfly motif does to symbolise the souls of the departed, and both are seen quite often combined together in Idaean art. A baby suckling at its mother's breast is drawing sustenance from the mother's life force, and could be understood as doing the same from her soul. Aphrodite is sometimes pictured with weapons, which is unclear as to why, until you realise a lot of her near eastern beliefs were removed and is generally considered that her weapon is the Cestus, the enchanted girdle that makes any man fall in love with the wearer.

Is this why the Axe is both the breasts of Aphrodite and her weapon? The Dove, a symbol of Aphrodite, is often found perched above the Labyrs.

The town of Glastonbury is believed to be the 4th Chakra of the Earth - the Heart, and has been recognized as a spiritual centre since the megalithic era. It would seem that this belief is not without some justification with the tor at this location. The breasts of a woman, are prominently positioned around the heart, and radiates a divine energy from the great mother, from Aphrodite through the breasts which is love, allowing a woman to commune and pray to the goddess, and also as a conduit to the goddess allowing men to respect and pray to the goddess in ritual, as well as forming a deep sensual connection with their partners, and her sacred feminine essence.

Female breasts today have become hypersexualized, and objectified, and equally shunned and shamed, a bizarre paradox for a society when breastfeeding a baby in public can be seen as a hostile act (under the public order act of 1986) rather than being fully understood and respected, and yet the breasts are so inherently beautiful they deserve to be appreciated in wholeness. The bra with its under-wires can be very suffocating and unhealthy as they can block the lymph nodes from working properly, and remove toxins from the body.

Many people ask why there is such a difference between one woman and another in breast size. The answer is often considered to be genetic, even though there can be women in the same family that can be very different in size from each other. Diet is a factor, as you need protein to develop a bust, and since the Second World War Japanese girls have become curvier, and bustier, due to eating western style foods.

However, this doesn’t explain the inconsistencies for women in the west. So, if it's not diet in the end that determines a girl’s size. What does?

In the end, it’s determined by the woman herself. The subconscious part of her mind (the Goddess) that has been constantly listening to her attitudes from being a young girl, and that of her friends - male and female, and the society she lives in, and the goddess has bestowed the most appropriate size to reflect her ‘inner self.’ This of course does not mean that every woman will be happy with this outcome, but it's all tied up with a woman’s sexuality, as describe in tantric belief that the breasts are a woman’s sexual centre, and how she thinks of herself as a woman in society, academically, professionally. Many articles written on women’s issues have stressed the importance of women to have a more positive relationship with their breasts, and be more cautious about the thoughts they send their breasts, and in the cultivating of appreciative ones. A woman who truly connects with the goddess through her breasts will know the beautiful feelings that arise from fully embracing them for their spiritual as well as physical qualities, in the same way Idaean women practiced, three and a half thousand years ago.

Idaean girls from a very young age would also wear a dress that would visibly display their upper body in preparation for the day when they would become a woman, and begin to develop their breasts. Why do men fear an untamed breast, why do women feel ashamed when their breasts move naturally instead of inviting their liberation?

Why shouldn’t breasts be wild? Or loving, sensual, wholesome, nurturing, with real enchantment, and the deepest expression of the sacred, and what it means to be a woman.

Let us respect and appreciate female breasts in a culture that no longer honours the Goddess, as many women no longer feel truly connected to their breasts. The breasts attract the eye in a sexual sense because men have been told by society in magazines and movies that breasts are there to be used to stimulate male arousal, and not love. The breasts are desirable because they’re inherently beautiful and offer the most sensual and loving energy which naturally, in its true nature wants to feed men, through the mouth, a spiritual energy.

This is the unrealised need that men have, and don’t know why, which is the need to worship the goddess –

‘You are the Goddess made flesh, blood and spirit walking footfalls on the soft grass of this world. You are her voice, her hand and her heart. Her winds are your breath, her mountains you’re Breasts. In this way you are connected to the Great Mother.’

[Gary Smith]

Yes, it's not a new idea either, back in the 1950s some were suggesting Crete or Santorini could be Atlantis.

According to Bettany Hughes Plato's description of the island can still be seen today with the distinctive colours of the walls found in the countryside. 

[Gary Smith]

SL – ‘So it is possible that the same is true for men ,phallus with the Divine Masculine? Same idea.’

I would have to say no, not with the same emphasis. In Alchemy, the sun goes to the head of a man, and the moon goes to her body. This is not to say that women have no intellect, I think from a transformative point of view it is saying when it comes to the body women have far more control over theirs than men. A woman can literally think herself into an orgasm without any physical stimulation whatsoever.

A man can influence the size of his phallus if he wants to with the right techniques, although there are certain difficulties with this, such as blood pressure problems to maintain an erection, and he would have to be certain that his partner would be able to accommodate him.

Apparently the new average for a male is 5 inches now not 6 inches on the bell curve as was previously thought, and makes men with an 8 inch penis even rarer now than before. They often complain it has ruined their sex lives as it’s difficult to find someone who can entertain their size.

Women report they prefer a thicker girth than length, which I think is something men should consider first.

I would agree with you that Breast cancer has many factors as to its cause. I would also speculate that living in a western world it has to have an effect on the psyche of a woman if she feels she has less than an ample development, or is the only aspect of her worth as a woman because she has a large bust.

It’s not a surprise to find that silicone breast implants fail because the subconscious is rejecting the implant because it doesn’t fit in with the body image it has decided on.

The Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine are archetypes that have a deep subconscious effect on men and women, and if not properly recognised they can drive us all to our destruction. The goddess has a male counterpart, a son or a husband or both, as a goddess she comes first then male gods follow.  Unless men follow the goddess we end up with men that wear frocks in a church telling us we don’t need a woman to make us complete only god, so we never feel the love of the goddess, because women are told by men you get everything you need as woman from childbirth being a mother.

You can always tell which world is in charge of the Earth, Mars or Venus, when two movies on TV are shown at the same time. One is a war movie with all the horrific violence, and death, and the other is a love movie which leaves nothing to the imagination, but is gentle and sensual in its filming of two people in love.

The one that gets the most complaints will tell you which one.  

[Gary Smith]

SL - Women overdo it with implants, but who am I to judge, that is what makes them feel beautiful.

No, I would say that this is what makes them feel insecure because of how they wish to look and what the goddess believes they should be within a woman's subconscious nature.  If a woman feels that she should have a larger bust and doesn't it's her relationship with the goddess that has been neglected, and just simply ignored, which is all too easy to do in a God dominated western world.

There are also some women that find it impossible to feel beautiful with the size they have, and will continue to increase their size until it becomes ridicules. They suffer from a psychological problem, a dis-ease called body dysphoria, a perceived problem with the body, which has no real bases in reality such as anorexia nervosa.

May you all be blessed by the Goddess.

[Gary Smith]

Linda M - You may not find it demeaning for women to pose naked, and neither do I, although the truth of the matter is that Idaean beliefs are heavily, influenced by sex which is present in my understanding of the Labyrinth, and finding Ouranos at the centre.  I don't think Idaean women would think this either - 'To the women, they were just merely breasts.' You could say we are now getting to the crux of what the breast means today, and what women have lost after two millennia of Patriarchal beliefs, being no longer within a Goddess consciousness  society, worshiped by men, and appreciate in wholeness.

I'm looking for for a spiritual reason for the statuettes and seal stones as to why bare breasted women are depicted in Minoan art, which are a part of their religion or simply a form of dress as part of their culture.  When I asked these questions I was surprised to learn that this concept of the breast as sacred is a subject already considered and written about by many women writers, which I'm inclined to agree with, as the ills of the world could well be healed if a more balanced approach was achieved by worshiping a god and a goddess together. It's only in the last 2000 years in the west that sexuality is been seen as indecent because Christianity historically has seen the whole body generally as something unholy and dirty, and anyone who see it otherwise is castigated for saying anything that disagrees with this position.

My sources are on my website under the Tor heading, much of which has been cleaned over many years, and some are lost.

The Feminine Principle

[Gary Smith]

SL - I find that it really makes no difference to me as to the size of a woman's bust. I'm not really a breast man, in that sense. However I have found that given time in a relationship with me whatever size they are will increase, as I help them to relax the subconscious resistance within their minds that prevents further development.

Such distinctions no longer apply to me.  

[Gary Smith]

@Linda M. - 'It seems to me, men in those days sexualized the whole idea just as they do, and you do now, '

I can't see how you can characterize Idaean men in the same way as you could for men in today's world which is a far cry from that time. Your statement above is what some women say about pornography, that its demeaning to women, and should be banned, and I'm only talking about things like page three and glamour modelling, which some would say is art. 

If it is demeaning to women, why then do women pose? Their response is to say, that these women don't have the education to earn this kind of money in any other way, so they have no choice but to do so.

Which means that some women want to take away a woman's livelihood, and quite a significant one at that, and impoverish her for them to be able to sleep at night, knowing women are no longer demeaned, regardless of how lucrative and worthwhile this might be to some. They don’t say let’s campaign to improve the educational opportunities for all women, so that women have a genuine choice in what careers they chose to follow?

When women stop posing men will stop buying, however unlikely this may be.

Idaean women not only ran the religion of the goddess, they also ran their communities as administrators. I don’t know if the priestesses succumbed to some male fantasy requiring them to dress baring their breasts just please men?

[Gary Smith]

@Elspeth - Thank you for the clarification, which has been better defined since 1986, however this says nothing of the abuse breastfeeding women have received from the public. The 1986 act It stills applies to women going topless, which says a woman can as anyone she meets is not offended, (say at a nudist beach) which means not as legal to go topless as it suggests.

[Gary Smith]

@Rosey 'Perchance you have something new to research?'

There are many women only goddess groups that are there to help women deal with 2000 years of patriarchal domination, and heal their psyches. This fine by itself, but I think this healing will not succeed by Itself without the inclusion of men to worship the goddess through women, in ritual and within a relationship.

A recent UN report says 82 women die every day around the world by men in an intimate relationship.

Without the goddess men can not feel her love without women who worship the goddess, both as Gaia and Aphrodite.

UN Report

[Gary Smith]

@Linda M - Yes, they did worship the whole goddess, and it's the breast that symbolised that worship, like the cross represents Christianity.  On a spiritual level breasts are powerful and they always will be, and this may prove difficult to accept in today's world, and yet I fear it's today's world without the goddess is the cause of the problems we face. There are protest groups that campaign topless to make their point when they seek to address an issue. I see the goddess behind this way of thinking, to draw attention to issues that do need addressing.

[Gary Smith]

I would agree, the mind is all, however the mind can not exist without the body, and the male and female perspectives are derived from the body.  

You said, 'Cancer may take a breast. Breast become different as a woman matures into the crone years.'

I wonder if the health and well-being of the breast would be very different if women lived in an Idaean society, and the veneration of the goddess was as common place as Christianity is now? This isn't a unique belief, there is breast worship in India, their places of worship reflect the image of the breast, and a girl is given a neckless at puberty.