Throughout history, the people who controlled the masses understood that it worked really well to take a little bit of truth and ‘reposition it’. And so they built churches over Sacred Goddess sites. Such as the great Santa Maria Maggiore, the huge cathedral in the heart of Rome. Its name means ‘Most-Great Holy Mary’. And prior to it being built in the 5th century, there were Goddess shrines on the Esquiline Hill that it was built on.
These shrines were connected with Libera who was ‘repositioned’ a ‘prostitute-goddess’.
Only Libera was not a ‘prostitute-goddess’. Historical lenses have called her that since there is a tendency to separate feminine power and sex. Christianity preached you must either be a virgin or a whore. Goddess culture better understand sex as creation, as power, as strength.
Historically in the past thousand plus years, men have tried to downplay female generative power. A ‘good woman’ is pliable and ‘receptive’ to her male counterpart.
Goddess culture understood this differently. Males protect. So that women can create.
Libera is a Roman goddess who, together with Ceres and the god Liber, formed a triad of agricultural deities. She was celebrated at the festival called Liberalia on March 17, which marked the return of vegetation to the earth. During this festival, old women served as Libera’s priestesses, selling fried honey pancakes at street stands. These cakes were considered lucky, and Romans would offer a portion to the goddess before eating the rest. When Greek influence spread in Rome, Libera was assimilated to Persephone, and similar stories were told about both goddesses.
Additionally, Libera was also known as the Goddess of Libya, and her festival, the Liberalia, was celebrated each year in Rome during the Ides of March. The festival was also known as Bacchanalia, which dramatized the love-death and resurrection of Bacchus Liber (Dionysus).
Santa Maria Maggiore such as many other church locations reflect a merging of Christian and earlier goddess traditions. Many churches dedicated to Mary throughout Italy were founded on former shrines of goddesses.
I do not have a picture of Libera because I could not find one. That is how completely they buried Her.
But things have a way of resurfacing.
- Information from this article is sourced from Barbara G. Walker’s The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and from Max Dashu’s
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