Has the white patriarchal/western culture changed this definition to keep women under their feet?
MAKEDA,
QUEEN OF SHEBA - THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN-THE VIRGIN WARRIOR QUEEN
"Ancient moon priestesses were called virgins. "Virgin" meant not married, not belonging to a man a woman who was "one-in-herself." The very word derives from a Latin root meaning strength, force, skill; and was later applied to men: Virile. Ishtar, Diana, Astarte, Isis were all called a virgin, which did not refer to sexual chastity, but sexual
independence. And all great culture heroes of the past, mythic or historic, were said to be born of virgin mothers: Marduk, Gilgamesh, Buddha, Osiris, Dionysus, Genghis Khan, Jesus-they were all affirmed as sons of the Great Mother, of
the Original One their worldly power deriving from her. When the Hebrews used the word, and in the original Aramaic, it meant "maiden" or "young woman," with no connotations of sexual chastity. But later Christian translators could not conceive of the "Virgin Mary" as a woman of independent sexuality, needless to say; they distorted the meaning into sexually pure, chaste, never touched. When Joan of Arc, with her witch coven associations, was called La Pucelle-"The Maiden," "the Virgin"- the word retained some of its original pagan sense of a strong and
independent woman."
The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth
