Sons of Liberty demanding freedom, usually congregated around the symbols of an ancient Goddess.
July 1, 2007 (Press Release) --
Fireworks!! July 4 is coming!! About two centuries and a half ago town folks did not congregate around fireworks to demand and cheer for independence. They usually did so under Liberty Trees and around Liberty Poles. It was a struggle with ancient roots. They were cheering for a Goddess.
Which Goddess? Thomas Paine made it clear for us: "The Goddess of Liberty came; Ten thousand celestials directed the way,..." She brought a Liberty Tree. It was a truly poetical reference. In prehistoric Europe the Mother Goddess was the patroness of all arts. Women seem to have enjoyed a remarkably high status in those times, as told by J.F. del Giorgio in "The Oldest Europeans: Who are we? Where do we come from? What made European women different?."
Folklore, myth, art, archaeology and history tell us that women had a top role in religious rituals. Priestesses tended sacred burial gardens. They specially cared for a sacred tree. Sir James George Frazer saw in it the origin of the Maypole. Scandinavians venerated a pine tree. It was usually brought to a town, stripped of its branches, covered with colored bandages, and then it became the center of celebrations. The Sacred Pole crossed the Atlantic, associated to other ancient symbol: the Liberty Cap-a soft conical cap. Phrygian God Atis is always depicted with it. Roman slaves used it during the Saturnalia, maybe because Phrygian slaves were abundant. It became the symbol of the liberated slave.
The Sons of Liberty decorated the Liberty Poles with those Phrygian Caps and gave them many uses-to assembly, to string a British tax collector up from the seat of his pants, and in Concord, Mass., to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1776.
Funny. Symbols from ancient cultures, which abhorred authoritarian rulers, where women had an extraordinary status, became the leading symbols for a modern society alert to any excess from its leaders. From it sprung an awesome women´s rights movement.
Which Goddess? Thomas Paine made it clear for us: "The Goddess of Liberty came; Ten thousand celestials directed the way,..." She brought a Liberty Tree. It was a truly poetical reference. In prehistoric Europe the Mother Goddess was the patroness of all arts. Women seem to have enjoyed a remarkably high status in those times, as told by J.F. del Giorgio in "The Oldest Europeans: Who are we? Where do we come from? What made European women different?."
Folklore, myth, art, archaeology and history tell us that women had a top role in religious rituals. Priestesses tended sacred burial gardens. They specially cared for a sacred tree. Sir James George Frazer saw in it the origin of the Maypole. Scandinavians venerated a pine tree. It was usually brought to a town, stripped of its branches, covered with colored bandages, and then it became the center of celebrations. The Sacred Pole crossed the Atlantic, associated to other ancient symbol: the Liberty Cap-a soft conical cap. Phrygian God Atis is always depicted with it. Roman slaves used it during the Saturnalia, maybe because Phrygian slaves were abundant. It became the symbol of the liberated slave.
The Sons of Liberty decorated the Liberty Poles with those Phrygian Caps and gave them many uses-to assembly, to string a British tax collector up from the seat of his pants, and in Concord, Mass., to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1776.
Funny. Symbols from ancient cultures, which abhorred authoritarian rulers, where women had an extraordinary status, became the leading symbols for a modern society alert to any excess from its leaders. From it sprung an awesome women´s rights movement.
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