by Lillian Hoffen

Created on: July 03, 2010

Do freedom of religion and rights of women really belong under the same "which is more important?" category? At first I thought no. In a sense the are two entirely different issues that are both equally important. Although, without religious freedoms we have no choice to give up a patriarchal (where women are dominated by men) religion. So which would be first more important? Religion. Without freedom of religion, we may follow a religion were women are cursed with giving birth, instead of being gifted because they bear life.

In ancient matrilinear societies of Old Europe and Mesopotamia, women were considered the healers and caretakers, while the men were considered the hunters.  The reason for this wasn't because the woman "belonged" in the home, it was because she had the nurturer mindset all women have. They want to take care of the people around them. There is nothing wrong with this,  they were not entirely dependent on men, and men were not entirely dependent on women. They simply worked together and made a very effective peaceful society. If a man wanted to stay back in the township and help the women with healing and foraging, the women would then share the secrets of the trade with the men. Perhaps the men may have allowed the women to come along with them in the hunt? I don't know. What I do know is, they were peaceful, art and entertainment filled, healthy, prosperous societies. So what was different with these societies?  They had a female deity. Life comes from the female, so ultimately it had to be a female energy, presence, deity, or beginning.

Within the first millennium ac, Christianity spread to these Old European Societies. In an effort to convert all those around them, and stop people from conversion. They put an end to these now Pagan beliefs. There was nothing wrong, or evil with these religions. They were not intending to cause others harm, all of their spells, per se, were under the assumption of good, and healing. In fact most of them now have some medical evidence to back them up. Such as St. John's Wort to fight away evil spirits within oneself, is used in Germany as the number one prescription for depression.  The leaders of the ever-spreading Christianity told the people, these witches, were evil, demonizing peoples, and burned each and every openly Pagan of them until 1747.

In the book of Genesis, as many of you probably already know, Eve was punished for feeding the apple to Adam. The writers of the Old Testament

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