The
Sanskrit word "Om" provides a possible clue to the prehistoric
origins of the Divine Feminine in Asia. The primary symbol of Hindu
spirituality,
Om is a sacred exclamation beginning Hindu and Buddhist mantras. It
"appears first in the Upanishads as a mystic monosyllable, and
is there set forth as the object of profound religious meditation"
(Cologne).
Om contains the totality of sounds arising from three fundamental sounds--"a",
"u", and "m," and is said to be a universal representation
of God (Chockalin),
it is familiar to most of us in its current symbolic form (upper right).
When
one looks at the earliest recorded form of this symbol (lower right),
it is clear why it is profoundly revered and signifies "God,"
"source," and "totality": it is a pictograph of
the Paleolithic Great Mother we know well from the hundreds of fat "Venus"
figures discovered all over Eurasia. The symbol has evolved to its current
shape, which is much like the original, with the body turned on its
side.
