The by scholars and laymen assumed ‘fertility cults’ of our forebears not only deal with human fertility, but also with the fertility of the crops. They portray ‘the goddess’ as some sort of fertility-spreading being, ensuring the fertility of the fields.
All the old Scandinavian spells (‘sorcerous songs’) I know of though deal with waking up the fields (after winter) (i. e. they deal with the planting of seeds), and then protecting the fields (from ‘bad spirits’), and not a word is said about the fertility of the fields. And again, a simple control question can crush the official theory: was the fertility of the fields ever a problem? And why on Earth would it be? Was nature under some sort of harmful influence back then, that we don’t know of today? Or did somebody sell them GMO or hybrid seeds, that would only produce one single harvest and no fertile seeds to enable them to plant again the next year (a problem we have today)? The only problems they had in this context was too much or lack of sunshine and rain, and of course parasites, crop diseases, birds eating the seeds, animals eating the produce, etc., all explained as the influence of ‘bad spirits’.
The deities generally understood as ‘fertility deities’ are actually never such. They are deities of love, of friendship, of sorcery (‘waking up’ or protecting the fields) and – most commonly and perhaps also most importantly – of youthful health and beauty (actually; two sides of the same coin).
Yes, fertility was generally speaking not a concern in any context, but having good health often was. Most commonly, this was of major importance for the women giving birth. Getting pregnant was not a challenge whatsoever, but to survive childbirth they – and their children – needed to have a good health. Commonly this was also of major importance to the field: only good health could protect it from the ‘bad spirits’, that I talk about above. So the goddesses of good health blessed them, to strengthen their health and protect them.
We then move on to the symbol of good health in pre-Christian Europe, namely the cup (often cauldron) of the Earth goddess. Today we best know this symbol from perverted and Christianized Pagan myths about ‘The Holy Grail’, but as you can understand, the cup was an attribute of the goddess of good health. Very simply put: whoever drank from it would become more healthy. Yes, drinking from this cup would remove the effect of poisons, cure diseases, heal wounds and increase the chance for pregnant women to survive childbirth.
If I may remind you of the importance of rain and sunshine for the crops, the attributes of the sky god becomes more understandable too: his scepter (originally a stone and then a stone hammer or axe) caused the thunder in the sky (like stones on the ground hit against each other produce sparks, and can be used to kindle a fire); his sword was the lightning striking from the sky as a result of this (transferring the power of the sky [the sun] to Earth), and his crown (halo) was the sun itself, shining behind him.
Together the Earth goddess and the Sky god mastered all they needed for the crops to grow: sunshine and rainfall, and good health. The attribute of the Earth goddess was also very useful for (already) pregnant women, who wanted to have enough health to survive giving birth. The attributed of the Sky god was also very useful for champions, who – when the Sky god transferred the power of the sun by placing the sword on their shoulders – became even stronger, or even invincible!
So was there really a fertility cult in Europe? Well, I at least see no traces of such a thing. And such a cult would make no sense either.
But why do all scholars and laymen alike talk so much of this ‘fertility cult’, of the importance of fertility for the ancient man, etc.? Why on Earth do they? You can explain away much of it with mere ignorance, even more by prevailing feminist ideas, but much of it must be simply slander of the Ancient Man. It is an attempt to make us think of him as some sort of degenerate (‘he was so infertile’), as some sort of pervert (‘his entire religion revolved around having sex as much as he could’), and not least an attempt to strip the religion of our forebears of all metaphysical meaning, of course done to make it less attractive for men today.
If you want to know more about the metaphysical meaning of the European religion you can read the posts linked to in this post.
PS. I have of course included the ‘features’ discussed in this post in the sorcery and religion of MYFAROG. :-)
