Debashish Banerji, PhD, is Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and Chairman of the East West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He is author of Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo and also The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore, a book about his great grandfather. He edited an anthology about his great uncle, Rabindranath Tagore in the Twenty-First Century. With Robert McDermott, he has coedited an anthology titled Philo-Sophia: Wisdom Goddess Traditions.
Here he points out that artifacts relating to the worship of the mother goddess are found throughout the world, going back as far as 40,000 years. Such traditions are associated with the earth, with the wisdom of the body, with magic, and with equality of the sexes. Over time, the emphasis has shifted to the masculine deities, resulting in the egoic development of humanity. Presently we are witnessing a global renewal of goddess traditions.
(Recorded on November 24, 2021)
Published on December 6, 2021