Talk:Great Mother

message: "Great Mother" the archetype and "Mother goddess" are not the same. Though they should be cross-referenced, the two should not be combined, in my opinion.
I agree.  There is a risk that one might link from Carl Jung's archetypes and pick up "Mother goddess."  That, in my humble opinion, is unacceptable.
:So do I. In general, the article "Great Mother" should take more reference to Jung's archetypology. Maybe also some examples, where the archetype of the Great Mother can be found in myths, legends, religions, tales and so on. I would do this job - if my English was good enough ;-). de:Benutzer:Dr. Meierhofer
I also agree. The phrase "Great Mother" enters the general vocabulary through Eric Neumann's 1955 book of the same name in reference to Jungian psychology. That the term was picked up by NeoPagans and applied to mother goddesses of various sorts is true, but conflating the two muddies things. Rorybowman 00:01, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

message: I changed the word 'matriarchal' to 'matrilineal', as there is no definite proof of any ancient matriarchal societies. In fact I would like to see this article expanded. I'm sure there's much room for more information about the idea of a 'Great Mother' in archaelogical thought. Anyhow, if anyone would like to discuss the changing of 'archal' to 'lineal' then by all means discuss :-) Ryan 09:40, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  'archal' to 'lineal' 

message: I believe that at the very least there needs to be a single coordinating entry for all Great Mother like entries. A classicist searching for the Magna Mater will likely go for Great Mother, where there is absolutely no mention of Magna Mater, despite that being one of her names. I suggest that this entry contain an overview of the Great Mother figure in general as applies to many different cultures with a list of links to specific kinds of mother goddesses. 24.22.45.52 06:36, 31 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge suggestion 

message: Much of this article does not portray the accepted scholarly understandings on the subject. That's OK, but the ideas need to be attributed to their sources, and the more commonly accepted view needs to be mentioned for comparison.
Furthermore, some of the ideas in this article I find very surprising, and they sound like original research. You need to cite reputable sources for these, or remove them. In particular, I'm thinking of Queen Mab/Medb and the tiny/impregnating theme. It sounds like it's trying to draw a comparison with myths like the Gwydion/Cerridwen myth, and from what I can see it's going way out on a limb: a) Mab isn't male; b) she isn't swallowed by women. I don't even know what it means when it is suggested that "her qualities as a fertility goddess were more pronounced and emphasized as she endured time". I'm rather surprised to see Medb held up as a prime example of the Great Mother at all - she seems to me more likely to have been a historical personage who was over time given fairy qualities similar to the Matronae (I'm thinking of the plaiting of the horses' manes), but was never widely worshipped as the "Great Mother".
The Cattle raid of Cooley seems better explained as a historical event than as a remnant myth of a war goddess.
There's really good scholarly evidence of widespread goddess worship available (try Carlo Ginzburg for instance); this article could be much more convincing if it used reputable theories. Fuzzypeg 10:10, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  cleanup needed: adding originalresearch tag 

message: Is She not great because she resides in heaven only?
:Austerlitz -- 88.72.7.253 (talk) 18:28, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Although the article doesn't make this very clear, there is a theory that Asherah, the Heavenly Mother, was originally a Great Mother goddess until She was displaced by patriarchal religion. I'd be happy for there to be a link to Asherah, in fact that's a good suggestion of yours and I'll put it in.  Fuzzypeg  talk  22:25, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Heavenly Mother]] 

message: The rules are pretty strict on disambig pages. But I seriously sympathize with those users looking for goddess-related articles. Since the primary meaning is "mother goddess", I've put it at the top. I have only retained variation of strictly the phrase "Great Mother" for the disambig links, but placed a "See also" to aid users looking for less specific articles. The Category:Mother goddesses should cover any individual goddess otherwise overlooked. --Yamara ✉ 23:09, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Austerlitz -- 88.72.13.187 (talk) 05:51, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks Yamara, it looks good to me. I particularly like it the page links to :Category:Mother goddesses, which means readers can find the article they're looking for, but we don't have to maintain identical lists in two separate places. Austerlitz, if you have a concern perhaps you'd like to explain it. Fuzzypeg★ 04:46, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Disambiguation

message: A Magna Mater (disambiguation) page has now been created, with links to Cybele, Magna Mater (band), and (via a See Also section) to Great Mother (disambiguation). Previously, the band had been the Magna Mater page, which wasn't exactly what most (possibly any) of the articles linking there had meant. I've added a link to the Magna Mater (disambiguation) page in the See also of this page. Allens (talk) 08:08, 12 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed, good find. However, Magna Mater had been a redirect to Cybele, not a disambiguation page (the history is now at Magna Mater (band)). So, I've changed that back to Cybele and made Magna Mater (disambiguation) the dab page. For the most part, I've also reverted the changes to all the articles with Magna Mater links so they go back to Cybele via the Magna Mater redirect, rather than piping, rewording, or removing the links (in lieu of a see also link) to Magna Mater (disambiguation), Great Mother, Great Goddess, Cybele etc. The links shouldn't go to a disambiguation page. This way, if it's ever decided that Cybele isn't the WP:PRIMARY topic to which Magna Mater refers, that can be amended/hijacked without editing all the individual articles. Similarly, if editors chose Magna Mater over Great Mother for any reason, the choice is preserved. For example, Great Mother doesn't currently redirect to Cybele, it, itself, is a "dab page" (with no primary topic… to which Great Mother (disambiguation) redirects).—Machine Elf 1735 15:35, 12 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Unfortunately, Cybele is not the correct redirect for Magna Mater. The Maia (mythology) article states - with a reference - that this was also a term used for Maia. Therefore, there has to be a disambiguation page, and it is also useful to indicate to people the translation of Magna Mater. Thank you for catching my error on Rhea (mythology). I now see that, thanks to my being offline, people have messed things up yet further; great. Allens (talk) 17:56, 12 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I've  Magna Mater (disambiguation) to the hat note on Cybele. Don't feel compelled to let that user revert your unrelated changes with such a lame excuse. Again, thanks for catching the hijacking in the first place. Once a linkable "list" gets worked up, it'll be even better.—Machine Elf 1735 03:31, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Magna Mater disambiguation page created