(Quilt Art) Anat by Kaarina Kailo

Quilt by Kaarina Kailo, photographed by Arja and Alpo Huhmarniemi in 2022

The “Fertile Crescent” refers to a crescent-shaped region in Western Asia. Formed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Mediterranean Sea, this region gave rise to some of the world’s earliest matriarchal civilizations. It was  the cradle of Neolithic economy (8th millennium BC) with famous sites such as Jerico and Catal Höyuk. Would the warmongers still terrorize people in the Middle East if, instead of competing over whose male god  one has to obey and honor, battling over land and resources instead of sharing the fertile lands, people worshipped the Great Mothers of both Palestine and Israel!  Here in my quilt work is the daughter ANAT of the motherline to which Anat (Asherat, Ashtaroth, Astarte), the Palestinian Goddess of Love,  Goddess of Grain and Agriculture belonged. If Asherat was the omnipotent creatress and destructress;  sister-bride to Baal,  the Hebrew counterparts were not enemies or rivals, but mythic kin. Asherah is the great goddess in ancient Semitic religion but appears also in Hittite writings as  Ašerdu(s). The goddesses were One, not rivals.  Imagine if they now reigned over the war-torn Gaza!

(Meet Mago Contributor) Kaarina Kailo


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