Only within humans She finds the possibility of being awakened

>
> Nicole beautifully framed her thoughts with these words: "We have
> the unique privilege to live two lives in one, one material, one
> spiritual, let's enjoy it fully.”i would want to copy it and
> say"We have the priceless privilege to live with two Divine
> Mothers, one physically without, one spiritually within, let's
> enjoy it fully.”By that i mean no disrespect to our own mothers
> and Mother Earth. The Divine Feminine is indeed raising us humans
> in all Her forms - let's enjoy them fully!
>

The follower of Sakthism, the worshiper of Shakti, is called Shakta. His conception of the Goddess is described in the Shakti Tantra Shastras, i.e., the holy scriptures of Sakthism, often in a very poetical way. Whereas we speak of Mother Nature only in a comparative manner, for the Shakta it is absolute reality. Nature is Her body. Her presence is personally felt by him, when he is standing on the fertile ground of the earth; he touches Her life in the blossoms of the pure lotus-flower. She animates all living creatures. His own body is a part of Her great body. Worshipping Her in all Her different forms, he will find Her light, too, within his mind and consciousness. Thus, to the Shakta the whole universe of mind and matter reveals itself in its unity; he see before him Her great body which he adores; Her sacred feet, Her heart, Her mind.

It might be useful to describe this poetical view, which is at once physical and transcendental, by means of another diagram. We may for this purpose represent matter and mind by two circles , which intersect each other.

Where they intersect, there is Shakti, so to speak, in Herself. But Her influence, Her being spreads into the whole realm of matter as well as that of mind. Nowhere is She absent, but Her presence is less distinct, is somehow veiled in those parts, which are further from the centre, where She is in Herself. Thus, for the sake of linear explanation, the mineral world—the solid matter—would have to be situated the furthest from Her, because there, as for instance in stone, She—Life Herself—is, much veiled, stone to the ordinary human view appearing to be dead. Nearer to Her is the realm of plants, where, with their growing and blossoming, She already becomes more apparent.... Then, in due order with regard to Her would come the world of animals, which being animated have within their life—although perhaps still unconsciously—some access to Her. Lastly, within the highly developed organism of man She, for the first time, is inherent in her essential being. There She finds the possibility of being consciously awakened, so that she appears to him, who is looking and striving for her, in Her true nature as Shakti herself.

The Indian Religion of the Goddess Shakti
DR. HANS KOESTER

The original conception of the goddess is that of Mother Earth

Primordial Goddess (Mythic)

What we know about prehistoric goddess traditions comes to us from archaeological record and remnants of oral traditions, such as the"Old Woman"of the Aboriginals in Australia. The original conception of the goddess is that of Mother Earth, the sacred female force responsible for the creation of the earth and all its flora and fauna. The goddess was the universal soul, who accepted plant, animal, and human matter in death in order to create new life from the remains. Original depictions of the Primordial Goddess are symbolic and date back to the Paleolithic era (Lower Paleolithic 2,500,000 B.C. to 120,000 B.C.; Middle Paleolithic, from 300,000 to 30,000 B.C.; and Upper Paleolithic 30,000 to 10,000 B.C.). Many images represent the vulva, often with a seed or an eye. Depicting a seed was a way to link the female body with the reproductive capabilities of nature. Believed by many scholars to have been part of early goddess worship traditions, some have theorized that these images could be linked to early matrilinear or even gynocratic practices in which women, particularly mothers, were responsible for governing the community.

Worship of the Primordial Goddess flourished during the Upper Paleolithic era, and many scholars believe that during this period, the female body was used to explain the phenomena that prehistoric people observed in nature. The goddess, as the divine creator, was mirrored in each woman's body; she was linked to the changing seasons, the behaviors of the animals that early people hunted, and the various observable cosmological patterns. The cycles of nature were reflected in the cycles of the female body, such as menstruation, pregnancy, birth, and lactation. Stylized images of the female body have been found on cave floors, most of them emphasizing only one body part, such as the breasts, genitals, or buttocks; this anatomical emphasis may have linked the feature's biological function with other observable processes in nature, such as animal reproduction, the growth and flowering of plants, or the cycles of the moon.

Beginning in the late Paleolithic period and continuing throughout the Neolithic era (around 10,000 B.C.), a major transition took place in which people began to live in organized communities, to domesticate animals, and to farm. With the end of nomadic life came a dramatic shift in ideology. Although the Primordial Goddess was the original model, as later goddess traditions developed, she was given different roles according to the beliefs and spiritual needs of the people who worshipped her. The tradition of the Mother Earth Goddess can be seen reflected in many different conceptions of the divine feminine including the Greek mother goddess, Gaea, the original inspiration for the Primordial Goddess place setting. Regardless of the many forms she takes that are celebrated globally, all goddess traditions owe something to the early worship of and appreciation for the Primordial Goddess.

Primordial Goddess (Mythic)
www.brooklynmuseum.org/

Translations, Editions, and Secondary Sources

Ann, Martha, and Dorothy Myers Imel. Goddesses in World Mythology. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993
Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. 1987; reprint ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Goddess and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Husain, Shahrukh. The Goddess: Power, Sexuality, and the Feminine Divine. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
Leeming, David Adams. Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Sjoo, Monica. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. 1987; 2nd ed., San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Sprout, Barbara, ed. Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World. 1979; reprint ed., San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1991.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. San Diego: Harvest Books, 1978.