Acronym Definition
MOMH Management Object Model Home
MOMH Message Oriented Middleware Home
MOMH Please Wait A Moment Home
MOMH Machines of Madness Home
MOMH Macs of Marin Home
MOMH Made of Money Home
MOMH Mainframe Order Management (Sprint) Home
MOMH Maintenance Operations Management Home
MOMH Major of Marines Home
MOMH Man of the Match Home
MOMH Man On the Move Home
MOMH Man-Overboard Module (navigation/GPS) Home
MOMH Managed Object Manager Home
MOMH Manager Of Managers Home
MOMH Manufacturing Operations Manager Home
MOMH Many On Many Home
MOMH Mars Observer Mission Home
MOMH Mask of Madness (gaming) Home
MOMH Master of Magic (computer game) Home
MOMH Mean Old Man Home
MOMH Mean Old MOMH Home
MOMH Measures Of Merit Home
MOMH Mechanics of Materials Home
MOMH Medical Opportunities in Michigan Home
MOMH Meg O'Malley's (Melbourne, FL pub) Home
MOMH Member of Management Home
MOMH Men on A Mission Home
MOMH Message-Oriented Middleware Home
MOMH Metal Oxide Metal Home
MOMH Method Of Moment Home
MOMH Methods of Mayhem Home
MOMH Methoxymethyl Home
MOMH Microsoft Office Manager (Microsoft Office 98 - Macintosh Edition) Home
MOMH Microsoft Operations Manager (Microsoft) Home
MOMH Middle of Month Home
MOMH Military Official Mail Home
MOMH military ordinary mail (US DoD) Home
MOMH Militia Of Montana Home
MOMH Milk of Magnesia Home
MOMH Mind Over Matter (NIDA youth drug abuse program) Home
MOMH Mind Over Matter, Inc. Home
MOMH Minions of Mirth (Mmorpg computer game) Home
MOMH Minister of Music Home
MOMH Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter) Home
MOMH Ministry of Manpower (Singapore) Home
MOMH Ministry of Mayhem (iTV Saturday morning kids TV show) Home
MOMH Minobschmash (Ministry of General Machine Building, USSR) Home
MOMH Minutes Of Meeting Home
MOMH Mise En Ordre de Marche (Informatique) Home
MOMH Missiles of Magic (gaming) Home
MOMH Mission Omega Matrix (The Famous Jett Jackson TV show) Home
MOMH Mission Operations Manager (NASA) Home
MOMH Missouri Meerschaum Company (maker of corncob pipes) Home
MOMH Mixed Orientation Marriage (straight person married to a gay person) Home
MOMH Mobile Operations Module (X-34 Vehicle) Home
MOMH Mobile Originated Message Home
MOMH Modular Ocean Model Home
MOMH Modulation Output Mode (Agilent) Home
MOMH Momentary (electronic switches) Home
MOMH Monmouth-Ocean-Middlesex (proposed New Jersey rail line) Home
MOMH Month on Month Home
MOMH Most Outstanding Mother Home
MOMH Mothers of Multiples Home
MOMH Mothers on the Move (New York) Home
MOMH Motion Odyssey Movie (Jordan's Furniture store ride) Home
MOMH Motorcycle Owner's Manual Home
MOMH Mouse on Mars (website) Home
MOMH Multi-Objective Model Home
MOMH Multiples of the Median Home
MOMH Music for Our Mother earth (song) Home
MOMH Must Obey Me Home
MOMH Moment Home
MOMH Multiple Office Municipal d'Habitation
MOMH Multiple Office of Mental Health
MOMH Mental Office of Minority Health
MOMH My Oh My Heavens
MOMH Multiple Ohhh... My Head.. (beer rating organization)
MOMH Multiple On My Honor
MOMH My Orange County
MOMH My Outta My Hands
MomH Mom Home
A mother is a biological and/or social female parent of an offspring. In the
case of a mammal such as a human, the biological mother gestates a fertilized
ovum, which is called first an embryo, and then a fetus. This gestation occurs
in the mother's uterus from conception until the fetus is sufficiently developed
to be born. The mother then goes into labor and gives birth. Once the child is
born, the mother produces milk in a process called lactation to feed the child;
often the mother's breast milk is the child's sole nourishment for the first
year or more of the child's life.
The title mother is often given to a woman other than biological parent, if it
is she who fulfills the social role. This is most commonly either an adoptive
mother or a stepmother (the biologically unrelated wife of a child's father).
Currently, with advances in reproductive technologies, the function of
biological motherhood can be split between the genetic mother (who provides the
ovum) and the gestational mother (who carries the pregnancy), and in theory
neither might be the social mother (the one who brings up the child).
Mothers have historically fulfilled the primary role in the raising of children,
but since the late 20th century, the role of the father in child care has been
given greater prominence in most Western countries.
The experience of motherhood varies greatly depending upon location. The
organization Save the Children has ranked the countries of the world, and found
that Scandinavian countries are the best places to be a mother, whereas
countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the worst. A mother in the bottom 10
countries is over 750 times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth,
compared to a mother in the top 10 countries, and a mother in the bottom 10
countries is 28 times more likely to see her child die before reaching his or
her first birthday.
Synonyms and translations
Familiar or colloquial terms for mother in English are:
* mum or mummy, is used in the UK, most of Canada (especially Eastern Canada),
Australia, and New Zealand; and also in some parts of Western
Pennsylvania.
* mom or mommy, in most of North America (especially the U.S.). Mommy is
considered baby talk. Most children in these regions switch to the term mom as
they approach the teen years. This term is also used in the British West
Midlands and in the Philippines; in the latter, mommy is used by many adults.
* mam or mammy, North Wales, the South Wales valleys, Ireland, North and the
East Midlands of England;
* mama and ma, in parts of the middle east, Latin America, other
Spanish-speaking cultures and The Netherlands. Mama is often used in rural areas
of the midwest and south eastern regions of the US. Ma is a common term in
various parts of the US including the north east.
* In French the term "Maman" and certain other languages influenced by e.g. "persian".
* In many other languages, similar pronunciations apply; mama in Polish, māma in
Mandarin Chinese, máma in Czech, maman in French, or mamma in Italian, or mãe in
Portuguese. Mama, borrowed from the English, is in common use in Japan. In
Hebrew the word is eema (אמא), and in many south Asian cultures and the Middle
East the mother is known as amma or oma or ammi or "ummi", or variations
thereof. Many times these terms denote affection or a maternal role in a child's
life.
In North American social, cultural and political discourse, soccer mom broadly
refers to an middle- or upper-middle class woman working and
having school-age children. The male equivalent, soccer dad, is less-used.
The term has been traced to Ludlow, Massachusetts, where a report came out that
a man absconded with $3,150 raised for the benefit of a local soccer league. It
is unclear whether a newspaper story or a television news report was the first
to use the term. The term came into widespread use in the 1990s, notably
during the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns and has been in use ever since.
In a literal definition, soccer moms have children who play soccer. The term has
become shorthand for a stereotype, or set of stereotypes, far beyond its literal
meaning.
In Australia
The phrase "soccer mum" has recently started to be used in Australia in the
context of Australian national politics. In May 2007, the conservative Liberal
Party government announced that families will receive up to $8,000 per child in
a one-off election-year bonus to reduce the cost of childcare. It was reported
that the payments were aimed at the group known politically as "the soccer
mums".
In popular culture
These are books, films and other media relating to this cultural concept.
* "Soccer Moms," a poem by Paul Muldoon, was originally published in The New
Yorker, and it appears in Horse Latitudes (2006).
* "Soccer Moms" is a controversial painting by Philadelphia artist Anthony
Swanson (2007).
* "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" by Everclear is a humorous take on soccer moms and
how they were out of control teens.
* Many members of the United States women's national soccer team are, in fact,
mothers who play soccer.
* As an adult film genre: there are a few series of MILF oriented adult films
that play on the soccer mom cultural concept. This is strictly a US Adult Film
Industry title phenomenon that has not spread outside the U.S.
* Popular American Punk Band The Vandals recorded a song 'Soccer Mom' on the
album Internet Dating Superstuds.
* In the "Mind Over Murder" episode of the American animated television series
Family Guy, Peter is at a soccer game and asks: "Quagmire, what are you doing
here?" Quagmire then responds "Oh, you know, soccer moms" then points at a group
of attractive women and says, "Hehe, all right!"
A mother goddess is a goddess, often portrayed as the Earth Mother, who serves
as a general fertility deity, the bountiful embodiment of the Earth. As such,
not all goddesses should be viewed as manifestations of the mother goddess. This
goddess is depicted in Western traditions in many variations, from the rock-cut
images of Cybele to Dione ("the Goddess")who was invoked at Dodona along with
Zeus, until late Classical times. In the Homeric Hymns (7-6 century BC) there is
a hymn to the mother goddess called "Hymn to Gaia, Mother of All". The Sumerians
wrote many erotic poems about their mother goddess Ninhursag (Sex & Eroticism in
Mesopotamian Literature, G, Leick, Routledge, 2003).
Contention
Clearly, deities fitting the modern conception of the "Mother Goddesses" as a
type have been revered in many societies through to modern times. James Frazer
(author of The Golden Bough) and those he influenced (such as Robert Graves and
Marija Gimbutas) advanced the theory that all worship in Europe and the Aegean
that involved any kind of mother goddess had originated in Pre-Indo-European
neolithic matriarchies, and that their diverse goddesses were equivalent or
derived from that concept.
Although the type has been well accepted as a useful category for mythography,
the idea that all such goddesses were believed in ancient times to be
interchangeable has been countered in 1968 by archaeologist Peter Ucko, who
proposes instead that the many images found in graves and archaeological sites
of these ancient cultures were toys.
Paleolithic figures
Several small, corpulent figures have been found during archaeological
excavations of the Upper Paleolithic, the Venus of Willendorf, perhaps, being
the most famous. It is estimated to have been carved 24,000–22,000 BCE. Some
archaeologists believe they were intended to represent goddesses, while others
believe that they could have served some other purpose. These figurines predate
the available records of the goddesses listed below as examples by many
thousands of years, so although they seem to conform to the same generic type,
it is not clear whether they, indeed, were representations of a goddess or that,
if they are, there was any continuity of religion that connects them with Middle
Eastern and Classical deities.
The Paleolithic period extends from 2.5 million years ago to the introduction of
agriculture around 10,000 BCE. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans
migrated to the Western Hemisphere before the end of the Paleolithic. It is the
prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools, and covers the
greatest portion of humanity's time on Earth.
Neolithic figures
This statue menhir, la Dame de Saint-Sernin, now in musée Fenaille de Rodez was
discovered in southern France
This statue menhir, la Dame de Saint-Sernin, now in musée Fenaille de Rodez was
discovered in southern France
Diverse images of Mother Goddesses also have been discovered that date from the
Neolithic period, the New Stone Age, which ranges from approximately 10,000 BCE
when the use of wild cereals led to the beginning of farming, and eventually, to
agriculture. The end of this Neolithic period is characterized by the
introduction of metal tools as the skill appeared to spread from one culture to
another, or arise independently as a new phase in an existing tool culture, and
eventually became widespread among humans. Regional differences in the
development of this stage of tool development are quite varied. In other parts
of the world, such as Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, independent
domestication events led to their own regionally-and distinctive Neolithic
cultures arose independently in Europe and Southwest Asia. During this time,
native cultures appear in the Western Hemisphere, arising out of older
traditions that were carried during migration. Regular seasonal occupation or
permanent settlements begin to be seen in excavations. Herding and keeping of
cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs is evidenced along with the presence of dogs.
Almost without exception, images of what are interpreted as Mother Goddesses
have been discovered in all of these cultures.
Examples of the mother goddess type of deity
There is no dispute that many ancient cultures worshipped female deities who
match the modern conception of a "mother goddess" as part of their pantheons.
The following are examples.
Egyptian
Statuette of Mut, mother, often interpreted as representing one of the earliest
mother goddesses of Egypt
Statuette of Mut, mother, often interpreted as representing one of the earliest
mother goddesses of Egypt
Mother goddesses are present in the earliest images discovered among the
archaeological finds in Ancient Egypt. One figure of a deity, depicted standing
between two lionesses, exists among those on one of the earliest paintings found
among the Naqada Culture.
An association with animals seen as good mothers—the lioness, cow, hippopotamus,
white vulture, cobra, scorpion, and cat—as well as the life-giving primordial
waters, the sun, and the night sky and the earth herself—is drawn to the early
goddesses of Egypt.
Even through the transition to a paired pantheon of male deities matched or
"married" to each goddess, reached a later male deity dominated pantheon that
arose much later, the mother goddesses persisted into historical times (such as
Hathor and Isis). Advice from the oracles associated with these goddesses guided
the rulers of Egypt and the tradition spread to other ancient cultures.
The image of Isis nursing her son was worshipped into the sixth century A.D. and
has been resurrected by contemporary "cults" of an Earth Mother. Some suggest
that the reverence for the mother of Jesus took the place of the worship of Isis
that could not be suppressed, including incorporating the imagery associated
with Hathor-Isis from three thousand years before Christianity.
Sumerian, Mesopotamian, and Greek
Tiamat in Sumerian mythology, Ishtar (Inanna), and Ninsun in Mesopotamia,
Asherah in Canaan, `Ashtart in Syria, and Aphrodite in Greece, for example.
Celtic
The Irish goddess Anu, sometimes known as Danu, has an impact as a mother
goddess, judging from the Dá Chích Anann near Killarney, County Kerry. Irish
literature names the last and most favored generation of deities as "the people
of Danu" (Tuatha de Dannan).
Germanic
In the 1st century BC, Tacitus recorded rites amongst the Germanic tribes
focused on the female goddess Nerthus, whom he calls Terra Mater, 'Mother
Earth'. Prominent in these rites was the procession of the goddess in a wheeled
vehicle through the countryside. Among the seven or eight tribes said to worship
her, Tacitus lists the Anglii and the Longobardi. A nearly unbroken chain of
evidence of her worship can be found in the historical records of these people.
Among the Anglo-Saxons (Tacitus' Anglii), a Christian incantation known as the ?cerbót,
involving a procession through the fields while calling upon the Christian God
for a good harvest, invokes 'eortan modor' (Earth Mother) and 'folde, fira modor,'
(Earth, mother of men), whom many scholars identify as a pagan goddess. There,
the Christian god, in place of the ancient Indo-European sky-father, is called
upon to impregnate her with his seed, so that she may become fertile in his
embrace. The account of the procession that accompanies this invocation is
reminiscent of the procession of Nerthus, and supported by the accounts of other
wagon processions in medieval Europe, labeled as heathen and prohibited by the
Church. The most famous of these is the procession of the god Freyr found in the
Flateyjarbók, Ogmundar táttr dytts. The Longobardians, on the other hand, in
their first historical record, pay homage to Frea, Godin's wife, who takes an
active part in their affairs. In this story, Frea turns the bed of her husband,
so that he catches sight of her favorites the Winnilli upon waking. He asks "who
are these long-beards"? With that, Frea demands he give them victory in battle,
as he has given them a name. Thereafter, they are known as the Longobardi, and
enter history as the Lombards. This tale, told in the History of the Lombards by
Paul the Deacon, is the earliest record of Odin and Frigg as a divine pair. They
next appear together with their son Baldur in central Germany in the Second
Merseburg Charm.
In Central Germany, we find legends of Frau Holle throughout the Middle Ages.
She appears as a helpful goddess, in charge of spinning and household affairs.
She rides through the countryside during the Twelve-nights, sometimes asking
local peasants for assistance repairing her wagon. Those who help are rewarded
with woodchips or dung, which they soon discover turns to gold. Among her many
names are Holda, Berchta, Perht, and Frekka, the last of which directly connects
her to Odin's wife Frigg. Many German harvest customs surround both Odin (Wotan,
Godan, Wold) and Frau Holle. In several German legends, she is known as Frau
Goden, and connected to the Wild Hunt. Goden is simply another name for Odin,
again indicating that Frau Holle is most likely a remembrance of Odin's wife,
Frigg. In Snorri Sturlusson's Prose Edda, a handbook on poetry written more than
two centuries after the Christian conversion of Iceland, Earth and Frigg,
however, are presented as independent entities.
It seems apparent that to the heathen poets Frigg was the goddess who
represented the earth. Frigg has been named as Odin's wife, since their earliest
historical appearance. In Icelandic poetry from the heathen era, the kenning
"Odin's wife" is a common designation for the Earth. Bynames of the Earth in
Icelandic poetry include J?re, Fj?rgyn, Hlóeyn and Hlín.In skaldic poetry, Hlín
is used as a byname of both J?re and Frigg. Fj?rgynr (a masculine form of
Fj?rgyn) is said to be Frigg's father, while the name Hlóeyn is most commonly
linked to Frau Holle, as well as to a goddess, Hludana, whose name is found
eteched in several votive inscriptions from the Roman era. Frigg's character as
an earth goddess is best evidenced in the Baldur myth, where she requests all
earthly things to do her son no harm. The one thing she omits is the mistletoe,
which does not sprout in the earth, but hangs as a parasite from trees. Upon his
return from the underworld, Odin's messenger Hermod, presents Frigg with a veil
and a reproducing ring, both appropriate gifts for the Earth mother. The veil is
best interpreted as spring vegetation which originates underground to beautiful
the earth, after the spring thaw, explicitly represented in the myth by all
things weeping for Baldur's return, as they do when they move "from cold into
heat".
Connections have been proposed between the figure of Nerthus and various figures
(particularly figures counted amongst the Vanir) recorded in 13th century
Icelandic records of Norse mythology, including Frigg. Due to potential
etymological connections, the figure of Njord has been proposed as the consort
of Nerthus. In the Eddaic poem Lokasenna, Nj?rd is said to have fathered his
famous children by his own sister. This sister remains unnamed. Once Frigg is
recognized as the Germanic Earth Mother, her role as sister of Nj?rd and the
mother of the fertility twins Frey and Freyja becomes an ever increasing
probability.
M Grendel's mother#Debate concerning the nature of Grendel's mother
Due to specific terms used to describe the figure of Grendel's mother from the
poem Beowulf, some scholars have proposed that the figure of Grendel's mother,
like the poem itself, may have derived from earlier traditions originating from
Germanic paganism.
Turkic Siberians
Umai, also known as Ymai or Mai, is the mother goddess of the Turkic Siberians.
She is depicted as having sixty golden tresses, that resemble the rays of the
sun. She is thought to have once been identical with Ot of the Mongols.
It is interesting to note that Shiva's consort is called Parvati and also Uma.
And in India the mother worship also is called Devi Maa or Maya. Both imply
linguistic links.
Farther to the west in Turkey, the Neolithic settlement from 7500 BC, ?atalh?yük,
has yielded many examples of worship of a mother goddess. Examples found show
that images of the goddess greatly exceeded the small number of a male deity
found in early associations and that the male images eventually ceased to appear
at all after a certain time, as evidenced in the temporal stratification of the
excavations of the site. To date eighteen levels have been identified. These
careful figurines were found primarily in areas Mellaart believed to be shrines.
One, however – a stately goddess seated on a throne flanked by two lionesses –
was found in a grain bin, which Mellaart suggests might have been a means of
ensuring the harvest or protecting the food supply. The image to the right was
found in excavations there and depicts a Mother Goddess seated on a throne that
is flanked by two lionesses. It is dated as c. 6000-5500 BC and resides in the
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
In the Aegean, Anatolian, and ancient Near Eastern culture zones, a mother
goddess was worshipped in the forms of Cybele (revered in Rome as Magna Mater,
the 'Great Mother'), of Gaia, and of Rhea.
The Olympian goddesses of classical Greece had many characters with mother
goddess attributes, including Hera and Demeter.
The Minoan goddess represented in seals and other remains, whom Greeks called
Potnia theron, "Mistress of the Animals", many of whose attributes were later
also absorbed by Artemis, seems to have been a mother goddess type, for in some
representations she suckles the animals that she holds.
The archaic local goddess worshiped at Ephesus, whose cult statue was adorned
with necklaces and stomachers hung with rounded protuberances who was later also
identified by Hellenes with Artemis, was probably also a mother goddess.
The Anna Perenna Festival of the Greeks and Romans for the New Year, around
March 15, near the Vernal Equinox, may have been a mother goddess festival.
Since the Sun is considered the source of life and food, this festival was also
equated with the Mother Goddess.
Roman
Aphrodite's counterpart in Roman mythology, Venus, eventually was adopted as a
Mother Goddess figure. She was seen as the mother of the Roman people, being the
mother of Rome's ancestor, Aeneas, and the ancestor of all subsequent Roman
rulers, and by the time of Julius Caesar's era, she was dubbed "Venus Genetrix"
(Mother Venus).
Magna Dea is Latin for "Great Goddess" and may refer to any major goddess
worshipped during the Roman Republic or Roman Empire. Magna Dea could be applied
to a goddess at the head of a pantheon, such as Juno or Minerva, or a goddess
worshipped monotheistically. Juno may have origins in the Etruscan mother
goddess deity as well, whose identity merged with the Roman goddess later.
Hinduism
In the Hindu context, the worship of the Mother entity can be traced back to
early Vedic culture, and perhaps, even before that time. The Rigveda calls the
divine female power, Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which literally means
Mother Earth.
At places, the Vedic literature alludes to her as Viraj, the universal mother,
as Aditi, the mother of gods, and as Ambhrini, the one born of the Primeval
Ocean. Durga represents the empowering and protective nature of motherhood. An
incarnation of Durga is Kali, who came from her forehead during war (as a means
of defeating Durga's enemy, Mahishasura). Durga and her incarnations are
particularly worshipped in Bengal.
Today, Devi is seen in manifold forms, all representing the creative force in
the world, as Maya and prakriti, the force that galvanizes the divine ground of
existence into self-projection as the cosmos. She is not merely the Earth,
although even this perspective is covered by Parvati (Durga's previous
incarnation).
All of the various Hindu female entities are seen as forming many faces of the
same female Divinity. However mother and nursing child imagery has been found in
Hindu art, namely the depiction of Yashoda and Krishna.
In Sanskrit there is the term Yaganmatri for Mother of the Universe.
This form of Hinduism, known as Shaktism, is strongly associated with Vedanta,
Samkhya, and Tantra Hindu philosophies and is ultimately monist, although there
is a rich tradition of Bhakti yoga associated with it. The feminine energy,
Shakti, is considered to be the motive force behind all action and existence in
the phenomenal cosmos in Hinduism. The cosmos itself is Brahman, the concept of
the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality that is the Divine
Ground of all being, the "world soul".
Masculine potentiality is actualized by feminine dynamism, embodied in
multitudinous goddesses who are ultimately reconciled in one.
The keystone text is the Devi Mahatmya which combines earlier Vedic theologies,
emergent Upanishadic philosophies and developing tantric cultures in a laudatory
exegesis of Shakti religion. Demons of ego, ignorance, and desire bind the soul
in maya (illusion) (also alternately ethereal or embodied) and it is Mother
Maya, Shakti, herself, who can free the bonded individual. The immanent Mother,
Devi, is for this reason focused on with intensity, love, and self-dissolving
concentration in an effort to focus the shakta (as a Shakti worshipper is
sometimes known) on the true reality underlying time, space, and causation, thus
freeing one from karmic cyclism.
Christianity
Some Christians regard Mary, the Theotokos (or mother of God) for many
believers, as a "spiritual mother," since she not only fulfills a maternal role,
but is often viewed as a protective and intercessory force, a divinely
established mediator for humanity, but she is not worshiped as a divine "mother
goddess" officially. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches identify
"the woman" described in Revelation 12 as the Virgin Mary because in verse 5
this woman is said to have given "birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule
all the nations with an iron rod" whom they identify as Jesus Christ. Then, in
verse 17 of Revelation 12, the Bible describes "the rest of her offspring" as
"those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus." These Christians
believe themselves to be the other "offspring" because they try to "keep God's
commandments and bear witness to Jesus," and thus they embrace Mary as their
"mother". They also cite John 19:26-27 where Jesus entrusts his mother to the
Apostle John as evidence that Mary is the mother of all Christians, taking the
command "behold your mother" to apply generally.
The Virgin Mary receives many titles in Catholicism, such as Queen of Heaven and
Star of the Sea, that are familiar from earlier Near Eastern traditions. Due to
this correlation, Protestants often accuse Catholics of viewing Mary as a
goddess, but the Catholic Church always has condemned "worship" of the Virgin
Mary. Part of this accusation is due to the Catholic practice of prayer as a
means of communication rather than as a means of worship. Catholics believe that
the dead who followed their God, have eternal life and can hear prayers in
heaven from people here on earth.
The Bible refers to the personified Heavenly Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in feminine
terms. Most Christians who are Catholics believe that "God the Father" is
masculine and that Jesus was a man; and further, that "the Church" is the female
counterpart of God and is the Bride of Jesus.
Some Christians do not agree on this teaching and assert that God subsumes and
transcends both masculinity and femininity. From their point of view the
grammatical gender used to address the deity is a mere convention, and the
masculine designations for the persons of the Trinity characterize a
relationship and not gender, per se. However, this is a relatively recent
phenomenah, and as such, would have constituted heresy for most of the early
history of Christianity.
(left) A bronze statue of Isis nursing Horus from Ptolemaic Egypt; (right) A
famous mediaeval icon of Mary and Jesus
(left) A bronze statue of Isis nursing Horus from Ptolemaic Egypt; (right) A
famous mediaeval icon of Mary and Jesus
Some of the Black Madonna icons are believed by some to derive from depictions
of ancient goddesses, in particular the Egyptian Goddess Isis with her child
Horus sitting on her lap. Medieval images of Mary and Jesus share this
similarity, as well.
In many languages, such as Syriac, the word translated "spirit" takes the
feminine gender. In early Christian literature in these languages, the Holy
Spirit is therefore discussed in feminine terms, especially before c. A.D. 400.
Some scholars argue that it was based upon an original goddess figure who was
minimized in later traditions .
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church)
believe in, but do not worship, a Heavenly Mother, the wife and female
counterpart—and equal of the Heavenly Father . This belief is not emphasized,
however, and adherents pray to the "Father in Heaven."
Neopaganism
The Mother Goddess, amalgamated and combined with various feminine figures from
world cultures of both the past and present, is worshipped by modern Wiccans and
others (see Triple Goddess). The mother goddess is usually viewed as Mother
Earth by these groups.
Wiccans and some other types Neo-Pagans worship the Mother Goddess. Most
commonly she is worshiped as a Triple Goddess; usually envisioned as the Maiden,
Mother, and Crone archetypes. She is associated with the full moon and with
Earth. Many ancient Pagan religions had mother goddesses; it has been argued
that the figure of Mary the mother of Jesus is patterned on these.
The term "Great Goddess" itself can refer to a mother goddess in some
contemporary Neopagan and Wiccan religions
Even among those who are not Pagan, expressions such as Mother Earth and Mother
Nature are in common usage, personifying the Earth's ecology as a fertile and
sustaining mother.
Earth Mother
The Earth Mother is a motif that appears in many mythologies. The Earth Mother
is a fertile goddess embodying the fertile earth and typically the mother of
other deities, and so, also are seen as patronesses of motherhood. This is
generally thought of as being because the earth was seen as being the mother
from whom all life sprang.
The Rigveda calls the Female power, Mahimata (R.V. 1.164.33), a term which
literally means Mother Earth.
In Fiction
In Gore Vidal's ironic dystopia "Messiah", a new death-worshipping religion
sweeps the world and wipes out Christianity. Yet at the conclusion of the book,
a woman named Iris, who was among the new religion's founders, starts to be
worshipped as a new manifestation of the Mother Goddess, though there was no
such concept when the religion was founded. Vidal's point was clearly to show
that worship of the Mother Goddess is an immemorial institute and would find a
manifestation within whatever religion emerges
In North American social, cultural and political discourse, soccer mom broadly
refers to a middle-class woman who spends a significant amount of her time
transporting her school-age children to activities such as soccer practice. The
male equivalent, soccer dad, is less-used.
Defining the soccer mom
The term has been traced to Ludlow, Massachusetts, where a report came out that
a man absconded with $3,150 raised for the benefit of a local soccer league. It
is unclear whether a newspaper story or a television news report was the first
to use the term. The term came into widespread use in the 1990s, notably during
the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns and has been in use ever since.
In a literal definition, soccer moms have children who play soccer. The term has
been extended in popular culture to include mothers anxiously running their
children errands in minivans while chatting on their cell phones. To some extent
the phrase has begun taken on a negative stigma. The car manufacturer Nissan,
who had for several years courted the "soccer-mom" image, repositioned its Quest
minivan as "stylish, sexy and desirable".
In Australia
The phrase soccer mum has been used in Australia in the context of Australian
national politics. In May 2007, the conservative Liberal Party government
announced that families will receive up to $8,000 per child in a one-off
election-year bonus to reduce the cost of childcare. It was reported that the
payments were aimed at the group known politically as "the soccer mums".
In popular culture
Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any
relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2008)
This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources.
Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)
These are books, films and other media relating to this cultural concept.
* "Soccer Moms," a poem by Paul Muldoon, was originally published in The New
Yorker and appears in Horse Latitudes (2006).
* Everclear performed a song entitled "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom".
* U.S. punk band The Vandals included a song entitled "Soccer Mom" on their
album Internet Dating Superstuds.

RuneScape has often been one of
the top massive online role playing games. It is a unique game. But, with a
unique game, comes unique players. Players get bored, and then try to develop
cheats....autos or bots that will help them achieve success in their beloved
games of Runescape 2.
RuneScape is a virtual world which
is divided into two part: Members Areas and Non-Members areas. People who pay to
play (p2p), receive access to the special areas. They also have access to the
free areas. The members' places are much larger, offer "better" items for the
gameplay of rs2, and much, much more. The character that you create when you
first start playing runescape, moves around the game on foot; either by running,
or walking. Players are challenged to their utmost skills by fighting new
monsters, completing difficult quests, and manipulating marketing. As Runescape
2 is an RPG (Role playing game), there is no set path a person must take to play
rs. They can choose what to do, and when, whether it be training their
money-making skills, or fighting another player. Players usually interact with
each other by chatting through public chat, or private chat.Internet
Junction For Gamers, Runescape Market and More IJFG.COM IJFG.com was a
runescape 2 based site. They have now, however, taken another look....
Of course the king of all game
cheating websites is
trick
the trik (otherwise known as RPG Cheats Site), where you can find cheat
forums, mmorpg topsite, arcade games and any mmo game related topics.
The master of massive multiplayer
online role-playing games (MMORPG) cheats can be found at Trik.com
Trik.com; this site is one of the best today. The forum section,
Trik.com forum, originally came from IJFG.com (Internet Junction For
Gamers) , which was one of the best websites that discussed various gamers'
issues. The full name was Internet Junction For Gamers, Runescape Market and
More. This site had Jokes, Pranks, RuneScape and other cool games. RuneScape is
set in a medieval fantasy world, similar to "Guild Wars" or "EverQuest," where
players control character representations of themselves. As with most MMORPG,
there is no overall objective or end to the game. Players explore, form
alliances, perform optional tasks, and complete quests for rewards and to build
characters' skills.
Trik.com continues IJFG.com's
success, but Trik.com has more to offer. Trik Topsite can be found at
Trik Topsite; the TopSite is a great addition if you want to find the best
MMO RPG site(s) or raise your site in the rankings. Trik.com also has a
viciously competitive Arcade. If you want to be the #1 Arcade on Trik, then come
prove yourself at Trik.com arcade:
Trik arcade. Trik.com ?Trik.com/topsite ?Trik.com/forum/arcade.php
With the rising popularity of
commercial MMORPG games came the desire from ardent players of these games to
run their own servers beside the ones run by the game's creator. Since the
original server software is not usually available, the behavior of the server
has to be re-engineered. This can be done by analyzing the data stream with the
original server, or by disassembling and analyzing the client which is
available.
Ultima Online was one of the first
large MMORPGs. Due to its openness in implementation, server emulators arose
very quickly, even during the beta stage of development. The destination to
which the client connects was changeable by simply editing a text file. In beta
stage the client-server data stream was not encrypted yet. The term server
emulator became known through Ultima Online server reimplementation such as UOX,
which was the pioneer. Many forks and reimplementations followed UOX, because
its source code was released under the GNU General Public License relatively
early. RunUO is today the most widely used UO-server emulator. After RuneScape
implemented anti-cheating measures, many gamers left and started their own
private servers. The best place to discuss the private server is at
Trik- The Master of Private Server.
Another useful site is
Rune
Web ruwb.com . This site is about more serious RuneScape gold trading,
account exchange, gold for real life cash and many services. It includes tips on
how to avoid getting lured/scammed while using the marketplace. For programming,
visual basics, java, C/C++, scar and all other languages such as PHP, HTML, ASP,
Delphi. There are also sections for graphics talents, plus many cool videos and
fun stuff.
A defining moment in internet
gaming history was when a group of gamers called (hygo 7) decided to start an
ultimate game forum, which they named
hygo.com. It has the best financial backing, the friendliest game community,
and the highest quality of information. Currently Hygo.com has entered a new
phase...Hygo.com is offering the best private server game. With thousands of
members, Hygo.com is your next place to visit, as they have an amazing game with
a community and economy.
Hygo.com - The Online Adventure Game. is definitely one of the top sites you
want to join right now!

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