Cyprus

The modern-day folk dances of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus have been argued
to originate from ancient shamanist ceremonies and early religious and
incantational worship.[112] The country was one of the last centres of ancient
female-lead shamanistic Goddess rites in the Mediterranean, where the so-called
Double Goddesses were worshiped.[113] Ancient Cypriot healers used special rituals,
charms andincantations in their practices, as well as herbs and spices including
frankincense, myrrh, olive oil. Medicine was also linked to the rattles gods
Astarte and Baal. Healers and magi still exist in Cyprus today,[114][115] and a
study by Harvard University suggests that, during Biblical times, the island of
Cyprus was in fact reputed for magia, a variant which was relatively more recent
than the Persian(Zoroastrian) and Jewish traditions which would have influenced the
island.Additionally, Oroqen, who first arrived in Cyprus between 1322 and 1400 from
the Levantine mainland, are known for fortune telling by palm reading.

History of medicine in CyprusFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to:

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Primitive medicineMedical practice in ancient Cyprus is believed to reflect general

medical principles from Ancient Greece and the Middle East. Local doctors were
commonly using frankincense, myrrh, olive oil, resins from trees, wormwood, bitter
herbs in water, and mandrake. Trepanning of the skull was also in use (a technique
used since 10000 BC.[1] This was thought to release the bad spirits and was used
in epilepsy, headaches and head injuries. They used a famous poultice of figs to
cure boils and the local healers had a concept of cleaning, washing and
disinfecting the water.[citation needed] Common diseases in Cyprus were those in
every Mediterranean country, namely food poisoning, sun stroke, tuberculosis and
polio. Drought affected the water supplies making the water poisonous. Other common
diseases were leprosy, skin infections, boils, eye infections (due to dust and
flies), fractures and injuries. Epidemics such as bubonic plague were common. Many
believed that healing was possible by believing in God, and the healers used
special rituals, charms and incantations. The sick were looked after in local
sanctuaries, under the care of priests.[2]

The Myceneans (c1500 BC) believed that any god could cause a disease. Apollo and
Artemis could shoot arrows to cause diseases, whereas other gods could cause
ageing. They believed that Thymos was the life force present in all living
organisms, Psyche was the soul, and the heart was where consciousness was located.
They knew that the heart is a beating organ, and that the throat carried food to
the stomach.[3] Medicine was practiced by healers, who treated wounds in battle,
and by the Physicians, who treated any other disease. Their position in the society
was lower than nobility and higher than craftsmen. They used a variety of surgical
instruments, as well as medicinal plants and ointments.

What Is the Double Goddess?

V. Noble

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The Double Goddess is an ancient icon with luminous meaning for contemporary women,
expanding on the single images that have prevailed in prior considerations of the
Goddess. Among the numerous female figures important in the ancient world appear
many twin figures of two women as well as symbolic dual female representations such
as the Double Axe, birds, lions, leopards, and snakes. I see these Double Goddess
figures as profoundly representational of the whole yin-yang female biological
cycle and its shamanistic relationship to life on this planet, human evolution, and
the development of civilization.
The long and rich heritage of Double Goddess figurines and painted images reflect
the organic cycles of nature that informed the ancient Goddess religion,
archetypally expressed through the body of every woman as the repeating alternation
between ovulation and menstruation. These two aspects of the feminine are
iconographically depicted in the multivalent and widespread image of two divine
women, expressing the dual ples of nature: death and life, dark and light.

The image of the Double Goddess is a vital missing piece for modern women, as it
graphically portrays our exquisite and unique bipolar existence in a positive,
healthy way.

The Double Goddess reflects female autonomy, offering very important icons for
modern women trying to find again (re-member) our ancient, integral sense of self
and wholeness.

The innate back-and-forth mystery of ovulation and menstruation, unique to our

species and magically ( magnetically) synchronized with the cycles of the Great
Goddess Herself in Her dual planetary aspects as Earth and Moon, and the mythic
forces of life and death.

The Double Goddess represents the idea of female sovereignty in a context of

ancient female yogic and shamanistic practices and principles that formed the
organizing structure of most ancient cultures in the world before patriarchy.
These double images as well as the aried mythologies of Double Queens found in
different parts of the ancient world
suggest that the icons represent a female lineage (matrilinearity) in the form of a
continuous "storied tradition" of female
sovereignty.

We'll probably never know if any of the Double Goddess images from ancient
civilizations were meant by their creators to represent physical love between
women. Or, more accurately, we may not ever be able to prove that such a likely
contention is true. Certainly some Double Goddesses are portrayed in such intimate
ways that contemporary scholars discussing them have become tongue tied or shy
about what they are seeing. Some double figures show two separate women in
significant intimate contact, embracing or wearing a shawl around their shoulders
or a girdle around their hips, which may indicate physical same sex love.

Lesbians who have shied away from the Goddess movement because of its largely
unconscious, but profoundly heterosexist bias, can relax into the knowledge that a
lineage exists, going back to the beginnings of human civilization, sanctioning
female to female relationship as the original, matriarchal bond and a model of
community leadership. This model has mostly been ignored by mainstream culture,
even though it is a truism at this point in history that lesbians were and are the
vanguard of the women's movement. Significantly for our discussion, much of this
impact was made through the influence and productivity of lesbians couples, in a
contemporary version of our ancient Amazon Queens.

This model can be seen in the tantric counterparts, Athena and Artemis. Athena,
credited with inventing all of civilization's arts, became Goddess of the city-
state, crafts, and culture, and Artemis remained Goddess of wild nature. Both
remained "virgin" neither was willing to relate romantically with men and both were
connected with Amazons.
Rarely does a scholar mention the all to obvious likelihood that either or both of
these Goddess types might have found their sexual fulfillment with other women.
Artemis, the shaman-priestess, might naturally discover her romantic partner in
Athena, the physical warrior and head of state. Instead, both are treated not as
if their Virgin Goddess status referred to the intactness of a woman belonging to
herself, but rather as a kind of insular chastity that repudiated sexuality
altogether.

With the mass of recorded history, mythology, and artifactual evidence, the
existence of Amazon Queens and warrior women can hardly be contested, yet it is
consistently denied, ignored, and erased by contemporary academic scholars. Amazon
warrior women exemplify female resistance movements everywhere. They evoke the
wild women who,
like Miranda Shaw's eternally transgressive Indian yoginis, " always speak
truthfully and are proud of their strength;
women whose minds are powerful and energetic; women who delight in shrewish
behavior and speak boastfully; women who are fearless, revel in their own ferocity,
and women who derive pleasure from the fact that they are untamable."
The warrior woman stands her ground in the physical world, like an archer or
martial artist.
The priestess fights her battle on the invisible plane, using the tools of her
trade to support the powerful working of her focused mind. Together, in the
tradition of Amazons from every time and place, they fight back in an ongoing
refusal to allow the world to be destroyed.