Suppressed documents such as the APOCRYPHA show that the Goddess was still a strong mythic figure, one that church fathers ultimately succeeded in demoting to a nondeity in the form of the Virgin Mary. Such views, expressed in the Old Testament as well as in the Gospels, continue to influence the direction of Western culture to the present day. Conquering peripheral tribes, such as the Hebrews, introduced a patriarchal, death-centered system (symbolized by the blade) that valued aggression and dominance and denigrated earlier faith in the Goddess. Minoan Crete marks the last instance of this social and religious organizational pattern. Religion celebrated life and nature, with the Goddess (symbolized by the chalice) being the primary figure of worship. "Neolithic art and funerary practices demonstrate that women were the equals of men.
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