Whenever I check on my blog statistics, I always find that the post I wrote about topless Minoan women is the number one in terms of hits. The female breast is such a source of titillation (ha!) in modern society, it's hard to wrap our minds around the idea that exposed breasts might have represented something other than sexual innuendo to the ancient Minoans. But we're pretty sure they did.

In addition to the frescoes and figurines that show women with exposed breasts, Minoan art also includes quite a few representations of animals suckling their young. The image at the top of this blog is a drawing of a faience plaque found at Knossos. It shows a mama goat suckling a kid. There's a similar plaque with a cow and her calf. Images of mother animals suckling their young - cattle, goats, sheep, even deer - appear on a number of Minoan seals.

The human breast has the same biological function as animal teats: to feed the young, to give them nourishment and a sense of comfort through a physical connection with their mother. What if this is the reason for all the exposed breasts in Minoan art - to remind us of the nurture and nourishment of the mother, both human and divine?

The pantheon for Modern Minoan Paganism is presided over by a trio of mother goddesses. They are the mothers to all the other deities and to their human children as well. We can turn to them for comfort, nurturing, and spiritual nourishment as well as for the kind of guidance so many people seek from the divine. We can pour libations of milk as a reminder of the overflowing abundance the Great Mothers offer us.

Every one of us is born from a mother. Regardless of our personal relationships with our own mothers, we can recognize the concept of the mother as a source of comfort and support. We can choose to look past our modern hangups with the human body and see, in those bared breasts in Minoan art, a reminder that the divine feminine includes the mother goddesses who look after us all and care for us as their own.

In the name of the bee,

And of the butterfly,

And of the breeze, amen.