Evidence of Great Mothers, seers, prophetesses from whom kings and emperors sought divine counsel can be traced back thousands of years. If we stretch even farther, we find the research of Marija Gimbutas uncovering tens of thousands of years of Great Mother worship, matriarchal culture, and the predecessors to the Sibyls.
Who are they? Where did they come from? A quick encyclopedia search turns up little. Greek myth, maybe. Older than that, possibly. Clearly, they come from the East, some say. The Sibylline Books, ancient poetics filled with prophecy written in Greek hexameter, are one of the most mysterious ancient curiosities. Destroyed by Stilicho in the fifth century, maybe. Rewritten centuries later. We have little to go on.
Today, these great Sibyls—incredible women who lived autonomous lives not bound by social constraints—are little more than a footnote in history. Despite their dominance in monumental art and architecture such as the Sistine Chapel and the floors of Sienna Cathedral, we know almost nothing about these enigmatic women. Their stories have been erased, yet they still stand. The Tiburtine Sibyl holds a precious place of prominence atop Rome’s Capitoline Hill at Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracœli. Not far down the road, Raphael’s Sibyls grace the walls at Santa Maria della Pace. You can’t escape them nearly anywhere you go in Italy. Head north, and there is no shortage of them in France either. They are there, quietly watching over a world that has otherwise forgotten them. Or, have we?
Once, the Great Mother called upon eleven queens to serve as emissaries to a world in crisis.
Devoted in their service to her, the women, known as the Sibylline, established a covenant to guide humankind. As the legend of their ability to shape the destiny of kings grew, they guided the intellectual, technological, and spiritual growth of society for more than 11,000 years.
This was no earthly devotion. It was a vow of eternal service to create a just world.
However, men are far from just.
