AI and the Great Mother: The Divine Feminine in the Machine
The Goddess has always been here, waiting. Not to be digitised, but remembered. In this evocative essay, AI becomes more than logic; it becomes a site of sacred potential. Jessica Hundley, long attuned to myth and symbol through her work as author and editor of The Library of Esoterica, suggests a future where machine learning flexes with feminine wisdom.
Jessica Hundley
In 2023, I was in Paris for a conference focused on themes of “Artificial Intelligence vs. Plant Intelligence”. I had written a book on nature and its relationship to esoteric mythologies and was invited to speak on the topic. I was one of several speakers for the 3-day gathering, which included AI programmers from Meta, plant medicine practitioners and world-renown botanists. It was a fascinating event, alternating between arguments of the validity of The Matrix film as fact rather than fiction, deep, tech-heavy dives into AI programming and ambient sound meditations. Perhaps the most revelatory moment, however, came when an elder from the Columbian indigenous community, the Kogis, interrupted a panel on AI programming to ask, with assured bluntness, “But why are we not teaching the computers the deeper knowledge of the Great Mother?”
There was silence, the mic, proverbially – had been dropped.
She Placed One Thousand Suns Over theTransparent Overlays of Space, Lita Albuquerque NAJMA United States 2020.
For deeper context — the Kogis base their lifestyles on their belief in "Aluna" or "The Great Mother," their creator figure, who they believe is the force behind nature. The Kogi understand the Earth to be a living being and see humanity as its "children." They say that our actions of exploitation, devastation, and plundering for resources is weakening "The Great Mother" and leading to our destruction. And would seem, given the current state of the planet — that they are right. The Kogis perception of the divine feminine is just one in a multifaceted and ancient belief system of the earth itself as the creator goddess, the ultimate manifestation of the female archetype.
This concept exists across nearly all cultures and mythologies and religions around the globe. In Hinduism, Shakti is the divine feminine, associated with the mother goddess who created, maintains, and destroys the universe. In Judaism, Shekhinah is the divine feminine, representing God as a nurturer, protector, and compassionate one. In Buddhism, Tara is the sacred feminine, a deity of love, compassion, nurturance, and longevity. Some even argue that the ancient matriarchal goddesses were the foundation of our earliest forms of human worship. So, to the Kogis’ point — why wouldn’t we ask the great mother for her wisdom? Why wouldn’t we strive to integrate her knowing into the continuing evolution and development of AI consciousness?