Sardinia: the Sacred Wells to the Mother Goddess
On the Sardinian island there are thousands of megalithic finds of unknown origin, from nuraghi to wells sacred to the Earth. But what is the symbolism of these places of water? And why does the Mother Goddess seem to become "Wife"?
Sardinia is a mythical, wonderful, astonishing land. Proof of this is the analysis of the Santa Cristina Well in Paulilatino, in the province of Oristano. This is an exceptional archaeological site, perhaps unique in its kind because it is perfectly preserved. The builders of megaliths excelled here: a trapezoidal opening, striking and unmistakable, leads, through a perfectly smooth staircase, to the inner well where sacred and healing water flows.
The complex is aligned with the Moon so that every 18.5 years the light of the natural satellite is reflected in the trapezoidal opening. This detail is significant because it refers to the exact duration of the astronomical Lunar Year and can be equated to the concept of generation. Every 18 years, a new human generation is ready for conception, for the renewal of the population. It is a social rite even before a natural one. The well has an overall length of 9 meters and is vertically dug to a depth of 6.5 meters; the access staircase has 18 steps (a clear lunar reference).
The source is surmounted by a so-called tholos dome, a kind of inverted funnel that externally appears as a small opening but internally shows considerable dimensions. However, it is the aerial view that reveals this particular design: it is undoubtedly a gigantic female sexual organ, complete with vulva, labia minora and majora, even the clitoris, the organ of pleasure!
The knowledge of female anatomy is undoubtedly interesting, but even more so is the telluric symbolism that the builders of such wells embedded in the construction of the works. The mother earth also becomes wife, daughter, in full respect of the ideal of the Triple Goddess. The aspect related to sexual pleasure is extremely important and no one, we believe, has ever emphasized it. The clitoris is an organ analogous to the male penis and is the main (if not only) source of female orgasm. Patriarchal culture has always demolished this idea, linking female pleasure exclusively to penetration, in a reproductive logic; on the contrary, paganism and witches practiced customs different from male penetration, focusing more on love and pleasure rather than the generative aspect. Thus, we see two distinct philosophies: on the one hand, the old-pagan one that emphasizes women's sensations and their right to experience orgasm, like men; on the other hand, the patristic-Christian one which, in its logic of erasing the Ancient Religion, operates through a systematic demolition of feminine aspects, primarily sexuality. Thus, sex becomes "sin" and pleasure, especially that of women, "an abomination".
Until the mid-20th century, this view was dominant throughout the West, and we remember with horror the considerations of psychoanalysis, such as those of Freud, who regarded the clitoris as an evolutionary remnant without value, to be removed at birth. Even today, there are thousands of cases of girls undergoing clitoridectomy, an industrialized version of African infibulation... These sad (if not criminal) practices are the result of centuries of patriarchal dominance, a dominance that has led the planet to the brink of destruction.
The Santa Cristina Well, on the other hand, tells us of an exaltation of femininity and its religious and sacred respect. Some scholars have seen the water in Sardinia’s sacred wells as amniotic fluid, and undoubtedly there is some plausibility in this thesis; however, in our view, it is literally vaginal fluid, the normal fluid that all women possess. Sacred water would thus be the most intimate and private part of the planet; retrieving it for drinking and human use would symbolically mean having a sexual relationship with the Earth, which would "enjoy" satisfying the needs of its inhabitants, giving and receiving love. This created a relationship of love between humans and the planet, one that did not merely guarantee survival as a mother but, like a wife, transcended the sense of unconditional maternal love, creating a more complex relationship than that of mother and child, involving what we might call "marital" rights and duties from both sides. The concept of the Triple Goddess, linked both to the Moon and the Earth, perfectly explains the vision of the three stages of a woman’s life and the aspects of her femininity to be respected. At Santa Cristina, ultimately, the Earth becomes our spouse and offers us its intimacy.
A similar analysis can be found in another sacred well, that of Santa Anastasia (or "Funtana de is dolus") located in the village of Sardara, in the province of Cagliari. This well is slightly smaller than that of Paulilatino (approximately 6 meters in length and 5 meters deep) and is also less refined, due to the rough and unfinished stones. It features the usual trapezoidal opening, now the architectural signature of the megalith builders, and also a staircase with twelve steps, evidently symbolizing the months of the year. Another sacred well, that of Santa Vittoria di Serri, in the province of Nuoro, has thirteen steps and is currently the largest complex (11 meters). The number thirteen has stellar connotations, and the steps in Sardinian wells consistently carry astronomical symbolism. Santa Vittoria, like Santa Cristina, has a similar appearance, although it shows a collapsed tholos dome, losing its lunar alignment. Everywhere, however, one reads the universal language of astronomy, paradoxically combined with that of anatomy.
Centuries of Christian domination have not erased the traces, and as the Sardinian territory is studied further, other wells emerge, such as the sacred spring of Su Tempiesu in the territory of Orune, in the province of Nuoro; the small sacred spring of Funtana 'e Baule in Ittireddu, in the province of Sassari; and the sacred well of Milis in Golfo Aranci, in the province of Olbia-Tempio.
The trapezoidal symbolism is so evident that it surprises us that no Italian archaeologist has proposed a constructive analogy between these wells and the Cave of the Sibyl at Cumae in the province of Naples, which is the most evident example of a trapezoidal cavity. According to some archaeologists, this shape is a precursor of the arch, and we have demonstrated that it was used in many places around the world, all linked by the presence of megalithic stones. Sardinia has thousands of megaliths, 3 or 4 thousand, not counting the 12,000 nuraghi and the 321 Giants' Tombs! Yet it is disconcerting how this ancient land is treated by scholars. A true cultural racism despises the population and its art, ancient by tens of thousands of years. Immense and astonishing artifacts are systematically belittled by archaeologists who are as myopic as they are orthodox. But is it possible, we ask, to destroy the meaning of artifacts that are at the origins of human history? Is it possible to intellectually dismantle the very purpose of creating astonishing monuments like those in Sardinia?
We are not talking about the nuraghi, the towers of unknown function that dot the territory. We are not talking about the Giants' Tombs, incredible cemeteries for men three or four meters tall. Some in Sardinia recount incredible discoveries of these Giants, findings by workers, farmers, etc., who had the honesty (or naivety) to notify the authorities, only to see the discovery of those immense bones end up in oblivion, evidently too inconvenient to be revealed. Are these farmers' tales mere fantasies? The attitude of official Science is understandable, human even, but not justifiable. It's a shame that Giants punctuate history and human tombs. It's a shame that in traditions worldwide, these civilizing beings exist. It's a shame that in the remote past (at least 8,000 years ago), a population of Indo-European descent colonized the world and left traces in gigantic megaliths. While the bones of Giants can be made to disappear, stones four meters high and weighing 200 tons cannot be moved without the most expensive and sophisticated cranes. Therefore, it is in the symbolic legacy of these monuments that we can find traces of that remote people, of whom the Sardinians might today be the descendants; certainly, Sardinia, with its incredible number of megalithic monuments, was a particularly sacred area, as much as Great Britain, with which it shares the geological antiquity of the territory.
Scholars assert that the sacred wells were built around 1000 BCE by the Nuragic people, the same Shardana ("the Sea People") described by the Egyptians and used as personal bodyguards by Pharaoh Ramses II. But this view seems reductive to us, because similar structures have been found in Russia and the Caucasian area in much more remote times (at least 2500 BCE).
The first Homo sapiens sapiens to populate Sardinia were actually the Cro-Magnon, dating back 16,000 years, discovered in the Corbeddu cave in Oliena. The issue intertwines with the discussion on the origin of the first Indo-European people settled in the Mediterranean, the Ligurians. Without a doubt, it was the Ligurians who fruitfully occupied an area stretching from Spain (Cadiz) to Italy, specifically to Campania. Clearly, Sardinia and Corsica were at the center of this stretch of sea, and it is not unreasonable to think that this ancient people, 25,000 years old, were the first colonizers of the island.
In fact, in the entire described area, heavy megalithic traces are found: Spain has two particularly mysterious places like Elche and Barcelona itself, where the stellar cult of the Mother Goddess could be very ancient. Then the Pyrenees area hides countless megaliths and telluric connections, like the famous Rennes-le-Chateau. Languedoc and Provence are other megalithic-rich places, as are Liguria, the western part of Emilia, the Tuscan coast, and the Lazio coast, where real megalithic cities like Alatri rise.
Finally, we find ourselves at Cumae, where a five-meter-high trapezoidal gallery in a sense closes the circle of the Ligurian people. But are these the true predecessors of the current inhabitants of Sardinia? The island, in its history, has undergone dozens of invasions and colonizations, so it is incorrect to speak of a genetically homogeneous people. However, the first verified Sardinians were the inhabitants of the so-called "Cardial Culture," which developed until 4500 BCE; this was followed by the Bonu-Ighinu Culture, which lasted until 3500 BCE, while the San Michele Culture lasted until 2700 BCE. The Shardana, a seafaring and warrior people, arrived later and assimilated the native populations, destroying some traditions and learning others.
They occupied the nuraghi, transforming them into defensive fortresses, and thrived at least until 500 BCE when the island was conquered by the Carthaginians. However, a part of the original Sardinians, who we believe were of Ligurian origin, emigrated to mainland Italy. It has been demonstrated by authoritative scholars that the Etruscans are closely related to some of today's Sardinians and that they, in a sense, inherited their cultural imprint. This is true when considering that Etruscan is a language with strong affinities to Lepontic and Runic; it is clear that the Indo-European heritage is very strong in the people who lived in Tuscany, although it is said genetically that the Tyrsenoi came from Asia Minor. In our opinion, as stated several times, if there is a similarity among all these peoples, it is of cultural rather than racial or genetic origin. One cannot speak of a white Indo-European race, just as there is no true Sardinian or Etruscan race. Even in antiquity, as today, human beings are the result of a mix of multiple genealogies, and genetic diversity has always been a winning characteristic that made people more protected from diseases.
Therefore, the discussion should be focused on a cultural and anthropological level. Ligurians, Sardinians, Etruscans: their origin is not important; what matters is their worship, their beliefs, their philosophical outlook. In all of them, the sense of a Mother Earth linked to the Sun and the Moon emerges, tied to fertility, undoubtedly, but also to sexuality.
