40,000–12,000 B.C.E.—Figurines of the Great Mother are fashioned from stone, bone, antler, or clay. These are all small, portable, and meant to be held. None of the prayers or mantras associated with these figurines have come down to us from the Upper Paleolithic, but it is almost certain that such devotional formulas existed. In terms of function, loosely speaking, these are the first “rosaries.”
12,000 B.C.E.–400 C.E.—Throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, rose garlands are offered to various Mother Goddesses—including Inanna, Isis, and Venus—as a seasonal devotional practice. By the end of the Neolithic, most people are sedentary (live in one place). Larger statues of the Great Mother are installed in shrines or temples and it is to these that the people come with their floral crowns.
400–1,200 C.E.—As Mary gradually displaces the Mother Goddess across Europe, rose garlands are used to crown statues of the Virgin instead. The vast majority of people are illiterate and only superficially Christian in their beliefs, which are still tied to the festivals and folk traditions of the ancient world. For these people, Mary is a Goddess who can grant prayers in her own right. In her miracle stories God and Jesus rarely play a significant role.
1,200–1,400 C.E.—The rose garlands of the past gradually give way to the bead rosary, in which a flower is visualized for every Hail Mary uttered by the devotee. The rosary (or “rose garland”) is then offered to a statue or icon of the Virgin, or to her visualized presence in the devotee’s imagination. The rosary consists of 50 or 150 Hail Marys, uttered like a mantra. There are, as yet, no other prayers or mysteries.
1,400–2,000 C.E.—The rosary gradually develops its modern form. The Catholic Church sees itself as the author of the rosary (which it believes originated in the Middle Ages) and remains almost entirely ignorant of the rosary’s evolutionary past.
Present—The rosary contains Hail Marys (Maters) and Our Fathers (Paters) in a 10:1 ratio and, through its 15 Mysteries, offers a circular ecologically-based, sustainable alternative to the linear, end time scenario of the New Testament narrative, which ends in Apocalypse. The rosary ends the the Coronation of Mary as “Queen of Heaven and Earth,” restoring that ancient title from her earlier incarnations as the Great Mother.
Preserved in the modern rosary are: (1) an ancient form of devotion to the Magna Mater of the Upper Paleolithic, (2) a re-enactment of the Hieros Gamos (the “Sacred Marriage” of a God and Goddess), and (3) the ancient “Mystery Religions” of the pagan world in which human beings and the natural world are not viewed as separate and reincarnation is the rule.