Aphrodite is the Greek Goddess with the power over
beauty, and passionate sexual love. She helps you with surrounding
yourself with loving energy. Aphrodite uses her powers to destroy
those who try to disrupt or prevent the natural workings of love and
sexuality and avenges others by causing the perpetrator to experience
misfortune in the areas of love or beauty.
There are 2 stories regarding her birth. According to Homer she is a
daughter of Zeus and Dione.
According to Hesiod, she was born when Uranus (the father of the gods)
was castrated by his son Cronus. Uranus, or Heaven, refused to allow
his children to emerge into the light, and perpetually embraced the
Earth, his wife Gaia. So, Cronus threw the severed genitals into the
ocean which began to churn and foam about them. The Urania birth story
associates Aphrodite with the creation of the world and establishes
her as one of the oldest divinities. As Aphrodite was born from the
act that separated Heaven and Earth and created the world in between,
she is present from the very beginning of time.
She was born of sea-foam and her primary function was to preside over
reproduction, since this was essential for the survival of the
community.
She may be seen stepping out of the sea carrying a dove, although
another of her sacred birds is the swan or goose, which she may ride.
She is accompanied by the Graces.
Aphrodite loved and was loved by many gods and mortals. Among her
mortal lovers, the most famous was perhaps Adonis. Some of her sons
are Eros, Anteros, Hymenaios and Aeneas.
Aradia is considered the Italian Queen of the Witches. In her myth she
is the daughter of Diana and Lucifer (not the Christian Lucifer), sent
by Diana to earth to instruct the first witches in their craft so that
they could rise up against their oppressors. Aradia is an exteremly
powerful Maiden goddess and is the protector of all Witches.
Charles Leland wrote a book called Aradia: Gospel of the Witches; in
it he states that he was told of this actual "gospel" from an Italian
Witch (Strega).
Aradia is different than most Goddesses; many do not acknowledge her
at all, for she does not appear to originate from historical pagan times.
Arianrhod is the Welsh Goddess of reincarnation, fetility, and the
stars (or cosmic time).
Her myth is another vague one, but mostly what I've read is she is the
daughter of Don and Beli, sister of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy. Gwydion
was counselor to King Math ap Mathonwy (who may have been his
uncle-I'm unsure at this point) and the king wanted to rest his feet
in the lap of a virgin at all times unless he in war. Well, one day
the virgin was raped and the king called for a replacement. Arianrhod
stepped forward to take the place and the king said all she had to do
was step over his magic wand. When she did she gave birth to a boy and
a "blob". She named the boy Dylan before fleeing in embarrassment. The
boy Dylan went to the sea. Gwydion hid the "blob" in some kind of
chest and cared for it until it grew into a boy. When he brought the
boy to Arianrhod and told her this was another of her children she did
not believe it and cursed him. He would not have a name unless she
named him, he would not have arms unless she gave them to him, and
last he would not have a human wife. Gwydion tricked her into
dissolving her own curses.
Artemis is the Greek virgin-Goddess of the hunt, the Moon,
women, and protectress of children. She was the daughter of Leto and
Zeus and twin sister of Apollo. Artemis always carried a special bow
and arrow set which she used not only in the hunt, but also when she
was angry. Artemis would shoot and kill the offender, usually one who
restricted her freedom or violated her privacy in some way.
Astarte is the Greek Goddess of fertility (reproduction and motherhood), and war. She is associated with the moon and called the Mother of the Universe, giver of all live on Earth. She ruled all spirits of the dead residing in heaven, visible from earth as stars. She was called the mother of souls in heaven, the Moon surrounded by her star-children, to whom she gave their "astral" (starry) bodies. She was worshipped far and wide. In the Bible she is referred to as Ashtoroth and her consort was Baal. Astarte means "she of the womb" but was intentionally changed to Ashtoroth which means "shame" in Hebrew. This happened when the Jewish took Yahweh as their one true God and they wanted to banish the Goddess (Queen of the Heavens and Baal)worship. This implicates that monotheism was not always a fact in jewish religion.
Her counterpart is the Babylonian Ishtar and son/consort Tammuz.
Athena is the Greek warrior and protectress Goddess. She is also the
virgin Goddess of wisdom, household arts and crafts, and of spinning
and weaving, and inventer of the flute. And, the city of Athens is
named for her.
Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Metis, meaning wisdom. But Zeus
did not want Metis to bear a child stronger than him, so he tricked
Metis and swallowed her. However, Metis was pregnant with Athena.
Hephaestus opened Zeus' head, and out popped Athena, fully grown and
ready for battle! Because of this, Athena is seen as having no mother,
or at least no mother to whom she owes allegiance.
Athena was a modest Goddess and there are only two instances, where
Athena's anger may be seen as a personal response to an affront. A
virgin goddess, Athena was modest, and when Tereseus came upon her
bathing, she put her hands over his eyes to blind him. But to show she
wasn't doing it just to be mean, she gave him second sight and
divination by way of the birds.
The other story is about Arachne. Apparently she was boasting that her
weaving was even better than Athena's and challenged her. Athena got
very angry and turned Arachne into a spider to hang by a thread and
weave her web. Ever after, spiders have been known as arachnids.
Her pictures and statues are represented showing modesty, and
generosity, a helping outstretched hand. Sometimes Athena holds her
bird, the owl, in her outstretched hand.
Bast was the daughter of Ra or Re, although sometimes regarded as the daughter of Amun. Wife of Ptah and mother of the lion-god Mihos. Her
cult was centered on her sanctuary at Bubastis. She was the Goddess of
the sun (originally), the moon (after Greeks started associating her
with Artemis), cats, women, protections, and secrets.
Bast was first known as the Wildcat along the banks of the Nile or the
Cat of the Desert. In the beginning, She was NOT representative of the
domestic cat. She was known as the protector of the Pharoah, and as an
avenger.
Bast is often portrayed either as Her attribute, the Cat, or as a
cat-headed Goddess carrying Her instrument, a sistrum (a sacred
rattle), an ankh, or the papyrus wand. The type of cat depicted is
usually that of a lioness or wildcat.
Brigid,(also known as Bridget, Brigit,
Bride, and Brighid)is a complex individual. Is she goddess, myth or saint?
She is called the goddess of fertility, livestock, the sun, fire,
wisdom, poetry, healing, therapy, metallurgy, and the hearth. As a
saint, she is recognized for her charity, her miracles and her
hospitality.ii She has been named the patron Saint of babies,
blacksmiths, sailors and fishermen, dairymaids, fugitives, infants,
midwives, poets, scholars and travelers.
Her exact mythological role is confusing; in many myths she is the
daughter of the great Celtic god the Dagda, but she is also commonly
equated with the much older Danu, the mother of the earlier Celtic
gods the Tuatha de Dannan. Additionally, in some of the myths, Brigid
appears as three immortal sisters who share the one name. She was
credited with inventing the Irish mourning wail called caoine (kening)
when she mourned for her son Ruadan, her child by her husband Bres,
who was killed in battle.
The history of the saint is unfortunately not much clearer than that
of the goddess. As Christianity spread through the Celtic lands, many
properties of the older religion were Christianized rather than
eliminated, and this was so true of the Brigids that it is now
impossible to tell where the goddess ends and the saint begins. In
fact, some believe that the saint never actually existed,and that St.
Brigid is merely a canonized version of the goddess. The most popular
folktale is that She was midwife to the Virgin Mary, and thus was
always invoked by women in labor. The more official story was that She
was a Druid's daughter who predicted the coming of Christianity and
then was baptised by St. Patrick.
Ceres is the Roman Goddess of the harvest. Her name is the Roman
version of the Greek Goddess Demeter.
She looked after the fields and crops. Ceres is part of an ancient
myth that helps explain the cycles of seasonal change. Her daughter
was Persephone and when her daughter was taken by Hades to his
Underworld, she was so upset, because she didn't know what had
happened. So, Ceres wandered the earth for 9 days and 9 nights and in
her griedf, she neglected the world and it grew barren. So, Zeus
(Persephone's dad) ordered Hades to bring her back, but it was too
late because she had eaten a pomegranate seed, linking her to Hades
forever. So as a truce, she came back to earth for 6 months of the
year and went back to Hades for the other 6 months. Thus, when she is
gone, Ceres (Demeter) is grieving and the earth is barren.
Cerridwen is the Welsh Goddess of the moon,
shape-shifting, and the harvest. She is also associated with the dark
aspect of the crone or darkening moon. She is seen as a hag, stirring
the cauldron of wisdom and knowledge, which takes her a year and a day
to brew. Her story is that she had a giant husband named Tegid, a
beautiful daughter, Creirwy, and an ugly son named Avagdu. She decided
to try and help her son by brewing some herbs for the year and a day.
The brew was supposed to make him the most brilliant of men. One day
near the end of the alloted time, Gwion, the person who helped her
stir the brew, accidentally got splattered by some of the brew and
immediately gained knowledge of the past and secrets of the future. He
knew Cerridwen would be angry so he tried to run away. She chased him
and eventually caught him and swallowed him. She later gave birth to
him and threw him in a river. He was rescued and was called Taliesin.
Circe or Kirke is the daughter of Helios (The Sun) and
Perse. Goddess of the moon and the night, Circe was a legendary
enchantress in Greek mythology. She was immortalised in literature
(Homer's Odyssey) as a femme fatale, enticing Odysseus to her island
by sweetly singing. She changed his sailors into pigs. She found the
Odysseus was impervious to her "charms", and she immediately turned his
sailors back into men. She and Odysseus had 1 or 2 children (depending
on which version you read) before she sent he left her island, telling him
how to avoid the Sirens.
Demeter is the Greek Goddess of the harvest. She is described like
Ceres (Roman Goddess): Has a daughter (Persephone) that is abducted by
Hades of the Underworld, and when she grieves and goes to look for
her, the earth is left barren and when everyone is afraid they are all
going to die, Zeus (her brother) commands Hades to give her back her
daughter. But, before she leaves he gives her a pomegranate seed
(fertility) that she eats and is then bound to spend a part of the
year with him forever. So, when Demeter's daughter is in the
Underworld, she grieves for her and the earth is barren (winter). But
when she returns she is happy and the earth then replenishes.
Diana is the Roman Goddess of fertility, childbirth, the moon, the
woods and hunt. She is the basis for the Dianic Witchcraft. She is
also known as Artemis, in Greek mythology. She is often accompanied by
wild stags.
She is the mother of Aradia.
Durga is the Hindu great Mother Goddess. The Great Goddess Durga was
born from the energies of the male divinities as a symbol of union.
But even though she appears when the male deities join their
respective energies, she is not 'created' by them. When evil and
negatvity cause imbalance, She is the one that clears it up. She
slayed a demon that was said to be undefeatable. She has 8 arms (or 4
depending on which version you read) and each holds something
different. She rides a lion. Her counterpart is Kali.
Fortuna was the Roman Goddess of fate and luck. Her name may have
meant she who revolves around the year, and it is likely she was
represented as standing wearing an expensive dress and blindfold. She
was associated with the cornucopia, ship's rudder, a sphere, and a wheel.
Freya was the beautiful Norse Goddess of love and magic.
Some say she is also a goddess of fertility. Freya means Lady and
Friday is her day. She and Odin (a God that some consider to be the Od
that was her husband) each get half of the dead slain in battle. She
rides in a carriage pulled by 2 cats and sometimes she rides on a
boar. She owns a necklace that she bought from 4 dwarves. The price
was she slept with each of them. When she cried, her tears were gold.
Gaia is the Greek version of Mother Earth. She often holds a
cornucopia also called the horn of plenty. She was born of Chaos and
is considered a mature woman.
Hathor is the Egyptian sky Goddess of love, beauty, and pleasure,
protection of children and pregnant women. She is the daughter of Nut
and Ra, the Sun God. She can be seen as a cow, or with cow horns. Her
name means "the House of Horus", and if Horus was the God associated
with the living king, Hathor was the Goddess associated with the
living queen.
Hecate is the Greek Goddess of magic, the moon, and witchcraft or
magic. She is often portrayed as connected with death or the
underworld. She is found at crossroads at night. She is accompanied by
ghost dogs. She has 3 heads of either the maiden, mother and crone, or
a dog, serpent, and horse and because of the 3 heads is able to see in
all directions.
Hel is the Norse goddess of the dead. Daughter of the somewhat evil, trickster god Loki and the frost giantess Angrboda, Hel was so hideous that the chief god Odin banished her to the underworld that bore her name. She was a vile queen of the damned, with the head and body of a hag and the thighs and legs of a decomposing corpse.Once in her underworld realm, Hel reigned so powerfully that when the hero Balder, Odin's own beloved son, was killed accidentally, she refused to restore him to his parents, to the land of the living, proving that even the gods are powerless against death.
Hera is the Greek Goddess of women and marriage. She is the
wife of Zeus and is Queen of Olympus. She is very beautiful but is not
necessarily nice. She can be unforgiving and vindictive. Zeus was
always having affairs and fathered many children, whom Hera hated and
caused trouble for and tried to kill them. Her own children were Ares,
Hebe, and Hephaestus.
Hestia is the Greek virgin Goddess of hearth(fire), home, and domestic
issues. She is the gentlest of all the Olympians. There is not much
info available about her.
Inanna is the Sumerian Mother Goddess of love, fertility, and war, the
Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Morning and Evening Star. One of her
myths is about her going to the underworld. She apparently decides to
become the underworld's ruler, but her sister Ereshkigal, who is
already the ruler, is not happy with that idea so she sentences her
to death. But, when she died nature ended up dying too. So, the god
Enki jumped in and said she could be reborn if someone else took her
place. She chose her lover Dumuzi to take turns with her to rule the
underworld 6 months of the year.
Her symbol is said to be the eight-pointed star or a serpent coiling
around a staff; her planet was Venus. She was represented different
ways including riding on her sacred lion, sometimes with hunting dogs.
Other times she was pictured as a winged goddess of war, armed with
bow and quiver. However she was depicted, she was an important Goddess.
Isis is the Egyptian Mother Goddess or Queen. She is associated with
fertility, the Moon, magic (words of power), and resurrection. Isis
not only used words of power, but she also had knowledge of the way in
which to pronounce them so that the beings or things to which they
were addressed would be compelled to listen to them and, having
listened, would be obliged to fulfill her bequests. The Egyptians
believed that if the best effect was to be produced by words of power
they must be uttered in a certain tone of voice, and at a certain
rate, and at a certain time of the day or night, with appropriate
gestures or ceremonies.
Her husband was Osiris and when he was killed she brought him back to
life and they produced a son, Horus.
Juno is the Roman Goddess of women, childbirth, and the moon. She is
married to Jupiter and is Queen of the Gods. The peacock and goose are
sacred to her. Her marriage to Jupiter is not a happy one, as he is unfaithful to her (his counterpart is Zeus) and she is extremely jealous.
Her counterpart is Hera of Greek mythology.
Kali is the Hindu Goddess of destruction and creation. She is
considered to have come from the brow of the Goddess Durga (slayer of
demons) during one of the battles between the divine and anti-divine
forces. She is black (because all colors when mixed become the color
black) and she has 4 (or 8) arms. She holds in her hands joy and pain,
life and death. She wears a necklace of human skulls, has a protruding
red tongue, a blood smeared body, and severed arms for a skirt. She is
also said to wear childrens corpses as earrings. Skulls, cemeteries,
and blood are associated with her worship.
Her name derives from the Sanskrit root word Kal which means time.
There is nothing that escapes the all-consuming march of time. The
Hindu religion sees that, in truth, we are beings of spirit and not
flesh - the body is a temporary condition and our attachment to the
body causes us to experience the ego. So we can only be liberated when
we can end this attachment to our body.
She is probably one of the most mis-understood and feared of all the
Goddesses. She is loving with her true followers and devotees, but she
has a fearsome side that they NEVER forget, lest they experience her
wrath, but they are not repelled by it. Kali may be frightening but
she is, after all, the Mother of all. As such, she must be accepted by
her children- accepted in wonder and awe, perhaps, but accepted
nevertheless.
When angry she is almost unstoppable. One of her most famous myths is
where, as the story goes, she destroyed the evil demon Raktabija .
The gods tried to kill him but every drop of his blood that touched
the ground transformed itself into another Raktabija.
In despair, the gods turned to Shiva (her consort). But, he was unable
to do anything so Kali went for it and ordered the Gods to attack. She
then spread her tongue to cover the battlefield preventing even a
single drop of Raktabija's blood from falling to the ground. But,
because she got drunk off this demon's blood, she went throughout the
earth killing anyone who got in her way.
The Gods tried to stop her to no avail until Shiva threw himself under
her feet. This stopped Kali. She calmed down, embraced her husband,
and shed her ferocious form to became Gauri, radiant mother.
Another version is she danced upon his body and the world was growing
out of control and she seemed incapable of stopping before she ended
up destroying the whole world. But she looked down and recognized her
husband and stopped her dance of death.
Kwan Yin is Goddess of mercy and compassion. Her influence is vast,
from China to Korea, Japan to Malaysia. In Asia the male bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara became the first androgynous and then female Kwan Yin,
absorbing or reimaging some of the indigenous Goddesses of the region.
As a bodhisattva she is considered the "enlightened one". She is
sometimes called the Queen of Heaven. It is said that just to call her
name in times of danger she will protect you; it is also said that she
will increase fertility if you call on her for a child. She is often
depicted as the thousand-eyed and thousand-armed, or holding a child.
Lakshmi is the Hindu Goddess of wealth, fortune, and beauty. She is
also called 'Sri'. She is beautiful, golden, and sits on a lotus
blossom. Lakshmi resides in a place where virtue, righteousness,
truth, and compassion prevail.
Lakshmi is the goddess of auspiciousness. She is always with her
husband Lord Narayana. She is the pinnacle of chastity. When Vishnu
assumed separate incarnations, she also took birth to become his wife.
For example, in the incarnation as Rama, Lakshmi became Sita; in the
incarnation as Krishna, she was born as Rukmini. According to ancient
legends, she resides in the chest of Vishnu. Therefore, Vishnu is
called Srinivasa- one in whom 'Sri' (Lakshmi) resides is Srinivasa.
Lakshmi is worshipped with the names of Mahalakshmi, Varamahalakshmi,
Dhanalakshmi and Amritalakshmi during observance of religious rites.
Friday is the most auspicious day for, worshipping Lakshmi.
Lilith...where to begin? There is so much out there about this Hebrew woman/demoness/goddess myth that to even begin to summarize would be difficult! The most popular story
going around is that she was Adam's first wife and was made out of
clay and earth just as he was at the same time. Because of this she
wanted no part of being submissive to him in any way. When they
couldn't get along she left and was turned into a demoness (some say
vampire). Some angels of God went after her and she had already mated
with demons and bore lots of demon-children and the angels gave her an
ultimatum: come back to Adam or stay here and allow 100 of your
children to be killed daily. She refused the ultimatum and the angels
started to kill them. So, she swore to take revenge on human children
and that was said to explain crib death and miscarriages. This is not
fact and was actually a story out of a book written anonymously in the
medieval times called "The Alphabet of Ben-Sira".
So, who is Lilith really? Some believe that when God created Adam,
this being was actually male and female at the same time. The female
part (left side) did not want to be any lesser than the male part
(right side). A really interesting essay can be found here:
http://www.lilitu.com/lilith/lilit.html
To me, right now, she is still a woman of mystery. This will make some
interesting research!
Luna is the Goddess of the Moon. She appears as the Maiden, the
Mother, and the Crone. Luna is also the name that the Romans had for
Diana, and the Greek for Selene and Artemis.
Maat is the Egyptian Goddess of justice, truth, and the
personification of the fundamental order of the universe. She is true
balance; she is impartial- always ruling on the side of justice. She
said to be the daughter of Ra and wife of Thoth, moon God and God of
wisdom.
In the underworld, the heart of the dead was weighed by Anubis against
Maat's feather (an ostrich feather that she wears on her head). If the
heart was heavy with wicked deeds, it would outweigh the feather, and
the soul would be fed to Ammit. But if the scales were balanced,
indicating that the deceased was a just and honorable person in life,
he would be welcomed by Osiris into the Blessed Land.
The Morrigan also known as the Morrigu, is a Triple Goddess
consisting of the crone Goddesses depicting war, battle, death, and
destruction. A Triple Goddess is considered eternal but in a continual
state of flux. Like the moon which represents her, she remains the
same yet shows a different face throughout her eternal cycle. She is
the Maiden, Mother, and Crone.
According to Celtic tradition, as they entered into battle, the
Morrigan flew in shrieking overhead in the form of a raven or crow.
Once the battle had ended the soldiers would leave the remaining dead
on the field until dawn, in order for the Morrigan to claim her own
trophies, their heads.
In early Celtic depictions she has a bird's head (often a crow, raven,
or vulture) and breasts, and on the art form depicting her there is a
symbol for the number three.
The Muses are the Greek Goddesses who preside over the arts and sciences and inspire those who excel at these pursuits; they were believed to inspire all artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. The number of Muses varies over time; initially there was but one, and later there is mention of three: Melete, Mneme, and Aoede. They were born at Pieria at the foot of Mount Olympus. Their nurse, Eupheme, raised them along with her son, Crotus the hunter, who was transported into the sky as Sagittarius upon his death. Their name (akin to the Latin mens and English mind) denotes 'memory' or 'a reminder', since in the earliet times poets, having no books to read from, relied on their memories. The Romans identified the Muses with certain obscure Italian water-goddesses, the Camenae.
The original number of muses and their names varies in earlier times as their evolution blossomed in Greek mythology. At first, three Muses were worshipped on Mount Helicon in Boeotia: Melete ("meditation"), Mneme ("memory"), and Aoede ("song"). Another three were worshipped at Delphi and their names represented the names of the strings of a lyre: Nete, Mese, and Hypate. Several other versions were worshipped until the Greeks finally established the nine muses in mythology as: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. The Muses had several epithets which usually referred to places where they had settled.
Nephtys is the Egyptian Goddess of earth, sisters, and midwives (fertility).
She is part of the group of the nine chief deities of the Osirian cycle in ancient Egyptian myth. They are Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephtys.
Nephtys (in Greek) was a popular and often depicted goddess said to master magic, was attached to the mortuary cult and had the entire desert as her domain. She was a part of the cult of god Min, and was sister to Isis and Osiris. She was married to the evil Set and her son was Inpew (Anubis). She usually called upon by the name "the lady of the house",
but was also called "Friend of the Dead". Daughter to Geb and Nut, sister to Aset (Gr: Isis), Wesir, (Gr: Osiris) and sister-spouse to Set. She is often mentioned with her sister, whose faithful companion she always is, helping her mourn and prepare the deceased and accompanying him into the Netherworld. Although frequently mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and the Book of Going Forth By Day (the Book of the Dead), she doesn’t seem to have had a worship of her own and no temples of cult centers have survived.
The Norns are the demi-goddesses of destiny, in Norse mythology. They control the destinies of both gods and men, as well as the unchanging laws of the cosmos. They are represented as three sisters: Urd ("fate"), Verdandi ("necessity") and Skuld ("being"). They live at the base of the World Tree Yggdrasil in the realm of Asgard. Nothing lasts forever, and even the mighty Yggdrasil is subject to decay. The Norns try to stop this process, or at least slow it down, by pouring mud and water from the Well of Fate over its branches. This magical liquid stops the rotting process for the time being. In other myths, the Norns were thought to give assistance at birth, and that each person has his own personal Norn.
Nut/Nuit is an Egyptian sky Goddess and is portrayed as a naked woman
covered with stars. She is the daughter of Shu and Tefnut. the barrier
separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in this world.
Thus she forms the firmament above her husband Geb, the earth. Her
fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or
directions. Ancient documents describe how each evening, the Sun
entered the mouth of Nut and passing through her body was born each
morning out of her womb.
According to an Egyptian legend, Nut married her brother, the earth
god Geb without the permission of the powerful Sun god, Re. Re was so
angry at Geb and Nut that he forced their father, the god of air to
separate them. That is why the Earth is divided from the sky.
Moreover, Re prevented Nut from having children in any month of the year.
Fortunately, Thoth, the divine scribe, wanted to help her. Thus, he
induced the Moon to play with him a game of draughts where the prize
was the Moon's light. Thoth won so much light that the Moon had to add
five new days to the official calendar. Thus Nut could finally bear
her four children: Osiris, Seth, Isis, Nephthys.
Persephone is the Greek Goddess of fertility, spring, and the harvest,
and the underworld. She is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Unlike
every other offspring of an Olympian pairing, however, Persephone has
no stable position at Olympus. Persephone used to live far away from
the other gods. She used to take care of nature by planting seeds and
nurturing plants.
Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her,
even Hades wanted her for himself. One day, when she was collecting
flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose
up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing
sun, Helios, had noticed it.
Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter
until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she
withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile.
Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to
Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but
before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of
a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it,
it bound her to underworld forever and she had to stay there one-third
of the year (some say she ate 6 seeds and stays with Heades for 6
months of the year). The other months she stayed with her mother. When
Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and
winter began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying of
nature. In the Eleusinian mysteries, this happening was celebrated in
honor of Demeter and Persephone, who was known in this cult as Kore.
Rhiannon (which means Great Queen) was the Welsh equivalent of the
Epona (Gallic) and Macha (Irish). Rhiannon was also associated with a
Romano-Celtic goddess Rigantona ("Great Goddess"). She was the Goddess
of horses, birds, and singing. She is depicted as riding a glorious
white horse with three singing birds perched on her shoulders. When
the dead heard the birds' magical song, they were brought back to
life. When the living heard it, they fell into a seven-year deathlike
sleep.
Rhiannon was the daughter of Hereydd the Old. Rhiannon had many
suitors, among them were Pwyll, chieftain of Dyfed, and Gwawl, the son
of Clud. Pwyll won her hand and married her. Gwawl and his father laid
a curse upon Pwyll's household. Rhiannon was barren for many years.
Pwyll blamed his wife for their inability to have a child and
mistreated Rhiannon.
Even though she managed to give birth to a son named Pryderi, she was
accused of killing or devouring her infant. As was the custom then,
six women servants had been assigned to stay with Rhiannon in her
lying-in quarters to help her care for the infant. Although the
servants were supposed to work in shifts tending to the baby
throughout the night so that the goddess Rhiannon could sleep and
regain her strength after having given birth, one evening they all
fell asleep on the job.
When they woke to find the cradle empty, they were fearful they would
be punished severely for their carelessness. They devised a plan to
cast the blame on the goddess Rhiannon, who was, after all, an
outsider, not really one of their own people. Killing a puppy, they
smeared its blood on the sleeping Rhiannon and scattered its bones
around her bed. Sounding the alarm, they accused the goddess of
eating her own child.
Even though she protested her innocence she was not believed and
sentenced to stay at the town gates and offer visitors a ride on her
back into town.
Rhiannon bore her humiliating punishment without complaint. Through
the bitter cold of winters and the dusty heat of four summers, she
endured with quiet acceptance. In the fall of the fourth year three
strangers appeared at the gate—a well-dressed nobleman, his wife, and
a young boy. Rhiannon rose to greet them saying, "Lord, I am here to
carry each of you into the Prince's court, for I have killed my only
child and this is my punishment." The man, his wife, and the child
dismounted. While the man lifted the surprised Rhiannon onto his
horse, the boy handed her a piece of an infant's gown. Rhiannon saw
that it was cloth that had been woven by her own hands. The boy then
smiled at her, and she recognized that he had the eyes of his father,
Pwyll.
Soon the story was told. Four years earlier, during a great storm,
the nobleman had been called to the field to help a mare in labor,
when he heard the infant's cries and found him lying abandoned. He and
his wife took the baby in, raising him as if he were their own. When
the rumors of the goddess Rhiannon's fate had reached his ears, he
realized what had happened and set out at once to return the child to
his parents. Most legends suggest that the badger actually was the
enraged suitor that Rhiannon had rejected who had escaped and taken
his revenge by kidnapping Rhiannon's infant son.
Pwyll and his people quickly recognized the boy for Pwyll and
Rhiannon's son. The goddess Rhiannon was restored to her honor and
her place beside her husband. Although she had suffered immensely at
their hands, Rhiannon, goddess of noble traits, saw that they were
ashamed and was filled with forgiveness and understanding.
Sarasvati is the Hindu Goddess of language and wisdom, river waters,
fertility, and wealth. She was the consort of Brahma. Some say that
she was the first being created by Brahma when he devided himself,
making her the female half or that she was born from a gush of water
from his side. Others say that Shiva is her father & Durga her mother.
In Buddhism she is the consort of Manjushri the bodhisattva of wisdom.
She is depicted as a beautiful woman wearing ether yellow or white
with white skin. She has a genial expression and four hands which
represent the four aspects of human personality in learning: mind,
intellect, alertness and ego in which she holds a veena, a book, a
lotus & prayer beads. Sometimes she is shown holding a drum or a pen
or making a sign of blessing with one of her hands. She set on ether a
peacock or a white swan or goose.
Selene is the Greek Goddess of the moon and solutions. She was
involved in many love affairs, however, not as many as her sister,
Eos, the dawn.
She resembles a young woman with an extremely white face who travels
on a silver chariot drawn by two horses. She is often shown riding a
horse or a bull. Selene is said to wear robes, carry a torch, and wear
a half moon on her head. She was not one of the twelve great gods on
Olympus, however she is the moon goddess. After her brother Helios
completes his journey across the sky, she begins hers. Before Selene's
journey across the night sky she bathes in the sea.
Selene's parents are the Titan Hyperion, the sun god, and Theia, the
sister of Helios and Eos. Some sources report that she is the daughter
of the Titan Pallas, Helios, or Zeus.
Regardless of her ancestry, Selene, as the personification of the
Moon, was an influential goddess. One of her best known myths involves
the handsome Endymion. The moon-goddess fell in love with this mortal,
and she therefore engaged in an affair with Endymion that resulted in
the birth of fifty daughters. But Endymion was, alas, human, and so
susceptible to aging and eventually death. Selene could not bear the
thought of this cruel fate. According to one version of the myth, she
made certain that Endymion would remain eternally youthful by casting
a spell that would cause him to sleep forever. In this way, Endymion
would always live, sleeping through the ages. Another version is that
she seduced him while he slept and let him decide his own fate and he
chose to sleep forever.
It is also important to note that some Classical authors identified
Selene with the Olympian goddess Artemis.
Selene was important enough to the ancient Greeks to inspire a Homeric
Hymn. The Hymn to Selene describes the beauty and power of the goddess
of the moon.
The (Venus of) Willendorf Goddess dates from approximately 24,000 B.C.E. A small statue of her was unearthed, and deemed to be a "fertility figure" by
mainstream archeologists. It was found in 1908 by an archeologist
named Joseph Szombathy in a Aurignacian loess deposit near the town of
Willendorf in Austria. It is now in the Naturhistorisches Museum in
Vienna. The statue was carved from oolitic limestone and was colored
with red orche.She is depicted as having large breasts, belly, thighs,
and bottom with practically no arms or feet and its pubic area is
greatly emphasized, probably serving as a representative of
procreativity, and the red ochre pigment covering it has been thought
to symbolize or serve as menstrual blood seen as a life giving agent.
She is a representation for women of size, women's inner strength and
power, and to help women remember and restore the long-lost parts of
ourselves so that we become whole.
© All rights reserved 2004-2008 Aislinn Akilah Kaizen
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