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FILE LIST and MYTHIC BACKGROUND: EPIPHANIES OF THE GODDESS
file name subject display order
bear.pcx The Goddess as Bear Mother. Perhaps the 2
earliest epiphany of the Goddess occurred
during Neanderthal times more than 30,000
years ago when a bear cult can be identified
in the archeological record. The precise nature
of the metaphor cannot be accurately inferred.
The association of bears with motherhood is very
ancient and the root words for 'bearing children'
and 'birth' in Germanic and Old Norse are the
same as that for 'bear'. The Slavs had a
Grandmother Bear, there was festival of Virgin
Mary of the Bear on Crete and one of the
manifestations of Artemis was that of a bear. In
Neolithic Old Europe, figurines have been found
portraying a bear headed female holding a cub.
buttrfly.pcx The epiphany of the Goddess as a butterfly is 13
known from the early Neolithic in both Anatolia
and Old Europe. In Minoan culture, the butterfly
is the double axe and the hourglass shaped Goddess
of Death and Regeneration. As a symbol of life,
the butterfly rises from the sacrificed bull or
the dead corpse on the battleground. The Butterfly
Goddess may be associated with fish and have a
head like that of a lily.
*crow.pcx The Crow Goddess foretells of death and plays a 7
prominent role in Irish and Welsh epics. The War
Goddess of ancient Ireland, the Morrigan, is
a Crow Goddess. The crow's scavenging of dead
animals lies at the root of this association and
this bird often appeared on ancient battlefields
to pick at the corpses. The symbolism is not all
macabre because these actions hasten the release
of the soul into its next possibility of rebirth.
The Crow Goddess lingers on today in Celtic folk
tradition as a messenger of death.
deathowl.pcx The Death Goddess 2: see Owl below. 9
deer.pcx The Doe is another epiphany of the Primeval 10
Mother and in Siberia she lingered as such into
this century. Evidence of a deer cult in the
Upper Paleolithic is almost as old as that for a
bear cult. The Sumerian goddess of childbirth was
a stag and Artemis was clothed in deerskin and
accepted a deer as sacrifice. Archeological
evidence from early Neolithic England, and the
nature of stag dances recorded in many places in
Europe, point to the worship of a female deity
by men wearing stag headdresses who were dressed
as women. Irish and Scottish folk tales preserve
a distant memory of deer priestesses.
egret.pcx Long necked water birds were extremely important 11
epiphanies of the Goddess in northern latitudes
because their annual return in the spring
heralded a rebirth of life, in the awakening of
those species which had been dormant throughout
the winter, and the return of others that had
migrated to warmer climates.
*egret1a.pcx Nag Screen with Registration reminder
eye.pcx The Eyes of the Goddess became a metaphor for 7
her all-seeing wisdom. Paleolithic and Neolithic
figurines from Old Europe depict divine moisture
flowing from the eyes of the Goddess. In Western
Europe, the round eyes of the Goddess are almost
exclusively found on grave artifacts and represent
the eyes of the Owl Goddess. Radiant divine eyes
signifying spring's renewal have been found in
Spain, Ireland and Denmark.
herons.pcx See Egret above. What better symbol of life renewal 3
in the spring than a pair of nesting herons?
ocean.pcx Cosmic Water as divine water flowing from Mother 14
Earth has a long history as divine, life-giving,
life creating moisture. Waves and patterns of rain
were often both portrayed alone and in conjunction
with many of her epiphanies.
*owl.pcx The Owl Goddess as a harbinger of death has a 15
long history extending back into the last Ice
Age which continued throughout Neolithic Old
Europe. The owl has been long understood to
possess extraordinary visual acuity and thus the
Owl Goddess was very wise and had oracular powers.
She is frequently associated with life symbols,
such as the snake, vulva, triangle, net and axe,
thus emphasizing the tight linkage between the
regeneration of life and death. Here we have the
Death Goddess attendant upon an Egg which shall
shortly give birth to new life.
sheep.pcx The ram is not an epiphany of the Goddess and there 5
was no ram goddess. Rather, the coiled horns of the
ram became a symbol that conflated with the
Cosmic Snake and the Waters of Life and in that
sense, stood for dynamic, regenerative life force.
In Old Europe complementary forces were given
iconographic expression as mythical beasts which
were composites of known species. Birds -
sometimes owls - with ram horns are a good
example as are the Minoan winged rams and the
Celtic ram-headed serpent.
*snake.pcx The Cosmic Snake is one of the most universal 12
epiphanies of the Goddess and, unlike in the
Judaeo-Christian culture of Western Europe, does
not carry the connotation of death and evil. The
Cosmic Snake embodies dynamic life force which,
as does the snake growing and shedding his skin,
continuously regenerates. The symbolism of the
Snake Goddess is found with nearly all of her
epiphanies as a re-affirmation of the immortality
of life which transcends individuality.
treefrg.pcx The Frog Goddess symbolizes the womb, the life 8
producing uterus and is found as such in Egyptian
and Hellenistic Culture. The Frog Goddess has her
origins in the Upper Paleolithic and she is often
depicted as a Frog-Woman into the Neolithic. Yet
we can never forget that in life there is death
(and vice versa) and in Lithuania, the toad was
sacred to the Goddess of Death and Regeneration.
turtle.pcx The turtle was seen to have the form of the female 6
uterus and so became another epiphany of the
Goddess of Death and Regeneration.
web.pcx The spider is The Goddess as Weaver of Fate. 1
Neolithic evidence strongly suggests that weaving
was done only by women and often in a room adjacent
to a small temple. Nature's best model for weaving
is, of course, the spider's web. As the Goddess
weaves the fabric of space time, so do we become
ensnared in a particular reality in which we must
live, laugh, cry, and die. Such is our Fate and
the terrible responsibility of the Goddess who with
warp and weft forms our context.
*shareware graphics files
I recommend these books for further exploration.
Crawford, O.G.S. 1991. "The Owl Goddess." Oak Park, IL:Delphi.
Gimbutas, M. 1989. "The Language of the Goddess." San Francisco: Harper
& Row.
Monaghan, P. 1981. "The Book of Goddesses & Heroines." St.Paul,
MN: Llewellyn.
Wallace, B.G. 1986. "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and
Secrets." New York: HarperCollins.
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