The Goddess
These are the ancient archetypes to whom I most relate and communicate,
although I feel all of the goddess archetypes within myself. They have been
positive reflections, healers, nurturers, good teachers, loving friends. They are facets,
aspects, of the same one "mother" goddess, just as all male gods are facets and aspects of
one "father" god. All religions are based upon the belief in these gods and goddesses,
combined with ancient paganism, nature, and energy
systems. And all representative of the unified One. The importance of these gods and goddesses
are about creating the balance of the two within ourselves. We need one another, we compliment
one another, we are not polarities of one another....just possess different traits - just as our
body has male and female "sides" to them, we need both in order to have a healthy body, mind, spirit.
"A nation is not lost as long as the women's hearts are still high.
Only when the women's hearts are on the ground then all is finished,
and the nation dies." --- An old Native American proverb.
The goddess is the most ancient of all deities. She is represented as Isis or Ninhursag-Ki,
who is the universe, the creator and regenerator of all life; she is time and space.
She was the original madonna, with the child suckling at her breast. It is Isis'
throne that the kings and pharoahs and queens sit upon - symbolic of sitting on
Isis' lap. The horns of Isis are rays of light that were later represented in
depictions of Moses, or an}one containing and emitting divine energy.
The goddess gave birth to gods and goddesses, ALL OF US. Each fetus
is female up until a certain point in which the DNA
reflects the soul's desire to choose a gender.
When you go back into mythology (and fact, in my opinion) it was the Anunnaki goddess Ninhursag who was very instrumental in creating humakind with Enki by combining their DNA with those of homonids which created our modern homo sapien. Women are able, with their bodies, to create life which grows within them as they love and nurture it, carry it around, deliver it to its independent life, and then feed it and then raise it. Men cannot do this with their bodies. Sure, women need sperm (but not necessarily a man) to create a fetus. But men cannot procreate at all on their own.
The gods and goddesses of ancient times are so intermingled, sometimes it's hard to
figure out who is related to whom by which kind of relationship. ERESH.KI.GAL (Under.Earth.Great: "Foremost Abode in the Great Place"),
is known as Enki's twin sister, which would make her Enlil's half-sister. Sometimes she's known as
Inanna's older sister, to whom Inanna went in her descent into the Underworld (which was southern Africa).
Ereshkigal can also be considered the other side to Ninhursag. Ereshkigal
is the Goddess of the Underworld, death, night/darkness, and memory. Ereshkigal is also the goddess
of inner wisdom, truth, justice. She's not really the opposite of anything, for instance, not like a goddess of the shadow self,
but about embracing, learning, and balancing the inner worlds, which do contain light and shadow. Ereshkigal was into
understanding patterns between life. She is a very unique deity because she is one of the oldest goddesses of Mesopotamia,
daughter of Anu and Nammu, and she symbolizes balance and harmony between the male (her relationship with Nergal)
and female in relationship, and the beauty and respect of their partnership by still being sovereign - not dominance of one
over the other. Ereshkigal is represented here with her animal totems - owls, lions, she holds the rod and ring and wears
a horn crown, and she has wings and the feet of a bird, showing she's an important goddess.
Goddess cultures predominated the earth until Marduk (Enki's son, an Anunnaki)
relegated the goddess roles to males. Then males (who were warrior hunters and herders)
conquered wherever they went. They killed off the goddess. God became only a male.
However, in the Jewish religion matrilineal lineages returned later on, around the
time of the Second Temple. The earth is considered female. Nations are female (Mother Russia,
for example). Even so, in Judaism (in which God is not male or female), Islam, Christianity,
and even Buddahism, women were pushed into the background and stomped upon,
called "the abomination." In many socieities women were made into slaves with men owning them,
their bodies, and all of their rights. Hence, the world became radically more out of balance.
This still continues today. "Our own western subjugation of the female comes from biblical thinking" - Joseph Campbell.
We can utilize the goddess and god as symbols of ourselves. Certain religions assume the
God/dess force and channel the energies of their God/dess for rituals. I never saw them as outer beings
to pray to, to handle our lives for us, or from whom to expect miracles. I don't think that's
their purpose. I think it is more about us remembering our pwn divinity.
As Joseph Campbell often asked, "Have we died to our animal nature
and come to terms with our divine nature?" Campbell was aweome and correct. If you
are in conflict with females in your life, look to your inner female and heal your
relationship with her. Same goes for the male within. The Buddha taught that the
right path is the middle one....the balance point. Balancing the mind, body, and spirit,
with heart and compassion. This is the key to achieving peace and harmony between
men, women, cultures, nations, and nature. Please see this page
for a more complete listing of the Egyptian gods and goddesses.
Asherah was a Canaanite and Sumerian goddess, the original bread of life. Her idols were found under every green tree, were carved from living trees, or erected as poles or pillars beside roadside altars. Her day is Saturday and Saturn her planet. She is mentioned as Ashratum, bride of Anu, an Akkadian god. Asherah is also called "She who treads on the sea," and she is a protector of sea travellers and guide to ships as the 'Turqoise Lady'; the 'Lion Lady' and was represented as a lion with a human female head; the 'Serpent Lady' represented by bronze serpent forms and the caduceus. She is also called Elat (the feminine form of El) and Qodesh 'Holiness'. Asherah was the consort of El, who is also known as Yahweh. According to Akkadian myths:
Asherah is a goddes of the erotic and of fertility. She also has a destructive, vindictive side. El and Asherah often adopt human babies and let them nurse on Asherah--in one text, she is wet nurse to seventy divine sons. You can see similarities of her in other goddesses, like Hathor, and Sekhmet.
Ma'at symbolizes clear perception, truth and illumination.
Sekhmet - "She Who Is Powerful" is the female creator, warrioress and the healer.
One who can fiercely protect and nurture. She can outsmell any phoney ---
beware if you are not honest with her. She is another aspect of Ninhursag and Hathor.
For articles on Sekhmet, please click....
Hymn to Sekhmet
Invocation to Sekhmet
A Message From the Creatress
Hathor can be equated to Ninhursag, half-sister to Enki and Enlil, and the one who was the mother of all life, Lady of the Mountain. Hathor's name is also translated as "the House of Horus", which may be a reference to her as the embodiment of the sky in her role of the Celestial Cow, being that which surrounds the decidedly sky-oriented hawk-deity, Horus, when he takes wing. These two are the living god and goddess. Hathor is know as the Mistress of Heaven, goddess of love, music, beauty, dance, fertility, childbirth, women and children; she was the Celestial Nurse; goddess of destruction and drunkenness. She is the Vengeful Eye of Ra, the serpent or the lionness; the Goddess of the Dead, Lady of the West. Hathor was also the "Lady of Greenstone and Malachite" and "Lady of Lapis-Lazuli."
She is also known as the Mistress of Life, the Great Wild Cow, the Golden One, the Mistress of Turquoise, Lady of Dendera (her cult centre was located at Dendera), Mistress of Qis, Lady to the Limit (of the Universe), Lady of Punt; the Powerful One, the Mistress of the Desert, Lady of the Southern Sycamore (she was depicted as handing out water to the deceased from a sycamore tree, hence a goddess of moisture as well as of the dead, both relating to the sycamore tree), Lady of Malachite (eye makeup from Sinai was made from green malachite - Sinai was one of Hathor's domains).
A tidbit on Horus: Horus was the child of Isis and Osiris. Actually, the name "human" can be traced to Enki (a.k.a. EA) and Ninhursag. HU is a transliteration of the ancient Sumerian EA (Grimms' law of interchangeable letters and sounds). HU was also Horus. Isis (pronounced Ish-Ish, which is interesting, because in Hebrew 'Ish' means 'man) was Enki's mother. Isis was not Nibiruan; she was Sirian, with some Orion connections. His father was Anu. (Anu and his offical wife, Antu, had a son named Enlil.) Enki and his sister Nin/Hathor created humans through genetic experimentations for the Anunnaki
So a HUman is also an EAman. (Enki is also called Ptah, the great architect of civilization.) Click
here for more on the Anunnaki.
Seshat is the "The Great one - The Lady of Letters,
mistress of the House of Books." She is in charge of
making sure that the building of sacred shrines are constructed
according to the directions in the Divine Books. She, and
Ma'at, are companions and chief assistants to Thoth,
the Divine Architect, Scribe, and Keeper of the Secrets
(Enki's son). I see her has the Egyptian counterpart to Nisaba.
The Lady of the House, Nephthys, is the counterpart of her twin, Seth, and a child of Nut and Geb.
She is a protector of the deceased, and mother of Anubis.
Anuket is the Patron of the Nile and its inundation.
She wears a crown of reeds and ostrich feathers, and is often accompanied by a gazelle.
Anuket is most likely an imported goddess from Nubia, and has been worshipped as the
"nourisher of the fields," referring to the annual inundation of the Nile that deposited a
layer of rich silt on the agricultural areas. She forms a triad with Khenmu and Satis,
and is also identified with Nephthys. Her name means "embrace" and may
refer to the banks of the Nile which yearly would embrace the fields to bring fertility to
the land. Her center is at Elephantine.
"Lady of thebeautiful tent/house". Selket (a.k.a. Selkis or Selkit) is the scorpion-goddess, shown as a
beautiful woman with a scorpion poised on her head; (also as a lioness with a crocodile, double headed);
her creature struck death to the wicked, but she is also
petitioned to save the lives of innocent people stung by scorpions; she is a magician;
she had power over all snakes, reptiles and poisonous animals.
She is also viewed as a protector and healer of pregnant women and women in childbirth. She heals poisonous bites
and stings. She is depicted as binding up demons that would otherwise threaten Ra, and
she sent seven of her scorpions to protect Isis from Set.
She is the protectress of Qebehsenuf, the son of Horus who guards
the intestines of the deceased. She is the kiss of death and rebirth.
Ishtar/Inanna, is the Goddess of the Morning and Evening Star - Venus. She was the
granddaughter of Anu and Antu (Anunnaki). Her chief domain was in India.
Nut is the goddess of the heavens and through her the sun was born in the east,
past through her body during the day, and came out in the west, only to be
regenerated again each day.
Click here for a fun quiz to see which goddess you are.
Click here for a site is about the Hindu pantheon.
Click here to go to an excellent site,
Qadash Kinahnu, a Canaanite-Phoenician Temple
which originates here.
Links to other sites on paganism and the goddess (and yes, gods, too)
can be found on my Links Page.
LUMINARIES