Regional
Goddess Traditions and Iconography |
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Chinese Deasophy The dragon woman -- where does she
come from? But when she comes, she rides the wind and rain! Neolithic ceramic art, breastpots, cong jades, and temples. Bronzes for offerings to ancestors. Rites of the Wu, female shamans of old China. Creation stories of the serpent goddess Nu Gua Shih. Taoist cosmology: animals of the elemental directions. Xi Wang Mu, the Great Yin, and her Tree with the peaches of immortality. Also her heng headdress, dragon-tiger throne, three legged raven, toad, and other shamanic servitors. Traditions of the "Mysterious Female" /Dark Woman in Taoist mysticism.
The longest continuous stream of goddess figurines (almost 10,000 years) is found in the Levant: Judah, Israel, Palestine, Phoenecia, Lebanon. Neolithic icons of the Khiamian, Yarmukian, Be'ersheva cultures. Teraphim, horned Ashtaroth, serpent vessels, and Tree of Life ivories. Ugaritic and Biblical traditions of Asherah, "progenitrix of the gods," and Anat, Ashtart, Tanit, Qudsu. Khokhmah, "a Tree of Life to all who lay hold of her," and "the radiance that is Shekhinah."
The ancient Nile Valley, from the riches of the neolithic up to the 3rd century. Goddess litanies and cosmogonies. Neit, Het-heru, Nut, Tefnut, Auset, Uadjet, Maat, Ta-weret, Selket, Anuket and other Nubian goddesses. Ankh, Menet, the knot of Auset, and other amulets. A little-known array of Roman-era figurines of Isis Uraeus, Isis Sothis, Isis Demeter, and the bawdy Baubos. Take my breast that you may drink, so that you may live again. --Hathor to the dead
Slavic Paganism Goddess myths and symbols in Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans. Mokosh, Baba Yaga, and the pagan saint Paraskeva. Oaths and rites in honor of "Moist Mother Earth." Birth faeries (rozhanitsy), rusalky, and other animist divinities. Folk tales, art, and sacraments in a staunchly heathen region that refused to relinquish its Staraya Vyera (“Old Faith”) and instead practiced Dvoeverye ("Double Faith").
The Goddess whose litanies are still chanted in India today, from the neolithic to the present. Clay matrikas of the Indus valley, medieval temple statues, rock-cut caves of the Seven Mothers, village goddesses, and the Ten Great Wisdom goddesses. Sacred dance, serpent groves, yoni sanctuaries, pujas with fire, flowers, leaves, water, rice jars.
Iraqi Deasophy >>><<< Tell es-Sawwan, Samarra and Hassuna, the Halafian wave, al-Ubaid culture. Uruk, Sumeria, Akkadian and Babylonian goddesses and priestesses. [Page under construction: fuller description coming]
Mexican Deasophy >>><<< Ancient clay statuettes, the great Goddess of the Teotihuacan murals, Zapotec and Huastec sculpture. Deities in the Maya, Aztec and Mixtec codices. Coatlicue, Cihuacoatl, Xilonen, and other goddesses in Aztec cosmology. [Page under construction: fuller description coming]
Nigerian Deasophy >>><<< The ancient ceramics of Nok and Ile-Ife. Yoruba orishas, statues, masks and temples. Igbo altars to Earth. Omio Yemaya! [Page under construction: fuller description coming]
Celtic Deasophy >>><<< Iconography of the Matronae, Epona, Sirona, Rosmerta, Sul, and assorted horned goddesses and early sheela-na-gigs.[Page under construction: fuller description coming]
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