*************************************************************************** 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. *************************************************************************