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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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