Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Independent Goddesses

This year has been a rather productive year for me with respect to my writing.  Not only am I in the final stages of completing the manuscript of my first book for printing, but I have also had a number of essays appear in various anthologies.
 
The first of these anthologies is Unto Herself: A Devotional Anthology for Independent Goddesses, edited by from Ashley Horn and Bibliotheca Alexandrina, which is now available.
 
This volume consists a collection of prayers, poems, rituals, essays, and short stories written about various independent Goddesses including Artemis, Athena, Columbia, Coventina, Freyja, Hekate, Hestia, Isis, Kuan Yin, Lilith, Mary, Minerva, the Morrigan, Nehalennia, Neith, Skadhi, Tabiti, and Vesta.   Amongst the contributions is my own essay on Neith, who was an extremely early Egyptian Goddess.
 
With her cult centre being Sais, located in the western Nile Delta, Neith was a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, two arrows crossed over a shield.  This symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art.  In her form as a Goddess of War, she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies when they died.
 
Having no known husband Neith has been described as "Virgin Mother Goddess", as Barbara Lesko states in her book The Great Goddesses of Egypt:
 
"Unique Goddess, mysterious and great who came to be in the beginning and caused everything to come to be . . . the divine mother of Re, who shines on the horizon . . ."

Later this year, another anthology, Shield of Wisdom: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Athena (also edited by Bibliotheca Alexandrina) will also be available.  This volume will include my essay about the "wrath" of the Goddess as handed out to disobedient mortals, as well as short stories, invocations and poems from other contributors.


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"Dancing the Sacred Wheel" now available again

"Dancing the Sacred Wheel" now available again
The second edition of "Dancing the Sacred Wheel: A Journey through the Southern Sabbats" is now available through www.createspace.com or direct from the author (Australian customers only) for an autographed copy.

Great Goddess Isis

Great Goddess Isis

Exhortation of Isis

You are She in the dust of whose feet is the hosts of Heaven,
Whose body encircles the Universe,
Who turns the Earth in its orb,
Who gives light to the Sun,
Who rules the World.

You tread death underfoot.
To Thee, the stars are responsive,
To Thee the seasons turn and the Gods rejoice
And the elements are in subjugation.


You are She that is the natural Mother of all things,
Mistress and governor of all elements,
The initial progeny of worlds,
Chief of Divine powers,
Queen of Heaven,
Principle of all the Gods celestial and the light of Goddesses.

At Your will are disposed the planets of the air,
The wholesome winds of the seas
And the silences of the unseen world.