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.