Touched by the Muse



Gefjon

I seem to have been touched by the Muse this week, having completed two essays this week (and having started a third), as well as making a start on a powerpoint presentation that I will be giving in August as well as undertaking some additional reading with respect to the upcoming workshop that I will be presenting on the Dark Goddess (in May).  All of this has been fitted around work and other "normalities" that occur in my life.

Maya - Goddess of Illusion

The literal meaning of the word "Maya" is illusion, and the Goddess Maya is revered as the goddess of illusion by both the Buddhists and the Hindus in India. She created the illusion of the individual self. She also worshipped in Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayas as the Goddess who gives both life and the desire for life. 

She is sometimes called the "Mother of Creation". Maya is also connected with the sun and sunlight for it is said that She is the one who lights up our ideas.

Also associated with magic, Maya is a creative power which is believed to manifest Nature simply from the power of Her will. She is the truth which is said to lie far beyond our veil of existence; She teaches us that all energies are as one. But, as the goddess of illusion and delusion, it is when we are under Her influence we may forget about our true nature....and spend our lives in the pursuit of unworthy objectives.

Lilith - Hebraic Demon, Ancient Goddess or Something Else

Of all the Goddesses, Lilith is probably one of more confusing and misunderstood.  This tends to be due to her appearing in various Near East mythologies and folklore where her name may have been epithet for a group of "female demons" from Babylonian text, the "Lilitu".  However, to the Canaanities, Lilith was Baalat, the "Divine Lady" and on a tablet found in the ancient city of Ur dating to ca.2,000 BCE, she was "Lillake".

More commonly, Lilith is known by her Hebraic association was the original wife of Adam.  One story mentions that she as Adam were created as cojoined twins, joined at the back.  After denied as beign perceived as Adam's equal, she left him in anger.  Similarly, in another story, Adam married her after he became tired of coupling with animals.  However, when Adam tried to make her lie beneath him during sexual intercourse, Lilith would not meet this demand of male dominance.  She was said to then cursed Adam and took up residence in a cave by the Red Sea. 

The Nine Morgens of Avalon

Lady of Avalon by Caroline Gully Lir

 Avalon is ruled by the Lady of Avalon, a Goddess of love, beauty, power and wisdom, a Lady of Light and Darkness who appears in several forms and under several names.  Among the most ancient are those of the Ninefold Sisterhood of the Morgens, whose names were recorded by the Welsh poet Taliesin in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th Century Vita Merlini. The names of these Morgens were Moronoe, Mazoe, Glitonea, Gliten, Cliton, Tyronoe, Thitis, Thetis and Morgen la Fey, all of which appear tio be largely unknown, except to the latter, who was much maligned in Arthurian legend and only recently somewhat redeemed in Marian Zimmer Bradley's inspired retelling of the tale in The Mists of Avalon.

These Nine Morgen sisters encompass all the qualities of the Goddess on the continua between light and darkness, sweetness and sour, positive and negative, creative and destructive.  The Morgens are famous for their learning and knowledge of the seven liberal arts, particularly of astronomy, astrology, mathematics and physic.  They are renowned for their healing arts and skill in herbal lore, for their beautiful music and sensuality, for prophecy and the ability to shapeshift, to appear in different places in a moment in time.

Hymn to Demeter

I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess -- of her and her trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus [Hades] rapt away, given to him by all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.

Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many, to be a snare for the bloom-like girl -- a marvellous, radiant flower.

 

It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy. And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy; but the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa, and the lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her -- the Son of Cronos, He who has many names ....

 

(translated by Hugh G.Evelyn-White, published 1914, Loeb Classical Library)

Changing Woman

Changing Woman is one of the most revered Deities amongst the Native American Indians. She is the Goddess of all fertility, a wonderfully benevolent figure for it is Changing Woman who gifts the people with abundance and provides teachings that allow them to live in harmony with all creatures. Estsantleki, Her Navaho name, means "self-renewing one" for She is believed to be capable of changing from a child to a young woman to a crone at will. But, despite this trait, Changing Woman is not usually considered a Triple Goddess. Instead, this capacity for renewal links Her to the seasons. She is the Goddess of Cycles. These include the seasons, lunar, and women's menstrual cycles, as well as the cyclical path of birth, maturing, growing old, and dying only to be reborn again in the Spring.

Demeter - Goddess of the Grain

With the Autumn Equinox approaching, many groups enact what is know today of the ancient Greek rites, the "Eleusinian Mysteries", and in particular the mourning of the Grain Goddess, Demeter.

According to myth, Demeter taught mankind the art of sowing and ploughing so they could end their nomadic existence.  in turn, what was harvested was used in offerings to the Gods.