Goddess Gallery - Page 2

A Celebration of the Sacred Feminine

     India's Gayatri Devi, mother of devotion. Ageless and immortal, she personifies the creative principle and goddess of knowledge. Gayatri Devi bestows upon the faithful Hindu peace of mind, increased ability to concentrate and spiritual knowledge.



    Spider Grandmother, or Spider Woman. Known by many names to the ancient peoples of Africa, America, Greece and elsewhere, she spins her web and weaves together the world.
    This beautiful lacy, heart-shaped web is a natural phenomenon, the photo was not retouched.



    Green Tara, worshipped by Buddhists throughout Tibet, Mongolia and Nepal, is associated with compassion and skillful means. She is often depicted as seated on a lotus throne with her right leg hanging down, wearing the ornaments of a bodhisattva (a being of light) and holding a closed blue lotus.



    White Tara, goddess of meditation, peace, purity, wisdom and longevity. She is often shown sitting cross-legged and holding a fully opened lotus. Together White Tara and Green Tara, with their contrasting symbols of the open and closed lotus, are said to symbolize the infinite compassion of the deity who labors day and night to relieve suffering.



    At left is the Greek Goddess Iris, the winged "rainbow messenger." Traveling swiftly on the arc of a rainbow, her backpack filled with messages, Iris delivers communications from the spirit realm to the world of humans.




    The Polynesian goddess Hina (HEE-nuh), known widely throughout the Pacific. To the Hawaiians, she is most closely associated with the moon, the ocean, healing, and feminine energy. Hina has a wide variety of aspects and can take many different forms.



    The goddess Psyche, whose name means "soul." To the ancient Greeks, she was the personification of the human soul. Our terms psychiatry and psychology derive from this word, yet ironically those fields largely deny the existence of a human soul.



    Maat (also Ma'at, Mayet), Egyptian goddess of divine truth, justice, balance and cosmic order. The belief in Maat guided human conduct in daily life throughout ancient Egypt. In the afterlife, Maat's feather (an ostrich plume, depicted here in her headdress) was used to weigh the value of the life lived.



    The Chinese moon goddess Chang-O. On the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, the Chinese celebrate her memory with a Mid-Autumn Festival. With a full moon shining in the sky, they eat specially made moon cakes and offer them as gifts to friends and neighbors.




    The magnificent Hawaiian snow goddess Poli'ähu. She makes her home within towering snow-capped Mauna Kea ("white mountain") on the Big Island of Hawai`i. The mountain is often shrouded with clouds.




    The ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. Usually portrayed as a lioness, or as a lion-headed woman, Sekhmet was associated with, among other things, healing and medicine.




     A stained glass representation of Flora, from whom our modern botanical term for vegetation derives. To the ancient Romans, Flora represented the flowering of plants and the arrival of spring. Her festival, the Floralia, symbolized the renewal of life and was celebrated with dancing, drinking and flowers. To the Greeks this goddess was known as Chloris.


    The ancient Celtic goddess Brigit. Before she was absorbed into the Christian religion as St. Brigit of Kildare shown here, Brigit was a prominent deity in the ancient Celtic religion. Goddess of poetry, sagely wisdom and divination, she was associated with the craft of smithing.



    A representation of a statuette found in the ruins of Mycenae on the Greek islands of Crete and Thera (now Santorini). Although the figurine is most commonly referred to as simply a "Minoan snake goddess," some scholars believe it may have symbolized the World Mother.


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