Symbolism Dictionary: Mother/Preserver Goddesses
 |
Athene (Greek)/ Minerva (Roman): Minerva was the Roman Goddess of wisdom and the moon. Athene, the Mother-goddess of Athens had several consorts, including Hephaestus, Pan, and Phallas, and was worshipped as Holy Virgin. Originating in North Africa, Athene was recognized as the Libyan Triple Goddess Neith, Matis, Medusa, Anath, or Ath-enna, according to Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983). Daughter of Medusa and Zeus, Athene’s phallus-like Snake-haired mask had the ability to turn men to stone. Athene and Minerva shared the totem animal, the owl (symbol of the moon), with Lilith and the Welsh Goddess Blodeuwedd. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course. The Sign of Athene is pictured here. |
Buana: Celtic cow-Goddess known as the “Good Mother,” (Walker, 1983).
Coatlicue: Translated as “Lady of the Serpent Skirt,” she was the Aztec Great Mother of the deities, sun, moon, and stars (Walker, 1983). She coupled with the savior gods.
 |
Hera (Greek)/Juno (Roman): The Roman Great Mother Goddess and consort of Her brother Jupiter (Zeus in Greece), Juno had many faces including Juno Fortune, Goddess of Fate; Juno Sospita, the Preserver; Juno Regina, Queen of heaven; Juno Lucina, Goddess of Celestial Light; Juno Moneta, the Advisor and Admonisher; Juno Martialis, virgin mother of Mars; Juno Caprotina or Februa, Goddess of erotic love; Juno Populonia, Mother of the people; etc. Her sacred month June has retained its tradition of weddings as Juno presided over marriage and family. Barbara Walker, in her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983) states, “Every Roman woman embodied a bit of Goddess’s spirit, her own soul a juno, corresponding to the genius of the man.” Juno was later dropped while genius remained. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course. |
 |
Isis: This Egyptian Mother Goddess coupled with Osiris and birthed Horus. She was the “Mother of Life,” while her dark twin sister Nephthys was the destroyer “Crone of Death.” Barbara Walker in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), quotes Egyptian scriptures, “In the beginning there was Isis, Oldest of the Old. She was the Goddess from whom all becoming arose…” she gave birth to the sun. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course. |
Lilith: In the Old Testament Lilith became the first wife of Adam, who tried to force himself onto her in the patriarchal “missionary position.” It was the only sexual position acceptable to Moslems and Christians because it emphasized “women as earth” who were subject to “men as heaven” (Walker, 1983). Lilith not only refused to submit to Adam, but also cursed him and flew away to live by the Red Sea (another form of Kali Ma’s fertile, but sacrifice-demanding, Ocean of Blood). God commanded her to return and submit to Adam but she cursed him too and spent her days coupling with “demons” and birthing a hundred children a day. God in turn created Adam’s second wife, Eve, to be more docile. However Lilith was no rebellious creation of God, but the Goddess by the names of Belit-ili, Belili, and Baalat, sacred to Sumerians, Babylonians, and Canaanites. Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), explains, “Lilith’s fecundity and sexual preferences show that she was a Great Mother of settled agricultural tribes, who resisted the invasions of nomadic herdsmen, represented by Adam.” The story of Lilith has all but disappeared in the revisions of the Bible, but her daughters, the lustful lilim “she-demons” were feared through the Middle Ages. See Demons and Eve. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course.
Ma: Universal title of the Goddess. Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), says Ma is a “Basic mother-syllable of Indo-European languages, worshipped in itself as the fundamental name of the Goddess. The universality of the mother-word (not shared by words for ‘father’) indicates either that the human race carried the same word from its earliest source to all parts of the earth at a period previous to the discovery of fatherhood; or else that all human beings instinctively say something like ‘ma’ as the first verbal sound and associate it with the mother’s breast, consequently with emotional dependence on a divinity perceived as a milk-giving mother.”
Mama: Another form of Ma, Mama is a title for the Great Goddess, Kali, also called Mamaki (spirit of “Fertilizing Waters”); Mamata (spirit of belonging); Mesopotamia titled her Mami, Mammitu, and Mama, who created humans from clay. See Ma.
 |
Sun Goddess: In Oriental tradition the sun is female. For the Japanese the Great Sun Goddess was Omikami Amaterasu; In Hindu the Great Goddess was Aditi, Mother of the 12 zodiacal Adityas, “spirits who would ‘reveal their light at Doomesday,’” according to Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983); for Tantric Buddhists She was Mari or Mary, the sun; For the Arabs she was the Goddess Atthar, Torch of the Gods; In Germany she was Sunna; the Norwegians called her Sol, the Celts Sulis, meaning eye/sun; and in Britain she was recognized as all three. |
Bitch: Sacred name for Artemis-Diana, bitch refers to her Scythian alani or “hunting dogs.” According to Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), “The Bitch-goddess of antiquity was known in all Indo-European cultures, beginning with the Great Bitch Sarama who led the Bedic dogs of death.” For Romans the “Goddess Lupa was the Wolf Bitch… In Christian terms, ‘son of a bitch’ was considered insulting not because it meant a dog, but because it meant a devil—that is, a spiritual son of the pagan Goddess.”