Goddesses Of The Sky

 

The earths blue atmosphere rarely appears in mythology as divine, although the sky as an image of the upper world or heavens is found in many cultures, especially those that posit a multistory universe inhabited by different beings at different levels. 

Although often gendered as masculine, the heavens also appear in female form, as with the Roman goddess Diana, originally a goddess of the open sky who was later limited to the moon, and Maori Mahora-nui-a-rangi (see Pacific Islands), a heavenly creatrix. 

Such sky divinities can be connected with boundlessness (Indian Adıtı), because the sky seems to have no beginning nor ending. 

Occasionally such goddesses represented the entire cosmos, earth and sky together (Eastern Mediterranean Tanit). 

Because of the vastness of the sky, it was sometimes depicted as dual-sexed, as with African So (see Mawu), who was considered a goddess despite having a masculine aspect. 

Although sky goddesses often have little personality and seem remote from human affections, the Egyptian sky goddess Nut was the mother to whom the dead returned and, as such, was painted across the inside lid of coffins, stretching out her starry body. 

She was also a lusty goddess who had to be forcibly separated from her lover, the earth god. 

The need to separate earth and sky, who remain otherwise in unending inter course, is a common mythic tale, although most of the sky divinities are male, the earth female. 

The skys light, especially at dawn, was often pictured as a voluptuous and promis cuous goddess (Roman Aurora, Greek Eos, Indian Usas). 

The lustful goddess is more typically pictured as the morning and evening star. 

However, the goddess as a creator of light, and as light itself, is found in many cultures. 

Some earth goddesses and divine ancestors appear as women who originally lived in the sky but descended to the earths surface, often because of love for an earthly man. 

Thus African Nambi fled her sky home, bringing the food that humanity needed to survive down with her. 

Andriambavirano of Madagascar (see Africa, Andriana) similarly became enamored of a human male, but her original descent was motivated by boredom and curiosity about the earth. 

Finally, some figures are described as living in the sky but are not otherwise specifically associated with the heavens (see African Mbokomu and Nambi; Chinese Tai-hsu¨an Nu¨; Circumpolar Kadlu.) 


~ Kiran Atma

You can learn more about Goddess Symbolism here.