Goddess Bugady Musun

 

Siberian mother of animals, Bugady Musun. 

Bugady Musun is the ruler of all life and food, as well as the protector of all creatures and nature. 

• She is shown as an elderly yet brawny lady who protects and guides vets. 

• She is a shapeshifter who may appear as a reindeer or an elk to her petitioners.

Bugady Musun is a Siberian divinity who was especially adored by the Evenki. 

She was the protector of animals and the patron of nature. 

She was generally a fierce elderly lady or a massive female elk or reindeer.

Many Siberian peoples worship this deity. 

Bugady Musun was the protector of animals and the patron of nature.

The antlerless female elk (a symbol for the ever-renewing source of human nutrition) and a boat initially appeared in the Baykal Neolithic era as the deer (a metaphor for the passage of the soul into another world after death). 

The Baykal Neolithic elk vanished in the late third or early second millennium BC (the Bronze Age), and a new group of representations (bull, cattle, deer, people in different ceremonial situations, cartwagon-wheeled vehicles) arose in South Siberia. 

The female elk was replaced with a clearly female half-human, half-animal creature, who subsequently returned as a cow. 

As a cow, this picture came from a tradition that had previously crowned her horns, and as a deer, it came from a northern tradition that had previously given her an elk's body. 

Her indications and location as a woman connected her with life and death (at the Minusinsk monoliths, for example, this is expressed by the stones being rooted in the ground-the vertical axis-and their masks aligned towards the east). 

On the higher reaches of the major Siberian rivers, Neolithic sanctuaries with petroglyphs such as the Baykal female elks have been discovered, as have Bronze Age ceremonial sites erected in large valleys surrounded by mountains. 

Such a shift reflects a shift from relying on forest and river hunting and fishing to relying on pasture-based cattle farming. 

Mongolia, the Sayan Altai Ridge, and the Minusinsk Basin formed a prominent cosmos during the Bronze Age. 

There was a relationship with the Indo-European legendary tradition of a solar chariot and warriors in relation to the contemporaneous appearance of bull and cart representations in South Siberia. 

Similarities between Yamna-Afanashevo (pit-grave) and Shrubnaya-Andronovo (timber-grave) civilizations are to blame for such alterations. 

People with Indo-European heritage gradually migrated from the west and southwest into northern Kazakhstan, northern Altay, and Mongolia. 

The elk continued to dominate late Bronze Age imagery in the shape of a deer, which was carved on rock walls and boulders, as well as around monolithic people in different ceremonial contexts. 

This occurred in South Siberia and Mongolia around the first millennium BC. 

The phenomena is particularly relevant to the region's so-called deer stones, and it complicates their interpretation. 

There are two kinds of stones like this. 

The Mongolian and Transbaykalian types, which feature deer in a recumbent position with exaggerated antlers, beak-like heads, graceful necks and bodies, short triangulated forelegs, and truncated hindlegs, are more common in Sayan-Altay. 

We see carved chains of beads around the stone's neck, three parallel slanted lines at the side of the face, carved markings that seem like earrings, and a carved belt with hanging weapons or tools on both kinds of stones. 

Carved depictions of animals, including deer, boar, horses, caprid, and crouching feline or wolf-like creatures, fill the gaps in between. 

Wecan further examine what is known as the semantics of the deer stones, based on archeological data. 

We can cast doubt on the widely held belief that the deer stones are linked to the Indo-European legend of an original masculine hero (a male warrior). 

Comparisons of the Siberian stones' hanging instruments to the so-called Cimmerian Stelae and Scythian Baba seem to have led to the conclusion that they depict males, maybe even males as hunters or warriors. 

Despite the presence of the hanging weapons/tools, no signs of belligerence are there. 

These forms may be traced back to the Early Nomads' older symbolic forms, and that at least one of the three images central to the Scytho-Siberian artistic heritage came from South Siberia (the deer, the coiled feline, and a wolf-like animal). 

The presence of weapon-like objects, as well as the correlation of these stones with the image of the deer, has led to the belief that the deer is a symbol for the warrior. 

It is based on a connection between the masculine warrior and a solar complex of deer, gold, and horse. 

This solar relationship did not always exist, and  the figure was more likely feminine in character, which is why it was associated with the image of a deer during the Early Nomads period.

We can analyze the culture and mythology of the Paleo-Siberian Ket and the Tungusic Evenk in an effort to rebuild ancient mythological and ceremonial symbolic systems, considering this to be the richest and most important source for this purpose. 

The Ket concept 

The Ket concept of the Khosedam/Toman duality, as well as the Evenk concepts of Bugady Mushunin, "the mistress of the clan," and bugady enintyn, "the mistress-mother of the clan" (both combining the idea of woman and cow elk or wild cow reindeer [half-human, half-animal]), as well as beliefs and rituals associated with those deities. 

To bridge the gap between archeological and ethnographic data, we can make many hypotheses and suggestions. 

When it comes to the origins of shamanism, it is premature to explain the archeological traces of Siberian Neolithic, Bronze, and early Iron Age cultures with reference to shamanic practices that are only known from recent times, given that our evidence for the existence of shamanic institutions consists primarily of petroglyphic images of masks or horned figures. 

The shaman's ability to complete the shamanic journey is reliant on items such as a drum that serves as the shaman's steed; a robe with a headdress adorned with imagery and amulets that simultaneously protect, empower, and transform the shaman; and, finally, a vertical axis, real or imagined, that serves as a pole linking the underworld, earth, correlating the signs and symbols connected with the shaman with the indicators of a trip beyond death found in Early Nomadic graves reveals that power was shifted from the early Iron Age. 

Furthermore, the poems detailing the shaman's trip, as well as the voyage itself, have clear connections with zoomorphic imagery from the Early Nomads' time. 

Despite this, the parallelism is just suggestive. 

Early Nomads' Deer Image.

The elaborate stone structures of the Early Nomads, as well as the enigmatic symbolic structures with which they laid their dead and their horses to rest, were the result of a process reflected in the Ket and Evenk mythic traditions and enclosing most archaic layers that continued through millennia. 

Beginning with Ninhursag and concluding with Anahita/Nana, we can delve into the Pontic Scythian legendary legacy as told by Herodotus, as well as the greater history of Near Eastern goddesses. 

The Scytho-Siberian aesthetic tradition in its ceremonial framework, as well as Siberian mythological traditions are seen in ethnography. 

From this evidence that the Early Nomads' deer image, which they inherited and expanded into the heart of their symbolic systems, represented an ecosystem of belief. 

Predatory animals were followed by the deer, which joined the Age of the Early Nomads as a reclining (or, more rarely, a standing) beast. 

Predatory animals were then rejected due to an increased preoccupation with human iconography and realism. 

The Deer As A Woman.

The deer took on the appearance of a lady sitting before a man carrying a rhyton towards the conclusion of the Scytho-Siberian era (see for instance the North Pontic Chertomlyk, Karagodeuashk, the Merzhany plaques, the figures of the Prigradnaya "Scythian Baba," and the felt hanging from Altay Pazyryk). 

However, it was eventually overshadowed as a woman, with only a male figure referring to her. 

The deer was destined to survive solely via Siberian and Central Asian shamanic traditions when Scytho-Siberian society vanished. 

The deer picture provides evidence for the birth and eventual extinction of a genuinely Siberian cosmogonic source: the Animal Mother, the source of life and death, rather than a solar hero or Indo-European ideals.

~Kiran Atma

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References And Further Reading

• Jacobson, E., 2018. The deer goddess of ancient Siberia: a study in the ecology of belief. Brill.
• Fitzhugh, W.W., 2009. Stone shamans and flying deer of northern Mongolia: Deer goddess of Siberia or chimera of the steppe?. Arctic Anthropology, 46(1-2), pp.72-88.
• Bleeker, C.J., 1975. The Rainbow: a collection of studies in the science of religion (Vol. 30). Brill Archive.
• Shigehiko, F., 1996. The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia: A Study in the Ecology of Belief.
• Francfort, H.P., 1993. The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia. A Study in the Ecology of Belief (Studies in the history of religions [Numen Book Series] vol. LV).
• Champouillon, L., 2012. Varieties of Deer Imagery: Gender and Cosmology in Prehistoric Belief Systems of Central Asia and South Siberia.
• Fitzhugh, W.W., 2009. The Mongolian Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex: Dating and Organiation of a Late Bronze Age Menagerie. Current arc
• Boucherit, G., 2011, August. A deer cult in Buile Suibhne. In XIV COMHDHÁIL IDIRNÁISIÚNTA SA LÉANN CEILTEACH XIV INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF CELTIC STUDIES.
• Lymer, K., Fitzhugh, W. and Kortum, R., 2014. Deer Stones and Rock Art in Mongolia during the Second to First Millennia BC. Deer and People, p.159.
• McFarland, R. and Schalaben, W., 1995. Placentas and Prehistoric Art. The Journal of Psychohistory, 23(1), p.41.
• TATAR, S., The Legend of the Palóc Prince of Göcsej: Images of Bridled Deer and Antlered Horses. Cosmos: the yearbook of the Traditional Cosmology Society.
• Diószegi, V. and Rajkay Babó, A., 1968. Tracing shamans in Siberia: the story of an ethnographical research expedition.

Goddess Anapel

 

Anapel is a Siberian birth goddess. Anapel, often known as "Little Grandmother," is the ruler of fresh beginnings and origins. 

• She selects the body and life path each soul will reincarnate into in her position as fate and destiny. 

• Anapel is a Siberian god who is worshipped by the Koryak people and is honored upon the birth of a child.

Goddesses Of Water

 

After earth, the symbol most commonly associated with goddesses is water, both as the fresh water of rivers and streams, and as the oceans salty waves. 

The gendering of water as feminine is not invariable, however. 

Some mythologies describe the oceans as masculine. 

The Greeks had a sea god, Poseidon, while a similar figure among the Irish was Manannan mac Lir. 

In both cases, the ocean was defined as masculine, as dis tinguished from fresh water, which was feminine. 

Among the Greeks, who despite see ing the ocean as masculine pictured its waves as the innumerable feminine Oceanids, we find the freshwater Nymphs called the Nereids. 

The Irish knew many river god desses such as Sınann, Berba, and Boand, while outside Ireland we find dozens of Celtic water goddesses including Abnoba, Aveta, Coventina, Natosuelta, and Sabrina. 

This salt and fresh water distinction, however, is not universal. 

Some goddesses were described as ruling the oceans, including the Scandinavian Ran who ruled the northern sea, and Chermiss Bu¨t aba and Finnic Mere-Ama (see Finno-Ugric), whose domains were similarly in the arctic waters. 

Hebrew Miriam (see Eastern Mediterra nean) was connected with the ‘‘bitter waters or the salty seas, although a freshwater stream created by her brother Moses also bore her name. 

The connection between the oceans salt water and female fertility is emphasized in the Hindu myth of Prakrti (see India), whose amniotic fluid became the oceans after she gave birth to the gods. 

In many cultures, an ocean goddess controls the fish and mammals that live in her waters and on which humans depend for food. 

An important example of such a figure is Inuit Sedna (see Circumpolar) who, thrown into the water as a sacrifice, thereafter receives sacrifices herself as the ‘‘great food-dish. 

Finnish Vellamo (see Finno Ugric), too, is an ocean goddess who determines how many fish humans can take from her waters, taking advice from her many daughters, the waves of the sea. 

Similarly, the South American sea-mother Mama Cocha brings fish and sea-mammals close to peo ple so that they can be harvested for food. 

Fishermen often fall under the rulership of ocean goddesses, who like Ma-tsu (see China) protects them when they are faring on the waves. 

In some cases, the oceanic goddess is depicted as a primordial mother or creatrix, one from whose depths life was born, as with Babylonian Tiaˆmat (see Eastern Mediterranean). 

Finno-Ugric Luonotar, while not the ocean itself, is intimately con nected with it, having spent much of eternity floating on cosmic waters. 

The sky woman of the American Iroquois, Ataensic, floated on the oceans waters until earth was created (see North America). 

Wherever the waters of the Wintu goddess Mem Loimis fell, the earth grew fertile, while areas not endowed with her watery gift were left as desert (see North America). 

Ocean goddesses could be charming and delightful. 

Lithuanian Amberella tossed pieces of amber to the shore, to reward those who honored her, and Greek Aphrodite was ravishingly beautiful even when fickle. 

But they could also be dangerous. 

Mer maids and sirens, which appear in many mythologies as ocean-dwelling women of great beauty, are threatening water divinities who lure sailors to their death. 

Such fig ures guarded the boundaries between water and land, like Siberian Sug Eezi (see Circumpolar) who like other mermaids had long hair that mimicked the rippling streams that she inhabited. 

Celtic Korrigans danced each night, drawing victims to themselves and drowning them. 

Greek Aphrodite was born of the oceans waves and, although beautiful, could also be pitiless, for love is never without possible threat of loss. 

In China, the primary goddess Xiwang Mu controlled the worlds waters and was invoked when floods threatened, showing that the activities of such cosmic god desses could be damaging to humanity were she not ritually appeased. 

Thus ocean goddesses represent both creative possibility and danger. 

Goddesses associated with fresh water are powers of fertility. 

Such watershed god desses can be seen as divinities of the land as well as the rivers that drain it. 

In India, many rivers are imagined as goddesses of earthly abundance, none more so than the Ganges, whose powerful river drains much of the subcontinent and is seen as the actual body of the goddess Gan ga. 

In Egypt, where the annual inundation of the land by the river Nile was typically associated with the god Osiris, we find the water goddess Anu ket representing the connection between water and the lands increased fertility. 

In Africa, major rivers were goddesses (Yemaja, Oshun, O ya) who were sometimes in conflict with each other over their shared consort. 

Such river goddesses were typically maternal forces, providing their human children with sustenance. 

A similar goddess in Russia, Mokosh (see Slavic), was a motherly figure whose presence was most actively felt in budding springtime. 

Smaller water sources such as springs and creeks could be seen as threatening rather than helpful. 

In Slavic lands, supernatural women, once human, haunted quick-flowing streams. 

Deprived by early death of a chance to have children, the Rusalki drowned sweet babies or fertile young people. 

The Scandinavian Nixies were similarly danger ous. 

In tribal India, the Nippong especially targeted young pregnant women, whom they caused to miscarry. 

Such spirits were often most active in spring and may re present the possibility of flash floods. 

Tribal Indian Bai Tanki, another destructive river goddess, spreads disease through her water—a mythic narrative with a firm basis in science, for polluted water can indeed spread disease. 

Fountains and bedrock springs were often seen as locations of inspiration because of the goddesses who inhabited them. 

The Greek Musae are still known as an image of the force that causes artists to create. 

In India, the river goddess Sarasvatı was the source of inspiration as well as a cosmic creatrix. 

Such inspiration could be legal and organizational as well as artistic. 

Among the Roman water nymphs called the Camenae was Egeria, who oracularly dictated the first laws of Rome and whose name is still used to describe a wise woman advisor. 

Freshwater goddesses, endowed with the gift of seeing the future, could help those who wished to practice the oracular arts. 

Babylonian Nanshe (see Eastern Mediterra nean) was a fortune-tellers goddess celebrated at waterborne festivals. 

Prophecy was not always seen as a gift; the Greek water Nymph Telphusa killed anyone who drank her prophetic waters. 

Yet most often, prophecy was a positive act, connected with heal ing because the ill and infirm turn to oracles in hopes of receiving predictions of pos itive change. 

So common was the connection between springs and healing among the Celts that the names of many of their goddesses have been lost, for they were renamed ‘‘Minerva Medici after the Roman goddess of healing, during Imperial occupation. 

Healing was a common part of the domain of the freshwater goddess, a tradition that continues today with the prayerful use of water from the well at Lourdes, France, dedicated to the virgin Mary (see Eastern Mediterranean). 

In Africa, we find the lake goddess Idemili and the water spirit Mammywata, both of whom offered healing to their worshipers. 

The Hindu goddess Narmada (see India) was especially powerful against snakebite, while the healing offered by Gan ga extended beyond this life, for those who died in her waters were freed from the cycle of rebirth. 

Some important goddesses controlled all water, whether found in rivers or in oceans. 

Anahita, one of the most important Persian divinities (see Eastern Mediterra nean), ruled everything fluid in the universe, even those of the human body. 

Similarly, among the Lithuanians (see Baltic), the water mother Jurat˙e controlled all the earths waters. 

Aztec Chalchihuitlicue (see Mesoamerican) could be found in lakes, rivers, and the ocean. 

Finally, some goddesses could be described as divinities of what science calls the water cycle, for they ruled the rain that falls on the land, the bodies of water (above ground and underground) that gather the rain and return it to the ocean, and the ocean where clouds are born to return water to the land. 

Such goddesses connect air and water like the African sky woman Andriana who descended to earth to become a water goddess. 

Rainbows, those bridges between sky and earth formed by water vapor, often symbolize such goddesses. 

In Australia, the primal serpent Julunggul ruled ocean, rivers (especially waterfalls), and rain; she was embodied in the rainbow. 

A similar rainbow-water-snake spirit found in Haiti was Aida Wedo (see African Diaspora). 

~ Kiran Atma

You can learn more about Goddess Symbolism here.

Weather Goddesses And Storm Goddesses

Just as the heavens are commonly described as part of the masculine sphere, opposed to the feminine earth, so weather (especially storms with thunder and lightning) is often connected with male divinities and their powers. 

Yet some cultures grant control of the weather to a powerful female divinity. 

Often she is depicted as an aged woman, sometimes a giant, such as the Celtic Cailleach who stirred up storms at sea and covered the land with her cloudy cloak. 

In Scotland and Ireland, this figure was con nected with high hills and mountains, around which clouds gathered and which even today bear her name. 

She was a figure more feared than beloved, associated with bad weather rather than sunny spells, although she can appear in double form, as with Brit ains fearsome Black Annis and her corollary, Gentle Annie. 

Among the Balts, the similar figure Ragana caused storms by waving a red wand. 

Both these figures were seen as old, but sexually active, indeed somewhat predatory They favored strong and virile young men, whom they exhausted or even killed with their energy and sexual appetites. 

The similar Hungarian witch, Szepasszony, was a frightening figure who kidnapped humans, often for sexual purposes. 

The Russian witch Baba Yaga controlled the weather, brewing up storms to hide her raids on human settlements where she stole children. 

Nearby, the dual Germanic goddesses Perchta and Holle not only controlled the weather but were also connected with sea sonal change, typically accompanied by a change in weather. 

The distinction between a seasonal goddess and a weather-controller can be difficult to distinguish, with divinities like Georgian Tamar (see Slavic) serving in both capacities. 

Storms include wind as well as rain, and goddesses whose special domain is the wind are not uncommon, although more typically associated with male divine figures (as is thunder). 

At times these winds are drying, as with Egyptian Sekhmet who repre sents the desiccating desert wind as well as the heat of the sun. 

African O ya controlled winds on the river named for her, while in the African diaspora, she continued to con trol wind, both gentle breezes and dangerous storms. 

Similarly, the Haida figure Dju (see North America) controlled both soft and harsh winds by the height to which she raised her dress. 

Sumerian Lilith (see Eastern Mediterranean) is another wind goddess, embodying a Cailleach-like sexual danger in a voluptuous form. 

Because goddesses are often associated with water (see below), they can be described as having special power over rain. 

An important example is Persian Anahita (see Eastern Mediterranean), who was seen as both earthly water and as rain that replenished streams and rivers. 

These rain goddesses can appear as fertility figures like African Mujaji, for farmers depend upon rain at appropriate times in order for crops to thrive and ripen. 

In northern climes, the goddess of precipitation was associated with snow rather than rain, as evidenced by Siberian Asiaq and Eskimo Kadlu (see Circumpolar for both). 

One weather-related phenomenon typically associated with goddesses is the rain bow, which was in many lands seen as an airborne woman like the Greek Iris and Ochumare of the African diaspora. 

In Australia, the rainbow was a female serpent flung across the sky (see Julunggul and Kunapipi). 

The same connection is found in the African diaspora, where Aida Wedo is both rainbow and serpent in Haiti. 

Other lands also saw a connection between rain and snakes or dragons, as Korean Aryong Jong, ‘‘queen of the dragon palace, suggests. 

Similarly, the clouds that give birth to rain are depicted as goddesses, such as Indian Abhramu and Greek Nephele. 

The connection of such goddesses to water seems primary, so they may be seen in bodies of water such as lakes and rivers, as well as in falling rain. 

They can, as well, be associated with the oceans, as the Taiwanese goddess Ma-tsu attests. 

She especially controlled the weather at sea, which impacted the fisherman who honored her (see China). 

In Latvia (see Baltic), Mjer-jema was honored as a weather goddess who con trolled the storms at sea and thus assured or spoiled good fishing. 

In Finland the god desses of air and weather ruled the healing arts (see Ismo). 

~ Kiran Atma

You can learn more about Goddess Symbolism here.

Goddess Of The Sun

The sun is frequently described as a male emblem, associated with reason, consciousness, and benevolence. The antagonism between the ‘‘masculine" sun and the ‘‘feminine" moon, the latter embodying such attributes as emotion and irrationality (‘‘lunacy" is derived from the Latin word for moon) is commonly described by writers influenced by essentialist views of gender. However, cross-cultural mythical comparisons do not support such arguments. 

The sun has been regarded as a goddess by more cultures than as a deity. The Celts, pre-Hellenic Greeks, Baltic peoples such as Lithuanians and Latvians, Finns and related Hungarians, Scandinavians and Germans, and Slavic peoples all saw the sun as female in Europe (see Saul, Sól, Beiwe and Xatel-Ekwa, and Solntse in those sections, respectively). 

Sun goddesses can be found all over the world: 

In Arabia (Al-Lat), Australia (Bila, Walo), India (Bisal-Mariamna, Bomong, Kn Sgni), and Sri Lanka (Pattin); among the Hittites (Wurusemu), Egyptians (Hathor, Sekhmet), and Babylonians (Shapash); in Native America (Unelanuhi), Natchez (Wal Sil), I The sun goddess is frequently pictured as benevolent and maternal, willingly dispersing her warmth among her earthly children. n. Along the Baltic Sea coasts, Lithuanians imagined the sun as Saul, the adored sun-mother who danced in silver shoes on the hilltops on summer nights. 

The sun as a spinner or weaver, a lady who casts light strands over the s, is a similar picture. Sól, a Scandinavian, was said to sit at the edge of the globe every dawn, weaving a net of sunlight. 

The sun goddess was portrayed as active in providing for her children's needs, much like a mother in a subsistence economy. This would be food and clothes in the case of a human mother; in the case of the sun, the goddess gives the light that helps plants to grow and therefore supplies us nourishment. These sun goddesses were sometimes connected with birth, both because of the sun's mother character and because a child sees the sun for the first time at birth; Roman Lucina, "light," was one such goddess, as was Baltic Sa. 

Sun goddesses may express a variety of emotions, not just maternal love. 

Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of earthly pleasures, especially the arts and crafts, was represented as a cat. Sekhmet, a kindred goddess, portrayed the luminary's most frightening characteristics, since she could become as enraged and destructive against humankind as the furious desert sun. 

The daughter of the Hungarian sun goddess XatelEkwa, who baked young males she considered attractive, combines violence and desire. Myths interpret the sun's departure in the winter as a transgression, often an incestuous Saul's Meita, daughter of the Baltic sun goddess, was defiled by her father, the moon. 

Malina, the Inuit sun goddess, was defiled by her brother and tore off one breast before soaring into the sky to leave him; she became the sun, while he became the moon. Her brother threatened the Khasi goddess Ka Sgni with incest, but she escaped by searing his face with ashes, which may still be seen on the moon today (see image below). 

The legendary motif is sometimes not rape but the threat of violent violence, such as when the Finnish sun goddess Päivätär was kidnapped from the sky by the winter-winter gods. After being threatened with death by gremlins, the Saami Akanidi (see Finno-Ugric) withdrew from earth. 

Sometimes, like in the example of the Japanese Amaterasu, who hid in a cave after being insulted by her brother, the sun retreats on her own own. Similarly, the yearly disappearance of the Siberian Kaja é was seen as the goddess's yearly absence. 

A different version of the disappearance narrative may be found in South America, where the sun-woman Akewa was abandoned in the sky when her sister suns descended to the earth because they were curious about the men who had taken her place. The sun ladies were stuck on earth after a hairy earthling bit the solar ladder in half, and they became moms. As a result, themes of withdrawal and loss are part of the sun goddess. s mythology. 

From the dawn of time, stories about the sun shifting its location have been told. Miwok Hekoolas, who was stranded on one side of the sky, was hauled into her curre. Among the Cherokee, Kanene Ski Amai Yehi, the spider goddess, was the only animal capable of bringing the sun to this side of the globe in a hand-held vessel. But she placed it too near to the ground, and the animal elders had to push the sun away. Tso, the Tunica sun goddess, relocated herself after realizing she was roasting people with her heat (see North America). 

Sun goddesses are associated with death and ultimate rebirth, since the luminary fades into darkness each evening but reappears the next morning. 

The British Sul was personified in hot springs in Bath, where she was said to descend at nightfall to go underneath the ground, heating the thermal waters as she travelled through. Those who bathed at her temple were said to absorb the power and endurance of a goddess who might appear to die again every day. Finally, the eye is a frequent emblem for the sun goddess, as the goddess is pictured as an eye in the sky, able to view everything. She is sometimes connected with fortune reading because of her height, which allows her to view the past, present, and future. Hittite Wurusemu was linked with such activities, as were other sun goddesses; she was also a goddess of fate, regulating everyone's fate.

Despite the fact that goddesses inextricably linked to the sun may be found in many civilizations, scholarly prejudice in favor of the solar masculine has led to the misinterpretation of many goddesses with solar connotations. 

The well-known image of the Greek Medusa, whose snake-crowned countenance resembles the rayed sun, has been characterized as representing Several Irish characters, such as Griánne and ine, have solar affinities but are not generally referred to as such. 

As a result, determining which goddesses may be classified as solar divinities is a worthwhile endeavor.

~Kiran Atma

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You may also want to read more about Goddess Symbolism here.

Goddesses Of Reptiles, Birds, And Amphibians

Like animals, reptiles and birds appear frequently as images of feminine divinity. 

While these creatures might seem opposites, many early statues show them united, as we find in the unnamed bird-headed snake goddesses of central Europe, whose image may represent the cosmic reach of a goddess who ruled both earth and sky. 

The imagery survives into historical times as the Greek Gorgons, winged snake haired sisters of the goddess Medusa. 

Snake goddesses often represent rebirth or renewal, for as the snake sheds its skin, so the soul is reborn into another life. 

Egyptian Mafdet and Mertseger were con nected with both burial and the promise of an afterlife. 

In India, black-faced Kalı, ruler of death and transformation, is bedecked in writhing snakes. 

Other Indian goddesses associated with snakes include Manasa, who guards against snakebite and brings prosperity, and the snake-women called Naginıs, associated with water and the mon soon season. 

This connection of snakes with water is also found in Australia, where the rainbow serpent Julunggul (see also Kunapipi) lived in deep pools, from which she stirred herself at times of creation and of initiation ceremonies. 

Snakes could appear maternal, for snakes protected stored grain from encroaching vermin and thus preserved the familys health. 

Lithuanian Aspelenie was such a protector, as was Greek Athena. 

Even in nonagricultural societies, we find snake pro tectors, such as Siberian Irt (see Circumpolar), who protected the fecundity of rivers. 

Snakes appear as images of reproductive sex in the image of Chinese Nu¨wa, entwined with her serpent mate, while Indian Kadru offers an image of reproductive abundance with her clutch of a thousand eggs. 

Conversely, snakes could be fearsome and threatening. 

Some terrifying snakes were connected with magic and shape-shifting, such as Greek Hecate, Roman Angitia, Celtic Morrıgan, and Aztec Coatlicue. 

Perhaps as an extension of this power, serpent goddesses ruled sexuality, as we find with Celtic Melusine and Ezili-Freda of the African disapora. 

The snake Kundalinı, in Hindu India, symbolizes sexual power that rises through the snakelike spinal column linking the groin and head. 

Finally, reptilian goddesses appear as cosmic creatrixes. 

In Africa, the snake Aido Hwedo was present at creation and provided the pattern for the sinuous shape of mountains and rivers. 

Some serpents provided the material for the world from their own body, as did Aztec Cipactonal and Babylonian Tiaˆmat. 

Polynesian Walu tahanga suffered dismemberment but, once made whole again, provided fresh water and food to humanity. 

The snake goddess can appear as a dragon, especially in Asia where these imagi nary hybrids were a common mythic motif. 

Typically, dragons were associated with the oceans power. 

Japanese Benten either took the form of a dragon or rode one on the ocean waves. 

In Egypt, the goddess Meretseger was a snake with human head, or a snake with three heads, a form that stressed her otherworldly aspects. 

Other rep tiles appear as goddess images in regions where they are common, as with African Nyakae, a crocodile. 

Birds also appear frequently as goddess images. 

Pedamma-Mariamma (see India) was one of several creatrixes who took bird form; she laid an egg that contained the universe and the gods. 

Polynesian Tuli flew across the primal ocean, creating island homes for people as she did. 

Finnish Luonotar was not herself a bird, but provided a place for the cosmic eggs to be laid by a duck in primeval times. 

Sometimes the bird is of a specific species: the owl accompanied and represented Greek Athena, while Irish E tain took the form of a swan (see Celtic). 

In such cases, the birds qualities were associated with the goddess (wisdom and loyalty, respec tively). 

Observation of bird behavior led to the connection of the Greek tragic heroine Aedon with the loud-crying nightingale; the Celtic war goddess Badb with the carrion-eating crow; the Saami spring goddess Barbmo-Akka (see Finno-Ugric) with migrating waterbirds; and the loyal Celtic heroine Fionnuala with the similarly loyal swan. 

Greek Aphrodite was associated with several kinds of birds, including the goose and the sparrow, which were imagined as sexually vigorous. 

Occasionally the bird was not the goddess but her mate. 

The goddess of sexuality in the African diaspora, Oshun, is associated with the peacock, the male of which preens its lavish tail to attract a mate. 

Eskimo Sedna (see Circumpolar) was mated to a sea bird, but grew tired of living on scraps of fish that he provided. 

In Greek mythology, the sky god Zeus turned himself into a bird in order to assault goddesses and Nymphs. 

Thus Hera was associated with the quail, for Zeus disguised himself as one in order to gain access to Heras lap, while Leda was associated with the swan, in which form Zeus raped her, as he did the goddess of vengeance, Nemesis. 

Frigg, the Scandinavian all-mother, lived in a sky palace to which she ascended on hawks wings. 

Birds provided a disguise for shape-shifted goddesses such as Russian Baba Yaga (see Slavic) and Irish Morrıgan (see Celtic). 

Nemain, a Celtic war goddess, flew over the battlefield like a crow to observe the slain, as did the Scandina vian Valkyries. 

Birdsong figures in goddess imagery both as a positive image of beauty (Thai Kinnarı, see Southeast Asia) and as a threatening one of loss of self (Greek Sirens). 

In addition to the earthbound serpent and the airy bird, we find goddesses in the form of amphibians, which live in water as juveniles and, after undergoing metamor phosis, breathe air as adults. 

The most common amphibian image of the goddess is the frog or toad, often used as an image of the birthing creatrix because its bent legged shape looks like a woman squatting in labor. 

This connection of frogs with birth was found in Egypt, where Hekt, a woman with a frogs head, was a midwife. 

Frogs and toads were also widely associated with weather. 

The Australian frog goddess Quork-Quork was the mother of rain, thunder, and lightning. 

Yang Sri, the toad goddess of Vietnam, controlled the weather, as did the Baltic weather witch Ragana. 

Scandinavian Holle hid in a deep well disguised as a frog. 

Finally, in a few instances, we find a connection between frogs and fire, notably in South America, where the frog goddess Nayobo made fire by vomiting, while another frog goddess of the region, Kibero, brought fire to humanity. 

~ Kiran Atma

You can learn more about Goddess Symbolism here.

Goddesses Of Animals

  

Both wild and domesticated animals appear as goddess images. 

In at least one case, we find a wild and a domesticated version of the same animal representing separate god desses: Egyptian Bast (domesticated cat) and Sekhmet (lioness). 

In all circumstances, however, the goddesss familiar animal was common in the area where she was wor shiped; goddesses are not represented by exotic or alien fauna. 

One of the most important animal images for the goddess is the cow. 

Domesticated in Egypt approximately 5,000 years ago from wild cattle (where cows were honored as images of the goddesses Hathor and Neith), the cows nourishing milk symbolically connects this animal to human mothers. 

In a few cases, the goddess is seen associated with a bull. 

Greek Europa was carried across the sky by a bull, Mesopotamian Innana owned the bull of heaven (see Eastern Mediterranean), Irish Medb kidnapped a mag ical bull (see Celtic). 

But most commonly, the milch cow serves as a symbol of the abundant and nurturing goddess. 

In Scandinavia, the cow was a primal being, Audhumbla, who freed the first beings from the primordial ice in which they were frozen. 

Among the Irish Celts, we find Boand, ‘‘she of the white cows, who brought fertility to the land through the waters of the river that bears her name (Boyne). 

Honoring the ‘‘sacred cow, embodiment of the Hindu goddess Prthvı, in India gives religious support for respecting the cows economic and nutritional importance. 

In the same culture, the goddess of wealth, Laks˛mı, appears as a beautiful cow, and cows are called by her name. 

In Egypt, Hathor was depicted with the horned head of a cow, which had huge wings rising from her shoulders; in this shape, she gave birth to the universe. 

Anahita (see Eastern Medi terranean) was embodied in herds of cows on whose brows moons were branded. 

Nearby, Ugaritic Anat took on the form of a cow to mate with her beloved brother, the god Baal. 

The cow was not only an earthly creature but was imagined as heavenly as well. 

When a greedy person milked Irelands Glas Ghaibhleann (see Celtic) into a sieve, the animal was so insulted that she levitated into the heavens where she walks the ‘‘White Cows Path, the Milky Way. 

The Greeks connected this broad band of stars with the cow goddess Hera, who sprayed the heavens with milk while feeding her son Heracles. 

In some Christian narratives, the starry road was formed from the milk of the virgin Mary (see Eastern Mediterranean). 

The Egyptians saw the sky as a great cows belly, with the sun rising between the horns of the solar cow Hathor. 

Another domesticated animal that provided meat and milk, as well as skin for leather, was the goat, whose usefulness became part of her symbolic importance. 

The hollow horn of Greek Amaltea became the cornucopia, symbol of abundance. 

The Scandinavian heavenly goat Hedrun provided endless intoxicating mead that fed heroes in the afterlife. 

Goats were offered as sacrifices to Hittite Wurusemu (see Eastern Mediterranean). 

Other goddesses to whom goats are sacrificed are Tibetan Tara (see India) and Ethiopian Atete (see Africa). 

Used less often for food than for transportation, the horse appears connected with goddesses prominently in the mythologies of most Indo-European cultures as well as that of other lands. 

Goddesses can appear in horse form, accompanied by or riding horses, or drawn by them in a chariot. 

Many are associated with celestial powers, including the sun and moon. 

Celtic Epona and A ine may have represented the sun that speeds across the sky in a chariot drawn by horses; the folkloric English figure Lady Godiva (see Celts) may descend from a horse goddess. 

The feminine solar horse appears in India as well, in the figures of Samjn a and the dawn maiden Usas, who drove a chariot pulled by red horses. 

Two divine horses pulled the chariot of Scandina vian Sol, while Hungarian Xatel-Ekwa rode three horses simultaneously. 

Occasion ally, a lunar goddess was associated with the horses that pull the moons silver chariot; Greek Selene rode in such a chariot. 

Persian Anahita (see Eastern Mediterra nean) rode in a chariot drawn by four white horses signifying her control over the weather. 

Although typically connected with light, horses can also be associated with goddesses of darkness. 

A nightmarish horse, Russian Mora (see Slavic), killed people as they slept. 

In Scandinavia, the goddess Nott drove black horses that pulled the dark ness across the sky at nightfall. 

As horses were often used in battle, it is not surprising to find goddesses of war associated with this animal. 

In Greece, horses were connected with the warrior women called Amazons, who bore horse-names like Hippolyta and Melanippe. 

In Scandina via, a similar group of horsewomen, the Valkyries, brought dead heroes from the battlefield to heaven. 

In Ireland, the war goddess Macha was identified with horses, for she could outrun them even when nine months pregnant. 

Horses can represent transformation, as with Sumerian Ereshkegal (see Eastern Mediterranean), whose horse rode the boundary between death and life, or Greek Medusa who gave birth to the winged horse Pegasus, symbol of transformative poetry. 

Medusa may be connected with an obscure form of the grain goddess Demeter, who was impregnated while wearing a horses head. 

In the Baltic, the death goddess Giltine˙ drove two black horses, while in Wales the goddess Rhiannon rode a white horse from the Otherworld and was later forced to carry people on her own back like a mare. 

In hunting societies, wild herd animals like deer and buffalo appear as divinities, sometimes pictured in whimsical fashion. 

In Scandinavia, the Skogsfruen (see Busch frauen) herded wild animals and, when not otherwise occupied, liked to knit socks. 

But the underlying image of the goddess of wild herds is as a cosmic game warden, controlling access to the beasts and thus to the meat they provide. 

In southeastern Europe, Dali was goddess of mountain sheep who appeared as a nubile woman with whom male hunters had intercourse, which empowered them to become great hunters. 

Yet, like other goddesses of the hunt, she put prohibitions on hunters and killed any who broke her commands. 

The connection of goddesses with hunting is common, despite similarly common prohibitions on human women hunting. 

Greek Artemis wanders through the forests accompanied by her Nymphs, tending to woodland creatures and helping animals safely bear their young. 

Other such goddesses are Celtic Arduinna and Artio, Irish Flidais (see Celtic), Finnish Mielikki, Eskimo Sedna, and Siberian Umaj (see Circumpolar). 

In North America, Wohpe, the white buffalo calf-woman of the North American Sioux, is not only a guide to correct behavior when hunting but a general power of order. 

Such woodland goddesses set the rules and expectations for hunters, who were rewarded with success if they treated the goddess with respect. 

Dogs often appear as goddess images, as do their wild counterparts, wolves. 

Often the dog appears as a companion of the goddess rather than an embodiment of her, as with Celtic Nehalennia, Greek Hecate, and Hawaiian Pele (see Pacific Islands). 

Eskimo Sedna (see Circumpolar) lived with a dog, described sometimes as her hus band. 

Scandinavian Frau Goˆde (see Holle in Scandinavia) always traveled with a dog, which she used to annoy people who did not sufficiently respect her. 

Babylonian Gula was always shown accompanied by dogs, and dogs were buried in her temple, suggesting that they were connected with her healing powers. 

In rare cases, as with Irish Uirne, the divine figures are themselves canine in form, but more typically we find the dog by the goddesss side. 

Wolf goddesses, by contrast, were embodied in wolf form rather than merely traveling in their company. 

The related Roman figures of Rhea Silvia, Lupa, and Acca Larentia show the goddess in both human and lupine form. 

Both as dog and as wolf, the goddess appears more protective than threatening, although as Brimwylf (see Scandinavian) she can appear monstrous to those who would threaten her child. 

Like canines, felines can appear as both wild and tame in goddess iconography. 

However, when the tame cat appears as the wild lion, she changes from an affectionate goddess (Egypts Hathor, with her cat ears; Scandinavias sensual Freya; Chinese Wu Lo, goddess of fertility) to a fierce one (Indias Durga, a warrior goddess; Babylonian Eriskegal, queen of death; Egypts raging Sekhmet). 

At times, a complex but generally kindly goddess such as Cybele (see Southeastern Europe) or Chinas Xiwang Mu appeared accompanied by lions or tigers, which suggest the goddesss fiercer powers. 

Among other wild animals that serve as goddess images or vehicles, the bear appears as both the goddess herself (Greek Callisto and Artemis, Celtic Artio) and as her mate (Tlingit Rhpisunt; see North America). 

The goddess appeared as a fox in Japan (Inari), where she could transform herself into a beautiful woman to seduce and kill men. 

Finally, occasional goddesses take on animal forms appropriate to a spe cific region, such as Egyptian Taweret (hippopotamus). 

~ Kiran Atma

You can learn more about Goddess Symbolism here.