Table of Contents
In almost every culture I study there is a goddess at the center: a mother of the gods, a lady of heaven, a mistress of the waters or the earth. She carries many names, and the same traits keep returning: love and fertility, the moon and the evening star, rivers and the sea, and sometimes war. In several traditions she was later removed or demoted. These are the pages where she appears.
Asherah beside Yahweh
On “His Asherah” – Did Yahweh had a female counterpart? I look at the Iron Age inscriptions from Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai, from around 800 BCE. They contain blessings like “I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his Asherah”. On Trinity: El, YHWH, Asherah I place her as the mother in the oldest divine family of Canaan and Israel.
The Bible then orders her removal. On Asherah, Ashtoreth the verses are collected:
"Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles."
Exodus 34:13
On King Hezekiah’s religious reforms I follow how that order was carried out. On Is there a relationship between snakes and the Asherah pole? I look at the serpent symbols around her cult.
Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte and Aphrodite
On Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte, and Aphrodite I compare four goddesses who are not identical but overlap as goddesses of love, fertility and war. Inanna of Sumer carries the eight-pointed star, the lion and the planet Venus, and goes down into the underworld to expand her power. On Inanna and Enmerkar she takes part in the rivalry between Uruk and Aratta. In Oahspe the picture turns darker, and on Ashtaroth, a powerful false goddess she is one of the beings who demanded worship in the lower heavens.
Isis and the daughters of Isis
On The Goddess Isis Isis is the wife and sister of Osiris and the mother of Horus, a goddess of great magical power and the model of the mother. Other cultures knew her as Ishtar or Athena. On The Order of the Magdalenes the women of that order describe themselves in her name:
We sealed ourselves up in caves and climbed to the high places where we practiced the resurrection and conception practices known to the Magdalene Order – we, who are the daughters and sons of Isis – a name for the Great Mother.
Claire Heartsong, Anna, the Voice of the Magdalenes
On Hathor the Egyptian goddess of love, music and motherhood appears as a cow that is the sky itself, or as a woman with the sun disk between cow horns.
The Great Mother of the mountains
On Cybele and her consort Attis the Phrygian Matar Kubileya is a mountain goddess of the fertile earth and wild nature. The Greeks identified her with Rhea, mother of the Olympians, and in 204 BCE the Roman Senate adopted her cult as Magna Mater. On Mari, Supreme Deity the Basques have a single dominant goddess of nature, weather and justice who lives in mountains and caves and commands storms and fire. Her name may go back to the Basque word for mother.
Mothers of earth and water
On Mokosh the Slavic goddess of earth, moisture and fertility protects women and their work of spinning and weaving. On Yemoja, Mother of Waters and Nurturer of Life the Yoruba mother of the Orishas rules the rivers and, in the diaspora, the ocean. Her name joins “Yeye”, mother, with “Omo eja”, child of fish. On Persephone the daughter of Demeter carries the goddess down into the underworld and back each year, Demeter has her own page, as do Artemis and the Norse Freyja. On Maria, Mother of Jesus I follow how the role of the mother of God continued in Christianity.
Related pages
- “His Asherah” – Did Yahweh had a female counterpart?
- Asherah, Ashtoreth
- Ishtar, Inanna, Astarte, and Aphrodite
- The Goddess Isis
- The Order of the Magdalenes
- Cybele and her consort Attis
- Mari, Supreme Deity
- Yemoja, Mother of Waters and Nurturer of Life
For every page I tagged with Goddess, see the Goddess tag archive.
