Z is for.........

...........Zaramamma.

Zaramamma is a corn and grain Goddess and no matter how hard I try I cannot get the image of a farmer's wife out of my head.  I have been unable to find very little credible info on this Goddess, so am unable to elaborate much further.  Again, if anyone does know anything about this Goddess I would love to hear about it.

Y is for.......

.......Yemaya.

Yemaya is Goddess of the living ocean, some say Mother of all.  An African Goddess.  It is believed that she can cure infertility in women.  The Cowrie shell represents her.
Yemaya is said to wear seven skirts, which represent the seven seas.  She is said to be slow to anger, but when she does it is violent, think Tsunamis and other violent storms at sea.

With all of this in mind I imagine a huge - not fat, just a towering figure - mermaid type figure, wearing Cowrie shells in her hair.  I see her rising up and engulfing ships, entire towns and causing a huge amount of damage once she is angered.  But when she is being of gentle nature I see her sitting on a rock, far out to sea, basking in the sun and watching over those who worship her.

X is for.......

...........Xochiquetzal.

I have no idea how that is pronounced!

She is the Goddess of erotic love, maize, vegetation,  artistry and prostitutes.  The image of a Dominatrix comes to mind here.

W is for........

...........Women.

I have been unable to find a Goddess beginning with the letter W, but if anyone does know of one then please let me know!

I am going to come across all cliched here and say that all women are Goddesses.  Come on, you know it makes sense.  We are adored and worshipped by our men/women/families.  We are amazing in the fact that we nourish new life within us and bring it into the world.  We nurture that new life once it is born and tend to it, helping it grow.
We can do a million things - not literally ;) - at once and still manage to have babies, keep house, work at jobs.  We are truly amazing and we deserve to be pampered and worshipped and adored by our lovers and children and families.

We are all Goddesses.

V is for......

..........Venus.

The Goddess of love.  The ruler of the star sign Taurus and my favourite Goddess, although I don't feel as though she is my patron Goddess which is quite strange.

A modern Venus is any woman who is using her feminine wiles to seduce her man.  But also any woman who makes the most of what she has, looks wise, body wise, intellectually.  Venus women embrace their femininity and are not ashamed of it, they maximise their lives by using what they have - i.e. their womanliness.
This is how I view a modern Venus, as all women at one point or another in their lives.

T is for......

.............Tyche.

Tyche is the Goddess of good fortune, Lady Luck.  She teaches us that every situation's outcome is determined by chance - so says the blurb.

The image I get in my mind's eye of this particular Goddess is of a chic woman who frequents casinos.  You know the type, you read about them in novels, see them in the movies etc, they are always at the arm of the man who is gambling; mysterious, sparkling in appearance and always bringing luck to whoever's arm they are hanging off.

Another, less glamorous image I have in my mind's eye is that of a Fairy Godmother type.  Not as cool as the above image, but still Lady Luck nevertheless.

S is for.......

.........Sophia.

According to my research, Sophia is one of the most worshipped Goddesses.  She is known as the wise Goddess and people petition her for wisdom.  This always make me think of a sage old woman, although the images I have seen of Sophia portray a much younger woman.

The woman I have in my mind's eye is in her mid 50's, her hair is dark, but greying.  She has a kind face and eyes, the compassion is obvious in them.  She oozes compassion and kindness and she is the type of woman we can turn to whenever we need help or advice.  She seems like a mother/grandmother type figure, but just as equally a wonderful friend and confidant.

O is for.....

........Oshun.

It completely slipped my mind that I was supposed to include this brief post for the letter O.  I had been struggling to find any Goddess beginning with the letter O until I stumbled across Oshun.  I have no modern take on this Goddess, but I wanted to include her - and then completely forgot.

Doh!!!!

Oshun is an African Love Goddess, a Goddess of Beauty and Love.  We can call on her when we need blessings in these areas of our lives; she brings peace and satisfaction, trust and friendship and a safe harbour from life's storms.
She brings you into harmony with yourself.

R is for ......

......Rhiannon.

When I started this project I thought I knew a fair amount about the many different Goddesses, but actually I don't.  I know enough about quite a few, and quite a lot about the two I "think" are most likely who I feel an affinity with - Demeter and Kali.
My not knowing isn't such a problem, after all, 366 days of witchery is all about me reconnecting with my witchy side.

So,  Rhiannon is a Celtic Goddess.  An Earth Goddess, her associated areas are Enchantments, Fertility, dreams, magick, horses, birds, and the Underworld.  My first instinct when I think about a Goddess who is associated with the Underworld is to think of her as a dark, seductive temptress.  But the image I get in my mind's eye of Rhiannon is at odds with that.  I imagine her to look similar to my friend's daughter, Katherine.  Katherine is animal mad and is interested in saving everything.  She gets really angry when any animal is hurt, even insects which she isn't particularly fond of.  Katherine is petite, with blond hair and blue eyes.  She is gently spoken and always laughing.

This is how I view Rhiannon.

Q is for.....

...........Qadesh.

I have never heard of this Goddess until I researched for this A-Z.  She is an Egyptian Goddess of sexual pleasure and beauty.  She is the wife of the God Resthep.  Qadesh is  a Syrian deity whose worship was introduced during the Middle Kingdom.  She was associated with the fertility God Min.

The image I got in my head here, was a woman wearing a really short, tight skirt, a skimpy top and long high-heeled leather boots.  Not entirely original for a Goddess, I know, but that was how I imagined her to look today.

P is for.......

..............Persephone.

We all know the story about Persephone being kidnapped by Hades, who took her to the Underworld to be his bride.  We know how her mother, Demeter, was incandescent with rage and her bountiful nature was buried beneath her grief, causing the land to plunge into perpetual winter.

The story we know paints a picture of Persephone being a victim.  I have read stories that give different perspectives on Persephone, such as her secretly being in love with Hades and how she longs to be with him when she is with her mother during the spring and summer months.  But I have always thought that these were just a little too optimistic with regards to the story and the version we all know seems to be the correct one.

Given the view that we have of Persephone being the  victim, I always think of Andromeda from the original Clash Of The Titams film.  She always comes across as a helpless woman, the victim of circumstance.   I have an image of that particular character, as played by Judi Bowker in my mind when I think of Persephone.

N is for .......

........Nyx.

Nyx is not a Goddess I am that familiar with but instantly I was thinking of her in terms of a lady wearing black clothing and who has long black hair.  I see her in my mind's eye as Anjelica Huston's character from the film, The Witches.  She is a Goddess of War and Illness, suffering, bad dreams, misfortune and so on.  Of course I do not view witches in this manner, not at all, but that particular film portrays witches as bad/evil and that character was who I thought about when I started looking into Nyx.

M is for......

............Morrigan.

This Goddess needs no introduction from me, every witch knows who the Morrigan is.  A Goddess of battle and strife, as well as fertility, to name but a few of her areas of expertise.  The image I always get when I think of this Goddess is something similar to Tina Turner in the Mad Max song - We Don't Need Another Hero.

L is for.....

.............Luna.

The more I work through the Goddesses, trying to give them a modern image, the more I find some Goddesses will always be like the images we see of them from literature and paintings around the world.  As I said at the beginning of this project, my brief was to share my own "personal images" of the Goddesses I discuss so that they have a modern image, as viewed by me.  For me, some Goddesses are easily visualised with a modern look, but others I am finding hard to see that way.

Luna is one of those Goddesses.  In my mind's eye I see her as a pale-skinned woman, with long flowing white-blond hair and wearing long, white flowing robes.  She has crystal clear, sapphire-blue eyes that illuminate everything and everyone she gazes upon.

K is for..........

.............Kali.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the one about Demeter, I have a pack of Goddess Cards and you have to answer some questions and this will give you your Goddess.  In some cases you can get two Goddess and I have Demeter and Kali.  Both clearly opposites, but I do think it describes me; on the one hand I am caring and nurturing and would do anything for my children, but on the other hand I am fiery and not afraid of my dark side, and not afraid to use it, come what may.

With all of this in mind I see Kali as she is in the book that accompanies the card pack, dark and wild and dangerous.  I see her in people like me, women who are strong and warrior types.  We fight tooth and nail to overcome the obstacles that life throws at us and we fight and challenge those who unfairly oppose us.  If we are given a hard time we will rise up and fight for what is right.  We are not afraid to go all out for what we believe in and we will, quite often have to face danger to overcome what we are fighting against.

The description in the book describes Kali as the sort of woman people either love or hate.  This is so me!  It describes those as Kali Goddesses as "the mother who confronts the abuser of her child", again, after DD1 was raped at the age of 12 I would have torn that man limb from limb if I had gotten hold of him.  I would have killed him with my bare hands, and to this day - DD1 is 21 in a couple of weeks - I would still love to physically hurt that abuser.
The same could be said when DD2 was being bullied.  I fought everyday for justice, almost costing the headmaster his job, so furious was I with his incompetence - the head kept his job by the skin of his teeth BTW.
The description says that we, as Kali Goddess women, protect our families and those we love with the fierceness of a jungle cat.

So Kali with a modern twist is just any woman whose personal attributes match those of this awesome Goddess.

J is for.....

...........Juturna.

Juturna is a water nymph and a Goddess of healing.  Her festival is on January 11th.  I don't know an awful lot about her but the image I get is of a mermaid administering healing to sick sea creatures and drowning sailors.

I is for.....

......Isis.

Another fertility Goddess, this time from the Egyptian pantheon.  Her message is that love can overcome death.
I always have an image of her looking something like the character Lana Lang, from Smallville.  I think this is probably because in later seasons Lana sets up a company called The Isis Foundation.

H is for........

............Hestia.

Hestia always makes herself known to me whenever there are difficulties on the home front.  Whenever the difficulties get too intense a sort of calming influence can be felt, by me, breaking through the dramas and tensions.  Sometimes I dream about a housekeeper at such times too and I always think of that as Hestia letting me know she is around us.

The kind of image I get of her is a calm, middle aged woman, not so much motherly, more of a housekeeper.  The closest I can describe her so you have an idea of what I mean is someone who looks a little like Lynda Bellingham - of the OXO ad fame.

As Hestia is Goddess of Hearth and Home I think this imagery I have suits her well.

G is for............

............Gaia.

I never see Gaia as an ordinary woman.  Not that I see any of the Goddesses I have discussed as ordinary, what I am trying to say is "seeing" them as a mortal woman.  Gaia always appears in my minds eye as this



I have spent the day trying to conjure an image of Gaia in my mind, not that I have ever been successful before, but I thought I would have one last attempt for this post.  But I have only ever got this sort of image.  I guess this is how she wants me to perceive her and how I do too.  Sometimes we are not meant to see mortal looking types when we see deity, and I guess that is just how it should be.

F is for.......

...........Freya.

Freya is another of those Goddesses you can call upon if you need help with your cats.  She is also the Goddess of love and sex, erotic feelings and all that sexual passion.  Freya is another one of those Goddesses I have no problem visualising.  I see her in my mind's eye as a really sultry woman, exuding sex appeal and leaving men and women lusting after her.
In modern times society would label Freya as a loose woman, but I definitely don't see her in that way.  I see a woman who is comfortable with her sexuality, she exudes it.  She is likely to dress as she sees fit, generally clothing that accentuates her assets.