GLIMPSES OF THE GODDESS
IMAGE:
Judith Shaw
The Shrine of the Bird Goddess, in the
late 80’s. The central piece, The Bird Goddess, is a very large painting – 6′ x
10′. The painting and installation was inspired by the work of Marija Gimbutas,
amazing archaeologist who uncovered the ancient artifacts of a harmonious, pre-patriarchal
Goddess-worshipping Neolithic Old Europe. [ONLINE
HERE]
Paul Friedrich, An Avian and
Aphrodisian Reading of Homer's Odyssey, American Anthropologist, New
Series, Vol. 99, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 306-320
Lucy Goodison, Death,
Women and The Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration In Early Aegean Religion, Bulletin Supplement (University of London. Institute of
Classical Studies), No. 53, (1989), pp. iii, vii-xi, xiii-xix, 1-261.
Mythical
Representations of ‘Mother Earth’ in Pictorial Media
Nikos
Chausidis
[University
of Skopje, Institute for History of Art & Archaeology, Macedonia.]
Mardith K. Schuetz-Miller, Spider
Grandmother and Other Avatars of the Moon Goddess in New World Sacred
Architecture, Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 54, No. 2, New World Sacred
Architecture (Summer 2012), pp. 283-293, 295-303, 305-347, 349-397, 399-421,
423-435
Sabrina Higgins, Divine Mothers: The
Influence of Isis on the Virgin Mary in Egyptian Lactans-Iconography, Journal
of the Canadian Society for Coptic Studies 3–4 — 2012
This article provides an overview of
the scholarship on the relationship between depictions of Isis and Mary that
show them breastfeeding or offering their breast (representations of the lactans-type)
in Egypt. In particular, it questions the notion of a deliberate cultic
continuity between the two holy women based on the similarity of their
iconography. The evidence demonstrates that whereas Isis lactans can be
documented in the Mediterranean from 700 BCE until the fourth century CE, Maria
lactans-imagery only appears uncontested in Egypt from the seventh century
CE onwards. This evidence, therefore, does not warrant a generalization that
there was a deliberate continuity between the cult of Isis and that of Mary.
Although the similarities between the Isis and Maria lactans-imagery are
undeniable, they need to be understood within their respective cultural
contexts.
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“Ancient bisexual woman was inventor, scientist,
builder, artist, healer, producer of craft and culture, shaman, ecstatic
visionary warrior, and leader. This is our total potential, when our life
energies are not divided against themselves, and against us, blocked and
distorted by cultural and religious stereotypes. This is just the beginning
of our potential, when our energies are able to flow out freely to create the
world-as symbolized by the self-sustaining power of the gynandrous Great
Mother. (70) THE GREAT COSMIC MOTHER: REDISCOVERING THE RELIGION OF THE EARTH by Monica
Sjoo and Barbara Mor HarperCollins, 1991, p. 70. |