DARK GODDESSES

Here are a few of the many dark goddesses found in cultures around the world.

MAEVE is a Celtic triple goddess turned into a hag during the Christian era. A
gruesome description of her emerged from the fearful imagination of those afraid of
old age and death. Maeve was seen with joints as black as coal, and her gray bristly
mane was like that of a wild horse. Her teeth were green and sickle-like, and she had
dark smoky eyes and a crooked nose. Her body was diseased and pustulated. Her
fingernails were green.
Before the Christian era Maeve was known as an ancient earth goddess who
held the powers of life and death. In Cruachan, Ireland, she was associated with the
sacred cave Oweynagat, which represented the vaginal opening to the otherworld.
On Samhain (Halloween) frightening spirits would emerge from the mouth of the
cave. This night marks the beginning of winter and the season of death and would
allow monstrous animals and red birds to come into our world. They would ravage
the land and scare the living daylights out of people. The goddess Morrigan also
emerged from this cave. The womb cave of Maeve released the demons of death
but was also the source of healing and magic. Wounded soldiers were brought
there for otherworldly cures, and druidic priests gathered there for ceremony and
ritual.

BLODEUWEDD is a Welsh triple goddess, beautiful as a flower in the spring but

turned into an owl in the fall. Like many goddesses she personifies the transition from
spring maiden to wise crone of the fall, represented by the owl.

HEXE is an ancient German witchs goddess, presiding over health and well being
using spells, charms, and hexes.

HEL is the queen of the underworld in the Norse tradition. The early hell was a
uterine shrine or cave of rebirth. The Celtic Lord of Death was the consort of the
goddess Hel. He was known as Helman. Northern shamans would put on a magic
mask, or Hel-met, which would render them invisible to the ghosts during their
underworld journeys.

CAILLEACH of Ireland and the Celtic lands is the great creatrix goddess most
known for her crone aspect. She was the eternal cycle of life and death, and her
symbol is the spiral, which is found in Neolithic sites all over Ireland. As the
sovereign ever-cycling mother goddess of the land, Cailleach had to ritually marry
the new king. Hers was the greater power to which he must dedicate himself. An old
story relates how four brothers representing the kings of the four provinces of
Ireland tried to get water from a well. Repulsed by the hag appearance of the
guardian of the well, they fled. A fifth brother submitted to her request for a kiss,
upon which she turned into the maiden aspect. He became high king of Ireland,
residing at the mystic center province of Tara. This story describes how the king
must love the land through harsh seasons as well as the times when she appears
as a beautiful maiden.
PERSEPHONE is the Greek goddess of the underworld. She ruled that realm long
before the myth of being abducted by Pluto was written. Persephone as crone was
associated with Demeter, the mother goddess, and Kore, the maiden goddess.
Persephone was the goddess of the blessed dead, but in the Roman Christian
tradition she was considered to be the Queen of the She-demons.

LILITH was first heard of in the Sumerian culture around 2400 B.C. The first
reference to the name is associated with storm demons called Lili. The word lili also
harkens to our word lilly, which was a yoni symbol of the goddess mother. So, Lilith
was originally an ancient image of the goddess mother, who became primarily
associated with the dark aspects of the goddess.
In the Sumerian culture she was depicted as a woman with owl wings and talons
for feet. The owl is a creature of the night, and many of Liliths activities happened
during the dark of the moon or the very early new moon. She was also sometimes
depicted as a beautiful woman who would grasp onto her lovers and never let them
go, and not give them true satisfaction either!

BAST is the Egyptian goddess taking the form of a cat. While Sekhmet, the lion
goddess, represents the hot solar feminine, Bast represents the lunar or cool solar
energies. Both are aspects of the great goddess Hathor/Isis. As a manifestation of
the mother goddess, Bast is often depicted as a woman with a cat head and
carrying a basket of kittens. Her nurturing aspect associates her with the color
green, like Osiris, in the germination of seeds. Sekhmet is associated with the color
red, like Seth who does not support life but destroys it.

KALI MA is a Hindu triple goddess most widely known for her destroyer aspects.
She has one of the fiercest depictions of the dark goddess known, with her lolling
tongue, necklace of skulls, and earrings of childrens corpses. Her naked, pitch-
black body is crowned with long devilish hair, and her fingernails are hooked into
claws. Her cavernous mouth is dripping with blood, and she has long sharp fangs.
She wears a belt around her waist ornamented with severed arms, and serpents
encircle her ankles.

EGUNGUN-OYA is the Yoruba African Mother of the Dead and mistress of spiritual
destinies. Egungun refers to all the souls who have passed over, and Oya means
mother in the Yoruba tradition. During the Egungun funeral ceremonies, participants
would don elaborate masks and perform rituals for the ancestors. The goddess
herself would be invoked for divination and a view into the past and future.

COATLICUE is an Aztec mother goddess depicted with a skirt of serpents. In her

destroyer aspect she is shown with her head severed and spouting two streams of
blood in the shape of two serpents. On her breast hangs a necklace of beads made
of human hearts and hands. The pendant is a human skull. Her own hands and feet
are claws. It must be quite something to behold the 12-ton sculpture of her found in
Mexico.