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Sunday 13 July 2014

Summer Goddesses



Summertime is considered by many people to be the firm domain of the God, where he/they are at their peak but this is also a time of Goddess and while most people associate Goddesses as being spring or winter holders, summer is also a season of the divine feminine. Here are a few of the wonderful women of the summer.

Demeter & Persephone - the Greek Goddesses are abound from mid spring through to the autumn, when Persephone must return to her dark lord!!

The Horae are the Greek Goddesses of the seasons and Auxo was the Goddess of summer, although later forms of Horae would have Theros as summer.

Another Greek deity, Aphrodite, is seen by many people as a summer Goddess, as she is most often depicted with scallop shells and roses. Venus, her Roman counterpart, is also a summer deity.

Hera can also be associated with the summer through her mother Goddess position and cuckoos as one of her birds (peacocks being the main one).

Yemaya, a Yoruba Goddess, is the ocean (and often a River deity) and is another mother Goddess. She is often associated with Isis in her form of Stella Maris.

Isis is the principle Egyptian Goddess and is very much a Goddess of Summer, mother of the winged Horus and re-animator of the corn God, Osiris, her husband.

Keeping to the Egyptian pantheon, we have to add Sekhmet, lion headed Goddess to the list of summer Goddesses. Sekhmet bears a solar dis on her had and is a solar deity, one of the few female solar deities. Wadjet is the other Summer Goddess of Egypt I'd like to mention. Another lioness head, she is depicted as having a snake on her head, also occasionally depicted as being a snake with a woman's head. Her festival is Midsummer.

In the myriad Indian pantheon, Shakti is all seasons, the divine mother of all and can therefore represent the summer. She is often depicted with a swan and a snake.

Amaterasu is the Japanese Sun Goddess and is depicted with rays of light spreading out from her head.

Most mother Goddesses can be seen to represent summer, although some are clearly more autumnal than others.

In the summer, most of us try to spend time at the sea, on beaches or near large bodies of water. This is very much a Goddess domain and in visiting these places, spending time there, making offerings, we are connecting with the summer goddess.

Enjoy the warm days filled with light and sunshine xx


On another note, I have written 3 books. 2 are part of a series set in Scotland about the Sidhe, fairy folk. Available on kindle and in paperback: The Island of the Mist is book 2 The Stone in the Sword is book 1
The 3rd book is an adult, sexy witchy werewolf/vampire story set in New York and featuring a strong female lead character, again available in kindle and paperback formats: The Wolf, the Witch and the Coffin