Goddess/Mother/Source/Creation

one_raven

one_raven

God is a Chinese Whisper
Valued Senior Member
I need 11 Goddesses from around the world for a story I have been working on.
Ideally these are Goddeses that serve some role in the respective culture in their creation myths (such as Eve being the mother of all in Judeo-Christian Mythology) but not necessarily, as I am drawn to the persona of Kali for one from India.
I need perhps one from India, one from South America, one from North America, one from China, one from Japan, one from Eastern Europe, one from Northern Europe, one from the Nords, one from the Maori, one from the Alaskan Inuits and one from the Ploynesians.
(it doesn;t have to be those 11, but they should all be from different cultures, and ideally different regions of the world.
Malevolence would be nice - the more complex the persona the better.

Any candidates you can think of?

Thanks
 
Laima
Eastern Europe, Baltic tribes

Laima is the deity of fate, the personification of it, whether as luck or as bad luck. The name is similar to laime - "luck", with both grammatical variants traceable in the folklore material. The name of this deity also differs in different sources. She assists childbirth, therefore is honored by both maidens and married wives, controls the most important events of a person's life, such as birth, marriage and death. As a person may mention or even condemn the respective Laime, it may be understood that the concept 1) was in stage of turning into a synonym for liktenis - 'fate', 2) this deity is understood as opposable, although the judgment cannot be affected in any way. One of the first appearances of Laima in a document is again Paul Einhorn's Historia Lettica (1649).

She is also the deity of pregnant women and can ensure a good pregnancy as long as she is in the house. Frequently mentioned together in the song texts with Dievs, in some cases God's horses are outside her door (meaning suitors arriving at a maiden's house), but it is a very weak motif among those of the heavenly wedding. She is the central one of the alleged trinity of Laimas or destiny deities, together with her sisters Karta and Dekla. There are texts mentioning 'three Laimas', although not giving their particular names.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/l/laima.html

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laima

I must also mention that Laima is the chief protectress deity of children to whoom both parents have died, taking a motherly role in helping those children out, while Dievs (Dievas) the chief deity takes the role of father.

Like this folk song mentions:

All are saying, all are saying:
You are orphan, you are orphan!
Am I orphan
because I don't have a father, mother?
Dievs is my father, Laima my mother,
Dieva sons my brothers.

Also an interesting aspect of Laima is that she being the goddess of luck/bad luck and fate and also being able to help desperate people out was apparently not entirely free in what fate she gives, because there are many folk songs mentioning that Laima is crying giving someone bad luck or observing the consequences of the said bad luck.
I think these songs are there because all in all Laima is a very positive deity with a very nice character, but people still had bad luck in their lives.

p.s. Baltic people have no goddess in their creation myths.
 
Or alternatively you could use Māra:

Māra
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In Latvian mythology, Māra is the highest-ranking goddess, a feminine Dievs (God). She may be thought as alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her alternate aspects. Māra may have been also the same goddess as Lopu māte.

She is the patroness of all the feminine duties (children, cattle), patroness of all the economic activities ("God made table, Māra - bread"), even money and markets. Being the alternate side of Dievs, she takes a person's body after their death while Dievs is taking the soul. She is the goddess of land, which is called Māras zeme.

In western Latvia, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Latvia, she was strongly associated with Laima, and may have been considered the same deity.

The festival Māras was held in her honor every August 15. This was probably already a result of Christian influence and identification of Māra with Mary, whose main festival (Assumption) falls on the same date since antiquity. There is also an opinion, that deity Māra is just relflexion of Christian Mary created by semi-Christian Livonian peasants.

Alternative names: Māre, Mārīte (diminutive), Mārša, Māršava (Western Latvia),

See also

* Mara (Hindu goddess)
* Mara (folklore).
Click to expand...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(goddess)
 
I think Kali would be your best bet
275px-KaliMother.jpg


Kali (Sanskrit Kālī काली) is a goddess with a long and complex history in Hinduism. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence, while more complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the Ultimate Reality (Brahman) and Source of Being.
Click to expand...

The other goddesses are all benevolent. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities#Mother_Goddesses

My personal favorite is Durga

Durga is depicted as a warrior woman riding a lion or a tiger with multiple hands carrying weapons and assuming mudras, or symbolic hand gestures. This form of the Goddess is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy (Shakti
Click to expand...

275px-Durga_Mahisasuramardini.JPG
 
You could include Mary, Jesus' mother. Especially in the areas of the world where worship is more passionate she is more central than in other parts and the worship, iconography, and prayers are very 'goddess' religion-like.

Gaia in anarcho-pagan Wiccan circles could also be included.
 
Poland is very Mary-centric. There Jesus is almost just an attribute besides her.
 
Freya!!

Freyja owned a cloak of feathers (debatedly, either robin's feathers or hawk feathers), which gave her the ability to change into any bird, and to fly between worlds.
According to Prose Edda, Freyja also often rides on a chariot drawn by a pair of large blue cats. Freyja has special links with cats. She rode this chariot to Baldur's funeral. These cats are called Gib-cats in the Prose Edda.

But I don't know if she created anything. Have you looked at Klingons? That a fairly modern mythology.
 
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Ups, I accidentally messed up this post... I hope one_raven can recover it from quoted texts....
/Avatar runs and hides
 
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Good day, one_raven. Hope all is well for you and your partner.

Anyway, without prior knowledge but wanting to help out, I stumbled across Coatlicue, an Aztec goddess, also known as the Mother of Gods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatlicue

If you're looking for a malevolent background, there is something to be said for her offspring and their relationships. Anyway, give it a look. Interested to know where your information gathering will lead. Best of luck to you.
 
original said:
Good day, one_raven. Hope all is well for you and your partner.

Anyway, without prior knowledge but wanting to help out, I stumbled across Coatlicue, an Aztec goddess, also known as the Mother of Gods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coatlicue

If you're looking for a malevolent background, there is something to be said for her offspring and their relationships. Anyway, give it a look. Interested to know where your information gathering will lead. Best of luck to you.
Click to expand...

She is perfect!
It seems I now have South America covered.
Thank you!

:bugeye: Does anyone know how to pronounce it? :bugeye:

The information will hopefully lead to finishing a series of books that I have been working on for far too long now.
I have gotten to an important part in which I can't put the Goddess research off any longer.
 
one_raven said:
Sam,
Durga is older than Kali, correct?
Was she "born"?
Was she a creator of some sort (people, earth, cosmos) - or play a role as a mother of humanity?
I am really looking for goddesses/figures that have some of the following traits:
played some sort of matriarchal role
been around since the beginning of the earth
been a sexual/fertility goddess or succubus of some kind (Lilith was one option, but I am uncertain of her)
been involved with the creatin gof earth/reality in some way
was very powerful and and high in the hierarchy of the pantheon (no lesser Goddesses of simple Devas)
Avatar,
"Baltic people have no goddess in their creation myths."
Are there specific people involved and mythologies about their creation?
Is there a first woman/mother figure (akin to Eve)?
Click to expand...

I'd have to do some research.

Meanwhile have you considered Saraswati? She is the consort of Brahma, the god of creation

In the Rig-Veda (6,61,7), Saraswati is credited, in association with Indra, with killing the serpentine being Vritraasura, a demon which hoarded all of the earth's water and so represents drought, darkness, and chaos. She is often seen as equivalent to other Vedic goddesses such as Vak, Savitri, and Gayatri. Saraswati represents intelligence, consciousness, cosmic knowledge, creativity, education, enlightenment, music, the arts, and power. She is not only worshipped for secular knowledge, but for the true divine knowledge essential to achieve moksha. She is also referred to as Shonapunya, a Sanskrit word meaning ‘one purified of blood’.
Click to expand...
saraswati-devi.jpg
 
Avatar,
"Baltic people have no goddess in their creation myths."
Are there specific people involved and mythologies about their creation?
Is there a first woman/mother figure (akin to Eve)?
Click to expand...
No specific people, just the general first man. which was created by Dievs and modified by the Devil (Devil wanted to create its own man because he was envious that Dievs had a new creation, but he lacked the life force giving power, so he came when after Dievs had created man from clay and made half of the man in his image) When Dievs came to breathe in life, he didn't notice the modification and created man that is half Dievs (God) half Velns (Devil). Our creation myths are very general and quite boring. I think you can say that for the whole of eastern Europe, because we're quite primitive.
The sort of stupid thing about Baltic mythology is that after the crusaders came many original myths got corrupted because in latvian and lithuanian language the general word for god is dievs/dievas (from the sanskrit deva) which is also the name for one of the chief deities Dievs and we had a persona which was named Velns (literal translation - Devil). It's character was totally different than that of the christian Devil (a mischievous trickster figure that gets himself in trouble because he's also stupid), but in time original myths got confused with christian myths, because the acting personas had the same names. It didn't help that Dievs was maybe the most powerful and compassionate deity that lived in the sky either.
 
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perhaps you should look into the Aboriginal mythology - the Australian Aborigines - tho animals seem to represent the myths I am sure those fall into male female imagery- there concept of time is profound - sorry I dont have any specifics but should enable a good journey of learning for me today - thx!!!
 
addendum- many female based entities in teh aboriginal culture -Eingana - creator spirit of all water animals and humans Walo female (Sun) creator and Yhi female spirit of light and creation ... their Dreamtime aspect lends a wonderful aspect of incorporation for trans world fadventures journeys.....hope this helps
 
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