Comment

Comment by L. Love on April 30, 2012 at 3:14am

Great info Cian...thank you for sharing honey :)

Comment by Zephonith Serpent Woman on April 30, 2012 at 3:07am

Cian, I just want to say thank you from my heart for all the wonderful posts that  I haven't had the time to go through completely yet!

Any topic about the Goddess is welcome, and as the Goddess has Ten Thousand Names, there is plenty to write about :)

A Mandala of Goddess Yemaya

Comment by Zephonith Serpent Woman on April 30, 2012 at 2:55am

Nice, Cian, thank you very much for bringing this to ouir attention~ Mother earth is in serious trouble, and we who are aware need to do something, or the consequences will be severe. Every little bit helps, I know it's difficult if you have a tight budget, but there are little thiongs we can do to help. Like reporting people who dump illegally, pollute rivers, etc. ~ planting just one plant or tree every month, or seeding some out and planting them in nature, checking the contents of the garbage bin...not using excessive household poisons or insecticides, etc etc.

Well, the Earth is our Mother, and we have a responsibility to Gaia as well as to ourselves and all the other Beings who live here with us. We can and do make a difference, as we are all connected to the Web of Life.

Comment by Zephonith Serpent Woman on April 30, 2012 at 2:45am

Tommy, I deleted those last three posts you made, please don't take it any way, but this group is not meant for the continual discussion of mundane topics that aren't really in line with what we are doing here ~ this is a sacred space for Goddessians ~ and I use this term as a wide umbrella term as everyone has a unique relationship with Goddess.

Anyway, If there are topics that interest anyone and do not concern the Goddess, or if you wish to debate the gender of the Divine, please post these in another group. This is a Goddess dedicated group, and I ask that we all respect this.

Personally, Tommy, I find some of the issues you have brought up here very interesting, and I respect your knowledge and all ~ just please post them elsewhere as I am sure you understand that it is disturbing the harmony of the group, which is  dedicated to the Triple Goddess.

Namaste

Comment by L. Love on April 30, 2012 at 12:31am

Welcome Janet, happy to have you join us here to celebrate the Goddess.

Swirls....cool story!  I was always fascinated by reptiles and people say they don't have a personality, well they have never really got to know one!  Larry was very badly abused and we got him he was very underweight and therefore don't know his age.  We looked after him and after 4 years, he is now fully grown and healthy as you can see! I cannot understand how anyone can ill treat any of our brothers and sisters of this planet, be they on two legs, fours legs or no legs.  All are of the Creative force.

Lizzie is just plain funny!  She is such a little dinosaur!  She knows her heritage and thats that!  lol

Thats such a cool story you said about your connection with the snake swirls...that must have been so cool!  I admire animals over a lot of people as they only kill for food, not for pleasure as man does.  They just follow the cycles of life and people can definitely take a leaf out of their books!

Zu...wonderful information about the dragons but then you know my view on them ;)  Wonderful post again.

Comment by Zephonith Serpent Woman on April 29, 2012 at 10:53pm

Wow! Lizzie is just so cute ~  and Larry I can see is a special individual hahah!

Swirls, thank you so much for posting this!

As you mention, there have been many years of interference between the African peoples and our collective ancient spiritual heritage. But the wheel is turning, and many are once again returning to honour the Old Ways and the Ancestors. With the advent of global communications, the opportunity is here for all to dig a little and rediscover our roots.

How old is African Pagan tradition, though, actually? Hmm...I wonder if you would find this interesting? 

...........................................................................................................?!?

The Dragon is the symbol of Pagan spirituality. This is not the patriarchal idea of an evil devil dragon as portrayed in Revelations, for example, however, which many still fail to grasp in this day and age.

Firstly, Pagans do not recognise this devil, as it is a purely patriarchal invention, and classical notions of evil have no place in Nature-based Pagan spirtuality, which of course includes the Goddess movement :)

The Dragon, or Great Serpent, was venerated for all time and through all civilizations, as personifying Nature and Natural energies of Creation and Destruction, as the Earth, and the Cosmic energies which flow and twist through everything... One could indeed look at the characteristics of Eastern Dragons to find out more of the truth about the Dragons, as unfortunately in the West, the Dragon is no longer the guardian of the Pearl of Wisdom, and a decidedly Feminine symbol, but has been made as a devil with evil intent.

No Dragon I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, was evil, or associated with "the devil". Anyway, here is a Dragon which lives at the entrance to the Temples and Shrines of various spiritual traditions of the Orient, including Shinto, Taoist and Buddhist traditions ~ the water which comes out of the Dragon's mouth is used to cleanse the hands and the aura before entering the sacred place.

This Dragon is very powerful, but never "evil"!!

A Japanese Dragon at the entrance to a Shinto Temple on the slopes of Mt.Fuji

Practically every Ancient Pagan Goddess is portrayed with, or associated with, a Serpent or Dragon.

Comment by L. Love on April 29, 2012 at 9:26am

Hi Zu, swirls dancing....beautiful posts my friends.

Its odd but I have friends who laugh at me as I always have loved snakes.  I even have a rescued one here at home (along with a rescued lizard and dog!). I was always drawn to them for their renewal and transformative properties.  I never saw them as something to be afraid of.  As Zu knows, its the same with dragons.  I have never seen them as 'evil' as they were always drawn here in the west but more as they are looked upon in the east.

Again, beautiful additions to the Goddess group my friends :) Thought you might like to see my extended 'family' members ;)

Larry

Lizzie

Comment by Zephonith Serpent Woman on April 29, 2012 at 4:21am

The Goddess loves Lions, and the King of the Jungle lies at Her feet ~

Comment by Zephonith Serpent Woman on April 29, 2012 at 4:19am

Africa has a rich Goddess tradition, and although several decades of zealous missionary activity coupled with the ravages of the Islamic slave traders have robbed Africa of much on the surface, the continent is the home of the Spirit Religion, known as Voudoun and a full third of all Africans today still adhere at least partly to the ancient spirituality of the Ancestors.

Many Africans venerate their Ancestors, and spirit possession religions such as Zar and Voudou exist side by side with what is loosely termed Animism ~ the belief that every living being has a Spirit, including animals, crystals and Trees. This is very close to Nature, and teaches people that we are all part of Nature and the wider Cosmos.

The most easily recognised African Goddesses are Mami Wata, also known as Mami, and Queen Au-Set in later times;

Goddess Yemaya and Goddess Oya originate in West Africa, and, people tend to forget that Egypt and Greater Arabia is part of the African continent.

For all known time, peoples have traded and intermingled throughout Africa, and there are many cross-cultural synchronicities, such as the fact that Goddess Ma'at and Isis were also worshipped by the Pygmies in West Africa; that petroglyphs (rock art) of Venus and Inanna symbols have been discovered in Southern Africa dating back to an unknown antiquity; and that the mysterious stellar tribe, the Dogon, of present-day Mali, possess cultural records of hieroglyphs which are very similar to the Egyptian writings.

The evidence of Serpent worship throughout Africa is extensive and it is without a doubt that Opheliatria was universally practised in Africa, as was the case worldwide in pre-patriarchal days. Having saisd this, it is amazing just how many Judeo-Christian Serpents there are!

I was having a look through some reference books and discovered that the Serpent is also central to the Judeo-Christian traditions.

For example, Moses had a "
Brazen Serpent", Jesus was a Nazar, the word Nazar having it's roots in the term Nachash, or Serpent practitioner/Witch and coming to mean in all Semitic tongues , a Cobra, or Serpent; and though the Serpent was diabolized in later years,ther close relationship between the Serpent , the Goddess and the Tree of Life cannot be so easily justified as a struggle between good and evil.

Modern Goddessian interpretations center around the intimate relationship between Eve and Lilith, personified as the Serpent of Wisdom, and deny any of the stereotypes which come from the patriarchal interpretations of the story of the Garden of Eden ~ which is actually the Garden of the Goddess.

The Arabic word for a Pagan Spirit is Janoun, or Djinn .One of the words which is linked to the term is Jenana, or Garden.

Lilith is known in certain spiritual traditions as the Jenneia of Jenneias , Jenneia being the feminine of Djinn.

Just as Vodou has been called "devil-worship" , and crude racist patriarchal attacks have been made over the centuries to diabolize the Spirit Religion; so the Islamic religion has demonised the Djinn Queen , Goddess Ma'nat and all pagans who would continue the Old Ways.

The same patterns are to be seen over the passage of Time, as one civilization is succeeded by another, the new is built over the old, and the Goddess of the Old, becomes the devil of the new.

However, the Goddess was First, and can never be eradicated. How can anyone truly forget and ignore the Mother who gave them birth, after all? Sooner or later, we all return to the Great Mother, as it is from the Goddess that we all come.

What doesn't kill, makes stronger )O(

Comment by L. Love on April 29, 2012 at 3:24am

Wow thats really cool!  I love the way they are all in such unison!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 361
• 362
• 363
• 364
• 365
• …
• 381
• Next ›
• Page