Creative Writing at the Haven - Goddesses 3

Africa  - Oshun and Isis

More candidates for the Great Goddess:

Isis  is the Greek name of the Egyptian goddess "Aset" or "Eset." Images of Isis typically show her wearing on her head a sign representing the throne symbol or a crown of cow-horns around a sun disk. Her special symbol is an amulet known as the "tyet." Isis was a very popular Egyptian goddess who was associated with Demeter and Hera, Greek goddesses. In fact, Isis was so well liked by the Greeks that she also became popular among the Romans. Isis was thought to watch over the people of the Nile while her husband Osiris spread civilization to the rest of the world.

Oshun, or Ochun  in the Yoruba religion, is an deity who reigns over love, intimacy, beauty, wealth and diplomacy. She is worshipped also in Brazilian Candomblé Ketu, with the name spelled Oxum.  (She should not be confused, however, with a different Orisha of a similar name spelled "Osun," who is the protector of the Ori, or our heads and inner souls. ) Ochun relates mostly to woman but also man.

Ọṣhun is beneficent, generous and very kind. She does, however, have a horrific temper, one which she seldom ever loses. When she does, it causes untold destruction. 

We discussed the idea of ANGER and created a joint mindmap exploring this interesting emotion.  The goddesses seem to behave very badly and are horrendously destructive when roused.  We mortals may aim to use our anger more creatively ..... or perhaps that's only for saints.

ANGER

Yvette

Anything can make you blow

No-one knows how you feel

Great feeling when you clear the air

Everyone holds that anger gene

Rejoice, rejoice! Sometimes you need to hear your voice!

A couple of minor digressions.  The wonderful poem "Flying Crooked" which I encountered by chance thanks to a talk given by the British composer Ian Venables who has set it to music.  It was written by Robert Graves but I would never have guessed it:

Flying Crooked

Robert Graves

The butterfly, the cabbage white,
(His honest idiocy of flight)
Will never now, it is too late,
Master the art of flying straight,
Yet has — who knows so well as I? —
A just sense of how not to fly:
He lurches here and here by guess
And God and hope and hopelessness.
Even the aerobatic swift
Has not his flying-crooked gift. 

We decided it is good to have both qualities - to enjoy some  crooked flying and know when to go straight.

The second digression was a look at another ancient Egyptian goddess that is less well-known but certainly one of the oddest:

Nekhebet - Protectress of women in childbirth, this Egyptian Vulture Goddess suckled the royal children and the Pharaoh. She is the protectress of ancient Upper Egypt. Goddess of Death & Rebirth. Egypt's oldest oracle was the shrine of Nekhebet. The Egyptian word for Mother was the sign of the vulture.

Isn't she sweet?  I was wondering if we could revive her cult for Mother's Day?  Would your mother enjoy being called "vulture"? 

Here's a thought:  

Siriol

The Mother Goddess

Mother goddesses don't make good mothers

They ignore their daughters

And spend their time protecting others

A last word goes to Yvette:
(poem inspired by Robert Graves' poem "The White Goddess" - 

White Goddess or Is She a Shade of Grey?

Yvette

Pursed, pouting and puckered up

These rowan-berry lips

Gave way to curvy hips.

The song-bird fanfare

Heralded her presence

Tall and willowy in essence

She came in bold as brass

Nearly falling on her ass  …..ets

So complex full of facets

In the next bright bolt

We came to a halt

No more bright light

Creative Writing at The Haven - Goddesses 2

Greece and Rome - 12th October  2012

So many goddesses; so little time.  So sticking to our triple theme I went for the Judgement of Paris and the Apple of Dischord.  BEAUTY was much discussed. 

Venus/Aphrodite; Minerva/Athena ; Juno/Hera

The Judgement of Paris

The gods and goddesses, as well as various mortals, were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis(the eventual parents of Achilles). Only the goddess Eris (Discord) was not invited, but she arrived with a golden apple inscribed with the word kallistēi ("to the fairest one"), which she threw among the goddesses.  Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.

We also wondered how poor Venus felt when she arrived at Cyprus with not a stitch on her and no past!

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, circa 1485

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus.

According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus' genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the sea foam (aphros) arose Aphrodite. Thus, Aphrodite is of an older generation than Zeus.

Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, for which reason she is called "Cyprian", especially in the poetic works of Sappho. Her chief centre of worship was at Paphos, where the goddess of desire had been worshipped from the early Iron Age in the form of Ishtar and Astarte.

Because of her beauty, other gods feared jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers, both gods such as Ares, and men such as Anchises. Aphrodite also became instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis' lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.

A game we played was to Design a Goddess - what characteristics and attributes would you give to the ideal goddess?  

Sue came up with this and we all liked this deity:

Designer Goddess

Sue

I am the goddess to heal broken hearts.

I carry with me: rescue remedy,

Chocolates (in any flavour you desire)

Soft, snuggly blankets to envelop you in a hug

A limitless credit card

So you can buy whatever you desire

I am an expert needlewoman

And will stitch your heart together

With beautiful golden threads, so fine

That they cannot be seen

By the naked eye.

I am the goddess to heal broken hearts.

Creative Writing at The Haven - Goddesses 1

Celtic Myths - 5th October 2012 

This series of 6 workshops has an overarching theme of "Goddesses".  We began with the Celtic world.

The story of Ceridwen is well known, and like many other ancient myths it involves transformation: 

Legend

According to the late medieval Tale of Taliesin, included in some modern editions of the Mabinogion, Ceridwen’s son Morfran was hideously ugly, so Ceridwen sought to make him wise. She had a magical cauldron that could make a potion granting the gift of wisdom and poetic inspiration. The mixture had to be boiled for a year and a day. Morda, a blind man, tended the fire beneath the cauldron, while Gwion Bach, a young boy, stirred the concoction. The first three drops of liquid from this cauldron gave wisdom; the rest was a fatal poison. Three hot drops spilled onto Gwion's thumb as he stirred, burning him. He instinctively put his thumb in his mouth, and instantly gained great wisdom and knowledge.

Ceridwen chased Gwion. He turned himself into a hare. She became a greyhound. He became a fish and jumped into a river. She turned into an otter. He turned into a bird; she became a hawk. Finally, he turned into a single grain of corn. She then became a hen and ate him. When Ceridwen became pregnant, she knew it was Gwion and resolved to kill the child when he was born. However, when he was born, he was so beautiful that she couldn't do it. She threw him in the ocean instead, sewing him inside a leather-skin bag. The child did not die, but was rescued on a Welsh shore – near Aberdyfi according to most versions of the tale – by a prince named Elffin ap Gwyddno; the reborn infant grew to became the legendary bard Taliesin.

One writer gave us this in response:

She Became

(inspired by the legend of Ceridwen)

The fish that jumped

The otter that leapt

The hen that pecked

The child conceived

The child is born

The beautiful child, from a speck of corn

Yvette

As a keynote poem we looked at "Gloria" by Ruth Fainlight.  Here is part of it:

Gloria

Ruth Fainlight

(an extract)

However she’s personified

Or represented,

I won’t forget

How space expands inside me,

Can easily contain

A million goddesses or concepts.

Sophia, Anima, or Kali,

Black or white, death or wisdom,

The central fire

Or all-engulfing water:

My muse is in myself;

And as all past and future

Exist between my own two eyes,

My living need

Is symbolised

By her resplendent figure.

Other references:  The poem "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves; also the poem "The Song of Wandering  Aengus" by W.B. Yeats (they are strangely similar).