Creative Writing at The Haven - Goddesses 6

Final week - Domestic or fireside goddesses

                                                             

A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in pagan religions as well as in folklore across many parts of the world.

Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity- typically a goddess- often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, with examples including the Greek Hestia and Norse Frigg.

"Frigga Spinning the Clouds" by J. C. Dollman.

Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idols (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as "household gods" in Genesis 31:19 for example), amulets, paintings or reliefs.

  

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity (both material and spiritual), fortune, and the embodiment of beauty. She is the consort of the god Vishnu. She is said to bring good luck and is believed to protect her devotees from all kinds of misery and money-related sorrows.

Lakshmi is worshipped daily in Hindu homes and commercial establishments as the goddess of wealth.  The festivals of Diwali and Kojagiri Purnima are celebrated in her honour. Lakshmi is the household goddess of most Hindu families, and a favourite of women.

Diwali  popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a five day festival that falls between mid-October and mid-November. (2012 Diwali starts on 13^th November.)

The name "Diwali" or "Divali" is a contraction of "Deepavali" (Sanskrit: दीपावली Dīpāvalī), which translates into "row of lamps". Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. These lamps are kept on during the night and one's house is cleaned, both done in order to make the goddess Lakshmi feel welcome. Firecrackers are burst because it is believed that it drives away evil spirits. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends. The third day of Diwali, marks the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth.

We discussed what "wealth" might mean and decided it had little to do with income.   We wrote about our inner goddess and re-read Ruth Fainlight's poem that acted as a sort of keynote for this series:

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.

 

 Domestic Goddess may refer to: a household deity it is also the nickname of Nigella Lawson, author of a cookbook entitled How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

As a final sweet treat - all the winter festivals seem to involve eating - we discussed the history of the great  Be-Ro cook book.  Here's a classic recipe:

Be-Ro Milk Chocolate Cake serves 12 200 g (7 oz) Be-Ro Self Raising Flour 225 g (8 oz) caster sugar 1 x 2.5 ml spoon (½ tsp) salt 25 g (1 oz) cocoa powder, sieved 100 g (4 oz) butter 2 medium eggs 5 x 15 ml spoon (5 tbsp) evaporated milk 5 x 15 ml spoon (5 tbsp) water few drops vanilla essence 1 Heat oven to 180ºC, 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Grease 2 x 20.5 cm (8 inch) tins, not loose-bottomed as the mixture would run out. 2 Mix flour, sugar, salt and cocoa. 3 Rub in butter. Beat eggs with milk. 4 Stir egg mixture, essence and liquids into the dry ingredients and beat well. 5 Place mixture in prepared tins and bake for about 30-35 minutes. 6 When cold sandwich and top with Milk Chocolate Icing (see below).

Bake in moderate oven 180 C  350 F Gas 4 for about 30 mins.

When cold sandwich and cover with

chocolate icing as follows:

60g (2½ oz) butter

2 tablespoons cocoa

225g (9 oz) sieved icing sugar

45 ml (3 tblsp) hot milk

5 ml (1 tspn) vanilla essence

Soften butter, blending in cocoa, then stir in icing sugar, milk and essence.

Beat until smooth and thick.

Note from Sally:

For a more grown-up taste I substitute one ounce of sugar for an extra ounce of cocoa in the cake mix and I use light muscovado rather than white caster sugar. I also use quite a bit of vanilla extract – a generous half teaspoonful. 

Happy winter festivals!

Next series starts Friday January 11th 2013 - as before. 

Creative Writing at The Haven - Goddesses 5

Guan Yin and the Asian tradition

Guanyin or Guan Yin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female. The name Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means "Observing the Sounds (or Cries) of the World".

It is generally accepted among East Asian adherents that Guanyin originated as the Sanskrit Avalokiteśvara (अवलोकितेश्वर).

Commonly known in English as the Mercy Goddess or Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin is also revered by Chinese Taoists (or Daoists) as an Immortal.

Guanyin and the Virgin Mary

Guanyin and child, similar to a Madonna and Child painting.

Some Buddhist and Christian observers have commented on the similarity between Guanyin and Mary of Christianity, the mother of Jesus Christ. This can be attributed to the representation of Guanyin holding a child in Chinese art and sculpture; it is believed that Guanyin is the patron saint of mothers and grants parents filial children. When the Tzu-Chi Foundation, a Taiwanese Buddhist organisation, noticed the similarity between this form of Guanyin and the Virgin Mary, the organisation commissioned a portrait of Guanyin and a baby that resembles the typical Roman Catholic Madonna and Child painting.

During the Edo Period in Japan, when Christianity was banned and punishable by death, some underground Christian groups venerated the Virgin Mary disguised as a statue of Kannon; such statues are known as Maria Kannon.  Many had a cross hidden in an inconspicuous location.

One story about  Kuan Yin tells that as a young girl she refused to marry the man of her father’s choice and he took violent revenge on her.  First he sent her to a women’s temple and ordered that she be treated cruelly.  When that didn’t work he had the temple burned down; she put out the flames with her bare hands and they did not burn because of her great compassion for her sisters in the temple.

Finally Kuan Yin’s father ordered that she be killed and after several failed attempts she was murdered and went to the kingdom of the Dead.  There she was so kind and compassionate to the other souls that the King of the Dead had her thrown out and she was sent back to this world and reunited with her body.  She is the goddess of pure compassion who will always listen and share the sorrows of her supplicants.

On a more secular note:

Poem No. 43  from the Kuan Yin Oracle

Meaning:  The Heaven and earth are full of great joys and harmony.

Comments:

You are in the days of glorious peace and joy.  You are in the place to enjoy the lighter and brighter side of life.  Bring harmony and beauty into your home.  Spread the kindness, generosity to those around you.

You get the kind of cooperation you were hoping for, and what once was a problem becomes a possibility.  Delightfully engaging activities make you feel loved and happy.

Tao Te Ching

No 49 

The Master has no mind of her own.

She works with the mind of the people.

She is good to people who are good.

She is also good to people who aren't good.

This is true goodness.

She trusts people who are trustworthy.

She also trusts people who aren't trustworthy.

This is true trust.

The Master's mind is like space.

People don't understand her.

They look to her and wait.

She treats them like her own children.

Creative Writing at the Haven - Goddesses 4

Brazil and Iemanja

Yemanja is an orisha, originally of the Yoruba religion, who has become prominent in many Afro-American religions. Africans from what is now called Yorubaland brought Yemaya/Yemoja and a host of other deities/energy forces in nature with them when they were brought to the shores of the Americas as captives.  She is the ocean, the essence of motherhood, and a protector of children.

The Great Ocean

Pablo Neruda

(first stanza)

   

If, of your gifts and your destructions, Ocean, into my

 hands

you could deliver one part, one fruit, one ferment,

I would choose your remote repose, your lines of steel,

your vastness watched over by the air and night,

with the energy of your white language

smashing and overturning its own columns

in its purifying acts of demolition.

The goddess is known as Yemanjá, Iemanjá or Janaína in Brazilian Candomblé andUmbanda religions.

The Umbanda religion worships Iemanjá as one of the seven orixás of the African Pantheon. She is the Queen of the Ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation and the spirit of moonlight. A *syncretism happens between the catholic Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of the Seafaring) and the orixá Iemanjá of the African Mythology.

In Salvador, Bahia, Iemanjá is celebrated by Candomblé on the same day consecrated by the Catholic Church to Our Lady of Seafaring (Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes). Every February 2, thousands of people line up at dawn to leave their offerings at her shrine in Rio Vermelho.

Offering to Iemanjá
Small boat with Iemanjá image, flowers and gifts

Gifts for Iemanjá usually include flowers and objects of female vanity (perfume, jewellery, combs, lipsticks, mirrors). These are gathered in large baskets and taken out to the sea by local fishermen. Afterwards a massive street party ensues.

We looked at the idea of offering gifts to a sea goddess. Sending her off with nice warm blankets, lavender pillows, hot drinks, lipstick that the fishes might want to borrow .....

A last word to Neruda who was fascinated by the power of the sea.

The Sea

Pablo Neruda

(translated from the Spanish by Mark Eisner)

One single being, but there’s no blood.

One single caress, death or rose.

The sea comes and reunites our lives

and attacks and divides and sings alone

in night and day and man and creature.

The essence: fire and cold: movement.

Pablo Neruda

Ode to the Sea 

(Extract)

Here on the island
the sea
and so much sea
overflowing,
relentless,
it says yes, then no,
then no, no, no,
then yes, in blue,
in foam, with gallops,
it says no, again no.
It cannot stay still,
my name is sea, it repeats
while slamming against rocks
but unable to convince rocks,

  

then
with seven green tongues
of seven green dogs,
of seven green tigers,
of seven green seas,
it smothers rocks, kisses rocks,
drenches rocks
and slamming its chest,
repeats its name.
O sea, you declare yourself,
O comrade ocean,

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