Skip to main content

Sheela Na Gig and the Power of the Vagina

 The Guardian published a piece on Sheela Na Gigs for International Women's Day on Monday.  Here's a link.  A few weeks ago, I painted two Sheelas.

Sheela Na Gig

Found on churches throughout the British Isles and Europe, Sheela Na Gigs are "figurative carvings of naked women displaying an exaggerated vulva."  There are over 100 documented examples just in Ireland.  The carvings may be remnants of a pre-Christian mother goddess.  They may also have been thought to ward off evil spirits.  They're often found over doors or windows, and they're generally smiling.  

The two I have painted are from the Church of St. Mary and St. David at Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England and the Parish Church of Oaksey, Wiltshire.

While I was researching the Sheelas I came across other related stories of, as the Guardian so deftly put it, "big vagina energy".  The power of women (especially the nude form) to create life, protect it, or - conversely - take it away.

My favorite was the story of a group of women in Nigeria in 2002 who successfully won concessions from Chevron Oil using nothing but the threat of big vagina energy.

Chevron, Niger Delta, women, apotropaic, threat of nudity, curse, vagina power, protest
On July 8, 2002, 600 Niger Delta women took over the largest oil production facility in Nigeria.  For ten days, unarmed, they stopped the production of 500,000 barrels of oil per day from Chevron, one of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations in the world, by threatening to strip naked in public.  Mothers stripping naked is a powerful curse in Nigeria.  The security forces refused to touch the women.

According to anthropologist Terisa Turner, "We come into the world through the vagina.  By exposing the vagina, the women are saying: 'We are hereby taking back the life we gave you.'  It's about bringing forth life and denying life through social ostracism, which is a kind of social execution.  Men who are exposed are viewed as dead.  No one will cook for them, marry them, enter into any kind of contract with them or buy anything from them."

Sheela Na Gig, Kilpeck ChurchThe women's threat was successful.  After ten days they won an agreement from Chevron to hire villagers and to build schools and water systems.

Sheela Na Gig, Oaksey Church

Do you need some vagina power?  Sheela stickers and other merch are available:  Redbubble, Fine Art America, Saatchi Art Gallery.






Comments

  1. Ben HellmanMay 23, 2021 at 10:06 AM

    I wrote a Sheela Na Gig post after the Portland woman spread her legs against the line of police during the protests last summer; I couldn't help but see a parallel. https://www.newenglandbard.com/post/the-protester-and-the-power-of-ancient-ireland

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LauraMay 23, 2021 at 11:20 AM

      Yes! I planned on painting her as part of a series, but I got distracted. Total parallel.

      Delete
    2. LauraMay 23, 2021 at 11:22 AM

      Great blog post! I love that you interviewed an expert. I should someday try that. Thanks for the idea.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Asherah

 An inscription from Khirbet El-Qôm (near Jerusalem) dated to the 700s BCE and translated by archaeologist Judith Hadley reads, "Uriyahu the Rich wrote it. Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh for from his enemies by his Asherah he has saved him by Oniyahu by his Asherah and by his A[she]rah.” ( Source ) Asherah was the Great Goddess of the Ancient Near East.  From this inscription and other evidence, it is surmised that Yahweh, the God of the Jews, once had a wife - Asherah.  Asherah was also sometimes known as Astarte and was associated with lions and the planet Venus, like her relative, Ishtar/Inanna.  Asherah's symbol was the tree of life, and her worship involved sacred groves and asherah poles.   Asherah original painting available through  Saatchi Art .  Stickers, prints, and other merch available in shop or through  RedBubble  or  Fine Art America.   All of the Asherahs in my painting are based on figurines housed in the Isra...
1 comment
Read more

Sophia and the Apocryphon of John

 In 1945, thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by an Egyptian farmer near the town of Nag Hammadi, Egypt.  These early Christian texts date from the 3rd century CE, and include writings attributed to John the Baptist.  The writings of John became known as the Secret Book of John, or the Apocryphon of John.  A translation by Frederik Wisse can be read online . In the Apocryphon, there is a female counterpart to the Father - the holy Mother, Barbelo.  "She is the forethought of the All - her light shines like his light - the perfect power...  The first power, the glory of Barbelo, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation... she became the womb of everything, for it is she who is prior to them all, the Mother-Father." I became aware of the Apocryphon of John after reading a graphic novel by Marisa Acocella, The Big She-Bang, The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother (highly recommended, by ...
3 comments
Read more

Nuwa

Nuwa is the great mother goddess of Chinese mythology, credited with creating humanity. She molded the first people out of clay by hand. Then she got tired, dipped a rope in the mud, and swung it around her head to make more. Thus were made the nobles and the peasantry. She has the body of a serpent. Nuwa, original painting by Echoing Multiverse.  Available via Saatchi Art .
Post a Comment
Read more

Dewi Danu

 Dewi Danu is a Balinese water, lake and river Goddess.  The form of Hinduism practiced in Bali is also called Agama Tirta, or religion of the water ( source ).  The "floating temple" of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, on the western shore of Lake Bratan, is dedicated to Dewi Danu ( source ).  Built in 1633, the temple is used for offerings and ceremonies dedicated to the Goddess, due to the importance of Lake Bratan as a main source of irrigation in central Bali ( source ). In Bali, besides supporting irrigated agriculture, holy water also holds power that can "cleanse spiritual impurities, fend off evil forces, and render the recipient immune to the attacks of negative or demonic forces."  "In Indonesian Hindu Dharma, the 4 elements of Nature, or panchamahabhuta (Earth, Water, Fire, Air) are used in all religious rituals. Out of those, Water is the building block of life and of all living beings that are at the mercy of [the] God[dess]" ( source ). Dewi Danu orig...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cosmic Goddess Eggs

 I'm reading The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas.  She writes about the abundance of divine feminine figurines found in almost all levels of almost all Neolithic archaeological sites throughout Old Europe.  She discusses how exaggerated body parts on these Neolithic figurines express various manifestations of the divine force.  For example, “The symbolic value of exaggerated buttocks relates to ... double eggs, where the power of the life giving symbol increases by doubling.  Sometimes the artisan molded the buttocks of a figurine on egg-shaped clay cores or pebbles; thus she or he may have felt the interconnectedness of the symbols of buttocks and eggs.”  Creation myths around the world, from prehistory to Big Bang quantum science, involve the cosmic egg .  Perhaps there were two cosmic eggs.  The cosmic Goddess eggs. Cosmic Goddess Eggs original painting and fine art prints available through Saatchi Art .  Prints and other merch also a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Demon Cats

You've probably seen the happy, waving, beckoning Maneki Neko, but have you heard of her cousins, the Bakeneko? Bakeneko are demon cats.  If a cat lives longer than 13 years in Japan and has not been treated like a god, it is likely to turn into a demon cat.  It may kill its owner and shapeshift to take their place.  If you have an old cat, beware.  Every October in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, there is a bakeneko parade.  I visited, through the magic of YouTube. Original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America .
Post a Comment
Read more