Ushas

Ushas is the goddess of the dawn from the Rigveda, the oldest holy book of the Hindu religion, estimated by linguists to be written around 1500 BCE. Forty of the hymns in the Rigveda are dedicated to Ushas. According to Wikipedia, "She is portrayed as a beautifully adorned young woman riding in a golden chariot or a hundred chariots, drawn by golden red horses or cows, on her path across the sky, making way for the Vedic sun god Surya, who is referred either as her husband or her son. Her sister is Ratri, or the night."

She is a member of the same family of Indo European dawn goddesses as Eostre (from whom Easter takes its name), Ausrine, Eos, Auseklis, and Aurora. As these dawn goddesses are associated with the morning star, Venus, I would surmise that one could also include Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite, and Venus in their extended family.

According to Vedicfeed.com, "Goddess Usha is generally associated with light and wealth. She reveals herself with the daily coming of the light to the world. She passes forth light and is accompanied by the sun. She alone leads the Sun and discloses her excellence and fire to her world. She is honored by the worshippers for driving away oppressive darkness and chases away evil spirits. She sets all the things in motion and also sends off people from their duties after the completion of the day. She carries not just light to the sleeping mankind, but hope, happiness, riches, and all the good things. She has the magic of looking at everybody at the same time."

My painting of Ushas is available through the shop link above or via Redbubble Redbubble or Fine Art America.

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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...

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. 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 favorit...

Jowangsin

Jowangsin is a Korean Goddess of fire and the hearth. An offering to Jowangsin in the form of a bowl of fresh water would be placed on an altar above the hearth. Jowangsin had rules for the kitchen. Do not curse while in the hearth. Do not sit on the hearth. Do not place your feet on the hearth. Maintain the cleanliness of the kitchen. You may worship other deities in the kitchen. ( source ) Throw your muddy shoes inside or put them on the hearth, and you will experience her vengeance. She was believed to keep track of household activities and communicate with the heavens. Jowangsin helping with the cooking in a traditional Korean kitchen, circa 1950. Original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or via Fine Art America or Saatchi Art . Left: Women in a kitchen in Korea in 1950. Right: An example of a traditional kitchen in hanok (traditional Korean-style homes) during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). [National Archives of Korea, N...

Bucranium = Uterus

A bucranium is a bull's head and horns. Bucrania have been found in shrines at Catalhoyuk, one the oldest cities ever to be excavated. Dorothy Cameron interpreted the bucrania at Catalhoyuk as a "symbol of life and regeneration--essentially a female symbol, representing the divine power of the female reproductive system." Bucranium = Uterus original painting, prints, and merch available in shop or through RedBubble or Fine Art America . Layout of bucrania based on a drawing of a reconstruction of Shrine E VI at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in a 2007 article by Joan Relke (below). Source Marija Gimbutas writes, "the key to understanding Neolithic renditions of the bull's head and horns (bucranium in archaeological literature) comes through their resemblance to the female uterus and fallopian tubes." Besides the bucrania from Shine E VI, other images at Catalhoyuk show female torsos with bucranium in the position of the uterus an...

Coatlicue

Coatlicue is the Aztec mother of the gods, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Her name means snake skirt, because that is her awesome fashion statement. At one point, she lost her head...but it was okay because two snakes grew in its place. To match her serpentine skirt, she wears a skull pendant, surrounded by human hands and hearts. As a befitting a mother goddess, her breasts are no longer high and perky. She has nursed the universe, and so her breasts are relaxed, having done their work well. Coatlicue is available on prints, stickers, and other merch from RedBubble . Fun fact: The most famous statue of Coatlicue, on which my painting is based, resides in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City... but the the first time it was uncovered by archaeologists, in 1790, they reburied it because it was too terrifying. Source, World History Encyclopedia . Another fun fact: On a mythology subreddit I subscribe to today, a man as...

The First Known Artists were Women

In 2013, Dean Snow of the University of Pennsylvania published research on sexual dimorphism of hand prints present in Upper Paleolithic cave art. His analysis showed that the overwhelming majority of hand prints present in the European cave art analyzed belonged to women ( source ). Marija Gimbutas and others write that in Old European religion caves represented the womb of the earth Goddess. Women, in the womb of the Earth Mother, creating artwork at the dawn of time. The Creator creating creators, matrilineally. The Creator original painting. Blogger Art Chester writes, "There is also an indirect argument based upon observations of modern primates. Blogger Greg Laden, who studied with Prof. Snow at Penn State, states that when you study chimpanzees, you find that the males are virtually technophobes: 'Virtually all chimp technology is used by females, invented by females, passed from female to female, and so on. Males don’t seem ...

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