Jabme-Akka

Jabme-Akka is the akka of the dead in Sami mythology. She rules over Jabmiaimo, which mirrors the land of the living. The dead live as they did on earth, but in a youthful state. Source: Patricia Monaghan's Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines. Jabme-Akka soothes babies that enter her land unaccompanied. (Source)

Jabme-Akka original painting and prints available through Saatchi Art.

Entrances to the underworld were located around "sieidis, places that have unusual land forms different from the surrounding countryside, and that can be considered to have spiritual significance." The Sami worldview was "that the living and the departed were regarded as two halves of the same family." The sieidis were places that were close to the underworld and where offerings could be left. (Source). The sieidis were also places for burials.

My painting is set near a sieidi in Saltfjellet.

Sadly, "like many other indigenous groups, Sami activists have been fighting for decades to recover the bones of their ancestors. Between 1850 and 1940, many graves were disturbed to feed theories based on phrenology. These were not only ancient sites. A pair of Sami men executed in 1854, for example, ended up with their skulls in the collection of the University of Oslo. Their bones were only returned to their families in 1997. The treatment of Sami remains and their academic value is still a subject of controversy." (Source)

Painting this version of the underworld made me consider beliefs that I was brought up with, the importance of baptizing babies to save them from Hell. What a terrible thought. At one point, the summer Bible camp pastor convinced me that everyone I knew and loved who wasn't born again was going to burn in Hell for eternity. That was intense for a sensitive child. I like this afterlife better.

Additional Sources:

An Introduction to the Sami people

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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...

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...

Sheela Na Gig and the Power of the Vagina

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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 ...

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...

Tawaret

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Echoing Multiverse

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