goddesses

"The fragility of the world is a result of its nature as thought. Both land and human being participate in the same kind of being, for both are thoughts in the mind of Grandmother Spider."

"All tales are born in the mind of Spider Woman, and all creation exists as a result of her naming."

"There is a spirit that pervades everything, that is capable of powerful song and radiant movement, and that moves in and out of the mind. The colors of this spirit are multitudinous, a glowing, pulsing rainbow. Old Spider Woman is one name for this quintessential spirit, and Serpent Woman is another. Corn Woman is one aspect of her, and Earth Woman is another, and what they together have made is called Creation, Earth, creatures, plants, and light. [...] This spirit, this power of intelligence, has many names and many emblems. She appears on the plains, in the forests, in the great canyons, on the mesas, beneath the seas. To her we owe our very breath, and to her our prayers are sent blown on pollen, on corn meal, planted into the earth on feather-sticks, spit onto the water, burned and sent to her on the wind. Her variety and multiplicity testify to her complexity: she is the true creatrix for she is thought itself, from which all else is born. She is the necessary precondition for material creation, and she, like all of her creation, is fundamentally female—potential and primary. She is also the spirit that informs right balance, right harmony, and these in turn order all relationships in conformity with her law."

"In the beginning was thought, and her name was Woman. The Mother, the Grandmother, recognized from earliest times into the present among those peoples of the Americas who kept to the eldest traditions, is celebrated in social structures, architecture, law, custom, and the oral tradition. To her we owe our lives, and from her comes our ability to endure, regardless of the concerted assaults on our, on Her, being, for the past five hundred years of colonization. She is the Old Woman who tends the fires of life. She is the Old Woman Spider who weaves us together in a fabric of interconnection. She is the Eldest God, the one who Remembers and Re-members; and though the history of the past five hundred years has taught us bitterness and helpless rage, we endure into the present, alive, certain of our significance, certain of her centrality, her identity as the Sacred Hoop of Be-ing."

"lrbt lʻštrt, ʼšr qdš ʼz, ʼš pʻl, wʼš ytn tbryʼ wlnš mlk ʻl kyšryʼ. byrḥ zbḥ šmš, bmtnʼ bbt, wbn tw. kʻštrt ʼrš bdy lmlky šnt šlš, byrḥ krr, bym qbr ʼlm wšnt lmʼš ʼlm bbty šnt km h kkb m ʼl."

"The man whose knees are paralysed has not prayed devoutly to Nintud."

"Tārā is a female Bodhisattva born from a tear of Avalokiteśvara who is the embodiment of all the purified inner winds of all the Buddhas. She is also the incarnation of the active compassion of all the Buddha. Tārā is the most popular deity in Tibet both with the Lama and the layman. Tibetan refers to her as one who does religious service immediately. She is also a patroness, a personal deity rather than a monastic one, a mother to whom her devotees take their sorrow and on whom they rely for help. Her constant access is best symbolized in the daily repetition of her ritual rather than by any great annual ceremony. She is said to have become incarnate from rays of light that burst from the left eye of Amitabha. The image of Tārā is said to have reached Tibet during the mid-seventh century."

"It is important to keep in mind that, because Buddha nature encompasses all, Tara can and does appear in all aspects, depending on what best suits the needs of sentient beings. If a woman feels discouraged about gender, then Tara can appear as a woman to help serve as a role model—even Shakyamuni Buddha can appear in the female aspect in order to best encourage practitioners. In the same sense, Tara can appear as a man, for the same sort of reasons... Is Tara empowering to women? Sure, but more so, she’s empowering for anyone... Showering her rain without bias, whoever has the seed will become nourished and grow."

"Her widespread popularity confirms her ability to cater to the varying needs of her devotees. But, one might object, similar observations could be made about a number of Indo-Tibetan Bodhisattva forms. What distinguishes Taaraa is her explicit rejection of the exclusive dichotomy between 'male' and 'female', and this must be allowed for in any attempt to appreciate Taaraa's full significance."

"In one story of her saving a wood-gatherer from the jaws of a lion Taaraa appears as a woman clad in leaves. The form of Taaraa known as Khadiravani Taaraa [Green Tara] often wears lotus flowers in her hair instead of a jeweled diadem. In another story associating her with the wind, a warrior awakes to find himself surrounded by a thousand enemy soldiers. He calls on Taaraa and 'at the same instant at which he called her name the Noble Lady herself appeared before him, arriving from the skies. From underneath her feet whirlwinds carried the soldiers off into the ten directions', enabling the man to reach safety."

"Recite in the mind, until you're tired, this mantra of ten syllables. First we place an OM , and then after that we add TARE, After that TURE and TUTTARE, finally SVAHA."

"Then at last Avalokiteshvara arrived at the summit of Marpori, the 'Red Hill', in Lhasa. Gazing out, he perceived that the lake on Otang, the 'Plain of Milk', resembled the Hell of Ceaseless Torment. Myriad beings were undergoing the agonies of boiling, burning, hunger, thirst, yet they never perished, sending forth hideous cries of anguish all the while. When Avalokiteshvara saw this, tears sprang to his eyes. A teardrop from his right eye fell to the plain and became the reverend Bhrikuti, who declared: 'Child of your lineage! As you are striving for the sake of sentient beings in the Land of Snows, intercede in their suffering, and I shall be your companion in this endeavour!' Bhrikuti was then reabsorbed into Avalokiteshvara's right eye, and was reborn in a later life as the Nepalese princess Tritsun. A teardrop from his left eye fell upon the plain and became the reverend Tara. She also declared, 'Child of your lineage! As you are striving for the sake of sentient beings in the Land of Snows, intercede in their suffering, and I shall be your companion in this endeavor!' Tārā was then reabsorbed into Avalokiteshvara's left eye."

"Reciting praises of Arya-Tara is a simple and beneficial practice that anyone can do. The only qualification needed is some degree of faith in the Goddess. As one recites, one visualizes Her either in front of oneself or above one's head, with the attributes described in texts and taught by gurus, and perhaps others one has deduced. She is not flat like a painting, but with as many dimensions as one can visualize; not static and opaque like a statue, but intensely alive and made entirely of light, brilliant and with every detail sharp yet all transparent. Even far off, one senses Her presence through the waves of calm radiated by Her perfect inner peace, making our worldly troubles seem insignificant."

"In every age since beginningless time, it is said, out of compassion for the world, Taaraa has appeared to help living beings attain Enlightenment. In our age, so the ancient stories say, The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Regarder of the Cries of the world, looked down in compassion on the pain of humanity.... He also saw that however many beings he helped to escape from the fruitless round of mundane existence, the overall number grew no smaller - and for this he wept. The tears streamed down his face and formed a great pond. From the depths of its water sprang a blue lotus and on the lotus appeared the shimmering form of a beautiful sixteen year old woman. Her body was diaphanous and its translucent green seemed to hover between Reality and non-reality, quivering with an energy that could be seen, heard and felt. She was clad in the silks and jewels of a princess and her hands, expressing boundless giving and refuge, held deep blue lotuses. Born of Avalokitesvara's tears of compassion, she was herself the quintessence of compassion. She who is bright, she of the beautiful eyes, Taaraa, joy of starlight, had once again appeared in this world."

"When only my names are recollected, I always protect all beings, I, O Saviour, shall ferry them across the great flood of their manifold fears. Therefore the great Seers sing of me in the world under the name of Taaraa."

"Child of your lineage! As you are striving for the sake of sentient beings in the Land of Snows, intercede in their suffering, and I shall be your companion in this endeavor!"

"Tārā is also known as a saviouress, as a heavenly deity who hears the cries of beings experiencing misery in saṃsāra."

"I prostrate myself for the sake of Gula, my lady, but in my own eyes I don't have a place to stand."

"May Nintinuga look after me during my life, and when I die may she provide me with clear water in the nether world."

"[T]he queen of heaven and earth, the provider of food, the stewardess of Enlil, the sweet breast satisfying all lands, the bringer of abundance, who can diagnose the intentions of the virulent ' demon and who checks people's bones; who examines the sinews of life and the sinews of death, comforting those joints; who knows every sick spot where there is affliction, torment or distress -- the kindly physician, the exorcist to the sick, who looks after the hearts of humans."

"The uniform darkness, fount of the gods, The place from which the birds come... Open to the Duat [Underworld] that is on her northern side With her rear in the east and her head in the west."

"Verily I say to you, I am the Plant which comes forth from Nu, and my mother is Nut."

"Homage to you, O you who have come as Khepri, Khepri the creator of the gods, you are seated on your throne, you rise up in the sky, illumining your mother Nut, you are seated on your throne as the king of the gods."

"From Venus, the goddess of love, this word [Venereal] refers to the reality of desire. With the rise of Protestantism and science the word “disease” was tacked on in a revealing combination of categorization and moralizing."

"If our squawking pacifists were rational, they would perceive that war can be ended only by abolishing the several species of mammals called human; our spacecraft have shown us that Mars and Venus are perfectly warless worlds."

"You may name a bronze statue 'Liberty,' or a painted figure in a city hall 'Commerce,' or a marble form in a temple 'Athene' or 'Venus;' but what is really there is only a representation of a single woman."

"The force of the Virgin was still felt at Lourdes, and seemed to be as potent as X-rays; but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value as force — at most as sentiment. No American had ever been truly afraid of either."

"Fair Venus shines Even in the eye of day ; with sweetest beam Propitious shines, and shakes a trembling flood Of softened radiance with her dewy locks. The shadows spread apace ; while meekened Eve, Her cheek yet warm with blushes, slow retires Through the Hesperian gardens of the west, And shuts the gates of day."

"For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of a Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a MaCaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros."

"When archaeologists discover the missing arms of Venus de Milo, they will find she was wearing boxing gloves."

"Hey, Venus, I have two words for you, Aphrodite said. Venus hesitated and glanced over her shoulder at her ex-roommate. Aphrodite smiled her best mean-bitch sneer and said, 'Re. Bound.' She paused and gave a bithy smirk and then said, 'Good luck with that.'"

"I wol yow telle, as was me taught also, The foure spirites and the bodies sevene, By ordre, as ofte I herde my lord hem nevene. The firste spirit quiksilver called is, The seconde orpyment, the thridde, ywis, Sal armonyak, and the firthe brimstoon. The bodys sevene eek, lo! hem heer anoon: Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe, [[Mars iren, Mercurie quyksilver we clepe, Saturnus leed, and Jupiter is tyn, And Venus coper, by my fader kyn!"

"Before the use of asteroids, the only significators of the feminine in traditional chart interpretation were the Moon and Venus. The socially acceptable roles for women were the Moon as mother and Venus as mate."

"Aeneas' mother is a star? No; a goddess. I said cautiously, "Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when things begin growing. And we call the evening star Venus." He thought it over. Perhaps having grown up in the country, among pagans like me, helped him understand my bewilderment. "So do we, he said. "But Venus also became more...With the help of the Greeks. They call her Aphrodite"...There was a great poet who praised her in Latin. Delight of men and gods, he called her, dear nurturer. Under the sliding star signs she fills the ship-laden sea and the fruitful earth with her being; through her the generations are conceived and rise up to see the sun; from her the storm clouds flee; to her the earth, the skillful maker, offers flowers. The wide levels of the sea smile at her, and all the quiet sky shines and streams with light...br>It was the Venus I had prayed to, it was my prayer, though I had no such words. They filled my eyes with tears and my heart with inexpressible joy."

"Could any State on Earth Immortal be, Venice by Her rare Government is She; Venice Great Neptunes Minion, still a Mayd, Though by the warrlikst Potentats assayed; Yet She retaines Her Virgin-waters pure, Nor any Forren mixtures can endure; Though, Syren-like on Shore and Sea, Her Face Enchants all those whom once She doth embrace, Nor is ther any can Her bewty prize But he who hath beheld her with his Eyes: Those following Leaves display, if well observed, How she long Her Maydenhead preserved, How for sound prudence She still bore the Bell; Whence may be drawn this high-fetchd parallel, Venus and Venice are Great Queens in their degree, Venus is Queen of Love, Venice of Policie."

"The great beauty and striking presence of Venus led to an association by the Greeks with Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte and Venus are other names given to variations of this goddess in Western history, all associated with the planet. A knowledge of close coincidence between the cycles of Venus and human pregnancy may have contributed to the persistent, but nonexclusive of female characteristic to Venus. Western attributes The Venus de Milo and Botticelli's birth of Venus (popularly known as Venus on the Half Shell) are icons of this imagery in Western culture."

"Nowhere in recorded history has an awareness of the short-and long-term Earth-sky polyrhythrns been as advanced and integrated into cultural life as in the knowledge and beliefs of the ancient Mesoamericans, and in particular the classic Maya of Central America, who flourished between AD 300 and 900. Maya felt that we owed our existence to Venus who they called Kukulcan and their astronomer-priests repaid the debt with the blood of human sacrifice. Unfortunately, almost everything we know about the Maya’s sophisticated and complex system of Venus observations/ computations/prediction/worship comes from only four books that escaped the book-burning frenzy of the invading Christians. Included in this meticulously painted bark paper books is an abundance of astronomical information, including table of solar and lunar motions and table of Venus ephemeris, or table of motions, which is accurate for over a hundred years. The entire Mayan calendar, as were those of all Mesoamerican civilizations, was based on the 260-days Venus appearance interval. The 260-day Mayan calendar is still in use today in many areas of Guatemala. The 260-day Venus interval and the 365-day year come into phase every 18,980 days, or 53 years."

"As long as Venus remained an object of distant observation in our sky, there was no way to be sure, and science fiction writers were free to populate Venus with ocean-dwelling beasts and evil dictators (news of the problematical microwaves was first published the same year that Zsa Zsa was thrilling audiences with her Venusian antics). We had to go there to demand some answers. This is where the rockets enter the story... the cold-war “space race” was on, science was along for the ride, onward to the planets."

"When their city was occupied by the Gauls, and the Romans, who were besieged in the Capitol, had made military engines from the hair of the women, they dedicated a temple to the Bald Venus."

"Garcia: Venus has aligned with Mars, which means love is in the air and maybe we will have weekends off"

"Among others, the fable of the Greeks, that the constellations of Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish, was the fish into which Venus transformed herself to escape from the terrible giant Typhon. This evidently arose from the astrological doctrine, that the sign Pisces is the exaltation of Venus. That this original intent of mythology was afterwards corrupted both by poets and priests, there needs no argument to prove, as it is abundantly evident in history; but that fact only serves to confirm its real and reasonable origin. Let it no longer be supposed that the sages of the East occupied themselves in inventing childish and unmeaning fables. When unlocked by the key of astrology, the secrets of ancient mythology are replete with science, harmony, and intelligence."

"In the language of the New Platonists, the number seven is said to be a virgin, and without a mother, and it is therefore sacred to w:MinervaMinerva. The number six is a perfect number, and is consecrated to Venus. The relations of space were dealt with..."

"It's nice that love comes on first thing in the evening, and goes out last in the morning. Love keeps the light on all night. Whoever thought to call it Venus ought to get full marks. We may forgive our girl for ignoring the sound at first."

"Venus, in our abstract North, in this chilly Christian world, must envelop herself in folds of heavy furs, so as not to freeze."

"The Egyptians hold solemn assemblies not once a year, but often. The principal one of these and the most enthusiastically celebrated is that in honor of Artemis."

"Artemis of the wilderness (agrotera), lady of wild beasts (potnia theron)."

"Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks Artemis draws her golden bow ... The tops of the high mountains tremble and the tangled wood echoes awesomely with the outcry of beasts."

"Regina nemorum, sola quae montes colis"

"Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Hercules Furens (54 A.D.)"

"She is life and being, starry-bright, sparkling, blinding, mobile, whose sweet strangeness draws man on the more irresistibly the more disdainfully it dismisses him; an essence crystal-clear, which is nevertheless intertwined with the dark roots in all animate nature; a being childishly simple and yet incalculable, sweetly amiable and diamond-hard; girlishly demure, fleeting, elusive, and suddenly brusque and contrary; playing, frolicking, dancing, and in a flash most inexorably serious; lovingly anxious and tenderly solicitous, with the enchantment of a smile that outweighs perdition, and yet wild to the point of gruesomeness and cruel to the point of repulsiveness. All of these are traits of the free, withdrawn nature to which Artemis belongs, and in her the piously intuitive spirit has learned to perceive this eternal image of sublime femininity as a thing divine."