Although She is only One, She appears as many forms or goddesses. Each goddess emphasizes an attribute of the one Divine Mother. This is an easy concept to understand when we consider our own earthly mothers. She is the mother of the hearth when she is cooking and feeding us.
She is the warrior mother when someone attacks us and she is protecting us. She is the muse mother when she is inspiring us to do our best. She is the healer when we are sick. Each of perspective are only
one of the aspects she wears in the drama of life for all eternity.
Athena is the Greek virgin goddess of reason, intelligent activity, arts and literature. She sprang full grown from Zeus' head.
She is Zeus' favorite and is allowed to use his weapons including his thunderbolt. She wore a helmet and carrying a spear and
shield, the magic aegis, a goatskin breastplate, fringed with snakes, that produced thunderbolts when shaken.
Athena was different from Ares; she represented the intellectual and civilized side of war. She was a wise and prudent adviser.
Sacred to her are the olive, serpent, owl, lance, and crow.
Although Minerva, the Roman Goddess of war and wisdom, is usually portrayed as equivalent to the Greek goddess Athena, she was originally an Etruscan goddess of dawn. She is revered as a goddess of wisdom, for the light of dawn typifies knowledge. She guides heroes in war and is patroness of all arts, crafts, guilds, and medicine. Called by Ovid "the goddess of a thousands works", she was inventor of musical instruments, numbers, and many crafts, including weaving.
The serpent and the owl were sacred to her. The serpent is an emblem of life energy and the creative impulse. The owl the symbol of death and wisdom, and thus Minerva, a goddess of the dawn and of wisdom, is also a goddess of death and transformation. Minerva is an incarnation of wisdom in human form, an affirmation that we can use our knowledge and wisdom in the pursuit of any goal we choose.
Minerva was the Roman goddess of war, wisdom and the crafts.
In Britain at the turn of the 1st millennium CE, Minerva was depicted throughout Celtic Britain in both purely Roman fashion and in the more abstract Celtic style
But in Bath, at the temple of Aquae Sulis she becomes "fully equated with a Celtic goddess, Sulis". (1)
So as you see as with our earthly Mother according to the aspect we
are calling on we call on the name that matches that aspect of the Great Mother.Of The Great Goddess
So call her name when you need protection from the warrior mother or wise counsel. Call her by yet another name when you need healing. You can call on her when you need inspiration and a muse to create. She is the great mother the female side of God.
References:
1. The Gods of Roman Britain , Miranda Jane Green , Shire Archeology, 1993, ISBN#: 0852636342, pp.29-31
2. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Miranda J. Green, Thames & Hudson, 1992, ISBN#: 0-500-01516-3, pp.200-202
3. Celt and Greek: Celts in the Hellenic World, Peter B. Ellis, Constable, 1997, ISBN#: 0-09-475580-9, p. 50
About the Author
About the author: Judi Singleton is the publisher of Jassmine's Journal
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