G is for Goddesses – Pagan Blog Project 2012

I’m what you might call homo-social. Meaning that I tend to prefer the company of my own gender in social situations. (also romantic situations, but you knew that already). In-so-far as I’ve done Group Rituals[1], they’ve tended to be more effective[2] when they’ve been mono-gendered[3]. Perhaps, then, it’s not at all surprising that my personal pantheon (other than Ancestors, because duh) is all about The Girls.

Now… How I went about finding my pantheon was… semi-intuitive, I guess. One of my gods actually grabbed me by the brain and said “Pay Attention”, even told me her name: Maia. My lady of the Moon. She covers everything from midwifery, to gender studies and academia, to rainfall and thunder (but not so much lightning… I think that one’s Mitzu’s…), to all bodies of water to lesbian sex, to creative endeavors (particularly writing and music), to chosen-phamily and love-bonds, to the colour blue… and she’s pretty awesome. (She has some connection with crows and owls, too, but not as much as Makaa… see below).

See, the rest of my goddesses were… home-made? Sort of? I basically cobbled together a job-description and sent a call-out for what I was looking for.

E.G.: Wanted: One Earth Mama, name beginning with M, to cover rocks, dirt, soil, sand, bare earth, feeding the multitude, general kitchen efficiency and chatelainerie, abundance, security, The Land, food-centric entertaining, The Hearth (as concept and also as a room in the hosue), and maybe parenting if that happens.
… And who I got was Mattaer, the Ground Beneath my Feet. Who very pointedly told my girlfriend to tell me to boil her some water. As in literally picked up and left my kitchen, went to hers, and said “Hello, I’m from the Kitchen. I want boiled water. You tell her that.” Girl is nothing if not practical and straight-forward[4].

When I went looking for a Sun Goddess, the job-description that developed turned out to be – much to my surprise – all the Things I was afraid of when I’d sent out the call: sex, money, power, action, aggression… The stuff that comes with being a (sadistic, no less) domme and being a sexworker, as it turns out. At first, Mitzu[5] reminded me of my sister – the outgoing young woman with the commerce degree and the tendency to get what she wants. And then I recognized her for what she is… and her presence and help in my life have been invaluable. O.O

Makaa is my Lady of the Crossroads. She handles chance, luck, the rollercoaster ride of Change, the corssroads, crossed paths and chance meetings, coincidences and synchronicity, transitions, liminality in general, homeless people, the gates between life and death, ushering people over the threshold to (and, one can presume, from) the spirit/non-corporial side of things to/from the human (or otherwise) bodied side of things. She’s – not surprisingly – connected with crows, ravens, and other carrion birds. Also snakes, for some reason. She’s the ass-kicker, I don’t mind telling you. She also hangs out in the same general area as my Ancestors – at least that’s where her wee shrine is – and they seem to get along quite well (I put her on an altar with a Shiva statue one time and they did not get along. Big bronze cow bells clanging the alarm everywhere in my head until I took that statue away and moved him elsewhere[6]… Girl does not share territory well, apparently). She’s an old lady – a classic “witch” if you will – and she’s just enough of a trickster (chance and luck, remember?) to have a real twinkle in her eye when she’s about to hit you with a curve-ball. She’s a good lady, but holy crap she doesn’t pull her punches. O.O

Misha, who is (symbolically but also, I suspect, literally) Mattaer’s daughter, is… a young woman. She’s probably best correspond to the idea of “Maiden”. She’s a fairly hetero (as far as I can tell, but who knows with plants, right?) gal in her late teens or early twenties, sun-shine blonde, polyamourous (two boyfriends), and is embodied by every green thing that grows but, particularly, by winter squash, chicory (those blue flowers that I love so much), and the philodendron in the South-East corner of my apartment. (Placement is not actually a Thing for this but… south-east is actually really apt in a Spring/Summer/Dawn kind of way). When I make offerings to her in winter, I tell her to dream good dreams under the snow. She covers stuff.

And… those are my Girls.

There are other spirits in and around my home – my Ancestors, of course (my Dad, in particular, tends to turn up and see how things are going), plus a heap of happy little water spirits (who, I think, largely live in the bath tub[7]), Boroslava, and, I suspect, a couple of earth spirits, too… though I’m never entirely sure about them.

And that’s my introduction to the various spirits and small deities who share my home.

TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.

[1] Outside of, granted, the local Pagan Schola – where the point was to teach people how to do energy work within a ritual setting. That was co-ed and it worked just fine in terms of MoreWorld Awareness.

[2] By whatever criteria you judge effectiveness – in my case “How aware was I of MoreWorld and Other People being in the place with the humans?” and “How did I feel afterwards in terms of fulfillment and general well-being?”

[3] I will eventually get around to talking about biological essentialism and things like the MMC Triad-of-Life and so-on, but that’s for another day. For now, you could try this entry.

[4] And by “straight-forward” I mean “finds a means of getting her message across when dealing with a Bunker Person” such as myself.

[5] All of their names start with M. Deal with it.

[6]I actually put him on the Ancestor Altar – being a graveyard type guy – and that seemed to work out. And, yes, I had a statue of Shiva. He’s a good fellow, as far as I can tell and, honestly, if I’m hanging out with dudes, chances are they’re the long haired, dance-loving, snake-handling, graveyard types anyway. Who’s surprised? But, no, I don’t venerate him.

[7] I can’t see them any more than I can see anyone else, but they sound slightly curious about New People, and generally content with their lot. (I suspect my running a lot of baths is helping with this). I imagine that they look a little bit like the Kodama from Princess Mononoke, only… bluer? And slightly smiley. 🙂