Gods and Goddesses 

In this section you will find information on specific aspects of Deity. Some people choose to work with Deity as simply Goddess and God, and others prefer to work with more specific Divine energies by calling them by names. Maiden, Mother, Crone... Horned One, Cernunnos, Herne.... Brigid... Dagda... Cerridwen.... Diana.... Artemis... Pan... Isis... Osiris... Quetzalcoatl... Spider Grandmother... Manitou... Yemaya... Odin... Freya.... Loki... Amaterasu... The list can go on and on.

What does it mean when we talk about the aspects of Goddess and God? Why all the confusing names and attributes?

Well lets look at this a little closer to home. Let's pretend we have a woman named Jane. She's 35, married and a mom. First of all, she's a woman. She's also a daughter, sister, wife, mother, employee, priestess, counselor and teacher. In each of these roles she shows a different aspect of herself, a different facet of herself. But she is still ONE being. One being that has many roles in her life. Some of those roles have different names, like "mom", "Sweetheart", "sis", "Mrs Doe". At one time she was a youthful "maiden", now she is a mother. In the future she will probably be a Grandmother and will take her place as a Crone among her spiritual peers. This is very much like the cycle that the Goddess moves through. In fact, the Goddess mirrors us and we mirror Her. That's not just women either, because men also have the Goddess and Her cycles within them. Men may not give birth to babies, but they birth ideas. They create just as much and are just as much a part of the Goddess as women. The God has His cycles as well, and men and women both reflect those cycles.

So, in ancient times the people gave names to the Goddess's and God's aspects, perhaps to make those aspects more approachable, or relevant to the individual. It is a personal choice whether or not YOU need to use these names and aspects in your own relationship with Deity.

How do we know what aspect of the Divine to work with, if any? Is it necessary to name Them? Can we really "label" the Divine and catagorize them neatly? These are questions you must answer for yourself, you must find what works best for you, or perhaps She and He will call you and tell you their names, if that is what They want. The following pages are merely jumping off points, something to whet your appetite and give you the beginnings of understanding of Divine Nature and how it relates to us and our world.

What you read here is merely the product of research from books that I will list below. You can do your own research if you like. If you don't have access to these books but would like me to add a page about a specific Deity, feel free to let me know by email what you'd like to see in the future. My email is habibidancer@hotmail.com.

(the links below will magickally appear without warning, so visit often!

~*Triple Goddess*~

~Horned One~               ~Dagda~

~Brigid~           ~Cerridwen~        ~Hecate~

Goddess and God resources

General:

• The Witches' Goddess by Janet & Stewart Farrar
• The Witches' God by Janet & Stewart Farrar
• The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker
• The New Book of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan
• Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood by Merlin Stone
• 365 Goddess by Patricia Telesco
• Goddess Meditations by Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D.
• Spiral Dance by Starhawk
• The Civilization of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas
• The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas
• Maiden, Mother, Crone: The Myth & Reality of the Triple Goddess by D. J. Conway
• Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch
• Encyclopedia of Gods by Michael Jordan (2500 Deity entries)
• The Golden Bough by James Frazer
• The White Goddess by Robert Graves

Culture specific resources:

• An Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology by Bob Curran
• Celtic Myth and Legend by Charles Squire
• Celtic Gods Celtic Goddesses by Miranda Gray, C. Davis, R. Stewart
• Celtic Gods and Heroes by Marie Louise Sjoestedt
• Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Colum, Willy Pogany
• Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology by Tao Tao Liu Sanders
• Japanese Gods and Myth by Judith Mileage
• Gods of the Maya, Aztecs & Incas by Timothy R. Roberts
• Gods of Sun and Sacrifice: Aztec and Maya Myth by Tony Allen
• The Myths and Gods of India by Alain Danielou
• Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysis by Alain Danielou
• Dionysos by Carl Kerenyi
• American Indian Myths and Legends by Richard Erdoes
• Gods of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Watterson
• The Great Goddesses of Egypt (no author) University of Oklahoma
• The Gods of the Egyptians Vols. I & II (no author) Dover Books
• The Mysteries of Isis by DeTraci Regula
• Isis Magic by M. Isadora Forrest
• Hathor Rising by Alison Roberts
• The Goddess Sekhmet by Robert Masters

This website written and maintained by habibidancer.
Last updated, 4/18/01
Artwork by Joanna Powell Colbert.  Used with permission