Shrine to the Goddess

divine feminine, goddesses, holy women, saints

[lostangeles]

Boyle Heights, Los Angeles

[nonnisite]

Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with a perfect confidence. –Saint Francis de Sales

[talonabraxas]

Mother Garis Edelweiss @garisedelweiss The Cosmic Mother as AUM

“Once the mind is interiorized, and withdrawn from its identification with the world and with the body, the inner light comes into clear and steady focus. The inner sounds become all-absorbing. Aum fills the brain; its vibration moves down the spine, bursting open the door of the heart’s feeling, then flowing out into the body. The whole body vibrates with the sound of Aum.

“Gradually, with ever-deeper meditation, the consciousness expands with that sound. Moving beyond the confines of the body, it embraces the vastness of infinite vibration. You realize your oneness with all existence as Aum, the Cosmic Vibration.

“This state is known as Aum samadhi, or union with God as Cosmic Sound. Aum is that aspect of the Christian Trinity which is known as the Holy Ghost, or Word of God.

“By still deeper meditation, one perceives in the physical body, underlying the Aum vibration, the vibrationless calm of the Christ Consciousness, the reflection in creation of the unmoving Spirit beyond creation.

“In ancient spiritual tradition, the Christ Consciousness is spoken of as the Son. For just as, among human beings, the son is a reflection of the father, so in cosmic consciousness the Christ–in Sanskrit called Krishna, or Kutastha Chaitanya–reflects in all things the consciousness of God, the Father, beyond creation.

“By ever deeper meditation, one expands his awareness of the Christ Consciousness beyond the limits of the body to perceive his oneness finally with the Christ Consciousness, which underlies the manifested universe.

“By deeper meditation still, one goes beyond creation and unites his consciousness with that of the Father, Satchidananda, the vast ocean of Spirit.

“In these progressive stages of realization are discovered, in reverse order, the three aspects of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

“Jesus was called the Christ. Most people are not aware that Christ wasn’t the name given him at birth. It was a title signifying ‘the anointed of God,’ or, ‘chosen by God.’ (Luke 23:35)

“In the same way, Krishna in India was really Jadava the Krishna–or Christna, as it is sometimes written to show that the meaning is the same.

“Jesus was a master. He had attained Christ Consciousness. Anyone who attains that state of consciousness may justifiably also be called the Christ, for he has dissolved his ego in the infinite consciousness.

“Aum, the Holy Ghost, is also referred to in ancient traditions as the Mother, for it represents the feminine aspect of God.

“The Roman Catholic Church teaches that one must go through the Mother to reach Christ. To them, of course, the Mother signifies Mary, the mother of Jesus. For all that, the truth is there, though far deeper than the generally accepted understanding of it.

“For, to reach Christ Consciousness, you must first unite your consciousness with Aum, the Cosmic Vibration.

“Self-realization means the realization that your true Self is not the ego, but God, the vast ocean of Spirit which manifested for a time the little wave of awareness that you now see as yourself.” —Paramhansa Yogananda in The Essence of Self-Realization

[misspjsuperior]

International Women's Day :

The Divine Feminine is indeed international, superseding foolish borders created in man's imagination then forged in real blood. The apparition of La Virgen de Guadalupe unto “Juan Diego” is such an example. Her words in native Nahuatl to a humble Aztec man on the slopes of Tepeyac, the site of a destroyed Aztec goddess temple, bolstered the spirit of a brutalized Indigenous population who yet persists through continued colonization today, allowing original peoples of Mezoamerica to continue traditions and pass knowledge under the mantle of Her protection/disguise. The Florentine Codex of 1590 written in part by Catholic occupiers blatantly complains how after the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe the native Mexican people were still worshipping Mother Mary by the title Tonantzin (an honorific similar to “Our Lady” in the Nahuatl language) and with many of their same ancient rituals.

Although Mary mother of Jesus was internationally used as a tool of obstruction in hopes to be a replacement, She often became more co-conspirator with, rather than destroyer of, the people wherever She was taken by Europeans. Caribbean Vodun is perhaps the most famous example of such specific syncretization. Mary was already an international phenomenon for Europeans before their own international plunders, originating from a Middle Eastern Jewish tribe. The Gospel story itself tells how Mary had to flee empires within empires in Her lifetime as a refugee from one land to another to protect Her child. This intuitive, courageous resolution to move about is part of the actual divine meaning in the ancient etymology of the word “Virgin” which you can read more about on Patr3 on. The Roman Empire who executed the son of the Virgin Mary by their extremely common method of crucifixion is the same responsible for the creation of the Catholic Church who would then be in charge of crowning European rulers for centuries. They twisted the story of the Virgin and the meaning of Virginity from wild and free, unmarried, untamed, unclaimed by any man, controlled by no man, to the shameful sexual shit we know today.

Continuing my musings on international Goddesses via my visual work is Kali Ma of the Hindu pantheon. This brilliantly fierce Mother of Time, slayer of ego, recycler of souls, originates from the Indian peninsula of South Asia. Kali is still found in name and visage among the Romani people across Europe, a testament to their heritage. These nomadic folks have mistakenly been called “gypsy” (widely considered derogatory) with the incorrect assumption that their heritage lies in Egypt. See my previous Kali post about the theory that the term “calendar” was appropriated in ancient Rome from from the Romani people and their lunar “time calling” rituals with Kali. These histories truly make Kali an international divine feminine figure.

Although the compassionate Guan Yin (also spelled in the Roman alphabet as Quan Yin or Kwan Yin) is famous for hailing from China, She actually came from India originally as well. She was first honored as the male bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara as a personification of empathy and mercy prior to transforming to Her feminine form during the Song Dynasty in China. In the time between the deity had attributes of both genders but became increasingly associated with mother goddesses in Chinese culture. By the 12th century, She was interpreted as a female form in flowing robes as far as Japan where She is known as Kannon. If you Google search “Kannon” you will likely be first served the Wikipedia article for Guan Yin. Her transformation is well documented. She is a spirit who has traversed the distances and time and through gender as well making Her not just an international Goddess but also effectively a Trans Goddess. May we embody the empathy and compassion for all our sisters internationally no matter how they started life!

Goddess Art by PJ Superior: available as fine altar sized prints:

https://misspjsuperior.etsy.com/listing/1685298056

[holywhiskersstuff-deactivated20]

Our Lady of Lebanon. She is absolutely stunning.

[asmallorthodoxblog]

She is there where people stand right on the edge of a perilous abyss.

Where do the lofty boldness of the Mother of God's prayers and her sublime mercies for us spring from? It is understood – from her motherly love for us.

From the life of Saint Andrew, the Fool-for-Christ, it is seen that the Mother of God is not always there, in the Heavens, but leaves the bliss of the high dwellings and descends to Earth to comfort us in our troubles. She is here, in the midst of great sufferings.

She is there where hot tears flow because of sorrows. She is there where warm prayers are offered to her in severe sufferings and hopeless situations. She is there where people stand right on the edge of a perilous abyss.

-Saint Hierarch Seraphim Sobolev

[pearlchsiung]

Xi Wangmu, “Queen Mother of the West” is first mentioned in oracle bone inscriptions thirty-three centuries ago in the Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 B.C.)

“Crack-making on day IX,9 day; we divined. if we make offering to the eastern mother and the western mother, there will be approval.”

Later, in the “Inner Chapters” of the early Taoist text Zhuang Zi, circa 300 BCE, she is cast as a woman who attained the Tao:

“Xi Wang Mu attained it and took her seat on Shao Guang mountain. No one knows her beginning and no one knows her end.”

Taoists recognized the ancient great goddess as a divine teacher and initiator of mystic seekers, and in many cases as the ultimate origin of their teachings and practices. She governs the Taoist arts of self-transformation known as internal alchemy, including meditation, breath and movement practices, medicines and elixirs.

Xi Wangmu who resembles a human but has tigers’ teeth, a leopard’s tail and wears a sheng (symbol of a loom) headdress atop her wild hair. Although attempts were made to demote, tame or even marry off the shamanistic goddess through the passing dynasties, she ultimately embodies yin, highest goddess, and ruler of female Transcendents, The Queen Mother was seen to have a special relationship with all women, caring for all women Daoists in the universe, both perfected and aspirants.

“In heaven, beneath heaven, in the three worlds, and in the ten directions, all women who ascend to transcendence and attain the way are her dependents.”

The Queen Mother was held in especially high regard by Chinese women who did not represent the societal norm of the submissive woman. To these women, The Queen Mother of the West was seen as “a powerful, independent deity representing the ultimate yin controlling immortality and the afterlife.” (Cahill, 1986).

http://www.suppressedhistories.net/goddess/xiwangmu.html

[janepaulina]

"Atom-bombed Mary", also known as Our Lady of Nagasaki.

It is a part of a wooden statue of Mother Mary that survived the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. It was found in the ruins of Urakami Cathedral.

[insanity-over-sanity]

for the great queen rhiannon, goddess of sovereignty, horses, transformation, forgiveness, and understanding ❤️

[nosferatu-roberteggers]

John Augustus Knapp, “Saitic Isis” (1926)

“The statues of Isis were decorated with the sun, moon, and stars, and many emblems pertaining to the earth, over which Isis was believed to rule (as the guardian spirit of Nature personified). […] she personified Universal Nature, the mother of all productions. […] The deity was generally represented as a partly nude woman, often pregnant, sometimes loosely covered with a garment either of green or black color […] The green color alludes to the vegetation which covers the face of the earth, and therefore represents the robe of Nature. The black represents death and corruption as being the way to a new life and generation. […] The serpents under her feet indicate that Nature is inclined to preserve life and to heal disease by expelling impurities and corruption.

The ancients gave the name Isis to one of their occult medicines […]. Her black drape also signifies that the moon, or the lunar humidity--the sophic universal mercury and the operating substance of Nature in alchemical terminology--has no light of its own, but receives its light, its fire, and its vitalizing force from the sun. Isis was the image or representative of the Great Works of the wise men: the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of Life, and the Universal Medicine.

“Nature contains Nature, Nature rejoices in her own nature, Nature surmounts Nature; Nature cannot be amended but in her own nature”. Isis, or Nature personified, carries with her the sacred fire, religiously preserved and kept burning in. a special temple by the vestal virgins. This fire is the genuine, immortal flame of Nature--ethereal, essential, the author of life. […] Isis was Sophia, the Virgin of Wisdom […] Isis represents the mystery of motherhood, which the ancients recognized as the most apparent proof of Nature's omniscient wisdom and God's overshadowing power.”

— Manly Palmer Hall; “Man: The Grand Symbol of the Mysteries” (1947)

[oh-my-little-hearth]

Cute little devotional wallpaper collage I made!

[rosieandthemoon]

via

[achillesinhighheels]

Sleeping Muse

By Misha Frid

[emvidal]

"Under thy protection we take refuge, O Holy Mother of God. Despise not our prayers in our necessity, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin Mary." - Sub Tuum Praesidium (Ancient Christian Prayer to the Virgin Mary)

[tractim]

[minus-moscow]

Slavic Goddesses Collection

Ognyena Maria - Goddess of Fire, Snakes and Rebirth

She originates as a conflation of Margaret the Virgin (also know as Saint Marina), the Virgin Mary and a pre-Christian cthonic goddess of snakes, fire and caves. In Bulgaria, she is celebrated on July 22, as the day she prevents fires.

[divinum-pacis]

April 2026: A wave of emotion swept through the final Eucharist presided over by Pope Leo XIV at the stadium in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. At the end of the mass, Pope Leo sang the Marian antiphon “Regina Caeli” in thanksgiving before an image of Our Lady of Bisila, depicted carrying the Child Jesus on her back. (Photo: Rome Reports)