“The failure of modern poets, Graves argues, is the result of the decline in knowledge of myths.”- Robert Graves, poet
The White Goddess, the ultimate companion to masculine Creator. While, to me, spirit is neither set gender, for the purposes of this painting I wanted a masculine feminine character. The White Goddess is the phases of the moon, a fluidity, like oceans and sky, ever changing to meet the needs of her people. She is symbol of the three stages of womanhood; child/maiden, mother and grandmother/Crone.
She is the waters of Mother Earth and controls all forms of water. She is the pregnant mother and is present in reproduction, womb, and fecundity of all living things. She is sky and changes of the moon that bares herself for all to see, the round face of full moon to illuminate, the fullness of womanhood and wisdom of the Grandmother.
She is inspiration that ebbs and flows. She is rhythms of poetry. She is the Muse and myth of artists. She is mother, lover and destroyer as needed. She is insatiable in every way a woman can be. She has been slaughtered, a thousand thousand times, by patriarchal religions yet rises in the circles of women’s gatherings. She has been transformed to meet religions’ purpose to be male-oriented, but rises in healing ways that a masculine god could not. She is great haler that helps females cope with male-oriented cultures and life. She is the Ultimate Mother who helps us deal with death, evil and suffering; birth, sexuality and death.
Her role is of the right side of the brain; the heart an soul of the feminine. The male counterpart is political, controlling, the ’get ‘er done’ physicality, and mostly black and white ideologies; The White Goddess rules the heart, emotions, and spirit of her daughters.
LET US NOT LET HER DIE NOR HER STORIES BE CHANGED BEYOND RECOGNITION. Let us begin again to honor our great Mother/Grandmother, The White Goddess, by simply acknowledging her and her role and mysteries in our lives. We need not peak of it, for she is there whether we acknowledge her or not. I truly believe in a Mother In Heaven and give her more nurturing in my own soul since she has been left forgotten in a stiff impenetrable forest of masculine presence and influence in our societies. Let us remember her.
©Carol Desjarlais 2.12.20
***This is a strange one, to be sure. I do not know from whence she came, but she came. I asked, as I always do, “What wants to come through today?” There will be an image that comes into my head and I am on the painting project. But, sometimes, I just start with marks and a painting reveals itself. This is such a case.
References:
https://www.firstthings.com/article/1992/11/the-death-of-the-goddess
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