Kali: Hindu Goddess of Time, Death, and Liberation
She wears a necklace of severed heads and a skirt of severed arms, and she stands on the chest of…
-
-
Parvati: Hindu Goddess of Love, Marriage, and Motherhood
She stood between four fires in the summer heat and in freezing water through the winter rains. She gave up…
-
Isis: Egyptian Goddess of Magic and Motherhood
Her name is a chair. Write it in hieroglyphs and you draw a throne, the seat every pharaoh sat on,…
-
The Morrigan: Irish Goddess of War, Fate, and Sovereignty
A warrior rides out to battle and passes a woman at the ford, washing clothes in the river. The water…
-
Inari: Japanese Deity of Rice, Foxes, and Fortune
Ten thousand vermilion gates climb a mountain south of Kyoto, packed so close together that the forest path turns into…
-
Kannon: The Japanese Goddess of Mercy
Walk the length of Sanjusangendo in Kyoto and a thousand and one gilded figures watch you go, row on row,…
-
Kichijoten: Japanese Goddess of Fortune and Beauty
For three days each January, a temple in Nara brings out a painting it keeps hidden the rest of the…
-
Juno: Roman Queen of the Gods
The dogs slept. The sentries slept. Rome had been under siege for months, and a starving city had eaten nearly…
-
Oya: The Yoruba Goddess of Storms and the Dead
Her name is a sentence. In Yoruba, ọ ya means “she tore,” and that is what the wind does to…
-
Izanami: The Goddess Who Made Japan and Became Death
Izanami made an entire country by stirring the ocean with a spear. She died giving birth to fire. Then she…
