Bird Magic: Wisdom of the Ancient Goddess for Pagans & Wiccans - Sandra Kynes 2016
Return to Her: Death-Wielder and Regeneratrix
The Practices
To the Goddess worshippers of Old Europe, life and death were not considered conflicting opposites, and death was not regarded as the absolute end. Symbols relating to death were accompanied by life-giving signs of regeneration and renewal. The Goddess as death-wielder was not so much the bringer of death as she was the mother who waited to accept her children home and then prepare them for the next life. Gimbutas believed that death was not regarded as “mournful triumph over life.” 26 Instead, death was inseparably linked with rebirth and considered an integral part of the ongoing cycle.
The Goddess As Bird of Prey
Mostly birds of prey were associated with this aspect of the Goddess, not so much because they kill for food but for their role in excarnation, which is sometimes referred to as sky burial. Scavengers and other birds were also important because removing the flesh from bones was regarded as completing the death process. Although exposing the dead in this way was not universally practiced in Neolithic cultures, birds were acknowledged as having a role in finalizing death before rebirth could occur.
One of the earliest types of objects found in graves, and dating to approximately 16,000 BCE, were the figurines that came to be called stiff white ladies.27 Long and slender, they were rigid like bones and represented the stillness of death. Made of bone, ivory, or stone, these figurines were the white or pale yellow color of bare bone. Their placement in the grave represented opening the way to the subterranean womb in preparation for rebirth. Although the style of the stiff white ladies changed over time and differed slightly among regions, they were consistently found with red ochre, which symbolized life-giving blood. While these figurines often had pronounced pubic triangles, the only facial feature was usually a beak. Occasionally they were incised with owl faces.
In addition to human-made artifacts, bird bones and wings were common grave offerings. Ninety percent of these came from vultures, eagles, hawks, owls, black-backed gulls, rooks, crows, and ravens. A tomb on the Orkney Islands off the northern coast of Scotland held the remains of 342 people and 35 sea eagles.28 Symbolizing life as well as mourning, birds were placed in graves, especially those of children, well into the classical period of Greece. Centuries later, a common Gallo-Roman funerary motif portrayed the deceased holding a raven or other bird against his or her chest. However, of all the birds connected with this aspect of the Goddess, the owl and the vulture were most prominent throughout Old Europe and beyond.
Representations of owls and owl goddesses have been found on pottery, on standing stones, and in tombs. Depictions of owl eyes representing the eyes of the Goddess were commonly used on a range of ritual and funerary objects. In addition to protecting the departed on his or her journey into the next world, the owl also had the role of comforting the bereaved who were left behind.
A famous terra-cotta plaque from Mesopotamia known as the Burney Relief depicts a woman with wings flanked by two owls. Her feet are the talons of a bird of prey. The image is most commonly considered to represent Inanna/Ishtar or Lilith. Inanna was called the “Divine Lady Owl” and her story of descent and return from the underworld symbolized death and rebirth.29
The association of owl and goddess survived into Greek culture in the form of Athena. While Greek writer Homer (c. 800—701 BCE) described her as having the eyes of an owl, this bird was not a minor attribute. The owl was continually depicted with her, sometimes on her altar, and occasionally even representing her. With Athena regarded as the giver of crafts, the owl maintained its ancient association with spinning. Marked with Bird Goddess symbols, spindle whorls were used as funerary offerings to symbolize rebirth.
As mentioned in Chapter 3, the vulture had an association with the life-giving aspect of the Goddess in Egypt. Our present-day view of this bird links it only with death; however, in Old Europe the emphasis was on regeneration. In fact, the vulture is not equipped to kill and does not bring death. It is a scavenger; it waits and then rids the world of dead flesh. Through this act of cleansing, it initiates the cycle of renewal and transformation.
Dating to 7000—5000 BCE, Çatalhüyük is especially famous for its vulture shrine.30 Located in the Anatolian region of Turkey, it is the largest Neolithic site in the Near East. Like the culture of Old Europe, worship in Çatalhüyük was centered on a mother goddess. The wall paintings in one of the shrines depicted large vultures hovering over headless human figures whose arms were raised in the epiphany gesture. The Bird Goddess received them into death to be readied for rebirth. Significantly, the vultures in the shrine room were not black or dark like actual birds but red, the color of life-giving blood.
Eggs: Twice Born
As previously mentioned, eggs represented new life; however, they also symbolized rebirth or twofold birth. The egg being laid was considered first birth, and the hatchling emerging from the shell was second birth or rebirth. In fact, in many places worldwide, burial tombs were rounded and egg-shaped. The tombs of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Malta were constructed with egg-shaped chambers and symbolized the womb of the Goddess from which life would re-emerge. Like tombs, Neolithic burial jars were often egg-shaped, symbolizing the regenerative powers of the womb. Egg designs were painted or incised on funerary pottery along with whirls and spirals, symbols of vitality and energy.
The domed tombs of Dowth, Knowth, and Newgrange in Ireland are believed to have been completely covered with white quartz in the past, giving them an egg-like appearance. In addition, rounded pieces of quartz and other white, egg-shaped pebbles were often placed within graves.
In northern Europe, egg replicas made of clay were buried with the dead as a promise of the rebirth to come. Well into the Middle Ages, eggs played a role in feasts of the dead and were placed as offerings in graves to prompt regeneration. Into modern times in Russia, it was an Easter tradition to place eggs that had been colored red on graves as a charm for resurrection.
Death and Regeneration Symbols
Depictions of the Goddess’s eyes represented her presence and her powers of regeneration. These were most often round, owlish eyes, which have been found in a wide area from Spain and Portugal through France and Great Britain. They have also been found in the tombs of Malta and Sicily. Additionally, owl eyes were marked on figurines and amulets. On megalithic tombs, a beak sometimes accompanied the eyes. Owl eyes have also been found on bones with parallel markings that suggest feathers. In Ireland, owl eyes have been found in the megalithic tomb of Dowth, the name of which means “darkness.” 31
The owl face with round head and eyes and a beak was depicted on standing stones as well as on the stones of passage graves, which consisted of a narrow passageway and separate burial chambers. The representation of an owl face was often accompanied by V and chevron markings, which as we have seen, were associated with the Goddess’s life-giving forces.
According to Gimbutas, “the magic regenerating eyes” of the Goddess were sometimes regarded as “radiant divine eyes.”32 This symbol resembles a sun motif and has been found on megalithic tomb shrines in Ireland, funerary vases in Denmark, and ceramics in Spain. Odd as it may seem to depict a night bird with sun-like eyes, the combination portrays the closely intertwined aspects of life and death, light and dark.
Another symbol, the brush/comb, consists of parallel lines joined by a perpendicular line at one end. It was used to represent the energy of life and rebirth as well as healing and protection. The Great Mother provided protection and healing as she guided souls through the process of death into new life.
The brush/comb symbol has been found on figurines and pottery from southeastern Europe to Cyprus to Turkey. In Denmark, it was found carved into an amber pendant. The brush/comb was also depicted as a pendant itself on some figurines. In Central Europe this type of pendant was actually worn by rural people into the twentieth century as a talisman for protection and healing. Although the origin of this symbol is unknown, the shrine at Çatalhüyük provides a clue, with the brush/comb used to depict the wings of the vultures.
The triangle and hourglass shapes are also symbols of the Goddess as a bird of prey. The triangle symbolizes the Goddess’s regenerative forces and powers of transformation. On figurines, it most often represented the pubic triangle. Triangular stones, either natural or chipped into shape, had markings to indicate their association with the Goddess and date back to the Paleolithic. Large, triangular stones were used in megalithic tombs and passage graves throughout the British Isles. In addition, triangular-shaped amulets of stone, clay, and bone have been found in numerous graves.
Figure 1.3: Symbols of death and regeneration: owl eyes, owl face, and radiant divine eyes, (top row); brush/comb, triangle, hourglass, and bird’s claw (bottom row)
The hourglass shape is basically a set of converging triangles emphasizing not just original birth but rebirth. Hourglass figures were depicted with bird claws as hands and/or feet, and occasionally with wings. These have been found from Ireland to Spain and Italy. The hourglass shape has also been found with chevrons and owl eyes. An hourglass figurine from Spain also sported small, raised wings. Representing the rites of regeneration, hourglass figures portraying a row of dancers were used throughout Old Europe for about three thousand years.33
Depictions of bird’s feet were used to represent this aspect of the Goddess, too. Accompanying triangles and hourglasses, bird’s feet were painted red on cave walls and on vases. Marked with bird’s feet, a ceramic cup found in Poland also had a handle topped by a bird’s head. Often on vases, bird’s feet were placed in rows or in alternating panels with triangles and hourglass figures.
The death/regeneration aspect of the Bird Goddess survived for thousands of years. An Etruscan urn dating to 500 BCE depicted a winged goddess of death with a pregnant belly.34 In the Basque area of northern Spain, the goddess of death and regeneration was depicted as a vulture, a crow, or a woman with bird’s feet. Although in later Greek myth the Harpies were portrayed as half bird/half woman monsters that carried people to the underworld, originally they bore away the bodies of the slain for healing and rebirth.
The main themes of this aspect of the Goddess and these symbols are that death and rebirth are a transition through which the Goddess leads and protects us. In the next chapter, we will see how we can incorporate these symbols and concepts into our practices and everyday lives.
26. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 19.
27. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 198.
28. Caroline Arnold, Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea: Scotland’s Prehistoric Village of Skara Brae (New York: Clarion Books, 1997), 35.
29. Paula Marvelly, Women of Wisdom: A Journey of Enlightenment by Women of Vision Through the Ages (London: Watkins Publishing, 2005), 15.
30. Baring and Cashford, The Myth of the Goddess, 83.
31. Patricia Monaghan, The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore (New York: Facts on File, 2004), 63.
32. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 56, 59.
33. Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess, 242.
34. Johnson, Lady of the Beasts, 89.