We are here to promote the goddess in her many forms. As she is great mother to us all, we must not forget the ancient ways of feminine worship and love.
Durga is one of the incarnations of Devi or the original Mother Goddess
in Hinduism. She represents the power of the Supreme Being and stands
for righteousness. She protects mankind from evil by destroying evil
forces such as jealousy, hate, greed, anger and arrogance. She is
depicted as a warrior woman with eight arms and rides a tiger or lion.
In each hand she carries different symbols such as a conch, sword, lotus
flower, bow, and a trident among other things.
The lion she rides symbolizes uncontrolled animal-like tendencies such
as anger, selfishness, jealousy and hate. By her sitting on top of the
lion she represents the ability to tame and control those tendencies
that all beings have. Durga represents pure positive energy or divine
light and is the embodiment of divine feminine energy. She is seen as
the Divine Shakti or powerful female force and is the primary deity in
Shaktism.
The story of Durga says that she was born fully grown and created from
the flames which came from the mouth of the Gods in heaven. She was
created so that she could destroy a buffalo-demon named Mahisasura. This
fierce demon was said to be terrorizing the Gods in heaven and the men
on earth. Durga was given an army of Gods to fight with her and a lion
upon which to ride and was sent to kill Mahisasura.
Her festival, Navrati, or Nine Divine Nights, is celebrated for nine
days and takes place around October during the harvest. During this
festival the nine aspects of Durga or Navadurga are meditated upon one
by one. Another celebration that is honored is Durga puja which takes
place for five days annually. During this festival the victory of the
goddess Durga over the demon Mahisasura is celebrated which represents
the victory of good over evil.
To pray to Durga here are some mantras in her honor: Om Sri Durgaya Namah
It is said that by chanting this mantra daily the Mother Durga will
remove all obstacles from our lives. Another mantra is Om Hreeng Dung
Durgaayai Namah. It is said that chanting this mantra will bring you
success in all areas of life.
Medusa is said to be an ancient deity and was originally known as a snake
goddess. She was worshiped as a dark goddess in ancient Libya and was seen as a three-fold snake deity. She is known to be a gorgon who were said to be scaled and
winged female monsters. In Greek myth she was the only mortal of three sisters and
daughter to Phorcys and Ceto, who were chthonic monsters from an archaic
world. Medusa was mother to the winged-horse Pegasus and the giant
Khrysaor.
In classical Greek myth Medusa was a mortal priestess of the goddess Athena. She was
said to be beautiful with long blonde, luscious locks of hair. As a
priestess of Athena, Medusa had to pledge her celibacy and herself
solely to the honor of the goddess. Although the god of the sea,
Poseidon, took a strong liking to Medusa and ravaged her in Athena's
temple thereby taking her sacred vows away from her. The goddess Athena
upon hearing this became enraged with Medusa so she turned her into a
terrible monster with snakes to replace her beautiful tresses.
If Medusa was looked upon by anyone, her gaze would turn them into
stone. Athena instructs the hero Perseus to kill Medusa so he finds
Medusa and decapitates her. When she is beheaded, her children Pegasus and Khrysaor spring forth from her blood. Although Medusa has been killed, her head still has the power to
turn men into stone even in death. Perseus uses it as a weapon to turn
some of his enemies into stone, then gives it to Athena
who puts it onto her shield. It is said that blood dripped from Medusa's head in the Libyan desert in which created many venomous snakes. This is said to be the cause of the many venomous snakes in Africa.
It is said that the reason that Athena punished Medusa so severely is
because she and Poseidon were long time rivals. Some think that Medusa
represents the destructive aspect of Athena. Other sources say that
Medusa won a beauty contest over Athena which made Athena jealous. It
seems to me that these myths are highly in favor of the male forces at
play. Women turning against one another and a woman being punished for
being raped. Sounds a little too patriarchal for my taste.
There are many messages within this myth. Some say that Medusa became
more powerful in death than in life as her head still held it's power to
turn man into stone and the ability to create life with her blood.
Some feminist groups today say that Medusa's head is a symbol of
feminine rage. And that her head turning man into stone represents her
warning to stay away since she was raped. In classical antiquity the
image of Medusa's head was used as an evil-averting, protection symbol.
