Goddess Statues and Deity Representations

Pagans love statuary--but what makes for a good (or bad) deity representation? Here, I talk through my own preferences, including the difference between what I do in private ritual and the concessions I make for the sake of intersubjectivity when working with a group.
Buy QUEEN OF ALL WITCHERIES:
bookshop.org/p...
Check out my Tarot blog:
jackofwandstar...

[@thomasvanhoey]

8:00 There's this one part in your Queen of all witcheries book where you talk about a ritual or an initiation and afterwards seeing the Goddess in all the people or all the women around you. I thought that was expressed very vividly and very beautifully.

[@WorldWarIVXX]

How many of us got by with a pine cone & a seashell before we could even *think* of buying statues?

[@calicedetamarack]

LOVE that you of non-figurative representation of deity. YES! People have strong different ideas about this, and it has at times felt lonely

[@sacredbloomalchemy]

I have a couple of goddess statues on my altar. One is from Malta and is based on the Maltese goddesses in the prehistoric temples there. The other my mum got me and is cute and has a moon. But tbh they are just human representations of what the goddess is and I feel like the different goddesses such as Aphrodite, Freya, Kali are all faces of the goddess but the goddess is really what you said. People find it easier to relate to human depictions I guess. But she is mainly reflected in nature for me. I also have a shell on my altar. 😊

[@davidalanmors3233]

I'm glad I discovered you, I like the style of your channel

[@modernmonologue]

When I ground and center, sometimes I see a red-gold serpent with black specs ascending from the Earth and a white dove with blue-silver shimmer descending from the heavens/space. I get a lot of goosebumps! I assume this is the way I experience the Goddess. I am still learning and exploring so it may change in the future. I do "vibe" with the idea of the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World, as a depiction of the Goddess. BTW I bought a copy of Queen of all Witcheries and it should be here by Wednesday.

[@omikrondraconis5708]

Hey, interesting overlap with my own preferences. We have a few replicas from museum gift shops (easy in Europe with some kind of Roman history museum on every sevond larger city), but also little metal cut-outs on a sandstone stand of cave paintings from Lascaux: a deer for the God and a cow for the Goddess, yeah, again from the gift shop. It really feels like a special gift to Pagans here, having such easy access to really beautiful stuff. Apart from that, there are quite abstract limestone figurines I made myself, and a couple more if my patron deity, some I made from clay some I bought from a Pagan artist who does tin casting, all rather abstract and definitely non-Barbieesque.

[@YvonneAburrow]

I love this. Thank you so much for saying this, especially about the statues that look like Barbie. I’d say it’s fine to have anthropomorphic representations of individual local goddesses (preferably not hyper-sexualized). Great point about specific appearance being applied to goddesses too. But if by The Goddess you mean the Great Goddess, the epistemologically transcendent Goddess of All That Is, then yes absolutely let’s have abstract representations.

[@madimoody110]

Thank you so much for this video. I've always felt a little ~weird~ for really disliking Goddess and God statues. Humanly portraying them has always felt wrong, but so many others were utilizing them in their practice that I thought maybe I was missing something. Statues depicting them as human seem like they are being put into a box or cage. I can see the Goddess working through people, like my Grandmother for instance, but not as some sort of separate being. Her spirit is everywhere, she is everything. A statue feels like we're limiting Her power to that of a human.

[@tyson7687]

I'm a little late on this video (move from SLC to Olympia). I've utilized the spiral Goddess and God statues most of my time as a practitioner. Some of this stems from my time as a Catholic and learning that God is beyond human conception. It is difficult for me to limit deity (whether Goddess or God) in any sort of way. Like you, I feel the Goddess at the beach, experiencing the turning of the seasons, or simply in the expansive universe. Anthropomorphising deities can be useful for some, and I am comfortable acknowledging this. However, we (the collective) must acknowledge that these concepts are well beyond our abilities, especially within a mystery tradition/religion such as Wicca.

[@kukumuniu5658]

Hi :) What incenses are best for the spirits of springs, ponds and forests? Which are the worst choice? I bought some Mexican cigars but I'm not sure that spirits of nature (water and trees) will be happy

[@jasmyneambrosia]

❤❤❤❤❤

[@pigmentcingle]

I wonder how we would perceive the Greek or Egyptian pantheon today if they never made statues