Chthonia

The first podcast of 2021 focuses on the loa Maman Brigitte, a hard drinking, sensual spirit that protects the unrepresented dead, and has a very direct relationship to the Irish goddess (and saint) Brigid. Music: Adapted from "Secret Door" by Anastasia Vronski, [CC 4.0] URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Anastasia_Vronski/Estrangements_volume_2/09_-_Secret_DoorComments: http://freemusicarchive.org/Copyright: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

In this last podcast for 2020, we look at the Hans Christian Andersen tale of the Snow Queen, the very loose basis for the film "Frozen", and like many fairy tales, loaded with symbolism–in this case, about the struggle for love and connection in a cold, analytical world.

It is December, and for this month I am feature winter themes. Today we talk about Skadi, the Scandanavian jötunn (giantess/ancient goddess, similar to a Titan in Greek mythology), who is the embodiment of winter, and is associated with bowhunting, skiing, and mountains. In this episode we look at Skadi's thirst for revenge over her […]

We end the month of November with a look at the Egyptian goddess Taweret, a hippopotamus goddess who was the wife of Set and a ferocious protector of children. Like many dark goddesses, her attributes seemed to change over time, making her more benevolent.

This episode looks at the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet, who is considered to be an aspect of the goddess Hathor, and sometimes also the goddess Bast. She is the "eye of Ra", and represents the destructive wrath of the "noonday sun" that burns up everything around it.

Dive into the enchanting world of the Morrigan, the Irish goddess of war and fate, just in time for Samhain. Explore her dynamic relationships with other deities and the impact of Christian narratives on her mythos. Hear a touching story about the tragic consequences of a boastful challenge in a royal feast. Discover the complex nature of this powerful figure and her ties to ancient rituals and archaeological sites. The discussion also emphasizes harmony with the Earth and the importance of community engagement.

In our last podcast on the Ashta Matrikas, we look at Narasimhi, the fierce lion-headed matrika that is the Shakti of Narasimha, another fierce avatar of Vishnu. Not to be tampered with lightly, she is also known as Pratyangira, the destroyer of black magic.

This week we talk about the Matrika Varahi, the Shakti of Varaha, the boar-headed avatar of Vishnu, and a ratridevata (night goddess) associated with left-hand Tantric practices. She is sometimes called Yami, and considered to be the consort of Yama, the god of death. We look at the complexity of her symbolism, with a boar […]

The matrika Vaishnavi is the shakti of Vishnu's avatar, Vaishnava, in which Vishnu takes the form of a boar and rescues the Earth Mother when she is plunged into the primordial waters. Her weapon is the discus or chakra, showing her connection to the cycle of time. This podcast looks at the multiple aspects of […]

This week's podcast looks at Maheswari, the literal shakti of Shiva (Maheswar). She embodies the vice of anger, and like Shiva himself is a destroyer, and is associated with tamas (darkness). However, like Shiva himself, she is too complex to summarize her nature in a few words, embodying both inauspicious and auspicious qualities.