Heba (هبة)

“To the Sumerians the Divine was Queen Nana, to the Romans “Anna Perenna.” She is Al-Uzza of Mecca, Artemis of Ephesus, Anatis of Egypt, Eurynome of Africa, Coatlique of the Aztecs, Kunapipi of Australia. She is Rhea, Tellus, Ceres, Hera. The Female Metaphor has been known in innumerable ways and by innumerable names as humans tried to express their perception of the Great Mystery. She encompassed All. She has been present throughout the millennia in the myths, rituals, religions and poetry of humanity. She has been loved and revered.
Before She appeared in human form, there were stones, trees, pools, fruits and animals that She either lived in or were identified with Her or parts of Her. For many peoples the stones and rocks were Her bones, the vegetation Her hair. Poppies and pomegranates and other such many-seeded flora identified Her fertility and abundance. Grain/food could represent Her. The earth itself was understood as Her belly, the mountains as places of refuge, caves providing shelter for the unborn and the dead. Primal peoples everywhere at some time understood Earth Herself as Divine One, Deity – Mother. They languaged this in different ways. The pre-Celtic indigenous Europeans named Her – the Land – as Lady Sovereignty. In South-East Asia, where She has been known as Mago, Earth is Her Stronghold, the primordial home. In Greece and in the West, She has been known as Gaia.”
― Glenys Livingstone, A Poiesis of the Creative Cosmos: Celebrating Her within PaGaian Sacred Ceremony

“The purpose of the Genesis story is to explain the loss of that long, slow paradise that today we call the Paleolithic—an epoch of history in which our ancestors lived not only in a sustainable relationship to the Earth but in a joyous and loving one as well. In one of the greatest bait and switches of all time, that loss is blamed on Eve, whose name means, tellingly, “Mother of All Life.”
In a final bid for patriarchal power, the Bible separates the Goddess from one of her oldest animal allies. For tens of thousands of years before Genesis was written, the serpent was the ultimate symbol of reincarnation and renewal. The ouroboros (a snake swallowing its own tail) signified the eternal cycles of birth, death, and rebirth that were the source of the Goddess’s power. In Genesis that life-sustaining circle is broken, and the serpent becomes evil instead. The natural world was no longer considered sentient and divine. The mutilation and exploitation of our Mother’s body could continue uninterrupted down to the present day.
And yet, the final victory is always hers. Empires rise and fall. Whole civilizations vanish into vast deserts of geological time. But life remains. The Mother remains.”
― Perdita Finn, The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary

“And yet, within us… arising from the depths of our grief, comes strength. An intuitive wisdom that both honors our pain and is able to harness its power to put ourselves back together again, piece by harrowing piece. This deep wisdom knows how to ask for help when needed, like Isis seeking the support of Nephthys, and is willing to embrace the Shadow in order to affect true and lasting healing. What results from this union is a new and precious source of light, a rekindling of the inner flame that allows us to see ourselves and the world with new eyes. Although we may yet mourn what has passed, when we enter into conscious partnership with our unconscious self the gifts that have been buried within us begin to rise to the surface. Thus acknowledged, these once-hidden gifts are carried forth by the waters of our intuitive selves. They spill over the earthen banks of our now-outgrown limitations and bring with them an abundance that reinvigorates our landscapes – both within us and around us.”
― Jhenah Telyndru, On the Wings of Isis: Reclaiming the Sovereignty of Auset

“When our conscious and unconscious selves are in balanced relationship with each other, we are able to act with sovereignty in the world, creating our reality in accordance with our will and as a reflection of our authentic selves. When outside forces and situations beyond our control shift us from our center, we experience imbalance. This imbalance can trigger our Shadow instincts – unconscious responses to challenges which are rooted in old wounds and unacknowledged shame – to rise up in reaction to these experiences. We become trapped in outmoded and destructive patterns, and thus imprisoned like Osiris in his coffin, we are deprived of the ability to respond with clarity or reason. We become lost in the watery realms of emotional attachment and unconscious reaction until we are overcome and shattered into pieces.”
― Jhenah Telyndru, On the Wings of Isis: Reclaiming the Sovereignty of Auset