The Whole Deck

Goddesses

238 goddesses across 181 cultures — domains, symbols and a fragment of lore for each.

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Abeguwo
Kai / Papua New Guinea
Rain-Bringer of the Highlands
Domains
rainfertilityrenewal
Symbols
rain clouds · bilum · taro leaves · ochre face paint
Lore
In the recorded story, Abeguwo’s resting body becomes the source of steady rain. Her stillness is therefore creative rather than passive: while she rests, taro and other garden foods receive the water they need, joining female sacred power to weather, fertility and everyday nourishment.
Recorded in 20th-century ethnography of the Kai people
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Ajimā
Newar / Nepalese
Grandmother Protectress of the City
Domains
grandmother wisdomcity protectionboundaries
Symbols
city gate · marigold · lion
Lore
Their shrines place elder female protection into the map of daily life. This card honors that network rather than collapsing distinct local goddesses into one identity.
Kathmandu Valley, Nepal — living Newar Hindu-Buddhist traditions
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Ak Ana
Turkic / Turkey
White Mother of the Waters
Domains
creationinspirationwatercourage
Symbols
white waters · light · voice
Lore
Her appearance is brief but decisive: before land, people or animals exist, a female presence from the waters supplies the initiating word. Ak Ana does not build the world herself in the best-known version; she makes creation imaginable and possible, embodying inspiration as a sacred act with consequences far beyond the speaker.
Altai Turkic creation lore
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Akna
Inuit Traditions
Guardian of New Life
Domains
fertilitychildbirthbeginnings
Symbols
lamp flame · Arctic flower · protective hands
Lore
She represents the care surrounding a vulnerable arrival: warmth, skilled assistance and patience at a threshold no one can force.
Inuit Arctic — regionally variable oral accounts
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Al-Lat
Pre-Islamic Arabian
The Goddess of Ta'if
Domains
protectionthe earthpeacesanctuary
Symbols
lion · gazelle · square stone · crescent
Lore
Inscriptions identify Al-Lat across several Arabian and Syrian settings, where communities understood her through different divine relationships and local titles. At Palmyra, the monumental lion associated with her temple protects a gazelle beneath one paw, an image paired with a warning against shedding blood in the sanctuary. …
Pre-Islamic Arabia (Ta'if, Hejaz) and Nabataean/Palmyrene worlds
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Al-Uzza
Pre-Islamic Arabian
The Mighty One, Morning Star
Domains
powerthe morning starprotectionmight
Symbols
acacia trees · morning star · desert valley
Lore
Greek and Roman writers compared Al-Uzza with Aphrodite or Venus, while Nabataean evidence associates her with power and astral imagery. At Nakhla, later Islamic sources remember a sanctuary centered on sacred trees. …
Pre-Islamic Arabia (Nakhla, Hejaz) and Nabataean Petra
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Ala
Igbo / West African
Ala, Earth and Law, Womb of the Ancestors
Domains
EarthMorality and lawFertilityThe deadJudgment
Symbols
Crescent moon · Yam vines · Python · Mbari house · Sculpted clay figures
Lore
Her justice is not negotiable and not cruel: it is structural. Land disputes, murder, broken kinship duties all become her business, because harming people is harming the ground they stand on. …
Igboland, southeastern Nigeria; living tradition
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Amaterasu
Japan / Shinto
Great Illuminating Heaven
Domains
The sunVisibility and honourWeavingImperial lineageRenewal
Symbols
Bronze mirror (Yata no Kagami) · Rice · Rooster · Sacred rope (shimenawa) · Sunrise
Lore
Her drawing-out is the founding myth of Japanese performance: Ame-no-Uzume's raucous dance on an overturned tub, the gods' laughter, and curiosity strong enough to move a grieving god. The Inner Shrine at Ise has been ritually rebuilt from fresh timber roughly every twenty years for over a millennium — her holiness renewed rather than preserved.
Japan, Kojiki and Nihon Shoki (8th century CE) through living Shinto practice
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Ameretat
Iranian / Zoroastrian
Immortality of the Living World
Domains
immortalityplantswholeness
Symbols
evergreen · sprout · cup
Lore
Paired with Haurvatat, Ameretat protects the nourishment and continuity of life. Immortality here is not frozen time but life renewing through living systems.
Ancient Iran to living Zoroastrian tradition — Avestan and later texts
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Anahita
Persia / Iran
Lady of the Waters, Strong and Immaculate
Domains
WatersPurityValour in battleFertilityRoyal legitimacy
Symbols
Flowing water · Beaded golden crown · Chariot · Beaver-fur cloak · Pomegranate
Lore
Warriors and young women prayed to the same goddess for opposite-seeming things — victory and a good marriage — because she governs vitality itself, not a narrow department. Her worship survived regime changes across a thousand years, and her ruined temples still sit at Kangavar and Bishapur. …
Iran, Achaemenid period (c. 500 BCE) through Sasanian times; temples at Bishapur and Kangavar
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Anaisa Pye
Dominican Vodou
Joyful Lady of Love
Domains
lovejoymoneyhappiness
Symbols
yellow · fan · flowers
Lore
Public descriptions associate Anaisa with bright yellow, perfume, flowers, celebration and a lively, flirtatious presence. Within the 21 Divisiones she is a misterio approached through a living devotional system, not merely a symbol of positivity. …
Dominican 21 Divisiones tradition
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Anat
Canaanite / Levantine
Warrior Maiden of Ugarit
Domains
warfareloyaltyfierce protection
Symbols
spear · lion · winged disk
Lore
Her myths contain violent imagery, but also persistence and uncompromising advocacy. This card translates that force into boundary, courage and defense without glamorizing bloodshed.
Ugarit and the Levant, including ancient Palestine region — Late Bronze Age
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Anog Ite
Lakota Tradition
Double-Faced Woman of Consequence
Domains
dualityconsequencetransformation
Symbols
two profiles · wind · mirror
Lore
This card relies only on broadly published accounts and does not reproduce ceremonial teachings. Her two faces ask how desire changes when it seeks recognition at any cost.
Lakota oral tradition — living Indigenous knowledge; public retellings only
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Aphrodite
Greek
Foam-Born, Lady of Golden Desire
Domains
LoveBeautyDesirePersuasionThe sea
Symbols
Scallop shell · Dove · Rose · Mirror · Myrtle
Lore
Her power is that nobody consents to it. Gods, mortals and beasts alike are moved, and the myths track what that does: ships launched, marriages broken, unlikely joys. …
Greece and Cyprus, c. 8th century BCE onward
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Aphrodite Paphia
Ancient Cyprus
Lady of Paphos
Domains
loveseaisland sovereignty
Symbols
conical stone · dove · shell
Lore
The sanctuary centered on an aniconic stone rather than a human statue. Her Cypriot form belongs to sea routes, kingship and the island itself, not romance alone.
Cyprus — Late Bronze Age roots through Greek and Roman antiquity
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Ardochsho
Kushan / Bactria (Uzbekistan)
Lady of Abundance
Domains
wealthabundanceroyal fortunegenerosity
Symbols
cornucopia · diadem · gold coin
Lore
Kushan coins label her in Bactrian script and show her with a cornucopia, a form shaped by both Iranian ideas of reward and Hellenistic images of abundance. Placing Ardochsho on currency made prosperity a public promise of the ruler’s legitimacy. …
Kushan Empire, 1st–4th centuries CE (southern Uzbekistan and region)
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Ariadne
Cretan and Aegean
Mistress of the Labyrinth Thread
Domains
labyrinthsthreadsrenewal
Symbols
red thread · labyrinth · constellation
Lore
Abandoned on Naxos, she becomes the immortal partner of Dionysus in one tradition. Her arc moves from helper, to loss, to a sovereignty not dependent on the hero she saved.
Crete and the Aegean — Bronze Age name evidence and later Greek myth
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Arinniti
Turkey / Hittite Anatolia
Sun Goddess of Arinna, Queen of the Land
Domains
The sunKingship and justiceState authorityOrderProtection of the land
Symbols
Winged sun disc · Polos crown · Gold rosette · Lions · Royal seal
Lore
Hittite kings called themselves her steward, not her equal, and every treaty was sworn under her sun. Her cult city Arinna has never been securely located, so the greatest goddess of an empire is known largely through the letters of a queen who wrote to her as one woman to another.
Hittite Anatolia (central Turkey), c. 1700–1180 BCE
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Artemis
Ancient Greece
Lady of the Wild, Mistress of Arrows
Domains
WildernessThe huntThe moonGirlhoodChildbirthSovereignty of self
Symbols
Silver bow · Crescent moon · Deer · Cypress · Hunting dogs
Lore
Actaeon saw her bathing and was turned to a stag torn apart by his own dogs — the story is less about modesty than about consent: what belongs to her is not available to be taken. Her arrows are swift and her mercy is exact.
Greece, Archaic period through Roman era
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Asase Yaa
Akan / West African
Old Mother Earth, Thursday's Ground
Domains
EarthTruth and oathsFarmingAncestorsRest
Symbols
Soil · Yam · Adinkra symbols · Libation of palm wine · Thursday
Lore
Oaths sworn on her are the heaviest available; farmers ask her permission before breaking ground, and the dead are given back to her. Her most striking rule is the fallow day: an entire agricultural society stopping once a week not for a god in the sky but for the exhausted ground under their feet.
Akan states of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire; living tradition
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Asherah
Canaanite / Ancient Palestine
Lady of the Sea and Mother of Gods
Domains
motherhoodsacred treesdivine counsel
Symbols
tree · ibex · weaving spindle
Lore
She appears as a senior mother and diplomatic presence among the gods. Archaeology shows that ancient religious life was more diverse than later official texts imply.
Canaan and ancient Israel/Judah — Bronze and Iron Ages
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Ashi
Zoroastrian Iran
Reward, Daughter of Wisdom
Domains
Reward and fortuneMeritProsperityConsequenceRight living
Symbols
Gold coins · Sacred fire · Veil · Full storehouse · Balanced scales
Lore
The striking part of her hymn is who she refuses. She will not enter the house of the childless, the very old or the very young — not from cruelty, but because her gifts require a life with capacity to receive them. …
Zoroastrian Iran; hymned in the Avesta, honoured in Zoroastrian communities today
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Astarte
Levantine (Canaanite / Phoenician)
Lady of the Sea and Star, Mistress of Cities
Domains
LoveSea voyagesCity protectionFertilitySovereign favour
Symbols
Crescent and star · Dove · Sphinx throne · Cypress · Sea vessel
Lore
Her cult travelled by ship: wherever Phoenician traders landed, her star was raised. She is a goddess of departure and safe return — the one you pray to when you cannot see the shore.
Levant and the Phoenician Mediterranean, c. 1500 BCE onward
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Atabey
Taíno / Cuba and Greater Antilles
Mother of Fresh Water and Birth
Domains
fresh waterbirthfertilitythe moonancestral creation
Symbols
frog · spiral · moon · river shell
Lore
Her watery motherhood joins human birth to springs, rain and the living circulation on which island communities depend.
Precolonial Greater Antilles — documented in early colonial Taíno accounts
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Ataegina
Iberia / Spain
Goddess of Spring's Return
Domains
SpringThe underworldRebirthHealingOaths and curses
Symbols
Goat · Cypress · Spring flowers · Votive tablet · Silver offering
Lore
What survives of her is a pile of requests. That is her character: she is the goddess people turned to when something had been taken and they wanted it back — health, property, a fair outcome. …
Lusitania and western Iberia, pre-Roman into the Roman period
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Atete
Oromo / East African
Mother of Fertility, Keeper of Women's Rites
Domains
FertilityWomen's solidarityJusticeMilk and cattleBlessing
Symbols
Milk gourd · Butter · Green grass bundles · Fresh cream · Song
Lore
Her power runs on collective voice. The Ateetee song is not a plea — it is a sanction, sung by many women at once, and the community regards it as binding. …
Oromo tradition, Horn of Africa; living practice
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Athena
Greece
Grey-Eyed Weaver of Strategy
Domains
StrategyCraft and weavingCivic lawDefensive warClear thinking
Symbols
Owl · Olive tree · Corinthian helm · Aegis with gorgon head · Loom and spindle
Lore
She won Athens by gift rather than force: against Poseidon's saltwater spring she offered the olive tree, and the city chose the thing that could feed it. Her Panathenaic festival centred on weaving and presenting a new robe for her statue, so devotion to her was measured in finished work — and the Odyssey has her intervene as advice and disguise, never as a thunderbolt.
Greek world, Mycenaean roots through the Classical city-states (c. 1400–100 BCE)
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Baba Dochia
Romanian Folklore
Old Woman at the Gate of Spring
Domains
seasonal changeenduranceweather wisdompastoral life
Symbols
nine coats · sheep · mountain stone · mărțișor thread
Lore
Her mountain fate gives human shape to the dangerous threshold when winter loosens its grip but has not truly gone.
Romanian and Moldovan folk tradition — living early-March customs
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Barbale
Georgian
Radiant Sun Mother
Domains
sunfertilityhealingharvest
Symbols
sun rosette · wheat · cattle
Lore
Folk observance linked her day with special breads, household blessing and hopes for increase in the coming year. Because pre-Christian evidence is fragmentary, scholars differ over how much later custom can be assigned to an ancient goddess; the enduring sun circle is best read as continuity of symbol rather than proof of one unchanged cult.
Pre-Christian Georgian belief preserved in folk festivals
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Bastet
Ancient Egypt
Lady of Bubastis, Protector of the House
Domains
HomeCatsJoyProtectionMusic and festival
Symbols
Cat · Sistrum · Perfume jar · Kittens · Papyrus
Lore
Hundreds of thousands of mummified cats were buried in her cemeteries — a whole economy of affection and offering. She is the rare great deity whose domain is domestic happiness: the safe doorway, the fed household, the room where music is playing and nothing bad is happening.
Egypt, Old Kingdom through Roman period
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Bendis
Thracian / Bulgaria
Thracian Huntress of the Moon
Domains
moonhuntingwild placesfestival
Symbols
twin spears · crescent · torch
Lore
Plato opens the Republic during the Athenian Bendideia, noting both a procession and a new torch race on horseback. Greek artists often showed Bendis in Thracian dress with a cap and two spears. …
Thracian, from 5th century BCE
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Benzaiten
Japanese
Lady of Flowing Speech and Music
Domains
MusicEloquenceWaterWealthArtistry
Symbols
Biwa lute · White serpent · Torii in the sea · Waves · Jewel
Lore
She is said to be jealous of couples who visit her shrines together, a folk detail that says a lot: she wants the artist's full attention. Merchants pray to her for fortune, musicians for skill, speakers for fluency. …
Japan, from c. 8th century CE; adapted from Indian Sarasvati
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Berehynia
Ukrainian Folk Tradition
Guardian of the Hearth and the Riverbank
Domains
protectionhomeriversfamily
Symbols
vinok flower crown · embroidered towel · willow · raised arms
Lore
The term berehynia is historically complex: medieval clerical texts mention berehyni among condemned beliefs, but they do not provide a clear goddess biography. The familiar protective mother with raised arms is largely a modern cultural symbol shaped through folklore, embroidery and national revival. …
Slavic folk belief; revived as a national symbol in the 20th century
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Bixia Yuanjun
Chinese Daoist
Sovereign of the Clouds of Dawn
Domains
dawnchildbirthMount Tai
Symbols
dawn cloud · Mount Tai · phoenix
Lore
Pilgrimage lifts private hopes into a vast landscape. Dawn arrives not as denial of night but as a dependable change in what can be seen.
China — prominent from late imperial periods into living Daoist and popular devotion
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Bonbibi
Sundarbans / Bangladesh
Lady of the Forest
Domains
forestprotectionfairnesslivelihood
Symbols
tiger · mangroves · boat
Lore
In the Bonbibi Johuranama, Bonbibi and her brother Shah Jangali come to the tidal forest to establish justice against Dakshin Rai’s appetite. She rescues the poor boy Dukhe after a greedy trader abandons him. …
Sundarbans devotion, recorded 19th century
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Brigid
Ireland / Celtic
Keeper of the Forge and the Poem
Domains
SmithcraftPoetry and eloquenceHealing wellsHearth fireLivestock and spring
Symbols
Perpetual flame · Rush cross · Anvil and tongs · Holy wells · Brat Bhríde cloth
Lore
The Lebor Gabála names her as a triple figure — one Brigid of the forge, one of the poem, one of the healing craft — which is why her gifts always come as skills rather than moods. Households still hang a strip of cloth outside on Imbolc eve for her to bless as she passes, and hundreds of holy wells across Ireland keep her name and their rag-tied branches.
Ireland and Celtic Britain, Iron Age through early medieval; folk observance continues today
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Britomartis
Minoan and Cretan Greek
Lady of Nets and Mountain Paths
Domains
mountainshuntingescape
Symbols
net · wild goat · cypress
Lore
In later myth she leaps into fishermen’s nets to escape pursuit, transforming a trap into rescue and claiming the wild heights as her own.
Crete — Bronze Age roots; documented in later Greek cult
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Bunzi
Kongo Tradition
Rainbow Serpent of Rain
Domains
rainwatersfertility
Symbols
rainbow serpent · river shell · storm cloud
Lore
Her rainbow body joins river and sky. Communities sought her favor for rainfall, crops and the balance that keeps water life-giving rather than destructive.
Lower Congo region — Kongo oral tradition recorded in the modern period
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Cerridwen
Welsh / Brythonic
Keeper of the Cauldron of Awen
Domains
InspirationTransformationHerbcraftRebirthPatient labour
Symbols
Cauldron · White sow · Herbs · Grain of wheat · Year and a day
Lore
The chase that follows is the myth's heart: hare and greyhound, fish and otter, bird and hawk, grain and hen. She swallows him as a grain of wheat, carries him nine months and gives birth to Taliesin, the greatest poet. …
Medieval Wales; drawn from earlier Brythonic tradition
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Ceuci
Tupi / Brazilian Amazon
Mother of Crops and Hidden Fire
Domains
agricultureharvestthe Pleiadesshelter
Symbols
manioc · gourd · seven stars
Lore
The Pleiades have long helped agricultural communities mark seasonal change, and later retellings connect Ceuci with their appearance and the opening of fields. Accounts also name her as mother of Jurupari, whose story became famous through colonial and nineteenth-century collections. …
Tupi oral tradition
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Chang'e
Chinese
Lady of the Moon
Domains
The moonSolitudeLongingBeautyConsequences of choice
Symbols
Full moon · Jade rabbit · Osmanthus tree · Elixir bottle · Mooncake
Lore
Every Mid-Autumn Festival, families eat mooncakes and look up at her, and Hou Yi is said to have set out her favourite fruits in the yard. It is the tenderest exile in mythology: she is not punished, exactly, and she is not coming back. …
China, attested from the Warring States period; living festival tradition
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Changing Woman
Diné (Navajo) / Native American
Asdzáá Nádleehé, She Who Renews Herself
Domains
SeasonsThe life cycleCornWomanhoodRenewal
Symbols
White shell · Corn · Four sacred mountains · Turquoise · Turning seasons
Lore
She made the first Diné clans from her own body and taught the ceremony that marks a girl's coming of age, which is still held. Publicly shared accounts stress her constancy: she is not fickle for changing, she is reliable because she changes. …
Diné tradition, American Southwest; living tradition
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Cipaltonal
Nicarao / Nicaragua
Creator Mother of the Nicarao
Domains
creationskycacaopartnership
Symbols
cacao · volcano · lake
Lore
The surviving account credits the pair with creating the earth, the first people and the conditions of ordered life. Cipaltonal’s name resembles Cipactonal in central Mexican calendrical tradition, but the resemblance should not erase local Nicarao meaning. …
Nicarao belief, recorded 1520s by Spanish chroniclers
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Coatlicue
Aztec / Mexica
She of the Serpent Skirt, Mother of the Gods
Domains
EarthBirth and deathMotherhoodDevouring and givingRenewal
Symbols
Serpent skirt · Skull pendant · Obsidian blade · Marigold · Eagle feather
Lore
She conceived Huitzilopochtli from a ball of feathers while sweeping; her daughter Coyolxauhqui led four hundred siblings to kill her for the shame, and the son was born armed and defended her. The story sits exactly on the line the earth sits on — the same ground receives corpses and grows corn.
Central Mexico, Postclassic Mexica period, c. 1300–1521 CE
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Coti
San / Namibia
Wife of the Mantis
Domains
partnershipcreationcunninghome
Symbols
ostrich eggshell beads · eland · stars
Lore
Within the Mantis cycle, cosmic events unfold through household relationships rather than through a distant court of gods. Coti’s presence helps situate the trickster inside a family of consequences and obligations; stories involving their children and the eland connect kinship with one of the most spiritually important animals in southern African traditions.
/Xam San narratives (Bleek & Lloyd, 19th century)
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Cybele
Phrygian / Anatolian
Magna Mater, Mother of the Mountain
Domains
Wild natureCitiesFertilityEcstatic ritesBoundaries of the tame
Symbols
Mural crown · Lions · Pine cone · Tambourine · Mountain rock
Lore
Her rites were loud — drums, cymbals, dancing — and unsettling to Roman propriety, which regulated them while never daring to stop them. She is the mother who cannot be domesticated, the reminder that what protects the city comes from outside its walls.
Anatolia from c. 1200 BCE; Rome from 204 BCE
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Daēnā
Persian (Zoroastrian)
Insight, the Self That Meets You
Domains
ConscienceInsightReligion as inner visionSelf-knowledgeJudgement
Symbols
Mirror · Bridge · Scroll · Maiden of the crossing · Flame
Lore
At the Chinvat bridge the soul meets its own daēnā in the form of a figure whose beauty exactly matches the life it lived. Nobody is sentenced by a stranger; you are met by the self you made.
Iran, Avestan tradition through Pahlavi commentary
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Dali
Georgia / Svan Caucasus
Golden-Haired Mistress of the High Peaks
Domains
Wild animalsThe huntMountain peaksBeauty and dangerLimits
Symbols
Ibex and chamois · Golden hair · Cliff ledge · Snow · Hunter's rifle laid down
Lore
Svan ballads tell of hunters who climbed to her ledge and returned with impossible fortune, then fell from the same cliff after speaking of her in the village. Her golden hair is the thread in these songs: to be favoured by Dali is to be bound by a contract, and the terms are restraint and silence.
Svaneti and the Georgian Caucasus — pre-Christian highland tradition surviving in ballads and hunting custom
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Danu
Ireland / Celtic
Mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann
Domains
AncestryRivers and flowAbundanceLineageThe unseen source
Symbols
River water · Spiral · Green mound · Standing stones · Amber
Lore
The scholars' argument about whether she was ever worshipped is itself the teaching. Some sources run so deep they are only visible in what grew out of them. …
Ireland and wider Celtic Europe; attested through medieval Irish manuscripts
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Dea Africa
Roman Tunisia
Personification of Africa Proconsularis
Domains
landabundanceregional identity
Symbols
elephant headdress · grain · cornucopia
Lore
Her image condensed the land’s grain, animals and civic prosperity into a crowned woman. This card acknowledges that the figure comes through an imperial visual system.
Roman North Africa, especially Tunisia — c. 1st century BCE–4th century CE
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Demeter
Greece
Bringer of the Seasons, Mother of Grief
Domains
Grain and harvestMotherhoodGriefThe seasonsSacred mysteries
Symbols
Sheaf of wheat · Twin torches · Poppy · Pig · Barley drink (kykeon)
Lore
Her grief is not decorative — it has leverage. She stops the harvest, and starving humanity means starving gods with no one left to sacrifice to them. …
Greece, Bronze Age through the Roman period; Eleusinian Mysteries observed for two millennia
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Dewi Danu
Balinese Hindu
Goddess of Lake and Irrigation
Domains
lakeswaterirrigation
Symbols
water vessel · Lake Batur · naga
Lore
Through Bali’s subak systems, mountain water links temples, farmers and rice terraces. Her abundance is coordinated cooperation, not an isolated miracle.
Bali, Indonesia — living Balinese Hindu tradition, centered at Lake Batur
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Dewi Ratih
Balinese Hindu
Radiant Lady of the Moon
Domains
moonbeautycycles
Symbols
eclipsed moon · frangipani · night garden
Lore
Her recurring light frames darkness as temporary encounter rather than permanent defeat. Cycles do not make effort meaningless; they make return possible.
Bali and Java, Indonesia — Hindu traditions with living regional forms
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Dewi Sri
Java and Bali / Southeast Asia
Rice Mother, Lady of the Full Barn
Domains
Rice and foodFertilityHousehold prosperityWeavingLife and death
Symbols
Rice stalks · Cili figure · Snake and mouse · Woven mat · Coconut
Lore
Her rites are the opposite of grand: don't waste rice, don't step over the harvest, keep the granary respectful. She rules the everyday miracle of there being enough dinner, and Balinese and Javanese households still make her small figures at planting. …
Java and Bali; pre-Hindu roots, observed continuously through to the present
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Dhat-Ba'dan
Sabaean / Yemen
She of the Distant Sun
Domains
sunoasisrainabundance
Symbols
ibex · palms · sun
Lore
Knowledge of Dhat-Ba’dan comes primarily from inscriptions rather than a surviving narrative cycle, and interpretations of her solar character are not unanimous. Temples, oasis agriculture and South Arabian ibex imagery evoke a world where fierce sunlight and hoped-for rain were interdependent. …
Sabaean inscriptions, ancient Yemen
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Dhegdheer
Somali Oral Tradition
The Long-Eared Warning
Domains
warningdiscernmentsurvival
Symbols
listening earrings · thorn branch · night wind
Lore
Read as oracle rather than literal history, she asks what danger has been heard but not acknowledged—and how intelligence can interrupt fear.
Somali-speaking Horn of Africa — oral folktale tradition
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Dolya
Ukrainian & Slavic Folk Tradition
Spinner of Good Fortune
Domains
fateluckdestinywork
Symbols
spindle · golden thread · wheat
Lore
Folktales tell of people who went searching for their Dolya and found her asleep — and learned how to wake her.
Slavic folk belief
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Dǒumǔ
Chinese Daoist
Mother of the Dipper Stars
Domains
starsdestinycosmic order
Symbols
Big Dipper · star crown · celestial wheel
Lore
Her celestial motherhood encompasses many stellar powers. Devotion to her places individual fate within a vast, patterned cosmos rather than isolating it as personal failure or luck.
China — Daoist religion, especially from the medieval period onward
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Durga
Hindu / South Asian
The Invincible, Slayer of the Buffalo Demon
Domains
ProtectionVictoryCourageRighteous warMotherhood
Symbols
Lion · Trident · Conch · Lotus · Ten arms
Lore
She is composed while she fights — the sculptures show her face calm, foot on the demon, no strain. Her ten arms carry every god's weapon: she is what happens when many powers agree to act through one focused person. …
India, c. 6th century CE onward; living tradition
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E Bukura e Dheut
Albania
Beauty of the Earth
Domains
earthly beautyhidden wisdomsovereignty
Symbols
cave gate · pomegranate · golden key
Lore
Seekers travel underground, solve tests and learn that beauty is inseparable from intelligence, courage and the right to choose one’s own bonds.
Albania and neighboring Balkan oral tradition — folkloric wonder tales
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Eileithyia
Cretan and Greek
She Who Comes at the Birth
Domains
childbirthlaborthresholds
Symbols
torch · cave · knotted cord
Lore
She could ease or delay labor, embodying the truth that thresholds require both effort and release. Arrival cannot be separated from the body doing the work.
Crete and the Greek world — Bronze Age attestations through Classical antiquity
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Eir
Norse / Icelandic
Best of Healers
Domains
healingmedicinemercyprotection
Symbols
healing herbs · mountain Lyfjaberg · open hands
Lore
Fjölsvinnsmál names Eir among nine maidens who sit on Lyfjaberg, a mountain said to offer relief to sick women who climb it. Scholars debate whether the Eir named among valkyries in skaldic poetry is the same being. …
Recorded in 13th-century Iceland
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Ereshkigal
Mesopotamian / Ancient Iraq
Queen of the Great Below
Domains
underworldgriefirreversibility
Symbols
seven gates · dark throne · lapis star
Lore
She is not merely evil or deathly; she is the authority of what cannot be undone. Her lament also reveals a queen whose immense power does not cancel pain.
Sumerian and Akkadian Mesopotamia, ancient Iraq — 3rd to 1st millennium BCE
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Erzulie Freda
Haiti / Caribbean
Lwa of Love, Luxury and Tears
Domains
LoveBeautyLuxuryLongingArtistry
Symbols
Gold rings · Lace and perfume · Mirror · Pink champagne · Pierced heart
Lore
Her weeping is not weakness; it is the price of refusing to lower the standard. Devotees keep her table immaculate — perfume, sweets, three wedding rings — and she gives back charm, artistry and a sharpened sense of what beauty is for. …
Haiti, from the colonial period to the present within living Vodou tradition
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Etügen Eke
Mongolian
Mother Earth of the Eternal Steppe
Domains
earthpastureabundance
Symbols
grey bull · grassland · mountain
Lore
She is not scenery beneath human action but an active giver whose health determines the herd’s and community’s future. Respect for land is practical sacred law.
Mongolian and wider Inner Asian traditions — medieval records and living reverence
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Eurynome
Greek
Wide-Wandering Lady of the Cosmic Sea
Domains
Primordial watersCosmic orderDanceCreationWide pastures
Symbols
Encircling serpent · Dove · Spiral wave · Stars · Open sea
Lore
Later Orphic creation poetry places Eurynome at the beginning of the world, dancing upon the first waters and joining with the serpent Ophion before ruling from Olympus. These traditions come from different periods, yet each preserves her connection to vast waters, creative movement and an order born through relationship rather than force.
Ancient Greece — attested in Arcadian cult and Greek mythic traditions
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Ezili Freda
Haitian Vodou
Lwa of Beauty and Impossible Longing
Domains
lovebeautyluxurylongingprosperity
Symbols
mirror · perfume · pink heart · fine jewelry
Lore
Public accounts often describe her tears after dreams of perfect love meet an imperfect world, holding desire and grief in the same jeweled hand.
Haiti — colonial-era formation through living Vodou practice
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Fortuna
Roman / Italic
Lady of the Turning Wheel
Domains
LuckFateChanceAbundanceReversal
Symbols
Spoked wheel · Cornucopia · Ship's rudder · Blindfold · Sphere
Lore
Her wheel became medieval Europe's favourite image: kings rising on one side, falling on the other, the same wheel, no malice. Boethius wrote her speech from prison — she never promised to stay. …
Rome and Italy, c. 6th century BCE through late antiquity
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Frau Holle
German Folklore
Keeper of Snow, Spinning and Reward
Domains
winterspinninghousehold orderfair reward
Symbols
spindle · feather bed · snow · elder tree
Lore
When she shakes her feather bed, snow falls on the human world; her household tests whether effort comes from honest participation rather than performance.
German-speaking Europe — medieval references and later folk-tale tradition
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Freyja
Norse / Scandinavia
Lady of the Amber Necklace
Domains
Love and desireGoldSeiðr magicWar and the honoured deadProphecy
Symbols
Brísingamen necklace · Falcon-feather cloak · Cat-drawn chariot · Boar Hildisvíni · Tears of red gold
Lore
The Eddas make her the first teacher of seiðr — trance-worked magic that even Odin learned from her — and give her the pick of the slain before Valhalla, so she is never only a goddess of softness. Her hunt for Óðr across unknown lands under assumed names is the oldest Norse portrait of longing as a journey rather than a wound.
Scandinavia, Viking Age c. 800–1100 CE, recorded in 13th-century Icelandic manuscripts
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Frigg
Norse / Swedish
Queen of Ásgarð, Keeper of Keys
Domains
ForesightMarriage and householdMotherhoodSpinningDiscretion
Symbols
Ring of keys · Distaff and spindle · Mistletoe · Falcon cloak · Fensalir hall
Lore
Her great story is Baldr's. Foreseeing her son's death, she extracted an oath of protection from every thing in the world — and skipped the mistletoe as too young to matter. …
Viking Age Scandinavia
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Gaia
Ancient Greece
Broad-Breasted Earth, First Mother
Domains
EarthOriginsOathsProphecyGrowth and burial
Symbols
Soil · Grain · Serpent · Cornucopia · Deep caves
Lore
When Ouranos crushed her children back inside her, she armed Kronos with a sickle — the earth does not endure abuse forever, it grows the tool of its own release. Everything born of her returns to her, and she is not frightened by it.
Greece, primordial cult with roots in the Bronze Age
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Ganga
Hindu / South Asian
The River Descended from Heaven
Domains
PurificationRiversForgivenessRelease of the deadFlow
Symbols
River water · Makara · Floating oil lamps · Lotus · Pot of water
Lore
Millions bathe in her to release wrongdoing and carry the dead to her banks. She is famously indiscriminate: she does not check whether you deserve the water. …
India, Vedic period onward; living tradition
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Gefjon
Swedish / Old Norse
Plougher of the Island Realm
Domains
land-makingagriculturesovereigntyforesight
Symbols
plough · four oxen · island · fertile furrow
Lore
Her oxen are her giant-born sons in the story, and one decisive furrow turns an agreement into a new country.
Old Norse Scandinavia — recorded in 13th-century Icelandic texts with Swedish place tradition
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Goga
Melanesian / Papua New Guinea
Old Woman Who Kept Fire
Domains
firewisdomrainsecrets
Symbols
ember · leg of fire · rain
Lore
The story places fire inside the old woman’s keeping before humanity possesses it. When a young man takes it, Goga sends rain after him, setting heat and water against one another. …
Melanesian oral tradition
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Green Tara
Tibetan Buddhist
Swift Liberator, Mother of All Buddhas
Domains
CompassionSwift helpFearlessnessProtection on journeysAction
Symbols
Blue utpala lotus · Half-extended right leg · Green light · Mantra beads · Open right hand
Lore
In one account she was a princess told she should pray to be reborn male to reach enlightenment, and vowed instead to attain it in a woman's body and to keep returning in one. She is the goddess of the fast response — the help that arrives while you are still panicking, and the courage to be the one who moves first.
India and Tibet, c. 6th century CE onward; living tradition
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Guabancex
Taíno / Puerto Rico
Lady of the Winds and Waters
Domains
stormswindpowerchange
Symbols
spiral arms · hurricane · cemí
Lore
Ramón Pané’s colonial account names Guabancex with Guataubá, who summons wind and thunder, and Coatrisquie, who gathers floodwaters. A famous ceramic zemí with curved limbs has often been read as her spiraling storm body, although archaeological interpretation requires caution. …
Taíno belief, recorded by Ramón Pané (1490s)
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Guanyin
China
She Who Hears the Cries of the World
Domains
CompassionMercyRescueHealingRefuge for the desperate
Symbols
Willow branch · Vase of pure dew · White robe · Lotus · Thousand arms
Lore
The vow that defines her is a refusal: standing at the threshold of nirvana, she turned back and said she would not go while anyone was still suffering. Her mercy is not soft-focus. …
China from roughly the Tang dynasty to the present, across East Asia
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Hainuwele
Wemale / Seram, Indonesia
Coconut Branch Maiden
Domains
plantsgiftssacrificeorigins
Symbols
coconut palm · yams · gifts
Lore
During the nine-night Maro dance, Hainuwele distributes valuables in a way that unsettles the dancers; they kill and bury her. Ameta finds her body, divides it and plants the pieces, from which staple tubers emerge. …
Wemale oral tradition, recorded early 20th century
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Hal Anası
Azerbaijani Turkic Folklore
Spirit at the Childbirth Threshold
Domains
childbirththresholdsprotection
Symbols
red thread · doorway · iron
Lore
Her warning centers the vulnerability of birth and the social duty to surround new parents with care rather than isolation.
Azerbaijan and wider Turkic-speaking regions — living and historical folklore
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Ḫannaḫanna
Hittite Anatolia
Grandmother of Counsel and the Bee
Domains
motherhoodfertilitycounselrestored order
Symbols
bee · grain · hearth · maternal veil
Lore
The smallest messenger succeeds where greater powers fail, making her grandmother wisdom practical, observant and unexpectedly bold.
Hittite Anatolia — 2nd millennium BCE
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Haŋwí
Lakota
The Moon, Companion of the Sun
Domains
MoonNight travelDignity after shameTime-keepingCompanionship
Symbols
Crescent moon · Night sky · Quilled star · Buffalo robe · Morning star
Lore
Her withdrawal is not defeat but self-possession: she takes her own domain and rules it. She marks the months and lights the traveller who moves after dark.
Northern Plains; living Lakota tradition
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Hārītī
Nepalese Buddhist
Guardian Mother of Children
Domains
childrenfertilitytransformation
Symbols
pomegranate · child · alms bowl
Lore
In Nepal she is honored within Newar Buddhist settings as a guardian of children and families. Her story insists that harmful appetite can be educated into care.
South Asian and Newar Buddhist tradition — ancient origins, living devotion in Nepal
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Haurvatat
Iranian / Zoroastrian
Wholeness of the Waters
Domains
wholenesswaterhealth
Symbols
spring · silver bowl · six-petal flower
Lore
Together water and plant life sustain creation. Haurvatat teaches completeness as healthy relation among parts, not flawlessness of an isolated self.
Ancient Iran to living Zoroastrian tradition — Avestan and later texts
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Hekate
Greek / Anatolian
Lady of the Crossroads, Torchbearer
Domains
CrossroadsWitchcraftThresholdsThe moonGuidance in the dark
Symbols
Twin torches · Keys · Black dog · Crescent moon · Three-way junction
Lore
Households left her a supper at the crossroads each new moon, food that the poor could take. She holds keys because she governs doorways: not the room you are leaving or entering, but the threshold itself, and she is the only one willing to stand there while you decide.
Archaic Greece and Caria, c. 700 BCE onward
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Hel
Norse
Keeper of the Quiet Hall
Domains
Death by age and sicknessRestImpartial hospitalityBoundariesThe unglamorous end
Symbols
Gate · Hall and set table · Hound · Tree roots · Half-light
Lore
When the gods begged for Baldr back she agreed on one condition: every single thing in the world must weep for him. One giantess refused, and Baldr stayed. …
Scandinavia, Viking Age
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Ḫepat
Hurrian and Anatolian
Queen of Heaven
Domains
heavenqueenshipdivine order
Symbols
lion · sun rosette · mountain shrine
Lore
At Yazılıkaya she leads a procession of goddesses while standing upon a lion. Her presence represents partnership that does not diminish independent rank.
Hurrian kingdoms and Hittite Anatolia, c. 1500–1200 BCE
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Hera
Ancient Greece
Queen of Heaven, Keeper of the Vow
Domains
MarriageSovereigntyWomen's lifecyclesOathsLegitimate rule
Symbols
Peacock · Diadem · Pomegranate · Cow · Lily
Lore
Every year she bathed in a spring and was made a maiden again. Her anger in the myths is the anger of a sovereign whose covenant has been broken, not a nagging one: she holds the standard nobody else will.
Greece, from Mycenaean cult through the Roman period
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Hestia
Greece
First and Last of the Hearth Flame
Domains
The hearthHomeSanctuary and asylumSacrificial fireConstancy
Symbols
Living flame · Kettle and hearth · Veil · Circle of the household · First and last libation
Lore
Colonists carried embers from their mother city's hearth to light the new one, so Hestia is literally how a Greek city became itself somewhere else. She has almost no myths and almost no temples — because she is in every house, and a stranger who reached the hearth could not lawfully be turned out.
Greek world, Archaic through Hellenistic period (c. 800–100 BCE)
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Hi'iaka
Hawaiian
Hi'iakaikapoliopele, Dancer of the Forests
Domains
HulaHealingForestsChantLoyal courage
Symbols
Lehua blossom · Ferns · Pāʻū skirt · Chant and drum · New growth on lava
Lore
Her epic is the longest narrative in Hawaiian tradition, and it is about loyalty tested past its limit. She kept the promise, walked the whole island chain, and then refused to be destroyed by the sister she served. …
Hawaiian archipelago; oral epic tradition, still danced
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Hikuleʻo
Tonga
Keeper of Pulotu
Domains
underworldancestrythresholds
Symbols
banyan roots · fruit bat · western sea
Lore
As a guardian of the boundary between living and ancestral worlds, Hikuleʻo represents continuity, consequence and the obligations carried across generations.
Tonga — pre-Christian Polynesian religion preserved in oral record
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Hina
Polynesian
Woman in the Moon
Domains
MoonTapa makingVoyagingWomen's craftsTides
Symbols
Moon phases · Tapa beater · Banyan bark · Tiare flower · Canoe
Lore
She is the goddess who left. Her myth is not punishment or abduction: she chose the moon over a household that would not stop asking. …
Ancestral Polynesia; carried across the Pacific by voyaging traditions
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Hinglaj Mata
Pakistan / Sindh-Balochistan
Nani of the Desert Cave
Domains
Sacred power (shakti)PilgrimageDesert survivalProtectionVows
Symbols
Cave shrine · Red veil and chunri · Mud volcano · Hingol river · Coconut offering
Lore
Pilgrims traditionally walk, tie red cloth, and bathe in the Hingol before entering the cave; on the way they pass mud volcanoes treated as part of the rite. She is a goddess of vows kept under difficulty: the journey is deliberately hard, and completing it is the offering.
Balochistan and Sindh (Pakistan) — Hindu shakta tradition with Muslim veneration, living pilgrimage
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Holda
Germany / Germanic
Frau Holle, Keeper of the Winter House
Domains
WinterSpinning and diligenceHousehold orderSnowThe dead
Symbols
Spindle and distaff · Feather bed · Elder tree · Well · Flax
Lore
Her season is the twelve nights of midwinter, when spinning must stop and the wheel rests. She rides with the dead through the storm and checks the linen cupboards of the living. …
German-speaking Central Europe; folklore recorded from the medieval period onward
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Huldra
Norwegian
Hidden Lady of the Forest
Domains
forestenchantmentherdinghonesty
Symbols
pine forest · cow's tail · lur horn
Lore
Norwegian tales place the huldra at forest margins and summer farms, where she may help with cattle or punish mockery and broken promises. Her beautiful front and animal tail reveal that attraction can conceal otherness rather than evil. …
Norwegian folklore
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Iara
Brazil / Amazonian
Mother of Waters, Song of the River Bend
Domains
Rivers and lakesEnchantmentBeautyDepths and the unconsciousWarning
Symbols
Green river water · Long black hair · Water lily (vitória-régia) · Fish tail · Evening song
Lore
Older Tupi tellings make her a warrior daughter drowned by her brothers and taken up by the river, so her enchantment carries an old injury. Riverside communities still treat the dusk hour and the still bend as hers: some water is not for entering, and some beauty is a boundary rather than an invitation.
Amazon basin, Brazil — Indigenous Tupi tradition carried into Brazilian folklore, living tellings
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Ifri
Amazigh / Algerian
Lady of the Sheltering Cave
Domains
protectionsheltertradecaves
Symbols
cave · layered silver necklaces · headwrap · mountain · stone
Lore
Modern accounts often connect Ifri with caves, protection and the ancient name of Africa, but the linguistic and divine identifications remain disputed. Roman-era images of Dea Africa—with elephant headdress, grain and lion—belong to a related yet not automatically identical tradition. …
Ancient North Africa; associated with Roman-era Africa
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Ileana Cosânzeana
Romanian Folklore
Radiant Lady of the Golden Garden
Domains
radianceresourcefulnessmidsummersovereign choice
Symbols
golden apple · flower crown · sun · enchanted garden
Lore
Beneath rescue-story patterns, she repeatedly carries the bright knowledge, test or choice that determines whether the seeker is worthy.
Romanian oral tradition — widely collected in the 19th century
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Inanna
Sumerian / Mesopotamian
Queen of Heaven, Lady of the Morning Star
Domains
LoveWarVenusSovereigntyDescent and return
Symbols
Eight-pointed star · Lion · Reed bundle · Rosette · Morning and evening star
Lore
Her defining myth is the descent: she goes down to the underworld to her sister Ereshkigal, and at each of seven gates surrenders a garment, a jewel, a piece of her authority, arriving naked and dying there. She returns — but only because someone else takes her place. …
Sumer and Akkad, c. 4000–1750 BCE
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Ishtar
Mesopotamian (Akkadian / Babylonian)
Queen of Heaven, Lady of Love and Battle
Domains
LoveWarDesireJusticeThe morning and evening star
Symbols
Eight-pointed star · Lion · Horned crown · Venus · Reed bundle
Lore
She descended to the underworld, passing seven gates and surrendering an ornament at each until she stood stripped and was killed — then rose. Her myth is the clearest statement in the ancient world that desire and death share a road.
Mesopotamia, c. 2300 BCE through the Neo-Babylonian period
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Isis
Ancient Egypt
She of Ten Thousand Names
Domains
Magic and true namesHealingMotherhoodRites of the deadSailors
Symbols
Throne glyph · Knot of Isis (tyet) · Kite / falcon wings · Sun disc and horns · Sycamore milk
Lore
Egyptian texts call her weret-hekau, great of magic, because she won her power by learning a hidden name rather than inheriting it: she tricked the sun god Ra into speaking his own, and became a healer no poison could refuse. Her temple at Philae was the last working Egyptian sanctuary, still receiving offerings into the sixth century CE, and her spring Navigium Isidis blessed the reopening of the sea lanes across the whole Roman world.
Nile Valley, Old Kingdom (c. 2600 BCE) through the Roman Mediterranean (c. 400 CE)
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Itiba Cahubaba
Taíno / Puerto Rico
Ancient Bleeding Mother
Domains
birthoriginssacrificeearth
Symbols
four stars · cassava · earth
Lore
The four sons born from Itiba Cahubaba include Deminán Caracaracol. In Pané’s account they steal a gourd belonging to Yaya; when it breaks, the waters and fish pour out to form the sea. …
Taíno belief, recorded by Ramón Pané
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Ix Chebel Yax
Maya / Belize
Lady of the Painted Thread
Domains
weavingpaintingcraftage
Symbols
loom · brush · spindle
Lore
She is often placed within traditions surrounding Ix Chel and the arts taught to women, especially weaving and the making of patterned cloth. Her creative power lies in ordered lines of thread and pigment: knowledge passes through practiced hands, and a finished textile can carry ancestry, place and social identity without reducing Maya weaving to decoration alone.
Classic and Postclassic Maya
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Ix Chel
Maya / Mesoamerica
Lady Rainbow of the Moon and Loom
Domains
The moonWeavingMedicineChildbirthWater and rain
Symbols
Backstrap loom · Serpent headdress · Jade ear flares · Crescent moon · Rabbit · Overturned water jar
Lore
Women crossed open sea by canoe to her shrine on Cozumel to ask for safe birth and healthy children — one of the best-documented pilgrimages in the pre-Columbian Americas. The codices show her in two aspects, young weaver and fanged elder pouring out a water jar, so Maya thought held growth and destruction inside a single lunar cycle instead of splitting them.
Maya lowlands, Classic and Postclassic periods (c. 250–1550 CE) into living Maya communities
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Izanami
Japanese
She Who Invites, Ruler of Yomi
Domains
CreationDeathMarriageGriefNecessary separation
Symbols
Jewelled spear · Islands · Boulder at the cave mouth · Plum branch · Comb-tooth torch
Lore
Izanagi followed her and lit a torch to see her, breaking his promise; horrified by what death had made of her, he fled and sealed the passage with a boulder. She said she would take a thousand lives a day; he said he would cause fifteen hundred births. …
Japan, Kojiki compiled 712 CE; older oral tradition
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Jaci
Tupi-Guarani / Brazilian
Moon Mother of the Night
Domains
moonnightplantsreproduction
Symbols
crescent moon · night flowers · river light
Lore
One story says the Vitória-régia water lily was born when a young woman longing for Jaci's light reached for her reflection in the river.
Tupi-Guarani oral tradition, recorded from colonial times onward
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Kali
Hindu / South Asian
She Who Is Time, the Mother of Endings
Domains
TimeDestruction of illusionLiberationFierce loveEndings
Symbols
Garland of skulls · Sword · Outstretched tongue · Flames · Dark night
Lore
The famous image of her standing on Shiva is read by devotees as the moment her rage meets pure stillness and stops. Her skull garland is often counted as the letters of the alphabet: she wears language itself, the whole system of names, and can take it off.
India, c. 6th century CE onward; living tradition
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Kamrusepa
Hittite–Luwian Anatolia
Mistress of Healing and Purification
Domains
healingpurificationritual knowledgerestoration
Symbols
spindle · wool · herbs · honey
Lore
Her power is procedural rather than spectacular: harm is transferred, untangled and released through exact acts of restoration.
Hittite and Luwian Anatolia — c. 17th–13th centuries BCE
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Kele
Tonga
Earth-Bearing Mother
Domains
earthfertilitycultivation
Symbols
dark soil · yam vine · woven basket
Lore
Her surviving associations point to ground, growth and the patient work by which island communities turn soil into sustenance.
Tonga — Polynesian oral tradition; attribution varies among sources
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Kianda
Mbundu / Angola
Spirit of Luanda's Waters
Domains
seafishingabundancerespect
Symbols
waves · fish · shells
Lore
Stories place Kianda in rocks, lagoons and the open Atlantic, where abundance depends upon respectful exchange. The annual Festa da Kianda in Luanda publicly celebrates this relationship with the sea, although particular ritual knowledge belongs to its practitioners. …
Mbundu belief, living coastal tradition
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Konohanasakuya-hime
Japan
Blossom Princess of Mount Fuji
Domains
Cherry blossomMount FujiVolcanoesChildbirthDelicate life
Symbols
Sakura branch · Mount Fuji · Fire · Sake · Mirror
Lore
When her husband doubted her child was his, she sealed herself in a birthing hut and set it on fire — if the child were not his, she said, it would burn. She and her sons walked out unharmed. …
Japan, recorded in the Kojiki (712 CE); enshrined at Fuji and worshipped today
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Kubaba
Anatolian / Carchemish
Queen of Carchemish
Domains
city guardianshiproyal authorityprosperity
Symbols
mirror · pomegranate · lion
Lore
Inscriptions and reliefs present her as a sovereign protector whose prosperity arises from civic order, abundance and the enduring identity of place.
Carchemish and Anatolia — 2nd to 1st millennium BCE
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La Cegua
Nicaraguan folklore
Night Rider's Warning
Domains
warningconsequencenightfidelity
Symbols
moon · road · horse skull
Lore
Versions across Nicaragua and neighboring countries differ: she may appear as a beautiful passenger, then reveal the face of a horse or skull to intoxicated, unfaithful or predatory men. The encounter terrifies rather than simply kills, turning the night road into a place of moral consequence. …
Central American colonial and modern folklore
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La Sirène
Haitian Vodou
Queen of the Sea
Domains
seamusicwealthdreams
Symbols
mirror · comb · trumpet
Lore
La Sirène is often linked with Agwe and with the mirror, comb and trumpet, joining beauty to music and the unknowable depth of the sea. Public stories say a person taken beneath her waters may return after a period of absence with artistic or spiritual gifts. …
Haitian Vodou, living tradition
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Lacipaea
Ancient Iberian / Lusitanian
Lady Known from Stone
Domains
placevowsmemory
Symbols
votive stone · spring · crescent
Lore
Rather than filling silence with false certainty, her card treats inscription, landscape and unanswered questions as worthy forms of presence.
Roman-period western Iberia — known through limited inscriptions
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Lada
Slavic
Lady of Spring and Concord
Domains
SpringLoveMarriageHarmonyRenewal
Symbols
Flower crown · Birch branch · Wheat · Cranes returning · Embroidered cloth
Lore
Her season is the moment the ice gives — the cranes coming back, the first green, the marriages arranged after winter. She stands for concord rather than passion: the harmony of a household, a village, two families deciding to get along. …
Slavic folk tradition, attested from medieval sources onward
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Lady of Amathous
Ancient Cyprus
Unnamed Presence of the Sanctuary
Domains
sanctuaryisland exchangesacred presence
Symbols
limestone votive · copper · lotus rosette
Lore
She holds space for the many sacred identities archaeology can glimpse but not securely name.
Ancient Amathous, Cyprus — Bronze and Iron Age evidence
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Laima
Latvian / Baltic
Weaver of Destiny
Domains
fatebirthmarriageluck
Symbols
linden tree · woven belt · cuckoo
Lore
Latvian dainas place Laima at birth, where she sets a child’s portion of fortune, and beside brides as they cross into married life. She walks hills and thresholds, sometimes alongside Dēkla and Kārta in later classifications of fate figures. …
Baltic religion, preserved in Latvian dainas
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Lakshmi
India / Hindu
Lotus-Born Giver of Fortune
Domains
AbundanceBeauty and grace (śrī)Prosperity of the householdGenerosityGood fortune
Symbols
Lotus · Falling gold coins · Pair of elephants · Diwali oil lamps · Open doorway
Lore
She is called Chanchala, the moving one, because wealth that stops circulating stops being hers. At Diwali doors and windows are opened and lamps set on thresholds specifically so she can enter and pass through; her elder sister Alakshmi, misfortune, is the one who settles in where a house is neglected, ungenerous or unclean.
South Asia, Vedic hymns (c. 1000 BCE) through unbroken living worship
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Leizu
Chinese Cultural Tradition
Lady Who Taught Silk
Domains
silkcraftinnovation
Symbols
silkworm · mulberry leaf · shuttle
Lore
Her legend turns close observation of a small creature into an art that reshaped clothing, diplomacy and trade across continents.
China — legendary antiquity, recorded in later historical and ritual tradition
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Leto
Lycian / Turkey
Mother of the Letoon
Domains
motherhoodperseverancerefugeprotection
Symbols
palm tree · veil · wolves
Lore
Greek myth says jealous Hera prevents Leto from giving birth on firm land until Delos receives her; beneath a palm she bears Artemis and Apollo. A Lycian story tells how hostile herders muddy a spring, so she turns them into frogs, while wolves guide her to the river Xanthos. …
Lycian sanctuary of the Letoon, from 7th century BCE
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Liberian Earth Mother
Liberian Regional Traditions
Personification of the Sustaining Ground
Domains
earthricesustenance
Symbols
rice stalk · kola nut · forest soil
Lore
She invites attention to rice growers, forests, waters and the many local traditions that should never be collapsed into one invented mythology.
Liberia — contemporary oracle personification informed by regional land traditions
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Linda
Estonian
Mother of Kalevipoeg
Domains
griefendurancehomefounding
Symbols
boulder · hill · tears lake
Lore
After her husband Kalev dies, Linda carries stones to build his burial mound; the stones become Toompea hill, the high ground at Tallinn’s center. Exhausted by mourning, she weeps until her tears form Lake Ülemiste. …
Estonian epic Kalevipoeg (1850s, from folk song)
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Louhi
Finnish–Karelian Epic Tradition
Matriarch of Pohjola
Domains
sovereigntysorcerystrategythe northern realm
Symbols
Sampo · eagle · northern lights · iron key
Lore
She sets demanding terms, commands transformations and contests the ownership of the Sampo, embodying the northern realm’s independent power.
Finnish and Karelian oral poetry — compiled in the Kalevala in 1835 and 1849
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Maaema
Estonian
Earth Mother
Domains
earthharvestnourishmentcare
Symbols
rye · birch · soil
Lore
Her surviving tradition is carried in reciprocal acts: people ask pardon before cutting new ground, receive food from the soil, and return the first share of that food. Instead of a single dramatic myth, Maaema embodies an ethic in which farming is a relationship and the land is never merely inert property.
Estonian folk belief
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Mãe d'Água
Cape Verdean
Mother of the Waters
Domains
sealongingmigrationsong
Symbols
panu di terra cloth · waves · morna song
Lore
Cape Verdean stories of female water beings belong to a wider Lusophone Atlantic family of Mãe d’Água and mermaid traditions, reshaped by island life rather than inherited unchanged. In a society formed by fishing, drought and migration, the ocean is livelihood, distance and return at once; her mythology gathers those feelings into a listening presence beneath the waves.
Cape Verdean and Lusophone folk belief
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Mae Khongkha
Thai Water Tradition
Revered Mother of Waters
Domains
riversgratitudecleansing
Symbols
river wave · lotus · floating lamp
Lore
Public water festivals often carry gratitude and apology for using and polluting waterways. Reverence becomes meaningful through changed behavior.
Thailand — living regional tradition related to South Asian Ganga devotion
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Mae Phosop
Thai Folk and Agricultural Tradition
Mother of Rice
Domains
ricenourishmentagriculture
Symbols
rice sheaf · paddy water · golden grain
Lore
Rice is treated as living presence rather than commodity alone. Waste, disrespect and careless harvesting become failures of relationship with the being who feeds everyone.
Thailand — living rice-growing traditions with regional variation
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Mama Qucha
Andean / Bolivian
Mother of Lakes and the Sea
Domains
waterlakesfishsustenance
Symbols
totora reeds · fish · lake waves · shell
Lore
Colonial chroniclers describe coastal communities honoring Mama Qucha so that the sea would remain calm and yield fish. In broader Andean thought, springs, rivers, lakes and ocean participate in a circulating sacred landscape rather than isolated bodies. …
Precolonial Andes; recorded in 16th–17th-century chronicles
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Mama Quilla
Inca / South America
Mother Moon, Guardian of Women
Domains
MoonTime and calendarMarriageWomen's cyclesProtection at night
Symbols
Silver crescent · Moon phases · Silver disc face · Festival calendar
Lore
Her silver face was said to weep silver tears. She is the counter-rhythm to the sun: not constant, but reliably cyclical, and the entire ritual year was scheduled by her. …
Inca empire, c. 1400–1533 CE, Cusco and the Andes
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Maman Brigitte
Haitian Vodou
Guardian of the Cemetery
Domains
deathjusticehealingprotection
Symbols
rooster · stones · purple
Lore
Maman Brigitte is commonly said to guard the first woman’s grave in a cemetery and to defend the dead and those denied justice. Public descriptions emphasize her sharp speech, laughter and willingness to confront wrongdoing, qualities shared within the Gede family’s refusal to make death polite. …
Haitian Vodou, living tradition
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Mami Wata
West and Central Africa
Mother Water, the Serpent Bearer
Domains
WaterWealth and riskBeautyHealingForeign exchange
Symbols
Serpent · Mirror · Comb · Cowries · Perfume and imported goods
Lore
She absorbed the modern world rather than resisting it: European prints, imported mirrors, sunglasses, banknotes. That is her real signature. …
West and Central African coasts and rivers; documented from the colonial era, rooted earlier, thriving today
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Mami Wata
Liberian Coastal Traditions
Radiant Spirit of Water and Exchange
Domains
waterwealthtransformation
Symbols
mirror · comb · serpent
Lore
Her beauty and wealth are double-edged: gifts create obligations, surfaces conceal depths, and exchange tests the integrity of desire.
West and Central Africa and Atlantic worlds — modern, living and regionally diverse traditions
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Manasa
Bengali / Bangladesh
Queen of Serpents
Domains
serpentsprotectionhealingfertility
Symbols
cobra · lotus · clay pot
Lore
In the Manasamangal cycle, the merchant Chand refuses Manasa the worship she seeks. After his son Lakhindar dies from a snakebite, the bride Behula journeys with the body and wins divine attention through extraordinary resolve. …
Medieval Bengal (Manasamangal Kavya) to present
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Mari
Basque Country / Spain
Lady of the Caves and the Weather
Domains
WeatherCaves and mountainsTruth-tellingLivestockJustice
Symbols
Golden comb · Ram · Storm cloud · Cave mouth · Lauburu cross
Lore
Her etiquette is precise — never sit in her presence, never turn your back leaving, and above all never lie to her, because she already knows. She is not a moral abstraction but a landlady of the landscape who runs her territory on plain honesty. …
Basque Country of northern Spain; folk belief documented into the twentieth century
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Mazu
Chinese
Empress of Heaven, Guardian of Sailors
Domains
The seaRescueTravelCommunityWatchfulness
Symbols
Fishing boat · Lantern · Red robe · Phoenix crown · Waves
Lore
Two demon generals she defeated — Thousand-Mile Eyes and With-the-Wind Ears — became her attendants: her power is seeing and hearing trouble far off. Her pilgrimages still draw millions, carried in palanquins along routes fishing families have walked for centuries.
China from the 10th century CE; living tradition across the Chinese diaspora
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Mbaba Mwana Waresa
Zulu / Southern African
Lady Rainbow, Brewer of the First Beer
Domains
RainRainbowsHarvestBrewingJoy and discernment
Symbols
Rainbow arc · Rain · Sorghum grain · Beer gourd · Grass hut in the sky
Lore
Her famous story is a test. Searching for a husband among mortals, she disguised herself as an ugly woman while a beautiful double stood beside her; the herdsman Thandiwe chose the plain woman, saying he had heard her voice and wanted her, not the picture. …
Zulu oral tradition, Southern Africa
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Mbumba
Kongo Regional Traditions
Rainbow Serpent of First Waters
Domains
creationrainbowwaters
Symbols
rainbow serpent · river · fourfold circle
Lore
The rainbow body joins sky, forest and river. Creation is presented as relationship among powers rather than a single fixed genealogy.
Lower Congo region — varied oral traditions recorded in the modern period
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Metresilí
Dominican Vodou
Lady of Grace and Beauty
Domains
beautyromancerefinementself-worth
Symbols
roses · perfume · gold
Lore
Metresilí is associated in public devotion with pink and white, roses, perfume, jewelry and refined manners. Her closeness to Ezili Freda reflects the deep exchange between Haitian and Dominican sacred traditions while retaining a Dominican devotional identity. …
Dominican 21 Divisiones tradition
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Mielikki
Finnish–Karelian
Mistress of the Forest
Domains
forestswild animalshunting luckreciprocity
Symbols
evergreen · bear · golden key · moss
Lore
Songs ask her to open the forest storehouse, making abundance conditional on permission, restraint and respectful exchange.
Pre-Christian Finnish-Karelian oral tradition — recorded in 19th-century folk poetry
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Mokosh
Slavic / Russian
Mother Moist Earth
Domains
Earth and moistureSpinning and weavingWomen's workFertilityFate
Symbols
Spindle and flax · Sheared wool · Friday · Wet soil · Embroidered towels
Lore
She walks into houses at night to check the spinning. Left undone or left messy, she tangles it; done well, she blesses the flock. …
Pre-Christian Kievan Rus'; folk practice into the 19th century
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Moura Encantada
Portuguese / Azorean
Enchanted Guardian of Springs
Domains
enchantmentspringstreasurerelease
Symbols
golden comb · spring · hydrangeas
Lore
Mouras encantadas appear throughout Portuguese tradition at springs, caves, old ruins and boundary places, often on the feast of São João. They comb long hair with golden combs, guard treasure and ask a passerby to perform a difficult act that will release them. …
Portuguese and Azorean folklore
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Mumbi
Kikuyu / Kenya
Mother of the Nine Clans
Domains
motherhoodlineagecreationbelonging
Symbols
mugumo fig tree · Mount Kenya · nine daughters
Lore
At Mũkũrũ wa Nyagathanga, the ancestral home beneath Mount Kenya, Gikuyu and Mumbi raise daughters whose names anchor the major Kikuyu clans. In widely told versions, husbands are provided after sacrifice beneath a sacred mugumo fig. …
Kikuyu origin tradition
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Muu
Guna / Panamanian
Grandmother Who Shapes Each Child
Domains
birthcreation of the bodygrandmothersfertility
Symbols
mola pattern · gold nose ring · sea · cradle
Lore
Public accounts describe Muu shaping the developing child and governing a realm approached in difficult birth through specialist curing chants. The journey is mapped through richly named layers of the cosmos, but the chants are trained knowledge and are not reproduced here. …
Living Guna oral tradition, documented in ethnographic accounts
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Nabia
Ancient Iberian / Lusitanian
Lady of Rivers and Valleys
Domains
riversvalleyssovereignty
Symbols
spring · stone inscription · torc
Lore
Her name survives in river names and votive stones. She represents sacred landscape as locally known rather than abstractly owned.
Lusitania and Gallaecia, western Iberia — Iron Age through Roman period
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Nafanua
Samoa
Warrior Guardian of Falealupo
Domains
warfareprotectionleadership
Symbols
pandanus staff · shark · western horizon
Lore
Her stories differ between islands and families, but consistently join formidable strength to service of community rather than conquest for its own sake.
Samoa — chiefly oral tradition, remembered into the modern era
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Nana
Sogdian / Uzbekistan
Four-Armed Lady on the Lion
Domains
sovereigntythe sun and moonprotectioncities
Symbols
lion · sun and moon · sceptre
Lore
Nana’s cult traveled an extraordinary route from Mesopotamian Inanna-Ishtar traditions into Iran and Central Asia, changing as it moved. Sogdian murals from Panjikent show a richly dressed, four-armed goddess on a lion, while documents and personal names attest her prestige. …
Sogdiana (Samarkand, Bukhara), c. 5th–8th centuries CE
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Nana
Georgian
She of the Lullaby
Domains
healingcomfortchildhoodsleep
Symbols
violets · roses · cradle
Lore
In the song tradition, healing arrives through repetition, flowers and the intimate presence of a caring voice rather than through a heroic contest. Nana’s mythology is therefore not preserved as a long narrative; it survives, if the scholarly connection is sound, as ritual poetry in which tenderness itself calls health back into the room.
Pre-Christian Georgian belief, echoed in lullabies
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Nana Buluku
Fon / Dahomey, West African
The Grandmother Who Made and Withdrew
Domains
CreationAncestryDelegationOriginsWise withdrawal
Symbols
Calabash · Paired sun and moon · Clay pots · Cowries · Old cloth
Lore
Her withdrawal is not neglect but the completion of the job. Everything after her is delegated authority, which is why Vodun has so many active spirits and one very quiet source. …
Dahomey (Benin) and the African diaspora; living tradition
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Nang Kwak
Thai Popular Devotion
Welcoming Lady of Prosperity
Domains
tradeprosperitywelcome
Symbols
beckoning hand · market basket · flower garland
Lore
Stories link her blessing to generosity, merit and ethical livelihood. Her raised hand is an invitation: prosperity depends on relationship and welcome.
Thailand — modern popular Buddhist and folk devotion with older narrative roots
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Ninhursag
Sumerian / Ancient Iraq
Lady of the Sacred Mountain
Domains
birthmountainscreation
Symbols
mountain · omega emblem · reed
Lore
In the myth of Enki and Ninhursag, injury and healing unfold through wordplay and newly generated beings, joining creation to repair.
Sumer, ancient southern Iraq — 3rd to 2nd millennium BCE
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Nisaba
Sumerian / Ancient Iraq
Lady of Grain and the Reed Stylus
Domains
writinggrainaccounting
Symbols
reed stylus · clay tablet · barley
Lore
Before writing was abstract literature, it counted grain and obligations. Nisaba joins imagination to accuracy: what feeds a city must be named, measured and remembered.
Sumer, southern Iraq — 3rd to early 2nd millennium BCE
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Nokomis
Anishinaabe (Ojibwe)
Grandmother Moon
Domains
MoonWaterWomen's cyclesTeachingGrandmotherly care
Symbols
Full moon · Copper vessel of water · Cedar · Berries · Thirteen moons
Lore
She is addressed as a relative, not a symbol — grandmother, greeted with gratitude for the water she governs. Her light is not the sun's blaze but the steady lamp that lets you find your way home at night.
Great Lakes region; living Anishinaabe tradition
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Nomkhubulwane
South Africa / Zulu
Princess of the Rain and Green Grain
Domains
RainFertility of the landHarvestGirlhood and initiationProvision
Symbols
Rain clouds · Green sorghum and maize · Beaded isicholo · Rainbow · First-fruit offering
Lore
She is said to appear as a rainbow, or as mist over green fields, and she is offended by cruelty and by neglected land more than by any ritual mistake. Her ceremonies are led by girls and unmarried women, making her one of the few great deities whose rites are placed deliberately in young women's hands.
KwaZulu-Natal, southern Africa — long-standing oral tradition, still honoured in annual ceremonies
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Nüwa
Chinese
She Who Repaired the Sky
Domains
CreationRepairMarriageCraftOrder restored
Symbols
Compass · Five coloured stones · Yellow clay · Serpent tail · Turtle legs
Lore
When the pillar of heaven broke and the sky cracked, flooding and burning the world, she smelted five-coloured stones to patch it and cut the legs from a great turtle to prop the corners. Her signature act is not creation but repair: mending a broken world with whatever was to hand, and it held.
China, mythic antiquity; attested from the Warring States period
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Nyabingi
Kiga–Haya / Tanzanian Great Lakes
She Who Possesses Many Things
Domains
fertilityjusticeresistanceabundance
Symbols
bark cloth · banana grove · lake
Lore
Her name is often translated as 'she who possesses many things' — abundance that no ruler could claim.
Great Lakes region (NW Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda), documented 18th–20th centuries
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Nyai Roro Kidul
Javanese / Sundanese, Indonesia
Queen of the Southern Sea
Domains
oceansovereigntypowerrespect
Symbols
green cloth · ocean waves · crown
Lore
Court traditions describe a continuing alliance between the sea queen and rulers of Mataram, especially Panembahan Senapati, linking oceanic power to royal legitimacy. Stories differ about her origins and names. …
Javanese folk belief, courtly tradition
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Nyx
Ancient Greece
Night Herself, Elder of the Gods
Domains
NightSleepDreamsMysteryFate's boundaries
Symbols
Black wings · Stars · Poppy · Veil · Owl
Lore
In the Orphic hymns she is not evil but generative: the cosmos hatches from an egg laid in her darkness. What cannot be seen is not therefore absent; it is gestating.
Greece, primordial and Orphic tradition
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Nzambici
Kongo Cosmology
Mother of Earth and Humanity
Domains
creationearthancestry
Symbols
earth mound · baobab · fourfold circle
Lore
She embodies earth as an originating relationship: human life rises from ground, depends on it and returns to ancestral continuity through it.
Kongo cultural region — cosmological traditions recorded across Central Africa
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Nzuzu
Shona / Zimbabwean
Water Spirits of the Deep Pools
Domains
waterhealing giftsinitiationmystery
Symbols
deep pool · reeds · fish · rainbow
Lore
A person taken by nzuzu may be understood not as dead but as undergoing instruction below the water. Family members are warned not to mourn, because grief can prevent the return; those who emerge may carry a calling to heal or mediate with spirits. …
Living Shona tradition
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Obba
Lucumí / Cuban Santería
Orisha of the River and Faithful Love
Domains
loyaltymarriageriversknowledge
Symbols
river · book · wheel of fortune · rose
Lore
A famous tale tells how she was misled into a painful sacrifice for love — a story of devotion and of learning to value oneself.
Yoruba origins; living Cuban Lucumí practice
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Olowaili
Guna / Panamanian
The Morning Star Sister
Domains
the morning stardawnkinshipguidance
Symbols
Venus · dawn sky · mola geometry
Lore
Olowaili belongs to Guna narratives of celestial kinship in which stars and planets are not distant objects but relations within a storied cosmos. As the morning star, she marks the threshold when darkness begins to release the coming day. …
Living Guna oral tradition
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Omek Tannou
Tunisian Folk Tradition
Mother of the Rain Doll
Domains
raincommunityagriculture
Symbols
clay doll · water bowl · wheat
Lore
Children and neighbors historically joined in songs and water offerings, making her image a vessel for collective hope when fields were dry.
Tunisia — seasonal folk practice documented in recent centuries
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Orehu
Lokono (Arawak) / Guyana
Healing Water Mother
Domains
healingwaterprotectionknowledge
Symbols
calabash · river · water lilies
Lore
Stories remember Orehu emerging from the water to teach remedies and protective knowledge to human beings. Her river is not simply scenery but a boundary between kinds of wisdom: healing is received through relationship with a more-than-human world, then carried back for the well-being of the community.
Lokono tradition, recorded 19th century
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Oshun
Yorubaland / West Africa
Sweet Water, Owner of Honey
Domains
Fresh waterLove and pleasureFertilityDiplomacyDivination and wealth
Symbols
River water · Honey · Brass and gold · Cowrie shells · Peacock and vulture · Mirror and fan
Lore
In one telling the orishas withheld rain until the earth cracked; only Oshun, transformed into a peacock and scorched bare by the sun, reached Olodumare and brought the water back — beauty as endurance, not decoration. The annual Osun-Osogbo festival still carries offerings to her river in Nigeria, and her grove is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Yorubaland (Nigeria) and the Atlantic diaspora — Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, the US — living tradition
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Ostara
Germany / Germanic
Lady of the Rising Light
Domains
DawnSpringFertilityBeginningsReturning light
Symbols
Egg · Hare · First green shoots · Sunrise · Bare feet on cold ground
Lore
Her thinness in the record makes her honest about beginnings. Early spring is not warm; it is mud, cold mornings and a small unreasonable green. …
Germanic Europe; attested via the name of the spring month and later reconstruction
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Ot-Ana
Kazakh / Tengrist
Mother of the Hearth Fire
Domains
firehearthfamilypurification
Symbols
hearth fire · yurt · felt carpet
Lore
Across Turkic and Inner Asian traditions, hearth fire is treated as a living purifier and witness to family continuity. Customs may include feeding flame with fat, avoiding pollution of the fire, and introducing a bride to the new household hearth. …
Turkic-Tengrist belief; Kazakh folk custom
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Oya
Yoruba / West African
Wind of Change, Keeper of the Cemetery Gate
Domains
StormsChangeThe marketplaceThe deadFierce truth
Symbols
Whirlwind · Lightning · Buffalo horns · Machete · Nine cowries
Lore
She is the only orisha said to face the dead without fear, and her number is nine. Her storms are not senseless: the wind clears the ground so something can be built. …
Yorubaland (Nigeria) and the African diaspora; living tradition
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Pachamama
Andes / South America
World Mother, Who Must Be Fed First
Domains
EarthHarvestReciprocityMountainsFertility of soil
Symbols
Coca leaves · Poured chicha · Woven manta · Potatoes · Mountain peaks
Lore
She can and does withhold. Earthquakes, failed harvests and illness get read as an account falling out of balance, and the remedy is not apology but payment — a proper offering, buried or burned. …
Andean South America, pre-Inca through the present; observed daily in Peru, Bolivia and beyond
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Palden Lhamo
Tibetan Buddhist
Glorious Protective Mother
Domains
protectionobstaclesfierce compassion
Symbols
mule · flame · mountain storm
Lore
Her wrath is understood as awakened activity directed against obstacles and delusion, not uncontrolled anger. Fierceness is accountable to compassion.
Tibetan Buddhist tradition — prominent from the medieval period into living practice
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Papatūānuku
Māori / Polynesian
Earth Mother, She on Whom All Rests
Domains
EarthFertilityAncestryGriefGuardianship of land
Symbols
Soil and stone · Pounamu · Ferns and koru · Woven flax · Mist
Lore
Her separation myth is the origin of both light and longing. Māori tradition treats her not as metaphor but as ancestor: land is kin, and kaitiakitanga — guardianship — is a family obligation rather than a policy. …
Aotearoa New Zealand; living tradition
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Pattini
Sri Lankan Buddhist and Hindu
Guardian of Justice and Healing
Domains
chastityjusticehealing
Symbols
anklet · neem leaves · white flower
Lore
In Sri Lankan practice she is invoked for healing, fertility and protection. Her power transforms private injury into public moral reckoning.
Sri Lanka — medieval to living Buddhist and Hindu devotion, related to South Indian Kannaki
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Pele
Hawai'i
She Who Shapes the Sacred Land
Domains
Volcanic fireLand-makingPassion and rivalryBoundariesTransformation
Symbols
ʻŌhiʻa lehua blossom · Lava and pumice · Halemaʻumaʻu crater · Long unbound hair · ʻōhelo berries
Lore
Her voyage from Kahiki and her long conflict with her elder sister Nāmaka o Kahaʻi, goddess of the sea, are chanted as genealogy rather than fable — the shoreline is where the two of them still meet. Offerings of ʻōhelo berries are given at the crater rim, and Hawaiians hold that what she takes she is also making: every new acre of the island is hers.
Hawai'i, carried from Kahiki in Polynesian voyaging tradition — a living presence today
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Perchta
Austrian Alpine Folklore
Bright Lady of the Turning Year
Domains
midwinterspinninghousehold disciplinethresholds
Symbols
spindle · distaff · goose foot · Twelfth Night star
Lore
Her bright and frightening faces hold the old year’s accounting together with the wild uncertainty of the new.
Alpine German-speaking regions — medieval record through living winter custom
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Persephone
Greek
Kore and Queen, Bringer of Spring
Domains
SpringThe underworldInitiationCyclesSovereignty won
Symbols
Pomegranate · Narcissus · Wheat · Torch · Split seasons
Lore
The pomegranate seeds bind her to the underworld — but she is no longer Kore, the girl, when she comes back. She rules there. …
Greece, c. 7th century BCE onward
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Phra Mae Thorani
Thailand
Earth Mother Who Wrings Out the Flood
Domains
The earthWitness and testimonyWaterSteadfastnessProtection of the truthful
Symbols
Long wrung hair · Flood water · Lotus · Rice earth · Open palm
Lore
Her image marks countless Thai and Lao temples, often as a fountain — water still pouring from her hair. Devotees pour water on the ground for her before building, and she is invoked when someone must stand alone in a claim: the earth remembers what was actually done, whatever is being said about it.
Thailand, Laos and mainland Southeast Asia — Buddhist tradition, living devotion
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Pinga
Inuit Traditions
Guardian of the Hunt and Living Creatures
Domains
animalshunting ethicsfertility
Symbols
caribou · tundra grass · lamp flame
Lore
She reminds hunters that animals are persons within reciprocal relationships, not an endless resource. Respect and restraint keep the world generous.
Inuit Arctic — regional oral traditions, especially Caribou Inuit accounts
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Po Nagar
Cham Vietnam / Southeast Asia
Lady Mother of the Kingdom
Domains
Land and territoryAgricultureCraft and weavingRainSovereignty
Symbols
Brick temple towers · Lotus · Eaglewood · Loom · Rain clouds
Lore
Her stories are about founding: she creates the land, sets the crops, establishes the crafts, and mothers a dynasty. What is remarkable is her afterlife — a goddess of a conquered people who kept her altar because she was too useful and too loved to be evicted. …
Champa, central Vietnam, c. 8th century CE onward; her towers are still active shrines
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Prende
Albania
Lady of Dawn and Love
Domains
lovebeautydawn
Symbols
morning star · rose · Friday candle
Lore
Folklore connects her with brightness, fertility and women’s observances, showing how an older sacred figure can persist beneath a later religious name.
Albanian-speaking Balkans — pre-Christian layers preserved in folklore and saint traditions
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Qadesh
Bronze Age Levant
Lady of Sacred Vitality
Domains
vitalitydesiresacred power
Symbols
lotus · lion · serpent
Lore
Her surviving images place embodied vitality on a lion's back: desire can be sacred force without becoming entitlement.
Bronze Age Levant and New Kingdom Egypt — chiefly 2nd millennium BCE
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Rafara
Malagasy
Daughter of the Deep Water
Domains
watermysterylovefreedom
Symbols
lake · long hair · water lily
Lore
Rafara belongs to a broad family of Malagasy water-woman stories in which a being from lake or river enters human marriage under conditions that are eventually violated. Her return to the water restores her agency and origin. …
Malagasy oral tradition
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Rán
Norse / Norwegian
Mistress of the Drowning Net
Domains
seastormsfategold
Symbols
net · waves · gold coins
Lore
Old Norse poems call the sea ‘Rán’s road’ and drowning ‘going to Rán.’ Her net gathers those lost offshore, while her nine daughters with Ægir personify waves with different names and tempers. The custom of carrying gold at sea reflects a grim hospitality: if the ocean takes a sailor, the guest should not arrive empty-handed.
Old Norse skaldic poetry and Eddas
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Rangda
Balinese Sacred Performance
Widow Power at the Edge of Order
Domains
wild powerconflictliminality
Symbols
banyan root · protective flame · split gate
Lore
Their struggle may end without final victory, expressing a Balinese concern with balancing dangerous and protective forces rather than erasing one half of reality.
Bali, Indonesia — living sacred performance and narrative traditions
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Ranoro
Merina / Malagasy
Water Princess of the Sacred Spring
Domains
waterpromisesrespectlove
Symbols
spring · white lamba · salt (taboo)
Lore
In the best-known Antsahadinta story, Ranoro leaves her watery home to marry Andriambodilova under a strict verbal taboo. When he breaks it in anger, she returns to the spring, leaving descendants who continue to remember the bond. …
Malagasy highland oral tradition (Antsahadinta, near Antananarivo)
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Rhiannon
Welsh / Brythonic
The Great Queen on the White Mare
Domains
SovereigntyHorsesEnduranceWrongful blameSong
Symbols
White mare · Three singing birds · Golden bag · Mounting block · Road
Lore
When her infant son vanishes, her women lie to save themselves and she is condemned to sit at the gate telling every visitor her crime and carrying them on her back like a horse. She serves the punishment for years without breaking, and the child is returned. …
Medieval Wales, Mabinogi manuscripts; earlier oral roots
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Sága
Norse / Icelandic
She Who Drinks with Odin at Sökkvabekkr
Domains
storymemoryhistoryconversation
Symbols
golden cup · falling water · sunken hall · spoken tale
Lore
Her hall sits beneath rushing water — a place where the past is poured out and shared over a cup, day after day.
Recorded in 13th-century Iceland (Grímnismál, Prose Edda)
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Şahmaran
Azerbaijani Folklore
Wise Serpent Queen
Domains
wisdomhealingbetrayal
Symbols
serpent · herbs · underground garden
Lore
Betrayed by a human confidant, her body becomes medicine in many tellings. The tale asks who benefits when women’s knowledge is extracted and consumed.
Azerbaijan and wider Anatolian-Iranian storytelling — medieval and modern folklore
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Samodiva
Bulgarian
Wild Maiden of the Mountains
Domains
wildernessfreedomdancehealing waters
Symbols
white dress · springs · moon
Lore
Songs describe samodivi gathering at springs, riding wild horses and dancing in circles whose grass will not grow afterward. A human may bind one by stealing her veil or winged garment, but the union lasts only while her freedom is concealed. …
Bulgarian folk song and legend
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Sande Sowei
Liberia / Mende and Vai
Embodiment of Women’s Society Wisdom
Domains
women’s knowledgematuritycommunity
Symbols
water ripple · raffia silhouette · smooth dark oval
Lore
Publicly documented aesthetics emphasize composure, intelligence and the disciplined beauty of maturity. The card honors women’s authority while respecting what is not ours to display.
Liberia and Sierra Leone — living Sande women’s society traditions
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Saraswati
Hindu / South Asian
The Flowing One, Mistress of Speech and Learning
Domains
KnowledgeMusicSpeechWritingThe arts
Symbols
Veena · White swan · Palm-leaf manuscript · Lotus · River
Lore
Her swan is said to separate milk from water, the image of discernment: intelligence is not accumulation but the ability to tell one thing from another. She holds a manuscript in one hand and plays with two others — she is study and performance at once, and she rides the current rather than damming it.
Rigvedic India onward, c. 1500 BCE; living tradition
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Saule
Latvian / Baltic
The Sun Mother
Domains
sunlifeorphanssummer solstice
Symbols
golden sun · amber · apple tree · golden boat
Lore
The dainas follow Saule through a daily cosmic journey: she crosses the sky in a chariot and returns by a golden boat across the sea. Songs describe her daughters, suitors and celestial wedding, but also her compassion for orphans and laborers. …
Baltic religion, preserved in Latvian dainas
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Šauška
Hurrian / Anatolian
Lady of Love, War and Transformation
Domains
lovewartransformation
Symbols
lion · wings · eight-point star
Lore
She refuses simple oppositions: attraction and battle, feminine and masculine, splendor and danger can move through one divine power.
Hurrian northern Mesopotamia and Anatolia — 2nd millennium BCE
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Sedna
Inuit / Arctic
Mother of the Sea, Mistress of the Animals
Domains
The seaSea mammalsHuntingReciprocityConsequence
Symbols
Seal · Narwhal · Sea ice · Long unbraided hair · Comb
Lore
Without hands she cannot comb her own hair, and when people break the rules of the hunt her hair tangles with their offences and she withholds the animals. The angakkuq travels down to comb it out. …
Inuit tradition across the Arctic; living tradition
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Sekhmet
Ancient Egypt
The Powerful One, Lady of Plague and Healing
Domains
WarPlagueHealingRighteous rageProtection of order
Symbols
Lioness · Solar disc · Arrows · Red linen · Beer dyed red
Lore
Sent by Ra to punish humanity, she could not be called back; the gods flooded the fields with beer dyed red, she drank it believing it blood, slept, and woke as gentle Hathor. Her festivals kept that memory: rage is real, and it is stopped by satisfaction, not by scolding.
Egypt, Old Kingdom through Ptolemaic period
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Selu
Cherokee (Aniyunwiya)
Corn Mother, First Woman
Domains
CornAgricultureProvisionHousehold knowledgeSacrifice for family
Symbols
Ears of corn · Corn silk · Storehouse · Seven grains · Mortar and pestle
Lore
When her sons spied on her and learned her secret, the easy abundance ended and corn had to be planted, tended and harvested by hand. The lesson is direct: curiosity broke the gift, and labour is how it is kept alive.
Southeastern Woodlands; living Cherokee tradition
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Sequana
France / Gaulish Celtic
Lady of the Seine's Rising Spring
Domains
Rivers and springsHealingPilgrimageRiver tradeRelease
Symbols
Duck-prow boat · Spring source · Votive limbs in bronze · Reeds · Torc
Lore
Her sanctuary is one of the richest healing sites in Gaul: whole families came, camped, bathed in the spring and gave a likeness of the hurt to the water. Her bronze shows her standing in a boat shaped like a duck — the river carries what you hand it, and she asks that you actually let go of the model.
Gaul (France), Iron Age through Roman period, c. 300 BCE–400 CE
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Shams
Himyarite / Yemen
Sun Goddess of Himyar
Domains
sunprotectionkingshipclarity
Symbols
sun disc · frankincense · alabaster
Lore
South Arabian inscriptions invoke solar divinity through titles and grammatical forms that vary by kingdom and period, making any single biography of Shams uncertain. Offerings, incense and temple dedications place the sun within civic protection and royal order. …
Ancient South Arabia, 1st millennium BCE
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Sila
Inuit Cosmology
Breath, Weather and Mind of the World
Domains
airweatherconsciousness
Symbols
breath cloud · aurora · snow owl
Lore
Sila is both the atmosphere outside and the awareness within. To breathe is to participate in a mind larger than an individual self.
Circumpolar Inuit cultures — living concept with regional differences
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Sina
Samoa
Maiden of the Coconut Story
Domains
transformationloveresourcefulness
Symbols
coconut · eel · spring water
Lore
The three marks on a coconut are remembered as the eel’s face. Her tale turns grief into nourishment and keeps relationship visible inside an everyday food.
Samoa — ancestral oral tradition with many regional versions
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Skaði
Norse / Sámi-adjacent Scandinavian
Ski Goddess of the Winter Mountains
Domains
WinterMountainsHuntingIndependenceFair terms
Symbols
Skis · Bow and arrows · Snow peak · Wolf · Snowshoe
Lore
The marriage failed on geography: she could not sleep for gulls, he could not sleep for wolves, and after trying both homes they separated amicably and she went back to her mountains to ski and hunt. She is the goddess of negotiating your own terms and then, when the terms do not suit, leaving.
Scandinavia, Viking Age and earlier
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Sky Woman
Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) / Haudenosaunee
She Who Fell from the Sky
Domains
CreationLandFalling and landingCooperationGratitude
Symbols
Great Turtle · Handful of seeds · Water birds · Tobacco · Strawberry
Lore
She did not build the world alone — every animal contributed something, and the world exists because of that pooled effort. Her descendants owe the land thanks, not ownership.
Northeastern Woodlands; living Haudenosaunee tradition
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Sól
Norse / Swedish
Sunna, Driver of the Sun Chariot
Domains
SunTimeEnduranceLight in winterContinuity
Symbols
Sun disc · Chariot wheels · Two horses · The wolf Sköll · Radiating rays
Lore
Her defining quality is that she keeps going while being chased. In the far north the sun is not a given — it withdraws almost entirely and returns by effort. …
Nordic Bronze Age sun cult through the Viking Age
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Spenta Armaiti
Persian (Zoroastrian)
Holy Devotion, Guardian of the Earth
Domains
DevotionEarthSteadfastnessHumilityRight care
Symbols
Fire altar · Earth and soil · Winged disc · Cypress · Barsom twigs
Lore
She is called the daughter of Ahura Mazda and the patron of those who cultivate land honestly. In her theology, tending the earth well is worship; neglect is a moral failure, not just a practical one.
Iran, from the Gathic period through the Sasanian era
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Spenta Armaiti
Iranian / Zoroastrian
Holy Devotion of the Earth
Domains
devotionearthright-minded care
Symbols
flowering earth · field · winged rosette
Lore
Her humility is not submission to harm. It is steady alignment between thought, care and the living ground that receives every consequence.
Ancient Iran to living Zoroastrian tradition — Avestan and later texts
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Spider Grandmother
Hopi / Native American
Kokyangwuti, Weaver of the World
Domains
CreationWeaving and craftCounselEmergenceWisdom of elders
Symbols
Spider web · Spun cotton thread · Clay figures · Corn · The sipapu opening
Lore
She is famous for whispering. Heroes hear her voice from behind an ear or from under a stone, and the advice is never grand: take the other trail, carry water, be polite to the ant people. …
Hopi mesas of the American Southwest; oral tradition carried into the present
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Taema
Samoa
Ancestral Teacher of Sacred Skill
Domains
skilltransmissioncreative courage
Symbols
artisan tools · pandanus · paired stars
Lore
Her story places technique inside lineage: a gift becomes meaningful through discipline, memory and responsibility to the people who carry it.
Samoa — ancestral oral tradition with related forms elsewhere in Polynesia
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Taleju Bhawani
Newar / Nepalese
Guardian of the Valley's Sovereignty
Domains
protectionsovereigntycity
Symbols
temple roof · marigold · sword-shaped ray
Lore
She joins political authority to responsibility before a power greater than the ruler. Some doors and practices remain intentionally restricted.
Kathmandu Valley — medieval Malla period into living Newar tradition
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Tanit
Carthage / North Africa
Face of Baal, Lady of Carthage
Domains
The cityMoonFertilityProtectionCivic fortune
Symbols
Sign of Tanit · Crescent and disc · Palm frond · Pomegranate · Dove
Lore
Her sign — a triangle, a bar, a circle — is one of the most persistent emblems in the Mediterranean, still turning up in Tunisian jewellery and doorways. She belonged to the city as a whole rather than to individuals: her business was civic survival, harvests, safe harbours and the continuation of a people who were, by geography and history, always negotiating with a larger power.
Carthage and the Punic North African coast, c. 5th century BCE to 146 BCE; her sign survives in Tunisian folk art
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The Female Rain
San / Botswana Kalahari
Gentle Rain That Soaks the Earth
Domains
raingentlenessrenewaldesert life
Symbols
soft rain · ostrich eggshell beads · new grass
Lore
Recorded San narratives distinguish forceful thunder-rain from the long, soaking female rain that remains available to roots, animals and people. The contrast is poetic and ecological rather than a claim that all rain belongs to a single goddess. …
San oral tradition, documented from the 19th century
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The Morrígan
Irish / Gaelic
Great Queen, Phantom of the Battlefield
Domains
BattleProphecySovereigntyFateBoundaries
Symbols
Raven · Crow · Spear · Ford of a river · Washed bloody armour
Lore
She meets Cú Chulainn and offers herself; he refuses her, and she fights him in animal forms for the rest of his life, washing his armour at the ford before his death. Her great prophecy after Mag Tuired describes peace and then, unflinchingly, the ruin that follows. …
Early medieval Ireland; earlier Iron Age roots
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Tin Hinan
Morocco / Amazigh
Mother of Us All, Queen of the Sands
Domains
Ancestry and lineageDesert crossingMatriarchal authoritySilver and craftHospitality
Symbols
Indigo veil · Silver fibula · Yaz (ⵥ) glyph · Date palm · Well in the sand
Lore
Her name is read as 'she of the tents' or 'she who came from far'. Amazigh tradition keeps inheritance, tattoo motifs and silver patterns as her legacy: what she carried across the sand was not gold but the knowledge that lets a people continue. …
Maghreb and the Sahara — Morocco, Algeria, the Tuareg confederations; c. 4th century CE into living Amazigh memory
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Tislit n Anzar
Amazigh / Algerian
The Rain's Bride
Domains
rainfertilityloveharvest
Symbols
rain cloud · wheat · rainbow · silver
Lore
In a widely told Amazigh narrative, Anzar falls in love with a young woman who initially hides from his gaze. The waters withdraw until she accepts the bond and rain returns to the land. …
Amazigh oral tradition across North Africa
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Trebaruna
Ancient Iberian / Lusitanian
Protector of the Community
Domains
communityprotectionhome
Symbols
hillfort gate · oak · votive stone
Lore
The fragmentary record makes humility essential. Her stones suggest that safety was understood as a relationship between people, boundary and sacred obligation.
Lusitania, western Iberia — Iron Age and Roman-era inscriptions
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Tunupa
Aymara / Bolivian Altiplano
Mountain Mother of the Salt Flat
Domains
mountainsgriefmotherhoodtransformation
Symbols
volcano · salt flat · milk · quinoa
Lore
Around the Salar de Uyuni, oral tellings make the surrounding mountains members of a divine family and explain the salt through Tunupa’s tears, milk or both after separation from her child. Versions assign different roles to the neighboring peaks. …
Living Aymara oral tradition, Salar de Uyuni region
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Umay
Azerbaijani Turkic
Golden Protector of Mothers and Children
Domains
childrenfertilityprotection
Symbols
golden bird · cradle · sun ray
Lore
Often imagined as radiant or birdlike, she guards vulnerable beginnings. Regional beliefs vary, so this card presents an Azerbaijani visual context without claiming exclusivity.
Turkic traditions across Central Asia and the Caucasus — ancient inscriptions to living folklore
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Unk
Lakota Tradition
Primordial Power of the Deep
Domains
primordial waterscontentionconsequence
Symbols
deep water · storm · divided mirror
Lore
Her oracle role is cautionary: division gathers force beneath the surface long before it breaks into the visible world.
Lakota oral tradition — living Indigenous knowledge; public retellings only
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Vajrayogini
Tibetan Buddhist
Sky-Dancer of Transforming Wisdom
Domains
transformationwisdomliberation
Symbols
wisdom flame · sky · ruby light
Lore
Her fierce red presence symbolizes the transformation of ordinary experience into awakened wisdom rather than rejection of the world.
Indian and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism — medieval period into living practice
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Valli
Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu
Mountain-Born Lady of Choice
Domains
lovechoicemountain landscape
Symbols
millet · vine · peacock feather
Lore
Her courtship tales are playful and regionally varied. At their center is a woman whose desire and consent shape the sacred relationship.
South India and Sri Lanka — medieval literature through living devotion
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Wagar Keeper
Somali Sacred Tradition
Guardian of the Sacred Wooden Emblem
Domains
women’s protectionfertilitysacred continuity
Symbols
carved wood · acacia · woven mat
Lore
The card honors the women who preserved sacred continuity while clearly marking the limits of public evidence.
Somali territories — pre-Islamic sacred practice remembered in oral and ethnographic records
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Wanassa
Bronze Age Cyprus
Reconstructed Lady of the Island
Domains
sovereigntycopperisland life
Symbols
copper ingot · terracotta figure · olive branch
Lore
She holds the unanswered space between archaeological image and lost name, reminding us that uncertainty can be honored without being filled with fiction.
Late Bronze Age Cyprus, c. 1600–1050 BCE — reconstructed from titles and archaeology
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Wanjiru
Kikuyu / Kenya
Maiden Who Brought the Rain
Domains
rainsacrificelovereturn
Symbols
rain · earth opening · beads
Lore
The tale binds communal survival to a troubling demand for sacrifice: as Wanjiru sinks, rain begins to fall and the people celebrate. A warrior who loves her refuses to accept that exchange, follows her into the earth and restores her to life. …
Kikuyu legend
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Watermamma
Guyanese
Fair Maid of the Rivers
Domains
riverswealthpromisesbeauty
Symbols
golden comb · river · water lilies
Lore
Guyanese stories place the Fair Maid on quiet banks or below waterfalls, combing impossibly long hair with gold. She may reward a respectful witness or lend the comb under strict conditions; concealment and broken promises bring illness or misfortune. …
Guyanese folklore
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White Buffalo Calf Woman
Lakota / Native American
Ptesáŋwiŋ, Bringer of the Sacred Pipe
Domains
Sacred lawRight conductPeaceCeremonyKinship
Symbols
White buffalo calf · Prairie sage · Four directions · Circle of the nation
Lore
Everything about her story turns on conduct. The gift is real, but it only lands where there is respect — and the instructions she left are not mystical secrets, they are rules for how relatives treat each other. …
Northern Plains, pre-contact into the present as living Lakota tradition
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White Painted Woman
Western Apache
Isdzánádleeshé, She Who Renews Life
Domains
renewalhealingwomanhoodlongevitycommunal blessing
Symbols
sunrise · four directions · mountain horizon · pollen · walking staff
Lore
In publicly shared teachings, White Painted Woman survives a world-changing flood and restores life, becoming a source of strength and long life. During the living coming-of-age tradition, a young woman is understood to embody aspects of her generosity and healing power for her community. …
Western Apache sacred tradition — living knowledge shared in public accounts
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White Shell Woman
Diné (Navajo)
Yoolgai Asdzáá, Woman of Rain and White Shell
Domains
raincleansingkinshiprenewalwhite shell
Symbols
white shell · rain cloud · corn leaves · eastern light · desert water
Lore
Her surviving associations bring together luminous shell, gathering clouds and the water that allows corn to grow in a dry land. Her relationship with Changing Woman expresses sacred kinship and complementary renewal rather than competition. …
Diné sacred tradition of the American Southwest — living knowledge; public accounts only
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White Tara
Tibetan Buddhist
Mother of Compassionate Longevity
Domains
compassionlongevityhealing
Symbols
white lotus · moon disk · seven eyes
Lore
Practitioners turn to her for long life and healing so that time may be used for awakening and service, rather than treating longevity as an end in itself.
Tibetan Buddhist tradition — from the first millennium CE into living practice
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Wóȟpe
Lakota Tradition
Falling Star of Harmony
Domains
peacebeautyharmony
Symbols
falling star · prairie flower · circle of light
Lore
Her descent turns celestial order into an earthly responsibility: peace is maintained through right relationship, generosity and truth.
Lakota oral tradition — living Indigenous knowledge; public sources identify her with peace and harmony
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Wuriupranili
Tiwi Islands, Aboriginal Australia
The Sun Woman with the Torch
Domains
Sunrise and sunsetDaily labourOchre and colourEnduranceTime
Symbols
Bark torch · Red and yellow ochre · Sea horizon · Dawn fire
Lore
The extraordinary detail is the return trip. Her day does not end at dusk — she walks all night in the dark to be in position by morning. …
Tiwi Islands, northern Australia; living oral tradition
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Xi Wangmu
China
Queen Mother of the West
Domains
ImmortalityBoundaries and thresholdsPlague and pardonInitiationFate
Symbols
Peaches of immortality · Jade · Tiger and leopard · Kunlun mountain · Phoenix
Lore
Emperors travelled to her gate and were usually found wanting. Her banquet is by invitation, her peaches cannot be stolen without consequence, and her transformation from tiger-toothed plague-bringer to serene queen is the point: the same power gives and withholds. …
China, from Shang-era oracle references and Han tomb art through Daoist tradition to today
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Xmucane
K'iche' Maya / Guatemala
Grandmother of Day and Light
Domains
creationmaizedivinationgrandmotherhood
Symbols
grinding stone · maize · corn kernels
Lore
Her story spans generations of trial. She doubts Xquic at first, then accepts her after the young woman miraculously gathers maize; she cares for the Hero Twins while they confront the lords of Xibalba. …
Popol Vuh (K'iche')
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Xquic
K'iche' Maya / Guatemala
Blood Moon Maiden
Domains
mooncouragemaizemotherhood
Symbols
calabash tree · maize · moon
Lore
A skull hanging in a calabash tree spits into Xquic’s hand and miraculously conceives the Hero Twins. Condemned by the lords of Xibalba, she escapes by tricking their messengers with resin mistaken for her heart. …
Popol Vuh (K'iche', recorded 16th century)
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Xtabay
Yucatec Maya / Belize
Lady of the Ceiba
Domains
temptationdiscernmentforestnight
Symbols
ceiba tree · xtabentún flower · comb
Lore
One widespread moralized version contrasts the generous Xkeban with the outwardly respectable Utz-Colel: fragrant flowers grow from Xkeban’s grave, while Utz-Colel returns as a deceptive apparition. Later tellings merge this cycle with the dangerous woman beneath the ceiba. …
Yucatec Maya folklore
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Yemayá
Caribbean / Afro-Cuban
Mother of All, Owner of the Sea
Domains
The oceanMotherhoodProtectionDreamsSurvival
Symbols
Blue and white beads · Cowrie shells · Fan and boat · Watermelon · Seven skirts
Lore
The seven skirts are the seven seas and the seven layers of her temperament. She is remembered as the one who held people together through the Middle Passage — which is why her comfort is never soft. …
Yorùbá West Africa carried to Cuba and the Caribbean through the slave trade; actively worshipped today
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Yewá
Lucumí / Cuban Santería
Orisha of Solitude and Stillness
Domains
solitudepuritytransitionstillness
Symbols
white flowers · candle · quiet garden
Lore
Her devotees are said to keep calm and quiet near her, honoring a spirit who prefers stillness to spectacle.
Yoruba origins; living Cuban Lucumí practice
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Yhi
Aboriginal Australia (Karraur)
The Sun Who Woke the World
Domains
SunlightAwakeningCreationPlants and animalsMovement
Symbols
Sunrise · Wildflowers · Footprints · Open eye · Warm stone
Lore
Her creating is done by walking. Nothing in her story is made from a distance or by decree — she covers the ground, and life follows her feet. …
Aboriginal Australia; among the oldest continuous story traditions on earth
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Zana
Albanian Folklore
Guardian of the Mountain Heights
Domains
mountainswild freedomprotection
Symbols
mountain flower · crescent · eagle feather
Lore
Her independence belongs to the high landscape itself: help is freely given, never owned, and relationship with the wild depends upon conduct.
Albanian mountain folklore — oral tradition recorded in modern collections
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Zher-Ana
Kazakh / Tengrist
Mother Earth of the Steppe
Domains
earthfertilityhomethe steppe
Symbols
steppe grass · mountains · springs · tulips
Lore
Earth Mother language survives in blessings, proverbs and customary respect for pasture, springs and ancestral land. Rather than a single fixed narrative, Zher-Ana expresses the complementarity of earth below and sky above within Turkic cosmology. …
Turkic-Tengrist belief; living Kazakh folk tradition
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Zorya
Slavic / Russian
The Auroras, Guardians of the Dawn
Domains
Dawn and duskProtectionWarriors' blessingThresholdsVigilance
Symbols
Morning star · Veil · Golden gates of the sky · Chained hound · Red sky
Lore
Soldiers asked the morning Zorya to spread her veil over them, and healers spoke dawn charms at the exact moment the sky reddened, when the gate stood open. The sisters' work is night watch: nothing dramatic happens as long as they keep doing it, which is precisely the point.
East Slavic folk tradition
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