#3 Goddess Connection ~ Black Tara, Blue Tara, Brighid, Cailleach, Ceres

Re-connect with the Goddess… The Spiritual Feminist

• Black Tara

Her Story:

Black Tara is a Tibetan goddess of power, worshipped in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. She reigns over will power, and she has the uncanny ability to measure our actions to our motives, which is why you want to be very sure you have the purist of intentions when calling upon this goddess. Black Tara administers tests for the soul, determining our evolvement and our spiritual enlightenment. She rules over spirits, exorcisms, and healing of both the body and the mind.

• Will power: Black Tara, give me the strength and will power to make healthy choices, healthy choices for body, mind, and spirit.

• Motives: Black Tara, give me the wisdom and insight needed to see the truth in people, to find their shadow side, and to seek out the light.

• Spiritual enlightenment: Black Tara, lead me by the hand, down the path of the goddess, that I may embrace Feminine Divinity in all its beauty and glory.

• Spirits: Black Tara, introduce me to my spirit guide, that this Spirit may be with me from this point on, to lead me, to guide me, to warn me, to protect me.

• Healing: Black Tara, heal my body, that I might thrive and grow and enjoy the physical world; heal my spirit, that I may connect with the Divine and follow my destiny; heal my mind, that I will see clearly, love clearly, and grow in knowledge and wisdom.

Embracing the Goddess:

Summon Black Tara when you are spiritually clearing and cleansing a space. Call upon this goddess when healing is in order, when you feel the need to clearly view someone else’s intentions, when your will power needs strengthening, and when you desire spirit contact.

Black Tara’s Correspondences:

• Herbs: cloves, garlic, henbane, wolf’s bane

• Animal: raven

• Color: black

• Planet: Saturn

• Day: Saturday

• Element: all four

• Feminine Face: Mother

• Symbol: female Buddha

• Blue Tara

Her Story:

This goddess is worshipped in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. She is a goddess of liberation and is the ultimate goddess for women to call upon when they need help escaping a negative life situation. Her energy is used to cleanse negativity and to restore positive aspects to your life. Blue Tara is a protectress of women.

I am
I am strong
I am wise
I am a goddess

I am
I am capable
I am intuitive
I am a priestess

I am
I am gentle
I am responsible
I am a mother

I am
I am loving
I am faithful
I am a wife

I am
I am __________
I am __________
I am a __________

I Am!

Embracing the Goddess:

Call upon the energy of Blue Tara when you are a mother, a wife, a daughter, a girlfriend, and you find your safety and well-being threatened by negative or abusive behavior. Blue Tara will wash away the source of this negativity, leaving the path open for you to escape, to find your way home, to discover a new road and a new destiny. This goddess will give you the courage and the strength to break the chains that bind.

Blue Tara’s Correspondences:

• Herbs: lemongrass, fennel, sage, anise, eyebright, slippery elm

• Color: yellow, blue

• Planet: Mercury

• Day: Wednesday

• Element: Air

• Feminine Face: Mother

• Symbol: the full moon

• Brighid

Her Story:

Brighid is the Irish goddess of the Sacred Flame; often referred to as the “White Goddess”, she is also another of the triple goddesses. Brighid rules the realms of poetry, healing, smith-craft, inventions, and craftsmanship. She is the “Keeper of the Holy Wells and Rivers”, where many go to seek healing; she’s also ruler of the “Sacred Flames of Creativity”. Her festival is celebrated February 2, called Imbolc, a celebration of the return of spring and fertility to the land.

For women across the board, for women coming out of the darkness, weathering the storm, to greet the sun, the blue sky, and a new age of fertility and personal growth, the magic and energy of Brighid will welcome you with open arms.

How many women out there feel hopelessly caught up in the dark places their lives have become? How many women out there have lost sight of the light, the meaning and purpose of their personal journey? As Brighid returns the world to springtime and fertility, so this ancient Irish goddess will return you to the path you were meant to travel, the journey you were meant to make. She will help you see the light, refocus, regain your personal sense of worth and well-being.

As Brighid bursts upon the world, dancing within the rays of golden sunshine, so shall you re-learn the dance of life.

Embracing the Goddess:

As Brighid heralds the return of the sun and a period of fertility to the earth, so can she imbue your life with renewed fertility, promise, and growth. Invoke this goddess and embrace her energy when you need a burst of creative influence, when you need the touch of a magical muse upon your shoulder, when you need inspiration from the ancient winds of time, when you’re in need of healing, whether it be of mind, or body, or soul.

Brighid’s Correspondences:

• Herbs: basil, bay, celandine, benzoic

• Animal: lambs, ewes

• Color: blue, yellow, white

• Planet: Sun

• Day: Sunday

• Element: Fire

• Feminine Face: Maiden

• Symbol: Sun, Brighid’s Cross

• Cailleach

Her Story:

Called “The Scottish Hag”, Cailleach is a blue faced crone so close to death that her face is often portrayed in a skeletal form. She is also, ironically, considered the creatrix of nature– the wilderness, the landscape, and wild things in their most beautiful aspects.

This goddess is the personification of winter, and it’s this season which she dominates. It’s said that Cailleach rams her staff into the ground, creating the three months of winter and the natural “death” of nature that is associated with it. She rules the time from Winter Solstice to Imbolc, when the maiden Brighid will awaken the land to springtime, growth, and fertility.

The Cailleach is the harbinger of our fears and death. Again, there is an irony to this goddess, in that she is also considered a great sorceress, a healer, and a mid-wife. But when you think about it, it may not be so ironic after all. Birth and death are the two biggest transitions that we face in life, and they are not so different. They’re just two journeys headed in opposite directions.

Through the centuries women have been told in our male dominated societies that they “can’t”. They can’t do this, they’re not strong enough to do that. Women have run the gauntlet of male imposed restrictions over the course of history, from not being allowed to own land, not being allowed to have a voice in politics, not being allowed to hold certain jobs, and not being allowed to reach their full potential in endless arenas of life. A lot has changed, and there have been improvements, particularly in our western world, but this is not yet true for women on a global level.

The Cailleach runs shrieking through the mists of time, hammer and staff in hand, to scream the truth…You can! You can! You can! Remember this, her lesson. Take up your own hammer and staff, build your life, build your world, build your dreams, reach your goals and succeed. Succeed with all the fervor of this old Scottish hag in all her glory.

Embracing the Goddess:

Women can and do accomplish tasks and reach goals that are overtly dominated by males in our society. Embrace the Cailleach when you need the strength and stamina to break molds and forge new ground.

Cailleach‘s Corresdpondences:

• Herbs: dandelion, eye bright, slippery elm, star anise

• Animal: wolves, deer

• Color: yellow

• Planet: Mercury

• Day: Wednesday

• Element: Air

• Feminine Face: Crone

• Symbol: hammer, staff

• Ceres

Her Story:

Ceres is the Roman goddess of agriculture and the mother of Prosperpina. She influences the harvest (growth), motherhood, fertility, as well as maternal love and responsibility.

The ancients explained spring time with the story of Ceres and the tremendous maternal love she had for her daughter. Cere’s daughter Prosperpina was kidnapped by Pluto, a god of the underworld, to be his bride. Ceres was so outraged, and even more so after she learned that Prosperpina’s father Jupiter had given his approval, that she decided to roam the world of men disguised as an old hag, cursing the planting and harvests so that a famine ensued. 

Jupiter realized the only way to stop Ceres was to appease her and bring their daughter back, but it was too late. Prosperpina had been given food by Pluto while in the underworld, and anyone who eats in the underworld will no longer be able to leave it behind; but Prosperpina escapes for four months every year, and during this time the world flourishes with new growth, plants, grains, and harvest.

From springtime till harvest Ceres is reunited with her beloved daughter.

I stand in the middle. On one side is my mother, on the other side is my oldest daughter. There are estrangements on both sides, the reasons petty and lost in time, hazy and forgotten, so long ago it was.

Why and how do family members cut each other off, particularly mothers and daughters? What links are broken, what connections lost? How do the bonds get cut; where do the feelings go; how does an individual suddenly, and without warning, simply stop acknowledging the existence of a family member?

As the goddess Ceres would not give up until her daughter was brought back to her, neither will I give up until my mother acknowledges me, establishes communication, and we find common ground on which to continue a relationship. Neither will I give up until my daughter and I are reunited, if not on the same page, at least within the same book.

Through the power and energy of this goddess, Ceres, through her example of tenacious love and devotion to her daughter, I cast the magick and light the candle for reconciliation.

The daughter deserves the attention and affection of her mother; the mother deserves the attention and affection of her daughter.

So mote it be.

Embracing the Goddess:

For mothers who need to reconnect with their daughters, for daughters who need to reconnect with their mothers, invoke Ceres for success in these ventures. Invoke Ceres to amplify and radiate the undying love and devotion a mother has for her child, for her daughter. Invoke Ceres for fertility– physical fertility, as well as fertility and growth in other aspects of your life.

Cere’s Correspondences:

• Herbs: barley, wheat, corn, buckwheat, rye

• Color: green, brown

• Planet: Gaia (Earth)

• Day: all seven

• Element: Earth

• Feminine Face: Mother

• Symbols: scepter, basket of fruit and flowers, grains