Crone in Corrogue: Wild Wisdom of the Elder Years

Glorying in the elder years, a time of spirituality, service and some serious sacred activism

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Willendorf Venus at Equilux

She was never porn. She was never Page 3. She never had implants to enhance the image of her fecundity.

The Willendorf Venus. She looks like me. When I had a really bad haircut pre-2000.

And while social media thinks nudity, the naked breast, is somehow pornographic, I am glad to reclaim Her now at this New Moon, as we approach the Vernal Equinox, or the equilux, as I prefer. Equal light. Equal dark.

The dream of equality lives on.

And the hoohah on social media surrounding the image of the Willendorf Venus reminded me reach deep into my poetry archive. Because one of my earliest hymns to the goddess was to this Willendorf Venus. She has been found in southern Germany where some of my father's people originated. Because we can only imagine her significance to our ancestors.

And, as I have said, I look a lot like Her when I get naked in front of a full-length mirror.

Willendorf Venus


long, long ago in a sing-song time

even before memory, before you and I

or even our grandmother's

grandmothers were born...

 

a man and a woman embraced, a long hot clinging

so tjat they rubbed together like two flints trying

to ignite a spark and they did spark

stroking, clacking and cracking at each other

it made a twig fire that lit some kindling that lit

the log that made the big hearth

 

so they maybe paused a bit and they thought

it would not be a good thing to let

the light die out...it would be cold

wild animals would not stay away

they both kept it going day and night so that they

might be forever

 

so then they maybe paused a bit again

they made good use of their fire

they took some clay and began to play with it

rolling it and patting it and marking it until they found

that it was all beautiful marvellous round

 

round like the mountain of a woman's ass

long and oval as her lovely breasts

bulky as saddlebags packed on her mighty thighs

solft all down her legs as they wound around her man

 

they huddled closer to keep the fire going day and night

night and day so as not to die

they baked her and saw that she was good

he was good and they were good

 

when the babies came, as they sometimes do

they weaned them on her image and blessed her name

for her respite...the baby played...they returned again

to their embrace, tending the tinderbox of their need.

 

Copyright Bee Smith 2003

Binary Star, (Poetry by Helen Shay & Bee Smith), Nisaba Press

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Bee Smith has enjoyed a long relationship with SageWoman as a contributor, columnist and blogger. She lives in the Republic of Ireland, teaches creative writing and is a member of the Irish Art Council's Writers in Prisons panel. She is the author of "Brigid's Way: Celtic Reflections on the Divine Feminine."    

Comments

  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham Sunday, 18 March 2018

    Way back in the 1980's there was a short lived RPG called Lords of Creation by Avalon Hill. In the book of foes was a group of Scythian gods called The Kurgan. Among the Kurgan was the Great Goddess Tabiti. In the illustration for The Kurgan the artist used the Willendorf figure to represent Tabiti. I have thought of the Willendorf figure as Tabiti ever since. Later I came across a Time-Life book about Nomads that mentioned Tabiti and said that we know the name of this Scythian goddess because of the Roman historian Strabo.

  • Bee Smith
    Bee Smith Monday, 19 March 2018

    It is fascinating what we know from second hand accounts. But they might be like the game of 'whispers' - a mere shadow of the the first hand experience.

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