Statuary

Statuary may serve purely decorative functions in the pagan home, or they may become focal points of devotion, either on a formal altar or shrine or separately, perhaps in a meditation garden.

The Morrigan Celtic Goddess Statue

Nearly a foot tall and cast of resin with a stonelike finish, this detailed statue of the Celtic warrior woman deity will be an excellent addition to any pagan home. Her example will help any woman find her own strength to confront what is amiss in her life, whether it be physical danger or lies and backbiting in the workplace.

Lilith Goddess Statue

To many people, the name Lilith has dark associations if they recognize it at all, largely as a result of extracanonical Jewish and Christian traditions using the name for a first wife of Adam who was made like him from the ground and thus refused to submit to him, leading YHVH to replace her with Eve, made from Adam's rib and thus subordinated to him, and banish Lilith into the ranks of demons. However, the name Lilith has far more ancient roots in the Levant, tracing to various Cananite deities of wisdom reminiscent of the Greek Athena or Egyptian Isis. This statue attempts to recapture the original sense of Lilith as goddess of great power, with her outspread wings and the serpent (often a symbol of wisdom and potency) wrapped around her body.

Venus of Willendorf Prehistoric Goddess Statue

Perhaps one of the most ancient works of sculptural art, the female figure found in the area of Willindorf in 1908 is generally supposed to have been a devotional object representing the fertile feminine aspect of Deity. Although she may appear obese to modern eyes, it is very likely that the artist may have been visually exaggerating the parts of her anatomy associated with fertility, particularly the breast, belly and hips, as a way of communicating to worshippers that she was not a representation of any specific person, but of Mother Earth as life-giver, with superhuman and supernatural fertility and abundance.

Greek God Hermes Gilt Statue

Hermes (or his Roman equivalent Mercury) was a god of many aspects, some of which may seem discordant to modern minds. Although most people know him primarily as the messenger of the gods, he was far more than Zeus's errand boy. He was simultaneously god of both merchants and thieves (no doubt the Greeks had their own unhappy experiences with crooked sellers), as well as god of alchemists, magicians and physicians. Both the tiny, swift-moving planet Mercury and the liquid metal mercury are named in his honor. Even such mundane things as the wingfoot logo of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company honor Hermes as Lord of the Open Road, god of travelers.

Ancient Egyptian Thoth Statue

Ancient Egyptians revered ibis-headed Thoth as the creator of the written word. As such, all writing was considered sacred to him and scribes (the specialists trained to write in the complex mixture of ideographic and phonetic characters that made up the heiroglphyic writing system) were under his especial protection.

Last updated March 5, 2010.