| |
 (Actual size)
Nut/Nathor/Hathor
This image was found scattered from Libya to Egypt and dated in the predynastic period 4000BC.
The identity of this pin is a combination of the Ancient Bird and Serpent Goddess of Regeneration and the Cow Horned Queen of Heaven represented by a category of votive figurines called "Great Woman with Upraised Arms". The upraised arms are a magical gesture of the evocation and appearance of the deity. This gesture is associated with the ancient female mystery rite of "Drawing down the Moon" and encountered also in the Egyptian hieroglyph for the KA (Symbol of the soul).
This image was found as a votive funerary offering. Her form as the Bird/Serpent Goddess of Regeneration may represent a spiritual guide for the deceased as Hathor was also "the Opener of the Gateway of Dreams". This function of spirit guide was not restricted to the dead, and such figurines could have been given as a protection to people asleep or ill, or to newborn and very young childern. Such practices find a familiar modern echo in the feminine-appearing Guardian Angels with uplifted wings placed in nurseries and sickrooms even today.
Waking Dreams Pin
A gift from Zelia Silva
and
VERO IND.
|