The Burden of Creation
As we move forward from the Goddess Shakti at the Karaga Festival in the 'Beauty on Duty' mural, let's explore how women and flowers are constantly pedestalised as symbols of life across religions and cultures.
Unknown Fertility Goddess Statuette by Kara Babcock. Wikimedia Commons.
An unknown sculpture assumed as a fertility goddess. Why?
What we see to the left is a sculpture that a Canadian family had found and kept in their backyard. Is having flower on the breasts and stomach enough to be labelled as a fertility goddess? What pushes us to make this assumption?
Lotus-Headed Fertility Goddess Lajja Gauri. Credit: GaruSamuel Eilenberg Collection, Bequest of Samuel Eilenberg, 1998.
As the mind is replaced with the lotus, one must ask if the birth-giver has no mind?
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Why is the flower synonymous to not having a mind?
Perhaps what is also interesting is the name of the goddess, Lajja Gauri - 'Lajja' meaning modesty and 'Gauri' - another name for Goddess Parvati. This 6th century sculpture from the Shakti period
 A naked woman with extending yellow hair with a baby in her womb illustrated with white stars and a flower; a warning to women to protect their babies from AIDS by the Oficina Para la Prevención y Lucha Contra el Sida and Organization Panaermicana de la Salud. Colour lithograph by Marco Caamaño, 1994. Source: Wellcome Collection. In copyright. |
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Women as protectors? Women as flowers? Do they have sole responsibility of new life?
Why does our fear lead to a faith that again assumes woman as the protector and with flower, as the life-giver?
 Raksha Kali, a form of the goddess Parvati worshipped for protection against epidemics and drought. Watercolour. Wellcome Collection. |
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Is this a fruit? Is this a vagina?
Is this a vagina? Is this a fruit?
What we see to the left is a sculpture that a Canadian family had found and kept in their backyard. Is having flower on the breasts and stomach enough to be labelled as a fertility goddess? What pushes us to make this assumption?
Pomegranate, a grenade with its many seeds and juice -- is a symbol of fertility worshipped across cultures. What do you think its blatantly obvious association is with?
In every identity a woman embodies or is imposed upon, why is there always an unsaid role of 'motherhood' within?
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Why is nature 'mother'? Why does the 'mother nature' consistently and single-handedly bear the burden of it all?
What we see to the left is a sculpture that a Canadian family had found and kept in their backyard. Is having flower on the breasts and stomach enough to be labelled as a fertility goddess? What pushes us to make this assumption?
Whose life is it ok to sacrifice to bear the cost of creating another life?
What we see to the left is a sculpture that a Canadian family had found and kept in their backyard. Is having flower on the breasts and stomach enough to be labelled as a fertility goddess? What pushes us to make this assumption?
"The association of lilies with the Virgin Mary was so strong, that it was very hard for people to accept the existence of male structures in the lily flower"
- Lincoln Taiz, author or Flora Unveiled: The Discovery and Denial of Sex in Plants
Saint Mary (the Blessed Virgin), as the Virgin Immaculate. Engraving by C. Galle, 16--. Wellcome Collection.
Women as protectors? Women as flowers? Do they have sole responsibility of new life?
What we see to the left is a sculpture that a Canadian family had found and kept in their backyard. Is having flower on the breasts and stomach enough to be labelled as a fertility goddess? What pushes us to make this assumption?
« Au petit château » by Martine. Medium: Pencils, gouache, pastels on old Canson paper, dried flowers & pink lichen. Instagram.