The Goddess Divine Podcast

 Step back to AD 60 and witness the rise of one of history’s most fearless warriors: Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. Betrayed by Rome, humiliated and oppressed, she ignited a rebellion that shook the empire. In this episode, we explore the story behind the legend, from the burning of Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium, to the final showdown with Roman forces.Hear Boudica’s voice as we imagine her thoughts, her wrath, and her unyielding spirit. Discover the truths and misconceptions about her life, what she fought for, and why her legacy still resonates today. This is not just a story of rebellion, it’s a story of courage, defiance, and the enduring power of freedom. Join us for a journey through history, myth, and the fire of a queen who refused to be silenced.CitationsBraund, David (1996). Ruling Roman Britain. London: Routledge. p. 132.Green, Miranda (1995). Celtic Goddesses p. 32, British Museum Press.Miranda Aldhouse-Green (1 May 2014). Boudica Britannia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 243–. ISBN 978-1-317-86629-9.Tacitus, Annals 14.32Cassius Dio, Roman History 62.2Tacitus, Annals 14.38Historic UK. (n.d.). Boudica: Warrior queen of the Iceni. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Boudica/Boudicca’s Celtic Pub. (n.d.). Who is Boudicca? https://boudiccascelticpub.com/who-is-boudicca%3FBBC. (n.d.). Boudicca. https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/boudicca.shtmlEncyclopaedia Britannica. (n.d.). Boudicca. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boudicca

In this episode of The Goddess Divine, we journey into the brilliant, ambivalent, world-crossing power of Shapash, the Phoenician and Ugaritic Sun-Goddess known as the “Torch of the Gods.” Through myth, cosmology, ancient ritual, and contemplative storytelling, we explore her role as messenger, witness, healer, psychopomp, and negotiator between life and death. With insights from the Baal Cycle, Bronze Age Near Eastern culture, and lesser-known legends of Anat, Mavet, and Baal, we uncover the luminous, and fiercely honest, medicine that Shapash offers to modern seekers navigating transition, truth, and inner clarity. This episode illuminates Shapash as guide, protector, and bearer of clarity in times of shadow.  Reference List The Ugaritic Texts (KTU 1.1–1.6): The Baal Cycle Ritual and liturgical Ugaritic texts referencing Shapash (KTU 1.119, 1.23, and related fragments) Phoenician inscriptions referencing solar deities and ritual invocations Mark S. Smith, The Ugaritic Baal Cycle, Vols. I & II “The Baal Cycle,” https://emp.byui.edu/SatterfieldB/Ugarit/The%20Epic%20of%20Baal.html.Dawson, Tess, “The Horned Altar.” Llewellyn: Woodbury (MN). 2013.—, “Whisper of Stone.” O. Books: Winchester (UK). 2009. Siren, Christopher, “Canaanite/Ugaritic Mythology FAQ,” 1999. http://www.arcane-archive.org/faqs/faq.caugmth.9805.php  Took, T. (n.d.). Shapash. Thalia Took. https://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/shapash.php  Neptune, D. (2021, February 13). Shapash and Yarikh of Canaan. Neptune’s Dolphins. https://neptunesdolphins.wordpress.com/2021/02/13/shapash-and-yarikh-of-canaan/

Before she was reduced to a torch-bearing witch at the edge of Olympus, Hekate was something far older, stranger, and more terrifyingly compassionate.In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we enter the liminal realm of Goddess Hekate, keeper of thresholds, guardian of crossroads, and initiatrix of souls who stand between worlds. We begin with the haunting figure of Hecuba, the Trojan queen whose grief and rage transformed her into a dog. In some ancient tellings, Hecuba does not vanish into madness, she becomes Hekate’s companion, her hound, her echo. A woman undone by war becomes a liminal being, neither fully human nor fully beast, howling at the edge of the known world. This is where Hekate waits.From there, we descend into Hekate’s presence within the Chaldean Oracles, where she is not merely a goddess of folk magic, but the very World-Soul, the mediatrix between the intelligible and material realms. Here, Hekate is cosmic, luminous, and fierce: the boundary through which divine fire descends into form, and through which the soul may ascend again. As the Oracles declare, she “holds the keys of the cosmos,” standing between Father Nous and the manifest world, ensuring that creation does not collapse into chaos.We explore Hekate as goddess of the crossroads, not as a poetic metaphor, but as a lived spiritual technology. Crossroads were places of decision, danger, offering, and transformation, sites where offerings were left not to appease, but to acknowledge the unseen forces that gather when paths converge. Hekate presides over these spaces because she is the threshold: the moment before choice, the breath before initiation, the silence before magic speaks.Finally, we turn toward Hekate as mistress of pharmaka, potions, poisons, remedies, and spells. In the ancient world, pharmaka was never neutral. It healed or harmed depending on knowledge, timing, and intention. Hekate governs this ambiguous power, reminding us that magic is not moralized, it is relational. She teaches that transformation always carries risk, and that true initiation demands discernment, responsibility, and respect for forces that cannot be undone once called.This episode is an offering to Hekate not as aesthetic witchcraft, but as ancient, initiatory presence: guide of souls, companion of the outcast, and guardian of those who walk willingly into the dark, not to be consumed, but to be changed.If you have ever stood at a crossroads in your life, felt the pull of magic without instruction, or sensed that grief itself might be an initiation, this episode is for you.Reference Guide:1.Weber, Courtney. Hekate: Goddess of Witches.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019. 2. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature.Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. 3. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 4. Ogden, Daniel. Greek and Roman Necromancy.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 5. Ogden, Daniel. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 6.Edmonds, Radcliffe G. Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019.7. The Chaldean OraclesTranslations by Hans Lewy, Ruth Majercik, or modern scholarly editions.8.  Hesiod, Theogony9. Greek Magical Papyri (PGM)Edited by Hans Dieter Betz.10.  Sophocles. Fragments. Fragment 535 (sometimes numbered differently depending on edition).Preserved in:Pliny the Elder, Natural History 25.27Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 9.8.811. Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautica.Book III, lines ~528–575; ~1026–1062 (key pharmaka passages)In Book III, Medea:invokes Hekate explicitlyuses pharmaka derived from dangerous plantsperforms nocturnal rites tied to chthonic power12. Orphic Hymn 1: To Hekate (sometimes numbered Hymn 1 or 2 depending on edition)13. Brannen, Cyndi. Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.14. Brannen, Cyndi. Entering Hekate’s Cave: The Journey Through Darkness to Wholeness.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2020.15. Brannen, Cyndi. Entering Hekate’s Garden: The Magick, Medicine & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2022.

Hekate is one of the most complex and enduring goddesses of the ancient world, a figure who resists simplification, moralization, and domestication. Neither fully Olympian nor entirely chthonic, she stands at the crossroads: between life and death, light and darkness, beginnings and endings. In this episode, we explore who Hekate truly is beneath the later labels of “witch goddess” and how her power functioned in the ancient imagination.Originating from pre-Olympian and Anatolian traditions, Hekate was honored as a cosmic force long before Greek myth attempted to categorize her. She is the holder of keys, the guardian of thresholds, and the guide of souls. In Hesiod’s Theogony, she is uniquely praised by Zeus himself, granted authority over earth, sea, and sky, a rare acknowledgment of her sovereignty in a pantheon increasingly dominated by Olympian order.Hekate appears in myth as Persephone’s companion and guide, the torchbearer who witnesses descent and return. She receives the grief-stricken and the exiled, figures like Hecuba and stands with those whose lives have been shattered beyond repair. Yet she is also known as Brimo, the Terrifying One: a goddess who brings upheaval, shatters illusions, and enforces the ancient laws of oath, boundary, and consequence.This episode explores Hekate’s many faces: Phosphoros, the Light-Bringer; Enodia, the Goddess of the Road; Propylaia, the Guardian at the Gate, and what these epithets reveal about her role as initiator rather than comforter. We look at her symbols, including torches, keys, dogs, and crossroads, and how her worship through practices like the Deipnon honored both the dead and the unseen forces that move through our lives.Hekate is not a goddess of easy answers. She does not promise safety or certainty, but she offers clarity, truth, and passage. To encounter Hekate is to stand at a threshold and be changed. This episode invites listeners to meet her not as a caricature, but as she has always been: a powerful guardian of transformation, shadow, and becoming.Reference Guide:1.Weber, Courtney. Hekate: Goddess of Witches. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019. 2. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Hekate Soteira: A Study of Hekate’s Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990. 3. Johnston, Sarah Iles. Restless Dead: Encounters Between the Living and the Dead in Ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. 4. Ogden, Daniel. Greek and Roman Necromancy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. 5. Ogden, Daniel. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. 6.Edmonds, Radcliffe G. Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. 7. The Chaldean OraclesTranslations by Hans Lewy, Ruth Majercik, or modern scholarly editions.8.  Hesiod, Theogony9. Greek Magical Papyri (PGM)Edited by Hans Dieter Betz.10.  Sophocles. Fragments. Fragment 535 (sometimes numbered differently depending on edition). Preserved in: Pliny the Elder, Natural History 25.27 Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 9.8.8 11. Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautica. Book III, lines ~528–575; ~1026–1062 (key pharmaka passages)In Book III, Medea: invokes Hekate explicitly uses pharmaka derived from dangerous plants performs nocturnal rites tied to chthonic power12. Orphic Hymn 1: To Hekate (sometimes numbered Hymn 1 or 2 depending on edition) 13. Brannen, Cyndi. Keeping Her Keys: An Introduction to Hekate’s Modern Witchcraft.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2019.14. Brannen, Cyndi. Entering Hekate’s Cave: The Journey Through Darkness to Wholeness.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2020.15. Brannen, Cyndi. Entering Hekate’s Garden: The Magick, Medicine & Mystery of Plant Spirit Witchcraft.Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2022.

In this episode, we enter the burning heart of the myth of Semele, the mortal woman who loved Zeus and dared to ask for the truth of his divine form. Her story is one of desire, revelation, and transformation, a tale where vision becomes fire and mortality dissolves into light. Drawing from Hesiod, Apollodorus, Euripides, and Ovid, we trace how Semele’s death by lightning becomes not an end, but an initiation: the moment from which Dionysus is born and from which Semele herself is reborn as the goddess Thyone.Through myth, ritual, and philosophy, this episode explores how Semele’s apotheosis illuminates the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth, human longing for divine encounter, and the power of feminine transfiguration. The story unfolds not only as tragedy but as sacred alchemy, revealing how the mortal body becomes temple, and how the divine can be both destructive and renewing.References Hesiod. Theogony, lines 940–942 (trans. H. G. Evelyn-White, 1914). Apollodorus. Bibliotheca 3.4.3 (trans. J. G. Frazer, 1921). Euripides. The Bacchae (trans. E. R. Dodds, 1960). Pindar. Olympian Odes 2.25–40 (trans. W. H. Race, 1997). Ovid. Metamorphoses 3.253–315 (trans. A. D. Melville, 1986). Otto, W. F. (1965). Dionysus: Myth and Cult. Indiana University Press. Kerenyi, K. (1976). Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life. Princeton University Press. Burkert, W. (1987). Ancient Mystery Cults. Harvard University Press.

 In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we walk with Ala, the Igbo Earth Mother, across myth, history, and the modern world. From her cosmology as the living earth and arbiter of morality, to colonial disruptions and contemporary exploitation, including child labor in Congolese cobalt mines, oil devastation in the Niger Delta, and deforestation across Africa, we explore how humanity has violated her sacred covenant. We discuss how the Divine Feminine and matriarchal wisdom offer pathways for ecological restoration, ethical leadership, and social justice, and guide listeners in a meditation to connect with Ala’s presence and power. To Donate: Sudan Emergency Appeal: HERE UNICEF: HERE OXFAM: HERE Women for Women International: HERE

Happy New Year everyone! In this luminous New Year episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we journey into the heart of renewal — the sacred threshold between what has been and what is yet to come. Through story, reflection, meditation, and invocation, you’ll awaken your Inner Goddess, the eternal presence of wisdom, power, and compassion that lives within you. We begin with “The Dawn of the Inner Goddess,” a poetic microstory that invites you to witness the goddess rising from the stillness of the old year, gathering its lessons, and calling forth the new. Through “The Goddess Speaks,” you’ll hear a message from your divine self, a reminder that endings are sacred beginnings, and that every intention you plant carries the vibration of the divine. The episode then flows into guided reflection and meditation, where you’ll release the energy of the past year, plant new intentions in the fertile soil of your heart, and align your spirit with the sacred feminine rhythm of creation. Finally, through a brief teaching on the power of goddess-centered intention, you’ll learn how clarity, embodiment, patience, reverence, and integration weave together to manifest your path in harmony with the universe. The episode closes with a devotional affirmation, a prayer of alignment, courage, and divine feminine wisdom, to anchor you in your light for the year ahead.

In this episode, we explore the enchanting Italian figure of La Befana, the winter witch who sweeps across the night sky on Epiphany Eve, delivering gifts, blessings, and quiet wisdom. Far more than a quaint holiday character, La Befana is an ancient echo of pre-Christian goddesses of hearth, liminality, and renewal, a crone spirit who holds the threshold between the old year and the new. We trace her story from the familiar tale of the wandering Magi, who once knocked on her door seeking the Christ child, to older roots in Roman tradition where women like her,  broom-bearing, hearth-tending, keeper of the household fire,  once embodied the presence of the divine feminine in everyday life. Along the way, we'll explore how La Befana’s soot-smudged face and patched clothing symbolize the wisdom of the elder, the courage of imperfection, and the magical work of tending what others overlook. You’ll discover how this “good witch” became beloved across Italy, why she brings both sweets and lumps of coal, and what her broom truly symbolizes: the clearing of stagnant energy, the sweeping away of misfortune, and the blessing of every threshold she crosses. We will also delve into her possible connection to the ancient Sabine goddess Strenua, a forgotten deity of health, strength, and New Year purification whose festival once enlivened the streets of ancient Rome. From her sacred laurel procession to her role in inspiring the tradition of New Year’s gifts, Strenua forms a powerful ancestral thread that may well run beneath La Befana’s patched skirts. This episode blends folklore, history, goddess lore, and spiritual reflection to illuminate La Befana not merely as a figure of children’s stories, but as a wise guide of the liminal season, a keeper of renewal, and an elder archetype who blesses the turning of the year with generosity, humor, and magic. By the end, you may find yourself looking at brooms differently… and perhaps sensing that on a cold January night, an old woman wrapped in shawls might still be sweeping her way through the winter stars.

In this episode, we journey into the life of Paulina of Nola, a Roman noblewoman transformed by grief, devotion, and an extraordinary capacity for love. Her story stands at the crossroads of Roman virtue and early Christian spirituality, revealing a feminine archetype that blends dignity, humility, and courageous compassion. We explore Paulina’s origins among the Roman elite, tracing how the devastating loss of her child became the hinge of her spiritual awakening. Rather than retreat into isolation, Paulina became a living embodiment of dignitas, a noble character rooted not in status, but in moral strength, and pietas, the Roman virtue of duty, sacred responsibility, and loyalty to both the divine and the vulnerable. Her transformation also resonated with the virtues of caritas, a deep and active love for humanity, and humilitas, the holy humility that recognizes divinity in every face. Through service to the poor, care for widows and orphans, and her collaboration with her husband Paulinus in building sanctuaries of hospitality, Paulina emerges as an archetype of the “wounded mother who becomes a healer.” Her sorrow does not diminish her, it opens her. Her capacity to endure suffering becomes the very source from which she channels redemptive love. This episode also traces the archetypal dimension of the feminine healer whose love reshapes communities. Paulina stands in a long lineage of women whose grief becomes grace, whose tenderness becomes medicine, whose devotion becomes a force that changes the fabric of the world. She offers a model of love that is fierce in its softness and expansive in its reach, love as presence, as service, as spiritual power.

Today we are connecting to the ancient Roman goddess Fides. Fides, the Roman goddess of trust, loyalty, and fidelity, illuminates the enduring power of promises, integrity, and honor. From the Capitoline Temple to everyday acts of faith in the marketplace, Fides teaches that trust is both a personal virtue and a societal force. Through her guidance, we learn that integrity transforms relationships, stabilizes life’s chaos, and anchors our actions in purpose. By honoring Fides, through reflection, ethical living, and ritual, we step into a lineage of faithful hearts and reliable hands, guided by the silent, radiant power of sacred promises.

In this episode, we journey to the edges of the cosmos to meet Aether, the primordial god of the upper air and pure light, and Hemera, the goddess of day and the radiant unfolding of life. Born from the eternal darkness of Nyx and the boundless expanse of Chaos, these deities embody illumination, clarity, and the sacred rhythm of day and night. Through myth and meditation, we explore how Aether and Hemera illuminate the spaces within ourselves where insight, awakening, and divine vision reside. From the first light that banished primordial night to the cycles that sustain life on earth, these twin forces remind us of the perpetual renewal of spirit and consciousness.  References  Hesiod. (Theogony, lines 123–130, 217–223). Homeric Hymns. (Hymn to Helios and Hymn to the Sun). Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford University Press. Burkert, W. (1985). Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Harvard University Press. Stafford, E. (2000). Worshipping Virtues: Personification and the Divine in Ancient Greece. Duckworth. GreekGoddesses.fandom.com. (2025). Aether and Hemera. https://greekgoddesses.fandom.com/wiki/Aether PaleoThea. (2025). Aether & Hemera: Primordial Greek Deities of Light and Day. https://paleothea.com/gods-and-goddesses/aether-hemera/ Olympioi. (2025). Aether and Hemera: Cosmic Light and Day in Greek Mythology. https://olympioi.com/deities/aether-hemera

On this episode of the Goddess Divine Podcast we revisit the ancient primordial goddess Asherah. This episode is a previously unreleased session that I did with a friend of mine several months ago. I have uploaded it for those who are very interested in goddess Asherah and wish to connect with her more closely. I hope this episode is helpful during your journey. 

In this episode, we explore Hybris, the ancient Greek personification of arrogance, overreach, and hubris. Born from a cosmic desire to test the limits of mortals, Hybris serves as a mirror reflecting our pride, entitlement, and the consequences of forgetting balance. Through myth, meditation, and reflection, we uncover how Hybris teaches the soul the sacred lesson of restraint, humility, and cosmic proportion. From mortal kings who believed themselves equal to the gods, to the intricate dynamics of divine punishment in Greek literature, Hybris reveals the eternal tension between human ambition and divine order.  References  Hesiod. (Theogony, lines 223–232). Homer. (Iliad & Odyssey). Pausanias. (Description of Greece, 1.33.2–3). Stafford, E. (2000). Worshipping Virtues: Personification and the Divine in Ancient Greece. Duckworth. Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford University Press. Jung, C. G. (1951). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Princeton University Press. GreekGoddesses.fandom.com. (2025). Nemesis & Hybris. https://greekgoddesses.fandom.com/wiki/Hybris PaleoThea. (2025). Hybris: Greek Goddess of Arrogance and Hubris. https://paleothea.com/gods-and-goddesses/hybris-greek-goddess-of-hubris/ Medium. (2025). Hybris and the Lessons of Excess in Greek Mythology. https://medium.com/@pussgara/hybris-greek-mythology

In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we journey into the enigmatic world of the Etruscans to rediscover Nortia, the powerful goddess of time, fate, cycles, and the delicate hinges upon which destiny turns. Often overshadowed by her Greek and Roman counterparts, Nortia emerges here not as a forgotten deity, but as a force of cosmic precision,  the one who fixes time itself. We begin with a mythic story that breathes life back into her ancient presence, inviting listeners to imagine a world where every year’s turning was marked by the driving of a sacred nail into her temple walls, a ritual that bound past to future and sealed the fate of an entire people. Through this symbolic act we witness how the Etruscans conceptualized time not as an endless river, but as a series of divine appointments, moments nailed into permanence. The episode explores who the Etruscans were and the unique spirituality that shaped their cosmology: their reverence for fate, their fascination with divination, and their belief that divine signs structured the rise and fall of cities and empires. Within this worldview, Nortia presided over what could be granted to mortals, what must be withheld, and when cycles were required to end so that new ones could begin. We delve into the ritual, political, and prophetic power of the “nail rite,” understanding how Nortia’s annual marking of time was not simply symbolic but cosmically consequential, fixing the boundaries of destiny, anchoring cycles, and granting divine sanction for renewal. The episode also includes a moving invocation from Nortia’s perspective, offering listeners an intimate encounter with the goddess who governs turning points, endings, patience, and the mysterious architecture of fate. Finally, we reflect on why a goddess like Nortia matters now. In a world obsessed with speed and productivity, she reminds us of the sacredness of timing, of waiting, pausing, beginning again. She teaches that fate is not a rigid decree but a collaboration between divine order and human choice, and that cycles conclude not only with loss but with the possibility of rebirth. References & Further Reading de Grummond, N. T. (2006). Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. George, A. R. (1999). The Piacenza Liver and Etruscan Divination. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 58(2), 95–110. MacIntosh Turfa, J. M. (2013). Divining the Etruscan World: Religious Practices and Beliefs. Brill. Erika Simon, "Gods in Harmony: The Etruscan Pantheon," in The Religion of the Etruscans (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 59.  Massimo Pallottino, "Religion in pre-Roman Italy," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 30; Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006), p. 96 online. The Mysterious Etruscans. (n.d.). Religion of the Etruscans. https://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/religion.html World Mythos. (n.d.). Nortia. https://worldmythos.com/nortia/

In this hauntingly introspective episode, we descend into the veiled corridors of Greek mythology to meet two often-forgotten daughters of the divine feminine shadow — Apate, the spirit of deceit, and Ate, the goddess of ruin and reckless impulse. Together, they form a mirror of human folly and awakening, revealing the hidden architecture of our own self-deceptions. Born of Nyx, the night herself, and Eris, the goddess of strife, these goddesses weave through the human condition with quiet inevitability — whispering illusions, stirring chaos, and leading mortals to their own undoing. Yet, within their chaos lies a rare alchemy: the transmutation of ignorance into truth, delusion into clarity, and fall into illumination. Through myth, archetype, and mystic psychology, we explore how Apate and Ate work together within the inner mysteries — how deception is sometimes the initiator, and downfall the catalyst for soul awakening. From the Trojan War’s divine manipulation to the spiritual art of discernment, this episode reframes deception not as moral failure, but as a sacred mirror through which we must all one day gaze. We’ll also wander into the esoteric realms of alchemy, examining how Apate and Ate appear symbolically within the Great Work — as forces that burn away illusion, pride, and attachment, leading the initiate through the Nigredo, or blackening stage, toward rebirth in light. The episode closes with a two-part guided journey — an inner descent where listeners first meet Apate, the Weaver of Illusions, to see what false stories they’ve wrapped around their spirit; and then Ate, the Bringer of Ruin, who clears what must fall away. Through them, listeners learn that even in deception, there is divine intelligence; and even in ruin, there is resurrection. Enter the mirror. Witness what deceived you. Watch what falls — and then, what rises. 📚 References & Source Notes Hesiod, Theogony (lines 211–232) — Nyx as mother of Apate (“Deceit”) and Ate (“Ruin”). Homer, Iliad XIX.91–133 — Zeus recounts how Ate led him to harm Heracles; Ate personified as delusion and folly. Pausanias, Description of Greece IX.39 — References to altars and cultic remembrance of Ate in Thebes. Apollodorus, Library I.3.2 — Lineages of Nyx’s children, including Apate. Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. Thames & Hudson, 1951. Jung, C.G. Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. (for archetypal shadow & delusion parallels). Neumann, Erich. The Great Mother. Princeton University Press, 1955. Hillman, James. Re-Visioning Psychology. HarperPerennial, 1975 (for mythic archetypal framing). Eliade, Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy. Harper Torchbooks, 1971. Fabricius, Johannes. Alchemy: The Medieval Alchemists and Their Royal Art. Diamond Books, 1989.

In this contemplative and expansive episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, Deanna explores one of the great mysteries of ancient spirituality: What becomes of a goddess when her temples fall, her people vanish, and her name is no longer spoken? Moving through history, myth, cosmology, psychology, and metaphysics, the episode unravels how divine feminine energies are transformed, not destroyed, when belief fades. From the ruins of forgotten shrines to the depths of the collective unconscious, we journey into the subtle realms where goddesses endure as archetypes, intelligences, and living patterns of cosmic energy. Through narrative reflection, channeled monologue, and philosophical inquiry, this episode examines how deities shift when their cultures collapse, how divine energy redistributes according to the laws of consciousness, and why the resurgence of goddess spirituality today is both inevitable and necessary. Listeners will explore how goddesses migrate across cultures, reincarnate through new symbols and names, and continue to shape the human psyche long after formal worship ends. The episode concludes with a haunting, luminous message from the forgotten goddess herself, a reminder that the sacred feminine never disappears; she simply waits for new eyes to recognize her. A profound meditation on memory, myth, and the living pulse of the divine feminine, this episode invites listeners to reconsider what it truly means for a goddess to be “forgotten,” and why reclaiming goddess consciousness is essential for personal and collective wholeness today.

In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we explore one of the most electrifying themes in goddess traditions around the world: apotheosis, the transformation of a mortal woman into a goddess. Across cultures and centuries, this moment of becoming marks the threshold where human suffering, courage, devotion, or injustice ignites into divine presence. From Inanna’s descent and resurrection, to the deification of Egyptian queens, to the Hellenistic stories of mortal women who crossed into sacred memory, apotheosis reveals an ancient truth: the line between human and divine has always been porous, fluid, and deeply feminine. We trace how cultures honored women as embodiments of cosmic power, not only goddesses from birth but goddesses by ascent: women who became divine through ordeal, ecstatic revelation, sacrifice, or the sheer magnitude of their spiritual influence. We also reflect on the social and ritual conditions that allowed this transformation to be witnessed and sanctified, and why such stories later diminished or disappeared. Through myth, anthropology, and mystical insight, this episode considers what goddess apotheosis means for us today. How do modern women experience spiritual elevation, visionary awakening, or inner sovereignty? What does it look like to reclaim the idea that the divine feminine is not distant or unreachable,  but something that can rise from within the human story? This is an episode about remembering the pathways to divinity that women walked long before patriarchal systems closed the gates. It is an invocation, a reclamation, and an invitation to see the goddess not as a distant icon, but as the final form of our own highest, liberated self.

 In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we journey to the far western edge of the ancient world,  to the twilight garden of the Hesperides, daughters of the evening star and guardians of Hera’s golden apples. Here, the mythic landscape shimmers between paradise and mystery, where nymphs tend to sacred fruit that grants immortality, and a coiled dragon named Ladon keeps watch beneath the fading light of day.  We trace their story through ancient texts. from Hesiod’s Theogony to Apollonius’ Argonautica, and uncover their appearance in myths of Heracles, Perseus, and even the Argonauts. We explore the deeper symbolism of their golden orchard as an echo of lost paradises, the Greek counterpart to the Garden of Eden, where divine knowledge, beauty, and temptation intertwine.  Through mythic reflection and spiritual insight, we contemplate what it means to tend one’s own inner garden of light, to guard what is sacred and radiant within us from the forces that would consume it. The Hesperides remind us that the fruits of divine wisdom ripen only at the edges of the known world, in the liminal space where day surrenders to night and mystery begins.  Citations for this Episode: Apollonius of Rhodes, & Hunter, R. (2009). Jason and the golden fleece. Oxford University Press. Diodorus Siculus. (c. 60 B.C.). The library of history (C. H. Oldfather, Trans.). Harvard University Press. Euripides. (c. 430 B.C.). Hippolytus (E. P. Coleridge, Trans.). Harvard University Press. Graves, R. (2018). The Greek myths. Viking. Hesiod. (c. 700 B.C.). Theogony (M. L. West, Trans.). Oxford University Press. Hyginus. (c. 150 A.D.). Fabulae (M. Grant, Trans.). University of Kansas Press. Maup van de Kerkhof. (2022, December 22). The Hesperides: Greek nymphs of the golden apples. History Cooperative. https://historycooperative.org/the-hesperides/ Miate, L. (2023, February 28). Hesperides. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 26, 2025, from https://www.worldhistory.org/Hesperides/ Nonnus. (c. 450 A.D.). Dionysiaca (W. H. D. Rouse, Trans.). Harvard University Press. Olympioi. (n.d.). Hesperides. Olympioi. Retrieved October 1, 2025, from https://olympioi.com/monsters/hesperides Pausanias. (c. 150 A.D.). Description of Greece (W. H. S. Jones, Trans.). Harvard University Press. Pausanias, & Newberry, J., & Levi, P. (1984). Guide to Greece (Vol. 2). Penguin Classics. Strabo. (c. 7 BCE/1932). Geography (H. L. Jones, Trans., Vol. 8). Harvard University Press. (Original work published ca. 7 BCE) Theoi Project. (n.d.). Hesperides. https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Hesperides.html Virgil. (c. 19 B.C.). Aeneid (R. Fagles, Trans.). Penguin Classics. Web sources (no author): Eclectic Light. (2020, May 11). Goddesses of the week: The Hesperides. https://eclecticlight.co/2020/05/11/goddesses-of-the-week-the-hesperides/ Garden History Blog. (2023, June 10). The garden of the Hesperides. https://thegardenhistory.blog/2023/06/10/the-garden-of-the-hesperides/ Greek Mythology Fandom. (n.d.). Garden of the Hesperides. https://greek-myth.fandom.com/wiki/Garden_of_the_Hesperides World History Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Hesperides. https://www.worldhistory.org/Hesperides/ 

This week we are doing a meditation called the Sacred Marketplace to help you explore where you are ready to receive more in life and to practice choosing abundance in different forms. You will interact with 3 different goddesses and receive 3 blessings from the market. 

In this episode, we journey into the celestial storytelling of the Ojibwe people to uncover the tale of the Star Maiden,  a sacred figure who bridges the sky world and the Earth. Through this traditional story, we explore themes of connection, transformation, and the deep relationship between the Ojibwe and the stars above. Join us as we reflect on the meaning behind the Star Maiden’s descent, her impact on the world below, and the legacy her story carries in Anishinaabe culture today. Citations for this episode: Benton-Banai, E. (1988). The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Williamson, R. A. (2000). Living the Sky: Ojibwe cosmology and star stories. Winnipeg: Native Studies Press. Johnston, B. (1990). Ojibway ceremonies. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Smith, D. (2015). Sky women and star maidens: Ojibwe celestial traditions. Journal of American Folklore, 128(509), 47–65. Kenny, A. (2018). Seven Grandfathers Teachings: Guiding principles of Ojibwe spirituality. Indigenous Knowledge Journal, 12(3), 34–50. Native Languages of the Americas. (n.d.). Ojibwe. Retrieved from https://www.native-languages.org/ojibwe.htm