| Lady of the Beasts by Pegi Eyers |
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| The Goddess is alive! She is strong, wise & wild! We can trace the connection between the Great Goddess and her sacred animals throughout history to the activists of today that devote their time to protecting wildlife. Ancient symbols found worldwide depicting the deer, buffalo, horse, wolf, lion, bear, raven, owl, snake, fish, butterfly and spider all embody the personality & power of the Goddess (The Mother of Wild Animals) in her various forms. To matriarchal cultures the “spirit within” of the female principle was considered a transformational energy and the source of the metamorphosis weaving throughout the animal world. This primal worldview considered all life sacred and embraced a earth-connected way of life. All wildlife were symbolically a manifestation of the goddess and treated with magic & respect. One of the earliest images of the Lady of the Beasts is the rock engraving “Venus of Laussel”, circa 20,000 B.C. Representing the cycle of life, she stands with the lunar crescent of a bison horn upheld in her hand, painted with red ochre, the magic colour of birth. By medieval times, this icon had become transformed into the legend of the wild “one-horn“, a unicorn willingly domesticated by the virginal essence of femininity. Considered a lunar symbol, the unicorn was a trace memory of the ancient moon-worshipping matriarchal cultures of Europe. The magical Paleolithic Hunt Goddess communed with the animals, and aboriginal petroglyphs of her can be found worldwide. From Greek mythology, Artemis is the virginal goddess of wilderness and wild animals. She was depicted with the crescent of the moon on her forehead and roamed the primal forests hunting for lions, panthers and stags. She had a equal role as protector of the animals, attending to their well-being and reproduction.
Today, women play a key role in achieving protection for wildlife & their habitat. Since 1960, Jane Goodall has worked tirelessly to protect chimpanzees in Gombe, and is widely recognized for establishing innovative conservation programs. The mission of The Jane Goodall Institute for Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation is “to advance the power of individuals to take informed and compassionate action to improve the environment for all living things.” Belinda Wright is a “wild tigress” when it comes to saving wildlife. Founder of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, she has been at the forefront of wildlife conservationists committed to stop the illegal trade in tiger parts. Renee Askins, author of “Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, A Woman & The Wild” founded the Wolf Fund to re-establish wolves as a keystone species within Yellowstone Park. She endured death threats from ranchers, years of contentious debate and political manipulation to finally witness the realization of her mission in 1995. Canadian heroines Kristy Hiltz, founder of the Turtle Trauma Centre in Peterborough, and Audrey Tournay, founder of The Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, Ontario, have addressed the problem of injured animals and successfully relocate turtles, beavers, racoons, otters, skunks, wolves, bears, foxes and deer into the wild (proving the biologists wrong)! May all creatures be of a blissful heart. |
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