I have a love-hate relationship with Goddess Spell Books. On the one hand, I love them. I love goddesses, learning about them and seeing many goddesses from all around the globe in one book warms my heart. On the other, I often find some factual errors or a very simplistic view of the goddess in question. Aphrodite gets pigeonholed into the love goddess archetype all the time. And She is a love goddess, but She is also a war goddess, a goddess of roses, a sea goddess, a mourning goddess and a Lady of the Graves.
Isis and Hathor get confused all the time. Hathor is the goddess of motherhood, romance, love, beauty, music and dance. Isis is the goddess of magic, a mother of Horus, a goddess of familial love and self-possession, a goddess of beauty, and a grieving widow. They are not the same goddess!
As for the factual errors:
- Hathor is married to Horus the Elder (Heru Wer) and not Heru-sa-Aset (Horus, son of Isis). These are not the same god.
- Oya’s main animal is the water buffalo
- Nephthys is not a battered wife and Set is not evil
- Isis is a moon goddess due to Roman influence. The ancient Egyptian Aset is a solar and stellar goddess. Aset’s association with the moon is due to Wesir and Heru being killed/harmed and reborn/healed.
Anyway, I would like to see a Goddess spell book have many goddesses from one pantheon and having them be in different categories because they have more than one aspect.
Like for a Learning/School section, you could have Seshat as the Goddess of education, math, writing, organization and libraries and Aset, the Lady of all knowledge, writing and research.
For a home and hearth section, you could have Bast as guardian of the home, Nephthys as Lady of the House, Hathor as a home goddess and Taweret as the home goddess. Aset was also honored this way in the Late Period.
For prosperity and abundance, you could have Aset as Lady of Prosperity and Hethert (Hathor) as Lady of Abundance.
For beauty and self-love, you could have Aset, Hathor, Mut and Tefnut for various reasons.
For protection and strength (mental, physical, spiritual), you could have Aset, Possessor of Strength and Eye of Ra and various other Eyes of Ra like Mut, Bast, Sekhmet, Nit (Neith), and Tefnut.
For creativity and art, you could have Nit as the creatrix, Hathor as the Lady of the arts, music and dance and Aset as Lady of the Arts.
For change, sorrow and grief, Aset and Nephthys as the mourning women and Ladies of transformation.
For compassion, you could have Aset, Nephthys and Nut as the Ladies of Kindness.
Anyway, so here are my thoughts on this.
Fiercely Bright One 