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Goddess of abundance and prosperity, she
stands on a huge lotus in a flowing river, with coins pouring forth from her
hands. Her sari is red or magenta, with gold trim.
Depicted holding or seated upon the lotus, symbol of spiritual purity, fertility
and vegetative growth, the Goddess Sri Laxmi is venerated, like Ganesh, for her
auspicious nature. She carries a coffer, and gold coins shower from her hand.
She represents the supreme divine principle which pervades all creation with
vitality and consciousness. Actively venerated by nearly 1 billion Hindus,
Laxshmi is the modern face of the ancient Great Mother Goddess; stalks of grain
surrounding her head often connote a rich harvest.
Lakshmi, or Sri, is the Hindu Goddess of love and beauty and the Indian
equivalent of Aphrodite, for she was born on a lotus from the churning of the
milky sea when her consort Vishnu manifested as a tortoise avatar. She has
strong associations with the fall festival of Divali.
Here she is shown offering blessings and holding the lotus flowers as coins
shower from her hands.
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Goddess
Nut
(pronounced Noot)
In ancient times, after the twelfth month of
each year and before the first day of the ensuing year, calendar makers inserted
five days to permit the Goddess Nut to give birth to all of her children.
(Maspero, Dawn of Civilization, p208.)
Her name means "Night." Some of the titles of Nut were "Coverer
of the Sky," "She Who Protects," "Mistress of All," and
"She Who Holds a Thousand Souls."
Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of resurrection
and rebirth. According to the Egyptians, the heavenly bodies would enter her
mouth, traverse her skies and be reborn with dawn out of her womb.
A sacred symbol of Nut was the ladder, used by Osiris to enter her heavenly
skies. This ladder-symbol was called "maqet" and was placed in tombs
to protect the deceased, and to invoke the aid of the god of the dead.
She was the sky goddess, in contrast to most other mythologies, which usually
have a sky father. Nut was also a protector from "all things evil" to
those who sought her out.
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