It’s lovely how we sometimes affirm ourselves as deities accidentally … or perhaps it’s instinctive.
We are all goddesses, women and men both, and we each have a lot of different goddesses within us.
We are all male gods, too, and we each have a lot of different male divinities within us.
All humans are multifaceted. That is reflected in our sacred nature.
Whatever deity or deities you identify with, do affirm being divinity, because it is a beautiful and joyous and empowering reality.
I think sometimes we affirm ourselves as deity accidentally … or perhaps it’s instinctive. For example, I accidentally affirmed myself as the Goddess Baba Yaga recently. Here’s the story:
Middle of the night, I wanted a model for a painting of Baba Yaga. At 3:00 a.m., there’s not a lot of people you can call. So I looked through my photos and found this one of myself:
A picture of me wearing a natural-looking hat I wear for warmth when walking in winter woods seemed a good springboard for a portrait of a Goddess who lives in the forest. (Bragging rights: I made the chapeau, including sculpting its feather out of wool.)
Here’s the painting:
It’s not meant to be an accurate rendition of me. I just needed a jumping-off point.
Nevertheless, the painting process became a meditative self-empowerment. A lot of it was not on a cognitive level; to some extent, the affirmation of my godhood was a subconscious experience that surfaced to the cognitive level later. Getting to depict Baba Yaga using myself as a model was a remarkable and lovely journey, despite being “accidental” empowerment.
In fact, I first started identifying with Her years before I painted Her portrait, but the painting process really deepened the identification.
The Baba Yaga I identify with is not the Baba Yaga in most folk tales. I revisioned that lore. The portrait mirrors that.
Check out my revisioning of Baba Yaga, through her apprentice’s story in my book Baba Yaga’s Apprentice—A Faerie Tale Ritual. My painting of Baba Yaga is an illustration in the book. Click the banner below:
