#AutumnEquinox a short video gathering foliage +showing the finished #altar for the season, honouring primordial #BirdGoddess + #GreatMother #Māra + #Ragana the Wild One + the Twin Gods + remembering my Mom and Aunt
#fall #Alberta #Canada #GoddessCulture #animist #WitchSky #SolaceInNature

My drawing/painting in acrylic tempera with oil pastel etc. of an ancient Bird Goddess figure as a water (etc?) jug. She is rather portly with wing-like short arms, crowned head with large eyes and a simple beaky nose. The figure is brown with reddish highlights given a texture to resemble rough ceramic or even stone or wood. The painted body is highlighted with white oil pastel on eyes, beak, breasts and lines suggesting the ancient symbols discussed by Marija Gimbutas- suggesting water/life etc. Background is a dull pinky ochre blending to violet at the bottom, and the words: Bird Goddess Says: I Love You! have been digitally added over the drawing.

3- Here's an old design I have on the same site- from one of my #Birdgoddess #paintings / #drawings I did versions with various text, this one seems appropriate in these days!
#MastoArt #Art #Goddess #pagan #kindness #Love #GimbutasMarija
cohan-designs.myspreadshop.ca/bird+goddess...

a classic looking owl with big round head and fluffy feathered body sits atop a dead small birch trunk, body facing the camera, but head turned to look down toward the ground over its left shoulder. There are some willow stems around, a small skinny spruce to left and light grey sky behind. It looks like black and white, nearly since the light was poor on an overcast winter afternoon.

The same owl in flight-a rather poor photo but we see the owl almost straight on as it flies from right angling to left, wings fully outstretched in a downward flap, we can see the upper surface of the wings, and much of it is darker and browner than what we see when it is perched, and much darker than the undersurface of the wings. It is flying in front of mixed woods of smallish poplars, birch, willows and one small spruce.

The owl has now re-perched, this time on a dead dry branch of a balsam poplar. It is a fairly closely cropped view we see bits of several trunks of these poplars- medium grey and deeply furrowed, mingling with dull green spruce and with lighter dangly somewhat twisted twigs hanging partly in front of the owl. We just see a part- maybe second quarter from the top- of these trees, with the owl in mid frame. The owls body is facing away, but it has turned its head to look back at me. Its yellow eyes and beak stand out from the surrounding white-grey-brown and black feathers.

A closer view, though a bit more from underneath looking up, of the owl in the same new perch. We can appreciate the complex yet orderly pattern of the colours on its feathers. It is looking to its side, over my head and beyond. We can see that its face, of finer grey feathers than the body, with unmarked light grey between beak and eyes, is outlined with black, and a darker line comes from the top of the head down to the beak so the face is rather divided in two. The overall effect is a very striking and intense looking face! The function of this wide flat elaborately feathered facial disk is to help direct sounds to its ears to enhance amazing hearing abilities.

I was privileged over a week or so to see this beautiful #owl I occasionally see owl pellets or signs of them on the snow but rarely see the actual birds!
video links to follow
Strix nebulosa ssp nebulosa (American) Great Grey Owl #birds #nature #Alberta #BorealForest #BirdGoddess #Pagansky 🌿📷

A grouse the size of a small chicken displaying how well its camouflage can work if it doesn't move! it has a complex pattern of stripes and dots in brown, grey, black, white blending well with the tangle of dried stems and leaves around it, with a shaft of afternoon sun coming from one side and hitting the edge of the bird and the snowy ground.

#FotoMontag #PhotoMonday Nov 7 is the #CrossQuarterDay between Autumn Equinox / #Winter Solstice- this is the real reason for the end of October/ early November cultural/religious celebrations that have developed in various places #BirdGoddess has made sure she stays top of mind! 😀 #birds #witchsky

cropped telephoto view of around a dozen large white long necked birds with black feet flying high overhead against a blue sky

There is #archaeological evidence (see replies) that there was once a primordial #GoddessCulture spanning vast areas. Perhaps the oldest of all, and progenitrix of later goddesses was #BirdGoddess- #birds join earth, sky, water, produce the #CosmicEgg + more #MarijaGimbutas #animist #pagan #witchsky