05/04/2026
Death, resurrection an rebirth
Egyptian Goddess Hathor with her
vulture headdress playing a frame drum.
The oldest hieroglyph for the goddess of Upper Egypt
~~~~~~
The first historical cultures worship many female deities representing the Paleolithic goddesses fundamental aspects of creation preservation and regeneration.
She gives birth, she protects, she consumes and resurrects.
The vulture goddess represents one of the oldest mythologies of death and resurrection . One that lies at the heart of initiation rites.
As vulture, the goddess does not kill .
She consumes the dead in order to transmute the soul once again to life in the form of an egg.
The sacredness of the egg as a symbol of regeneration goes back further in time than we can trace.
Birds are twice born.
First the mother lays the eggs then the chick breaks out of its shell, in effect giving birth to itself.
The second birth enables it to soar into higher realms as a winged being.
The ancient mythological path of the bird goddess is a process of breaking forth from outgrown structures of personality and behavior just as the chick breaks out of the outgrown shell.
This is the basic metaphor of initiation.
Until that shell is broken what lies outside must remain unknown.
Once broken the shell can never be put together again.
It is the wisdom of no return, the womb cracked open lost forever in the initiates rebirth as a winged being whose spirit can fly through the three realms of heaven, earth and underworld.
And music, particularly drumming is always present in the rituals of initiation.
~ When the Drummers Were Women by Layne Redmond
