Every single one of these goddesses survived, but none of them survived intact.
In this episode I trace the weaving goddesses of Celtic and European mythology (Brigid, Arianrhod, Frigg, and Holda) and the pattern running through all of them. They were rewritten, renamed, absorbed into new religions, turned into fairy tales, reduced to saints.
Brigid survived by becoming a saint. Holda survived by becoming a fairy tale. Arianrhod survived in a manuscript written by people who tried to contain her. Frigg survived as a constellation, the stars of Orion’s Belt named for her spinning tool.
And then there’s the distaff. The broomstick. The spindle that cursed Sleeping Beauty. The ordinary tools of women’s making, reframed as instruments of evil.
This is Edition II of the First Makers series, part of the Goddess Project, tracing the history of draped cloth as a political act.
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