| SOPDET: Egyptian, more usually found in the Greek rendering Sothis. The Dog Star, Sirius -or, as the Egyptians called it, the Arrow-head Star. 'The going up of the goddess Sothis', the heliacal rising of Sirius on 19 July, was the signal for Thebes' greatest annual festival, that of Opet (see MUT). It also enables us to assign exact dates to the practical, or Sothic, Egyptian year (though the official year of 365 days, like the Jewish and Moslem ones, moved out of step with the solar year, regaining synchronization every 1,460 years). She was regarded as Queen of the Constellations, of which 36 were recognized, corresponding to the zodiacal decans. Depicted either as a woman or as a cow seated in her boat, with three stars along her back and Sirius itself between her horns. According to Court de Gebelin and Waite, the Tarot Major Arcanum the Star represents the Dog Star, and de Gebelin describes it as wholly Egyptian. SOPHIA: ('Wisdom') A Gnostic AEON; but Wisdom personified as female was earlier also characteristic of Hebrew and Greek-Hebrew thinking. The Bible frequently so personifies her: for example Proverbs ix:1-12; and Jesus himself, 'Wisdom is justified of all her children' (Luke vii:35). She represents 'the wisdom of that inner spark which speaks and functions of itself, quite apart from our conscious control' (Esther Harding), as distinct from the masculine Logos. Many Greek churches were dedicated to Hagia Sophia, 'Holy Wisdom', including the great basilica in Byzantium. In the Sistine Chapel painting of God reaching out a finger to Adam, she appears behind God in an almost wifely attitude, with God's arm round her shoulders. A Gnostic amulet portrays her as a naked woman with two winged angels holding a crown above her head. Gnostic teaching is that Sophia was filled with desire to 'generate out of herself without spouse' and that her self-induced orgasm gave birth to the whole cosmos, including her daughter SOPHIA AKHAMOTH. Festivals: 15 August, 5 October. SOPHIA AKHAMOTH: Gnostic. An AEON, arising from her mother SOPHIA 's cosmos-creating orgasm. A newly separate entity, she too began to release creative sexual energy; mother and daughter continued to generate the universe, Sophia on the higher spiritual levels, Sophia Akhamoth on the denser planes, favouring mankind by bringing wisdom to them on the levels close to the physical. Her sphere is what occultists call the Lower Astral Light or Ether. SOTHIS: see SOPDET. SRADDA: ('Confidence') Hindu goddess of faith; wife of Dharma, probably mother of Kama. SRAHMAN: Africa, Kaffir. A silk cotton tree dryad who taught travellers the secrets of the forest and of herbs. Wife of the demon Sasabonsum, who devoured travellers. SRI: Hindu. An incarnation of LAKSHMI as wife of Ramachandra, an avatar of Vishnu. SRINMO: Tibetan demoness of death, holding the Cosmic Wheel. 'This is due in part to the antifeminine influence of Buddhism, which, because woman creates new life, looks upon her as the chief obstacle to redemption, as an instrument of the passion beneath which the world moans' (Erich Neumann). STHENO: see GORGONS. STRENIA: Roman, originally Sabine, goddess of the New Year. Corresponds to SALUS. On 1 January palm and bay branches, and sweetmeats of honey, figs or dates, were carried up the Capitoline Hill from her sacred grove. The offerings, called strenae, were gilded. Relics of the Custom persist in Germany, and in France, where New Year gifts are called étrennes. STYX: Greek. Daughter of Oceanus and TETHYS, and protectress of the River Styx which must be crossed to reach the Underworld. She helped the Olympians against the Titans, and thereafter the gods Swore their oaths by her. SUBHADRA: Hindu, a younger sister of Krishna. Honoured at the great festival at Puri, where the castes may mingle indiscriminately. SUCCOTH-BENOTH: see ZARPANIT. SUHIJI-NI-NO-KAMI: ('Mud-Earth-Lady') Japanese Eanh goddess, associated with abundant vegetation. SUKARAPREYASI: ('Beloved of the Boar') Hindu Earth goddess, perhaps wife of the Vahara, third avatar of Vishnu. Depicted as a seated woman, accompanied by Vishnu in the form of a boar. SUL, SULLA: (Celtic siul, eye) British Sun goddess and goddess of hot springs. Bladud, son of King Rud Hidibras, built a shrine for her 'near Badon' which became Aquae Sulis, the modern Bath. A perpetual fire was burned there in her honour. Known to the Romans as SuI Minerva. May have some connection with Silbury Hill, the Scilly Isles (Sylinancis) and Mousehole (Place of SuI) in Cornwall. Sally Lunn cakes recall the wheaten cakes offered at her altar. Festivals: 2 February, 22 December. SUN: Chinese, one of the trigrams of the I Ching, two Yang lines above one Yin line; the Gentle, Wind, Wood, the First Daughter. (See also LI and TUI.) SUNG-TZU NIANG-NIANG: A Chinese goddess of fecundity and healing. Depicted draped in a large white veil, seated on a lotus with a child in her arms. Corresponds to KWAN-YIN. SURA: Hindu goddess of wine, produced at the Churning of the Ocean in Vedic myth. SURABHI: ('Pleasant, Friendly') Hindu, 'the marvellous cow, mother and nurse of all living things', produced at the Churning of the Ocean in Vedic myth. SURATAMANGARI: ('Sexual Joy' + 'Cluster of Blossom') Hindu, associated with fairies. SURYA: Hindu solar deity, sometimes female, sometimes male (see SANJNA). As a goddess, she was wife simultaneously to the two Nasatyas, doctors of the gods and friends of the sick and unfortunate. SUSERI-HIME: Japanese. Daughter of god Susanoo and wife of god of medicine O-Kuni-Nishi. SUSHUMNA: Hindu, an aspect of KUNDALINI; an energy or current, regarded as blue in colour. One of the three Vital Airs, the other two being IDA and PINGALA. SUTROOKA: Hindu, wife of Munnoo, and progenitrix of the human race. SUWA: An early Arabian Sun goddess, mentioned in the Koran as a heathen idol (Surah Ixxi:23). [BACK] [NEXT] This document can be re-published only as long as no information is lost or changed, credit is given to the author, and it is provided or used without cost to others. ©1987 Janet & Stewart Farrar | 
