| PA: ('Dryness') Chinese goddess of drought. Called in by the Emperor Huang-ti to control the wind and the rain, and then refused to leave; he exiled her to the North, 'beyond the Red Water'. PACHAMAMA: Inca Earth mother goddess. PADMA: ('Lotus-Coloured') Hindu. One of the avatars (incarnations) of LAKSHMI. PAKHIT: Egyptian. Form of BAST at Speos Artemidos, east of Beni Hasan. Also associated with MUT. Cat- or lioness-headed. PAl MU-TAN: ('White Peony') Chinese. Like the Hindu APSARAS, her function is to distract ascetics from their practices. To the Chinese, the peony is the queen of flowers, symbolizing among other things love and feminine beauty. PAIRIKAS, THE: Persian. Shooting stars envisaged as messengers between heaven and Earth. Probably originally celestial nymphs like the Hindu APSARAS, and prototypes of the PERIS. PALES: Roman goddess of flocks and their fecundity. A rare take-over here - she was originally masculine. Festival: the Palilia, 21 April, traditional date of the founding of Rome. Gave her name to the Palatine Hill. PALM GODDESS OF NEJRAN: A palm tree at Nejran was worshipped by the Arabs as a goddess, and annually draped with women's clothes and ornaments. A similar practice with particular trees can still be seen in Ireland. P'AN CHIN-LIEN: Chinese. Patroness of prostitutes. A (possibly historical) widow whose father-in-law murdered her to put an end to her disorderly behaviour. PANDORA: ('Gift of All') The Greek Eve, fashioned in clay by Hephaestus on Zeus' orders to punish Prometheus for having stolen fire from heaven. Her name means that each god or goddess gave her an appropriate gift. Zeus gave her a box which she must not open. She did open it, and all the evils that plague mankind came out of it. All that was left at the bottom was Hope. PAPA: ('Rocky Stratum') Polynesian Earth Mother, with whom creator god Taaroa (Tangaroa) mated to make rocks, sand, soil and the sea. According to the Maoris, she mated with Sky Father Atea Rangi (originally a goddess - see ATEA) to produce several gods. A Cook Island legend says that the Sun and Moon were created from the two halves of her first child, cut in two to pacify two gods who both claimed to have fathered it. The Manganian version names two creator goddesses, Papa above and VARI below. PAPAYA: see ISTUSTAYA. PARASHAKTI: see SHAKTIS. PARCAE, THE: see MOERAE. PARVATI: Hindu. Daughter of Himavat, god of the Himalayas, and wife of Shiva. Under this name she is depicted beside him, discussing everything from love to metaphysics. But as the goddess personifying the 'power' (Sakti) of Shiva, she has many aspects under different names: Uma the gracious, Bhairavi the terrible, Ambika the generatrix, SATI the good wife, Gauri the brilliant, KALI the black, DURGA the inaccessible. For a long time Parvati wearied of Shiva's asceticism and indifference to her charm, but eventually she won him over, and their embrace made the whole world tremble. PASHADHARI: ('Noose-Bearer') Hindu. She and her husband Yamantaka are the Door-Keepers of the South. Her symbol, the noose, is both the yoni and the umbilical cord and may be equated to the Egyptian ankh. A loving mother goddess in both the nourishing and the restrictive aspect. Depicted with the head of a sow. PASIPHAE: Greek. Daughter of Helios, the Sun; wife of King Minos of Crete and mother of ARIADNE, Phaedra and Deucalion. Poseidon caused her to fall in love with the white bull of Minos, and she gave birth to the Minotaur, which Ariadne helped the Athenian Theseus to overcome. Pasiphae and Ariadne were probably originally Mother and Maid forms of the same Moon goddess, the totem bull of the Cretan goddess culture having been turned into a monster by Athenian patriarchy. PAX: Roman goddess of peace. Identified with CONCORDIA. Festivals: 30 January, 4 July. PEITHO: ('Persuasion') Greek. According to Hesiod, present at the moment when APHRODITE came ashore on Cyprus; and Sappho calls her 'Aphrodite's maid shining with gold'. Sometimes a title of Aphrodite, sometimes a separate goddess. PEKHET: form of Bast at Speos Artemidos. PELE: Polynesian, Hawaii. Goddess of Fire in the Earth (volcanoes). PERCHTA: Slavonic fertility goddess, Bride of the Sun. Her feast 'was celebrated at Salzburg as late as 1941 by the wearing of masks, those of beauty for the spring and summer, and those without beauty for autumn and winter' (Sykes, Everyman's Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, p.168). PERIS, THE: Late Persian celestial nymphs, fairies or female angels. See PAIRIKAS. PERSEPHONE: Greek and Phoenician. Originally a purely Underworld goddess, became a corn-seed goddess, daughter of DEMETER. In the latter role, she is usually simply called Kore ('Girl'). As an Underworld deity, her attributes were the bat, the narcissus and the pomegranate. Usually depicted with a cornucopia. In her Phoenician form, daughter of DIONE and Cronus. Willow trees were sacred to her (as to CIRCE, HECATE and HERA). Festivals as DEMETER. 777: Tarot, Tens; gem: rock crystal; plants: willow, lily, ivy; animal: sphinx; mineral: magnesium sulphate; perfume: dittany of Crete; magical weapons: Magic Circle, Triangle. Roman equivalent PROSERPINA. PHILOSOPHIA: Medieval form of SOPHIA. PHILYRA: ('Linden') Greek, mother by Cronus of Chi ron, the wise centaur. Totem bird the wryneck. PHOEBE: Greek. Titaness, daughter of Uranus and GAIA. Mother by Coeus of LETO and Asteria, and thus grandmother of Apollo and ARTEMIS. PHRONESIA: ('Purpose, Practical Wisdom.') Gnostic. An AEON, associated with SOPHIA and DYNAMIS as co-genetrix of 'principalities and angels'. 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