"When God Was a Girl" (BBC)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Bettany Hughes (BBC); J.C. Ozer (BogusZen)

Kwan Yin, Goddess of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara (Foxiangcn/flickr.com)

Kwan Yin, Goddess of Compassion

Historian Bettany Hughes visits a world where goddesses (devis) ruled the heavens (akasha-deva-loka) and Earth (Bhumi). She reveals why our ancestors thought of the divine as female -- perhaps revealing why we tend to view spirituality as potent yet feminine (when it must surely be androgenous, combining the best of both potentials).

 

Nurturing Mother Goddess

Traveling across the Mediterranean and the Near East, Hughes journeys to ever more remote places eventually encountering fearsome goddesses [dakinis, tantrikas, kinnaras, yakshis, garudas, nagis, Hariti, the Taras, etc.] who control life and death. 

 

Her search reaches modern India, where the Goddess is still a powerful force for hundreds of millions of Hindus.

Goddess trinity (srilankaguardian.org)

Immersing herself in the excitement of the Ma Durga Puja (devotional fest honoring Durga, the inaccessible or invincible), our historian experiences reverence for the goddess firsthand, revealing what the Goddess in all her manifestations means to Her devotees.

Pancika and the Buddhist Goddess Hārītī (right), holding a cornucopia, resting their feet on a bag of abundance. 3rd century, Takht-i Bahi, Gandhara, British Museum.