Invent Your Own Goddess

When pagan author Donna Henes was almost fifty she developed a surprising habit. She began praising herself over even the smallest thing. “Good girl!” she would say to herself if she took the stairs instead of the elevator, or if she really did drink eight glasses of water in a day. It dawned on her that she had been saying “Good boy!” to her dog for years, over the slightest thing; why not do that for herself? In her book The Queen of My Self, she writes,

“After a while, it became clear that I was not actually congratulating myself. Rather, I was blessing my Self. What a good girl am I. How incredibly Queenly. The practice of my Self-blessing became my sacred daily ritual, the most holy of all my personal rites. Every morning I would look deeply into my eyes in the mirror and bless myself. The more I valued and validated my Self, the more compassionate toward my Self I became. The more I blessed my Self, the more I counted my blessings, and the more blessed I, myself, became.”

I suspect that blessing ourselves may be more challenging than blessing our pets. So I’d like to propose a work-around: What if we each invent our own personal Goddess, and praise her? What if praising a Goddess that we create is a slightly sneaky way of blessing ourselves?

Are you game? Let’s give it a try.

First, your Goddess needs a name.

There’s a website for that. It’s called Fantasy Name Generators, and you can create names for Gods, Goddesses, or Nonbinary Deities. The site is intended for people who need character names for fantasy stories, but no one will mind if you find a name for your personal Goddess. Choose from the list below if something grabs you, or click here to generate more choices.

Sample Goddess Names:
Phiguna, Goddess Of Messages
Xuhris, Goddess Of Resistance
Kryxara, Goddess Of The Moon
Irhena, Goddess Of The Insane
Themis, Goddess Of Wine
Phekrena, Goddess Of Summer
Xaena, Goddess Of Tranquility
Kilaris, Goddess of Obscurity
Dosena, Goddess of Logic
Kulmera, Goddess of Revenge
Bamdione, Goddess of Seasons
Oaris, Goddess of Forgiveness
Physnja, Goddess of Glory
Druara, Goddess of the Underworld
Betia, Goddess of Dreams
Olena, Goddess of Pleasure
Phumtune, Goddess of Destruction
Artis, Goddess of Magic
Mutuna, Goddess of Abundance
Zulva, Goddess of Riddles
Aphion, Goddess of Miracles
Edite, Goddess of Honesty
Tolnera, Goddess of Time
Thuvheia, Goddess of Birth
Extris, Goddess of Chaos
Utix, Goddess of Fortune
Guphion, Goddess of Dusk
Ozhena, Goddess of the Wind
Ontix, Goddess of the Land
Qulphey, Goddess of Glory

Next, write a praise poem to bless your Goddess.

Not a poet? No problem, neither am I. Let’s make this incredibly easy, like doing a Mad Lib. Here’s a framework:

To (name) the Goddess of (title)
Whose (body part) is/are of (color)
Who delights in (activity),
Who made (noun) from (noun)
And taught me how to (verb),
To (verb) the (noun)
Into the songs of (time of day)
And cherish the (sense) of (noun)
The goddess with the (attribute),
Who sings with her heavenly voice of (plural noun) and (plural noun),
I will sing to her.

I know: You’re asking where you will get those parts of speech. Do you have to make them up? Heck no. Just choose what you want from the tables below. Close your eyes and point, or open your eyes and pick your favorites. Did I mention there are no rules here? You can make up your own Goddess name, your own framework, your own Nouns, whatever. Or just have fun with what’s here.

Body Parts

Colors

Activities

Nouns

Verbs

Times of Day

Senses

Attributes

That’s How You Invent Your Own Goddess
Now take this thing and run with it.

Read your poem out loud every morning. Make a crown out of pipe cleaners to celebrate your Goddess. Cut out a picture of your deity and hang it on your wall (I recommend the images in Joyce Tenneson’s book Wise Women)). If you’re musical, write a tune for your blessing poem.

Do whatever suits your fancy and enables you to praise the marvelous Goddess in you. As Jean Shinoda Bolen wrote in her book Goddesses in Everywoman,

For every grieving Demeter suffering from an empty-nest depression, there seems to be—as anthropologist Margaret Mead remarked—other women with a surge of P.M.Z., or “postmenopausal zest.” This upsurge can happen when a newly energized goddess can now have her long-awaited turn.

Are you ready, ladies? Let’s energize our Goddesses.