Snakes seem to follow me in my life, they have appeared in my garden 4 times in 2 years. They pop up unintentionally in my paintings and frequently appear in my dreams.
For me, snakes are all about transformation, about shedding my skin and becoming a new version of myself. I look forward to these transformations, however tough and scary they may seem at the time.
How do you view transformation?
Are you someone who gets hung up on these challenges and asks “Why Me?”, or are you thankful for the lessons learnt and the growth you have been able to achieve? Or are you somewhere in between?
Goddess Wadjet was a challenge for me. I worked on her for a year. It is the longest I have ever spent on a painting. I doesn’t mean to say I put a full year of work into her, I mean I hung her up and admired her progress on my wall and added to her as I felt like it.
I kind of didn’t want to finish her for some reason. I wasn’t ready for the closure. Maybe I hadn't finished my transformation?
I started off with a reference photo of a girl and painted her my way. Then I thought she needed a snake around her neck, not in a strangling way, more as an accomplice. She is at ease with her equal. They both have lessons to learn from each other.
I am intrigued by ancient Goddesses as you may have seen with some of my other paintings.
I long to understand what it meant to worship the feminine in ancient times and the attributes people connected with.
I want to bring those attributes into our time and help people reconnect. I don’t believe the things these Goddesses stood for will ever expire.
So, who is Goddess Wadjet?
To start with, she is an Egyptian Goddess revered as the goddess of childbirth, and protector of children, and in later years she became the protector of kings. Wadjet’s role was often seen as a forceful defender, while her sister, Nekhebet, was seen as the motherly defender.
Her sacred animal was the cobra.
She was inextricably linked to the symbol of the uraeus , which is a representation of a rearing sacred serpent, an emblem of supreme power, worn on the headdresses of ancient Egyptian deities and sovereigns.
She is said to have brought about the first human beings from her tears.
Wadjet heals, protects, and punishes via the power of snake venom. She has the powers of a goddess, not just a plain snake). Her other weapons include heat and fire. She is invoked for protection from snakes and from poison deriving from any source. Wadjet protects devotees against enemies.
My modern Goddess is a reminder that life isn't static. There is always change and it is up to you how you cope with it.
There is so much more to learn about Godddess Wadjet, she is worth googling.