Despite the fact that the life-giving and death-wielding Bird Goddess is one of the oldest representations of the goddess, eagles have usually been linked with the masculine, with a few exceptions (the Sphinx of Egypt had the wings of an eagle, and the Aztec goddess Cihuacoatl was also called Eagle Woman). This Eagle Woman shows a new marriage of the feminine and the eagle. She represents all an eagle stands for: spirit, valor, majesty, renewal, accuracy of sight, spiritual aim, and the ability to soar to the heights. She also holds in her hands a vessel, the traditional symbol for the feminine, for that which receives, contains, and nourishes. Here both sets of values are joined, emblematic of a different combination of strengths that are part of being woman-born.
Eagle Woman is a joyful afffirmation of our ability to break out of millennia-old stereotypes and find a new definition that embraces the entire continuum of being alive. She teaches that women can express the qualities of the eagle while continuing to contain and nurture.
Our beautiful global goddess images are drawn each month from the Goddesses Knowledge Cards, painted by Susan Seddon Boulet with text by Michael Babcock. The deck of 48 cards can be ordered from Pomegrate Communications in Petaluma, California. (We are not affiliated with Pomegranate in any way, we just love these cards!)
Cihuacoatl is traditionally known as “snake woman.” Could you please elaborate on the connotation here of “eagle woman,” and where the Eagle Woman goddess first appears in cultural folklore/mythology? Where is your illustration from and what does it date? Thanks.
Hi Sally, my knowledge of the sources of this information is limited in this case to what the card itself says. The text on these cards is by Michael Babcock, and the publication date is 2003, although I believe they were first published several years earlier. I don’t know the source of the info on Eagle Woman. The images are by the late painter Susan Sedon Boulet. My own impression from the card’s text is that this is a personal take on the nearly universal “Bird Goddess.” -Susan