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GODDESS OF THE MONTH, May 2009
Medusa is a moon goddess, the triple-headed Great Goddess in her death aspect. She is associated with blood, so to meet her is to meet the mysteries of moon-blood or menstrual blood, sacred and terrible, in many mythologies the source of life. Medusa is serpent energy, enlivening, terrifying, impersonal. Somehow Medusa, a symbol of growth and generation that dies so that from death may come life, became a symbol of fear, for to look directly upon the divine is to face a terrifying reality.
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When Medusa was slain, the winged horse Pegasus sprang from her blood. The Greeks portrayed Medusa as a horrifying gorgon, an ugly woman with snakes for hair; anyone who looked at her face was turned to stone. Yet her name has the same root as medicine and measure, and derives from a Greek word meaning "to protect, to rule over."