Return to Mago is posting an excerpt from my book Invoking Animal Magic. It will run in eight short segments.

The excerpt is titled “The Animal Mother Goddess” and discusses the Mistress of Animals in her many forms.

“Early religious art was predominantly animal. The cave paintings of Spain and southern France are mostly of animals and animal symbols, like the chevron, egg, crescent, vesica piscis, and spiral. Even obvious goddess figures often have an animal theme, such as the horn that the ‘Venus of Laussel’ holds in her right hand or the feline creatures crouching beside the ‘Seated Woman of Catal Huyuk.’ As the Stone Age progressed, goddess imagery became more pronounced, yet goddess/animal combinations were still common. With the development of writing, goddesses were associated in picture, inscription or verse with specific animals. Some of these goddesses were linked with many animals, or even given the title Mistress of Animals.” read more