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tile, the new must replace the old. {Sadly, of course, as patriarchy superceded matriarchy, numerous Goddesses were "demoted" to lesser roles - many became sexually frivolous or jealous wives. As well, a goodly number of these Goddesses took on only their Death aspects, becoming wicked and evil.}
Nowadays, many women's groups and pagans as well as many Wiccans and witches call the Goddess, Gaia-pronounced Gee-ah. Gaia {same spelling-different pronunciation-Gay-yah} was originally the Ancient Greek Creation and Mother Goddess. Though the modern Gaia is not the original Ancient Greek Gaia, there are many similarities.
Another Goddess called Nathor [modern name] has been adopted by these same groups as representative of the Drawing Down the Moon Ceremony - a celebration of women's wisdom. {Nathor, herself, was originally a North African Coastal Paleolithic AND pre-dynastic Egyptian Mother / Bird / Serpent / Corn Goddess. Archeologists believe that the upraised arms are indicative of her bird-like qualities. The "modern" Nathor is derived from Egyptian pre-dynastic funerary votive figurines - the 6000 year old [4000 BCE] originals can be found in the Cairo Museum in Egypt. However, upraised arms were not limited to proto-Egyptian representation - as indicated by the Mycenaean figurine on this page. World-wide examples exist of upraised arms symbolizing women's wisdom and supplication to the Goddess.}
Belief of other pagan deities
The husband or consort of the Goddess has numerous names also - the Horned One/God, the Green Man, Cernunnos, Lugh [to name just a couple of Celtic & European]. He, too, is a Fertility God, a Corn / Harvest / Grain God, and a Hunting God. The horned headdresses commonly associated with this God were the animals that were either hunted-deer, stag, moose, elk, etc - or domesticated-goat, cow, etc. Rarely is he associated with the Earth and the Moon - much more often he is associated with the Sun, the Rain {semen}, and Storms. Virtually, every ancient supreme God was either a Sun God and/or a Storm God {particularly noticeable as patriarchy superceded matriarchy}.
The most common myth associated with the Horned One is that as the Sun God he is reborn / resurrected every year. He dies after the last harvest; is reborn at midwinter; is growing up to become a young man throughout late winter to early summer; is a hale, hearty man and hunter during midsummer and late summer; and finally, a mature man by the fall equinox. {It's commonly believed and accepted nowadays that the medieval Catholic Church Fathers applied the Christ cycle to the dates of this pagan rebirth/resurrection cycle in order to combat the Old Religion beliefs. Rebirth and resurrection myths are common in numerous ancient mythologies. It was a way to explain the rebirth of earth and the birth of wild animals in spring after the cold or wet of winter when not much grew and many animals hibernated or were scarce.}
{Too, if you'd like to read some more about well-detailed rebirth/resurrection mythologies, please take a look at The White Goddess by Robert Graves. Though there are many people who swear by Grave's theories, please be aware that many mythology scholars totally trash and totally disrespect his work. Graves, himself, was constantly amused by the furor that his book caused. The White Goddess, today, is usually considered fiction. Regardless of whether the book is fiction or not, his theories are thought provoking. Additionally, please be aware that there is no proof that his book is untrue.}
Three well-known ancient Greek gods are Poseidon, Dionysius, and Pan. Probably as a result of patriarchy superceding matriarchy, the Ancient Greeks demoted these three gods. Poseidon, the least demoted, because he was able to remain a ruling God of the Sea - he was part of the Greek Olympian trinity of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. But Dionysius and Pan were both hugely demoted to orgiastic, drunken minor gods. All three gods were originally consorts {husbands} of the Goddess and were also Fertility / Hunting / Corn Gods. It, too, is interesting to note that, later, the European medieval Christian faiths took a number of traits of these three gods and incorporated them into Satan - trident, cloven hooves, and horns.
The red that is associated with Satan comes from the "angry" aspect of Storm Gods, who were also a form of Sun/Fertility/Corn/Rain Gods. An obvious example is the Egyptian God, Set. Set, originally, was one of two gods who represented the different aspects of Egyptian kingship - and kingship was extremely important to the Egyptians. {The other god was Osiris {then later,
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