Bau-Gula Goddess of dog and healing
Sweet mother of seven holy daughters
Bless this supplicant before you kneeling
Protect her from the hunting soul slaughtersCaring healer of the lonely broken
Queen of the tempest, grower of green herbs
Accept this crafted clay offer token
Teach her magic to dark demons deterLady of shelter and transformation
Star of divine knowledge and bringer of life
Lend her your holy regeneration
Let her understand your sage adviceBau-Gula Goddess of dog and healing
©RedCat
Evaporate this depressive feeling
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4, via Wikimedia Commons
I’ve always loved ancient mythology. So on the top of my head I can name several Goddesses that usually are portrayed with dogs or wolves.
Artemis, the greek Goddess of hunt and moon, Diana her roman equivalent. Hecate the greek Goddess of witchcraft and the underworld, that later has a triple aspect. From my native Norse mythology Hel Goddess of death and ruler of the Underworld which gates are guarded by Garm.
As I looked at Jane Cornwell’s art work I thought of two things, Tolkien’s elves (because of the headpiece) but that didn’t lead to any inspiration. And a Goddess with a dog. As I googled it I was unusually lazy and just wrote, Goddess dog, in the search field. Expecting to refresh myself on Artemis and Diana. Even though the dog looks way too kind to be either a dog guarding the gates of Helheim or a hunting dog.
In the – others have asked section – there was the question: Is there a Goddess of dogs? Curious as I am I opened the question and ran across Sumerian Bau and Babylonian Gula, whom I never heard of before so I kept on reading. And found this.
“Her iconography depicts her always with a dog, sometimes seated, and surrounded by stars. She is associated with the underworld and transformation.”
World History Encyclopedia
After that I just had to read more so that I could write something inspired by Bau/Gula. And spent a happy hour or so chasing more information, even reading parts of A History of Sumer and Akkad – History of Babylonia vol. 1 by Leonard William King from 1910 that I found on Project Gutenberg.
And then wrote an incantation on Sonnet form.
To see all art and read all poems for today go to The Wombwell Rainbow.
To read other Sonnet’s by me click here.
To read other poetic ritual pieces check out:
Mother of Creation – An Invocation
Breath Deep, Breath Slow – A Mantra
Louvre Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Jane Cornwell likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20. She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of Scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition. Her website is: https://www.janecornwell.co.uk/
April Ekphrastic Challenge – GloPoWriMo 2021
- 1 April – Dark Orchid
- 2 April – A Dirge for the Drowned
- 3 April – Granddaughters of Red Riding Hood
- 4 April – Raven Dream Flight
- 5 April – It’s Spring Time Again and The Sweetest Wine – A Quadrille
- 6 April – There Once Was A Cat and To All The Good Girls
- 7 April – Mind Finds Soul Fearlessly Shines
- 8 April – Trapped, Imprisoned In Her Own Mind – A Triple Triolet and Ode To My Dream Girl
- 9 April – The Aurora Butterfly – A Sonnet
- 10 April – The Dawn Sky Is Ethereal Blue – A Triolet
- 11 April – Blue Forest Of Remembrance
- 12 April – Incantation to Bau-Gula – A Sonnet
- 13 April – The Stars Are Out Tonight – A Villanelle and Cat Searching High and Low
- 14 April – Shadow People Before My Eyes – A Triple Triolet
- 15 April – Three Times Three Times Three
- 16 April – Autumn feast – A Sonnet
- 17 April – In The Badger Sett
- 18 April – Hellcat
- 19 April – Life Lessons and No Bother! – A Quadrille
- 20 April – Fairy Dust Magic – A Trio Of Ovillejo’s and Crows Calling At Night
- 21 April – Polished Mirror Women – Dedicated to Marisol
- 22 April – Word Salad and A Beltane Song
- 23 April – Floating Around Everywhere and Oh Bother! – A Quadrille in Ovillejo Form
- 24 April – A Thousand Paper Cranes
- 25 April – Change and Restless Body and Mind
- 26 April – Through Hell
- 27 April – Weaving Web and Another Piece Of The Puzzel – A Puente Poem
- 28 April – Sounds In The Wind – A Puente Poem
- 29 April – Fire That Burns Away All Fears – A Sonnet and Blackbirds Dusk Sings
- 30 April – Star Prayer – A Sonnet
The world according to RedCat 
Great visuals. Love the last line. Also, your list for NaPoWriMo. What a great idea!
Reblogged this on The Wombwell Rainbow.