(Photo Essay 4) Pilgrimage in a Time of Plague by Kaalii Cargill
I offer these images in gratitude for the journeys I have taken and in the hope that the ways stay open for those of us who are called to visit ancestral places where Goddess was honoured . . .
Temple walls of the Ba’alat Gebal sanctuary, Byblos, Lebanon, c2800 BCE. Ba’alat Gebal, Goddess of Byblos, was later known to the Greeks as Atargatis. There is still a sense of sanctuary here.
Megalithic doorways, Tyre, Lebanon. c2700 BCE. There are layers of building at Tyre and other sites in Lebanon – these 7 megalithic doorways seem to be an earlier construction than the Roman era parts of the site. I was reminded of Inanna’s descent to the Underworld through the 7 gates.
Figure from Tyre, c1200 BCE. Mother and baby.
Afqa Grotto, Mount Lebanon. Sacred to Astarte/Ishtar, Afqa is aligned centrally between the ancient cities of Baalbek and Byblos, pointing to the summer sunset sunset over the Mediterranean. Women have visited this site for thousands of years. Last century it was still a pilgrimage site for Shi’ia Muslim and Christians, attributing healing and fertile powers to the Sayyidat al-Kabirah, “the Great Lady”.
Goddess Hathor, Elephantine Island, Aswan, Egypt. c 500 BCE.
2000-1600 BCE, Aswan Museum, Elephantine Island, Aswan.Many forms of Goddess Isis, Temple of Isis, Philae, Egypt. 380-362 BCE. Now on Agilkia Island.
Temple of Hathor, Dendera, Egypt. 54-20 BCE. The sky-goddess Nut showing the birth cycle of the sun whose rays are shining down on Hathor.
Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia. c9000 BCE.
Engraving of birthing or menstruating woman, Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia. c9000 – 7000 BCE. Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum.
