Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
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God name "Kalrnga" | Ndonga / northern Namibia, southern Africa | Creator god. Said to take the form of a giant man who is always partially hidden by clouds and generally seen only by women intermediaries known as nelagos who go to converse with him in sacred places. He is the father of MUSISI. The god is invoked at times of warfare and illness, but also as a fertility deity and before making a journey.... |
God name "Karttikeya" | Hindu / Epic / Puranic | (1) God. A form of SKANDA who was reared by the Pleiades stars and is generally represented therefore with six heads. (In Hindu mythology there are only six Pleiades, not the seven recognized in modern astronomy.) His SAKTI is KARTTIKI and his attendant animal is a peaçõçk. Attributes: conch, hook, noose, prayer wheel, shield, spear, staff, sword and wood apple.(2) God. Buddhist. Equating with the Hindu god Skanda. Color: red. Rides upon a peaçõçk. Attributes: çõçk, Sakti and staff.... |
Deity name "Kaza-ge-tsu-wake-no-oshi-wo-no-kami" | Shinto | Son of Youth-of-the-Wind-Breath-the-Great-Male. A deity involved in the Ritual of the General Purification. Shinto |
Goddess name "Khandsba" | Hindu / late | Form of the god SI IVA. Khandoba is believed to have emerged as a deity with a distinct cultic following no earlier than the thirteenth or fourteenth century, mainly in western India and centered on Jejuri, near Poona. The god is generally regarded as one of several martial forms which SI iva took to combat demons. His consort is the goddess MHALSA, considered to be a form of PARVATI. He is depicted bearing four arms and is usually mounted on a horse, but may also be accompanied by a dog. Attributes: bowl, drum, sword and trident. Also Makhari; Mallari; Martland.... |
Goddess name "Kshumai" | Kafir / Afghanistan | Fertility goddess. A benefi cent goddess appearing in the guise of a goat. Legend has it that either she or her eldest daugh ter is the mother of the god MON. She is said to have given mankind the boon of goats, grapes, other fruit and vegetation in general. She was called upon in times of sickness. She is depicted in wooden statues with prominent long breasts and vulva. Also Kime.... |
Spirit name "Kubera (misshapen)" | Hindu / Vedic, Epic / Puranic | (1) God of riches. He was originally the head of the YAKSAS spirits of the Forests, but by Puranic times was åśśociated with wealth and productivity. He is also a dikpala guardian of the northern quarter. The son of Pulastya and Idavida, his consorts include Yaksi, VASUDHARA and Vriddhi. Identified with the city of Alaka. He is depicted as a dwarfish figure riding upon a Brahman or a chariot. Color: white. Attributes: generally carrying a purse, but occasionally with various other items. Also Kuvera, Kauveri.(2) God of riches. Buddhist-Lamaist [Tibet]. One of a group of DHARMAPALA with terrible appearance and royal attire. Also a dikpala or guardian of the northern quarter. Color: yellow. Attributes: ax, banner, club, cup, hook, Ichneumon disgorging jewels, noose, reliquary and occasionally a trident.... |
Spirit name "Kul" | Eskimo | A water spirit who may be malevolent but generally helps with fishing. As a show of gratitude, it is customary to offer him some of the fish caughts at the beginning of the season. Eskimo |
Goddess name "Kumari (virgin)" | Hindu | Goddess. Generally recognized to be an epithet of DURGA. Worshiped at a famous temple on the southernmost tip of India at Cape Comorin. Also known in Nepal, where a small girl provides an earthly incarnation of the goddess.... |
Deities name "Kunado-No-Kami" | Shinto / Japan | Guardian deity. One of three KAMIS particularly concerned with the protection of roads and crossroads. They also guard the boundaries of the house and the ways leading to it. They may be known as Yakushin deities who protect against plague. Generally identified as MICHI-NO-KAMI or Chiburi-NoKami.... |
Goddess name "Kurukulla" | Hindu | (1) Goddess of boats. A Tantric deity generally depicted in a boat made of jewels. Also goddess of wine.(2) Goddess. Buddhist (Mahayana). The SAKTI of AMITABHA. Usually of terrifying appearance. Attributes: arrow, bow, flower, hook, noose, rosary and trident.... |
Spirit name "Lamin" | Basque | A spirit of human form, generally female, with the feet of an animal. Basque |
Goddess name "Lasya (dancing girl)" | Buddhist - Lamaist / Tibet | Mother goddess. One of the group of ASTAMATARAS (mothers). She is generally depicted dancing the lasya dance. Color: white. Attribute: a mirror. Also the generic name of a group of four goddesses, including GITA, MALA, NRTYA and headed by LASYA.... |
Spirit name "Lau" | Andaman Islands / Sea of Bengal | spirit beings. Generally invisible but perceived in human form and living in the jungles and the sea. When an Andaman islander dies he or she becomes a lau.... |
Deities name "Libanza" | Bangala / Democratic Republic of Congo, central Africa | Creator god. One of a pair of supreme deities with his sister / consort Nsongo. He lives at the bottom of the river Congo, traveling the waterways and bringing floods as punishment as well as to generate prosperity. He is regarded as being generally benevolent. Also Ibanza.... |
Goddess name "Locana (the eye)" | Buddhist / Mahayana | Goddess. The SAKTI of a DHYANIBUDDHA (spiritual meditation buddha), generally AKSOBHYA or VAIROCANA. Color: blue or white. Attributes: cup, prayer wheel and lotus with one or more staves. Also BUDDHALOCANA.... |
Deities name "Logos" | Greek | Primordial spirit of reason. A concept pro moted by the Stoics, who perceived Logos as the mind of JUPITER, but more generally recognized as the Divine essence from which all deities arise. Philo of Alexandria apportioned human charac teristics to Logos. The Gnostic Christian, Valenti nus, identified Logos as the word coming from the mind of the father. The Christian father Clement of Alexandria claimed it to be the first principle of the universe, while Origen perceived it as the prin ciple embodied in the flesh by Jesus Christ.... |
God name "MIN" | Egypt | Fertility god. Min is the most significant deity in the Egyptian pantheon in respect of sexual virility. In some genealogies he is the son of ISIS, in others he represents Isis's consort with HORUS as their child. Min is depicted in anthropomorphic form wearing a modius bearing two plumes and a hanging ribbon. He is generally drawn in profile, legs together and with his left arm raised into the angle made by his royal flail. The most obvious feature of the iconography is a strongly erect śéméñ. Min is represented in older art by two serrated cones projecting horizontally from a disc. His sacred animal is probably a white bull and he is also åśśociated with the tall lettuce species (Lac tuca sativa), the shape of which may be reminiscent of an erect phallus.... |
God name "MITHRA (friend)" | Persian / Iran | God of the upper air. Originating in India, Mithra is a god of light who was translated into the attendant of the god AHURA MAZDA in the light religion of Persia; from this he was adopted as the Roman deity Mithras. He is not generally regarded as a sky god but a personification of the fertilizing power of warm, light air. According to the Avesta, he possesses 10,000 eyes and ears and rides in a chariot drawn by white horses. In dualistic Zoroastrianism, which effectively demoted him, Mithra is concerned with the endless battle between light and dark forces; he represents truth. He is responsible for the keeping of oaths and contracts. He was born from a rock and, according to legend, engaged in a primeval struggle with Ahura Mazda's first creation, a wild bull, which he subdued and confined to a cave. The bull escaped, but was recaptured by Mithra, who slit its throat. From the blood sprang plant life on earth. His chief adversary is AHRIMAN, the power of darkness. Mithra is not generally worshiped on his own, but as an integral part of the Mithraic worship of Ahura Mazda, where he acts as an intercessor between gods and men. In the Hellenic period he was transformed more closely to the role of a Sun god. See also AHURA MAZDA.... |