In message <4A70B43A.1070301_at_tg1Fqq54Pt6TPDv_WDxN7oaSOsR19fI-TnUqryUQ679p3SLMuBol8B_Lo8XDPm0WN2SQ7fSV8VyhsB6V1M2Zk5fk-lBU.yahoo.invalid> Benedict Adamson writes:
>donald_at_lR2D-t-2aoRaifm_QAMa3qTUnw8fLwhVCqbhv2ViTw4gHkPV_oqSTTlgBMF6VG6YX6nG92UEz25RTZQvCQgo6Jg.yahoo.invalid wrote:
>...
>> Fertility is one of those aspects which has
>> few worshippers because there are more useful and less disruptive
>> goddesses for women to worship.
>
>Which seems fine until you consider Pelanda. In Pelanda, Uleria is not
>some minor goddess. She is one of their High Gods. To them She is not
>disruptive. To talk of other goddesses as "more useful" makes sense only
>if Uleria does not have much (or any) Fertility magic, which is my whole
>point. Oria is "useful" BECAUSE she has Fertility magic. If Uleria has
>all of Oria's fertility magic plus more, Uleria would be more useful
>than Oria.
By "useful" I mean being more than a goddess of reproduction. Fertility
magic is important but not the only important magic. Every pantheon I
know of has a fertility goddess, just as there's a goddess of homemakers
and a goddess of healers. Most great goddesses have aspects which cover
all these things and often others. Now maybe Oria is *just* a fertility
goddess and nothing else which would make her less useful than Uleria.
As for disruptive I find it difficult to imagine a culture where lust
isn't disruptive. Maybe the Pelandans de-emphasise that aspect of
Uleria or alternatively they have rituals which prevent it being so.
However I suspect those are propitiory rather than celebratory.
--
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/