Gods D

Continueing on the discussions of Gods and Goddesses going through the alphabet, here are some Gods and Goddesses who's name start with the letter 'D' - can you think of any others which should be added, do you have any experiences or ideas you want to share on working with some of these Deities?

Dae-Soon Korean Moon Goddess

Diana Diana is the Roman assimilation of the Greek moon goddess
Artemis. Diana was often portrayed riding the moon, with a bow in her hands. She was frequently worshipped out in the open so she could look down at her faithful disciples.

Europa Thought Europa is not specifically a moon goddess she has certain lunar attributes. She is the Daughter of Agenor, King of Tyre, who is abducted by Zeus to Crete where he seduces her. She had three sons. Europe is named after her.

Gnatoo Moon goddess of the Friendly Islands. Her portrayal as a woman pounding out tapa is a motif in Polynesian Woman in the Moon myths.

God D Mayan God of the moon and night sky. Referred to in ancient manuscripts, but never referred by any name. Scholar Paul Schell named the numerous Mayan 2 letter gods". God D was portrayed as an old man with sunken cheeks, wearing a serpent headdress. He is sometimes identified with Kukulcan, God of the mighty speech of Itzamna, sky God and Mayan Cultural Hero.

DANH also DAN AYIDO HWEDO
(Dahomey) Snake god. The Haitians know him as Dan Petro. The Rainbow Snake who encircles the world, Danh is often protrayed with his tail in his mouth as a symbol of unity and wholeness.

DXUI
(Bushman; to the Hottentots, TSUI; to the Xhosa and Ponda, THIXO) A creator god. In the beginning, Dxui took the form of a different flower or plant every day, becoming himself at night, until he had created all the plants and flowers that exist.

DAGDA
Earth and father god. Dagda possesses a bottomless cauldron of plenty and rules the seasons with the music of his harp. With his mighty club Dagda can slay nine men with a single blow, and with its small end he can bring them back to life. On the day of the New Year, Dagda mates with the raven goddess of the Morrigan who while making love straddles a river with one foot on each bank. A slightly comical figure

DANU
Mother goddess, an aspect of the Great Mother. Another of a triad of war goddesses known collectively as the Morrigan. Connected with the moon goddess Aine of Knockaine, who protects crops and cattle. Most importantly, the mother of the Tuatha de' Danann, the tribe of the gods.

DIAN CECHT
A healer. At the second battle of Moytura, Dian Cecht murdered his own son whose skill in healing endangered his father's reputation. The Judgments of Dian Cecht, an ancient Irish legal tract, lays down the obligations to the ill and injured. An agressor must pay for curing anyone he has injured, and the severity of any wound, even the smallest, is measured in grains of corn.

DIS PATER
Originally a god of death and the underworld, later the cheif god of the Gauls. The Gauls believed, as their Druids taught, that Dis Pater is the ancestor of all the Gauls.

DONN Irish counterpart to Dis Pater. Donn sends storms and wrecks ships, but he protects crops and cattle as well. Donn's descendents come to his island after death.

DEMETER; to the Romans, CERES Goddess of grain and the fruitful
earth. An earth mother who was certainly one of, if not the oldest of the gods. Demeter's immensely popular festivals, held twice a year at Eleusis, were so highly revered that no initiate was ever known to break the vow of secrecy. Demeter gave the gift of grain to men and instituted the Eleusinian Mysteries. The nature of these Mysteries has been lost to us, though we know that the mystery cults celebrated the Lesser Mysteries in February of every year and the Greater Mysteries in September of every fifth year. Most likely the rites included processions, ritual cleansing and religious dramas.

DIONYSIUS; God of religious ecstasy and wine, accompanied always by satyrs and nymphs. The force of life in all growing things. Dionysius is the Greek form of Thracian and Phrygian deities of vegetation and fetility, who followers worked themselves into a frenzy and ritually tore apart their god in the form of a goat, a bull or a man. The cult
survived the introduction of the Olympian gods and proved so popular that it finally had to be accepted by the Dorian Greeks.

In the dark age which followed the decline of the Myceneans, the cult of Dionysius spread rapidly, especially among women. His followers were known as maenads (mad women) and it was best not to be near when their frenzy came upon them. Animals, and sometimes people, were torn apart and sometimes eaten in the belief that they were devouring the god himself. Drunk, lawless and noisy, not terribly impressed by authority or convention, the followers of Dionysius were often unwelcome. His worshippers danced wildly, and his rites were designed
to cleanse men of lowly irrational emotions and desires.

DEOHAKO (Iroquois/Seneca) Spirits of maize, beans and gourds who live together in a single hill. Searching for dew, the maize spirit Onatha was captured by the evil spirit Hahgwehdaetgah who took her off to the underworld. Sun rescued her, and ever since she has remained in the cornfields until the corn is ripe

Dactyls - Greece - Divine Beings. Spirits born from the fingerprints of Rhea, 5 males from the right hand, 5 females from the left. They were blacksmiths, magi, founders of meter, and inventors of magickal formulas. They are a form of the Earth Elementals.

Dagon/Dagan - Philistines (Middle East) - Seagod, depicted as a Merman, fish-man or serpent-man. Patron of Farming and Fishing

Derceto - Babylonia - "Whale of Der", fish-goddess and Mother of Babylonia's foundress.

Dumuzi - Mesopotamia, Sumeria - Only sun of the lover of Ishtar. Called the Anointed One (Christos in Greece), a sacrificed God. God of Harvest, the Underworld, Vegetation, & Fertility.