It turns out I am sadly uneducated about fertility figurines, goddesses, Earth Mothers. Since yesterday’s post about the Venus of Willendorf, I have done a bit of browsing around the web. This was in part spurred on by Opher’s comment yesterday: There are lots of examples of similar ones Sheela Na Gig comes to mind – often with very marked genitalia. P J Harvey did a great song about her.
Now I had never heard of either of these things. Having read and listened, I now do. Turns out PJ Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, writer, poet, and composer. Which is why Opher is familiar with her work – he’s a Pom too. Mad about music he is. And writes sci-fi novels amongst other things. PJ is known as a vocalist and guitarist – and turns out she sings a song about Sheela Na Gig – here’s some of the lyrics:
Look at these, my ruby red ruby lips
Look at these my work strong arms and
You’ve got to see my bottle full of char
You turn around and say back to me, “he said”
So just what is a Sheela Na Gig? She is a carving of a woman with exposed and/or exaggerated genitalia, usually found on religious buildings. Most of these figures can be found in Ireland although they can be found in the UK, France, Spain,Portugal, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and in the former Czech republic. More are turning up all the time. Well, I never…
I got to wondering where the Aussie slang word for woman came from – sheila. Turns out it has its origins in Ireland. I just knew it!
Like the Venus of Willendorf, there is a mixed range of beliefs about exactly what the Sheela represents. The0ries range from representation of female lust, corruption, sinfulness, or fertility and mother goddess.
Turns out there is a veritable plethora of Fertility deities – Wikipedia has an alphabetical list of them – too numerous to count.
© Raili Tanska
Very interesting.
And people wonder why this world is in such a mess.
Fascinating. I know very little about this as well.
The world is so full of all sorts of fascinating things. I wonder how a conversation with one of these little darlings would go? I think you should try it and see what words of wisdom they have to share 🙂
Okay! You planted it in my brain. I’ll see what comes out. 🙂
yay!
It’s never occurred to me before, but I don’t think Sheela Na Gig has a male counterpart…
Well I never, as they say.. Just shows you Raili what a bit of researching can do, I had never come across these goddess either and putting the slag for woman.. Sheila for Sheela, now makes perfect sense.. 🙂
We live and we learn.. 🙂 and I never tire of learning something new so Thank you xx ❤
🙂
I nearly mentioned Sheela-na-gig to you when we were talking about Venus of Willendorf. I’d never heard of her until about 8 years ago when someone asked me to create one for him (which I did in a virtual context).
Now, coincidently, I came across this a couple of weeks ago: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/513420931/siofra-fairy-sheela-na-gig-birthing?ref=shop_home_feat_1
It was originally carved into an avocado stone. Worth checking out her blog – there’s some beautiful work in there.
Thanks for that! I will go have a look
My sweetheart and I saw this a few years ago at Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire on the edge of the English / Welsh border. The cutest dog and rabbit are part of the same series – those ones are surprisingly modern-looking. It’s very unusual for these to be preserved, but it is in a rural location, which perhaps helps. We’ve seen a good many church carvings that have been defaced by censors over the years, often of green men or similar.
We have none of that here in Australia. I guess the country is too young and the convicts had other more pressing issues!
Well checked out Raili. Fascinating isn’t it? There is some conjecture as to the true meaning of the figurines. They were probably fertility symbols but who knows?
Anybody’s guess, Opher. But you’re right, it is fascinating delving into these ancient mysteries. Hope your writing is going well