84: La Befana: The Old Woman of Epiphany & the Goddess Beneath Her Broom

In this episode, we explore the enchanting Italian figure of La Befana, the winter witch who sweeps across the night sky on Epiphany Eve, delivering gifts, blessings, and quiet wisdom. Far more than a quaint holiday character, La Befana is an ancient echo of pre-Christian goddesses of hearth, liminality, and renewal, a crone spirit who holds the threshold between the old year and the new. We trace her story from the familiar tale of the wandering Magi, who once knocked on her door seeking the Christ child, to older roots in Roman tradition where women like her,  broom-bearing, hearth-tending, keeper of the household fire,  once embodied the presence of the divine feminine in everyday life. Along the way, we'll explore how La Befana’s soot-smudged face and patched clothing symbolize the wisdom of the elder, the courage of imperfection, and the magical work of tending what others overlook. You’ll discover how this “good witch” became beloved across Italy, why she brings both sweets and lumps of coal, and what her broom truly symbolizes: the clearing of stagnant energy, the sweeping away of misfortune, and the blessing of every threshold she crosses. We will also delve into her possible connection to the ancient Sabine goddess Strenua, a forgotten deity of health, strength, and New Year purification whose festival once enlivened the streets of ancient Rome. From her sacred laurel procession to her role in inspiring the tradition of New Year’s gifts, Strenua forms a powerful ancestral thread that may well run beneath La Befana’s patched skirts. This episode blends folklore, history, goddess lore, and spiritual reflection to illuminate La Befana not merely as a figure of children’s stories, but as a wise guide of the liminal season, a keeper of renewal, and an elder archetype who blesses the turning of the year with generosity, humor, and magic. By the end, you may find yourself looking at brooms differently… and perhaps sensing that on a cold January night, an old woman wrapped in shawls might still be sweeping her way through the winter stars.

In this episode, we journey into the life of Paulina of Nola, a Roman noblewoman transformed by grief, devotion, and an extraordinary capacity for love. Her story stands at the crossroads of Roman virtue and early Christian spirituality, revealing a feminine archetype that blends dignity, humility, and courageous compassion. We explore Paulina’s origins among the Roman elite, tracing how the devastating loss of her child became the hinge of her spiritual awakening. Rather than retreat into isolation, Paulina became a living embodiment of dignitas, a noble character rooted not in status, but in moral strength, and pietas, the Roman virtue of duty, sacred responsibility, and loyalty to both the divine and the vulnerable. Her transformation also resonated with the virtues of caritas, a deep and active love for humanity, and humilitas, the holy humility that recognizes divinity in every face. Through service to the poor, care for widows and orphans, and her collaboration with her husband Paulinus in building sanctuaries of hospitality, Paulina emerges as an archetype of the “wounded mother who becomes a healer.” Her sorrow does not diminish her, it opens her. Her capacity to endure suffering becomes the very source from which she channels redemptive love. This episode also traces the archetypal dimension of the feminine healer whose love reshapes communities. Paulina stands in a long lineage of women whose grief becomes grace, whose tenderness becomes medicine, whose devotion becomes a force that changes the fabric of the world. She offers a model of love that is fierce in its softness and expansive in its reach, love as presence, as service, as spiritual power.

Today we are connecting to the ancient Roman goddess Fides. Fides, the Roman goddess of trust, loyalty, and fidelity, illuminates the enduring power of promises, integrity, and honor. From the Capitoline Temple to everyday acts of faith in the marketplace, Fides teaches that trust is both a personal virtue and a societal force. Through her guidance, we learn that integrity transforms relationships, stabilizes life’s chaos, and anchors our actions in purpose. By honoring Fides, through reflection, ethical living, and ritual, we step into a lineage of faithful hearts and reliable hands, guided by the silent, radiant power of sacred promises.

In this episode, we journey to the edges of the cosmos to meet Aether, the primordial god of the upper air and pure light, and Hemera, the goddess of day and the radiant unfolding of life. Born from the eternal darkness of Nyx and the boundless expanse of Chaos, these deities embody illumination, clarity, and the sacred rhythm of day and night. Through myth and meditation, we explore how Aether and Hemera illuminate the spaces within ourselves where insight, awakening, and divine vision reside. From the first light that banished primordial night to the cycles that sustain life on earth, these twin forces remind us of the perpetual renewal of spirit and consciousness.  References  Hesiod. (Theogony, lines 123–130, 217–223). Homeric Hymns. (Hymn to Helios and Hymn to the Sun). Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford University Press. Burkert, W. (1985). Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Harvard University Press. Stafford, E. (2000). Worshipping Virtues: Personification and the Divine in Ancient Greece. Duckworth. GreekGoddesses.fandom.com. (2025). Aether and Hemera. https://greekgoddesses.fandom.com/wiki/Aether PaleoThea. (2025). Aether & Hemera: Primordial Greek Deities of Light and Day. https://paleothea.com/gods-and-goddesses/aether-hemera/ Olympioi. (2025). Aether and Hemera: Cosmic Light and Day in Greek Mythology. https://olympioi.com/deities/aether-hemera

On this episode of the Goddess Divine Podcast we revisit the ancient primordial goddess Asherah. This episode is a previously unreleased session that I did with a friend of mine several months ago. I have uploaded it for those who are very interested in goddess Asherah and wish to connect with her more closely. I hope this episode is helpful during your journey. 

In this episode, we explore Hybris, the ancient Greek personification of arrogance, overreach, and hubris. Born from a cosmic desire to test the limits of mortals, Hybris serves as a mirror reflecting our pride, entitlement, and the consequences of forgetting balance. Through myth, meditation, and reflection, we uncover how Hybris teaches the soul the sacred lesson of restraint, humility, and cosmic proportion. From mortal kings who believed themselves equal to the gods, to the intricate dynamics of divine punishment in Greek literature, Hybris reveals the eternal tension between human ambition and divine order.  References  Hesiod. (Theogony, lines 223–232). Homer. (Iliad & Odyssey). Pausanias. (Description of Greece, 1.33.2–3). Stafford, E. (2000). Worshipping Virtues: Personification and the Divine in Ancient Greece. Duckworth. Liddell, H. G., & Scott, R. (1996). Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford University Press. Jung, C. G. (1951). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Princeton University Press. GreekGoddesses.fandom.com. (2025). Nemesis & Hybris. https://greekgoddesses.fandom.com/wiki/Hybris PaleoThea. (2025). Hybris: Greek Goddess of Arrogance and Hubris. https://paleothea.com/gods-and-goddesses/hybris-greek-goddess-of-hubris/ Medium. (2025). Hybris and the Lessons of Excess in Greek Mythology. https://medium.com/@pussgara/hybris-greek-mythology

In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we journey into the enigmatic world of the Etruscans to rediscover Nortia, the powerful goddess of time, fate, cycles, and the delicate hinges upon which destiny turns. Often overshadowed by her Greek and Roman counterparts, Nortia emerges here not as a forgotten deity, but as a force of cosmic precision,  the one who fixes time itself. We begin with a mythic story that breathes life back into her ancient presence, inviting listeners to imagine a world where every year’s turning was marked by the driving of a sacred nail into her temple walls, a ritual that bound past to future and sealed the fate of an entire people. Through this symbolic act we witness how the Etruscans conceptualized time not as an endless river, but as a series of divine appointments, moments nailed into permanence. The episode explores who the Etruscans were and the unique spirituality that shaped their cosmology: their reverence for fate, their fascination with divination, and their belief that divine signs structured the rise and fall of cities and empires. Within this worldview, Nortia presided over what could be granted to mortals, what must be withheld, and when cycles were required to end so that new ones could begin. We delve into the ritual, political, and prophetic power of the “nail rite,” understanding how Nortia’s annual marking of time was not simply symbolic but cosmically consequential, fixing the boundaries of destiny, anchoring cycles, and granting divine sanction for renewal. The episode also includes a moving invocation from Nortia’s perspective, offering listeners an intimate encounter with the goddess who governs turning points, endings, patience, and the mysterious architecture of fate. Finally, we reflect on why a goddess like Nortia matters now. In a world obsessed with speed and productivity, she reminds us of the sacredness of timing, of waiting, pausing, beginning again. She teaches that fate is not a rigid decree but a collaboration between divine order and human choice, and that cycles conclude not only with loss but with the possibility of rebirth. References & Further Reading de Grummond, N. T. (2006). Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. George, A. R. (1999). The Piacenza Liver and Etruscan Divination. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 58(2), 95–110. MacIntosh Turfa, J. M. (2013). Divining the Etruscan World: Religious Practices and Beliefs. Brill. Erika Simon, "Gods in Harmony: The Etruscan Pantheon," in The Religion of the Etruscans (University of Texas Press, 2006), p. 59.  Massimo Pallottino, "Religion in pre-Roman Italy," in Roman and European Mythologies (University of Chicago Press, 1992, from the French edition of 1981), p. 30; Nancy Thomson de Grummond, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2006), p. 96 online. The Mysterious Etruscans. (n.d.). Religion of the Etruscans. https://www.mysteriousetruscans.com/religion.html World Mythos. (n.d.). Nortia. https://worldmythos.com/nortia/

In this hauntingly introspective episode, we descend into the veiled corridors of Greek mythology to meet two often-forgotten daughters of the divine feminine shadow — Apate, the spirit of deceit, and Ate, the goddess of ruin and reckless impulse. Together, they form a mirror of human folly and awakening, revealing the hidden architecture of our own self-deceptions. Born of Nyx, the night herself, and Eris, the goddess of strife, these goddesses weave through the human condition with quiet inevitability — whispering illusions, stirring chaos, and leading mortals to their own undoing. Yet, within their chaos lies a rare alchemy: the transmutation of ignorance into truth, delusion into clarity, and fall into illumination. Through myth, archetype, and mystic psychology, we explore how Apate and Ate work together within the inner mysteries — how deception is sometimes the initiator, and downfall the catalyst for soul awakening. From the Trojan War’s divine manipulation to the spiritual art of discernment, this episode reframes deception not as moral failure, but as a sacred mirror through which we must all one day gaze. We’ll also wander into the esoteric realms of alchemy, examining how Apate and Ate appear symbolically within the Great Work — as forces that burn away illusion, pride, and attachment, leading the initiate through the Nigredo, or blackening stage, toward rebirth in light. The episode closes with a two-part guided journey — an inner descent where listeners first meet Apate, the Weaver of Illusions, to see what false stories they’ve wrapped around their spirit; and then Ate, the Bringer of Ruin, who clears what must fall away. Through them, listeners learn that even in deception, there is divine intelligence; and even in ruin, there is resurrection. Enter the mirror. Witness what deceived you. Watch what falls — and then, what rises. 📚 References & Source Notes Hesiod, Theogony (lines 211–232) — Nyx as mother of Apate (“Deceit”) and Ate (“Ruin”). Homer, Iliad XIX.91–133 — Zeus recounts how Ate led him to harm Heracles; Ate personified as delusion and folly. Pausanias, Description of Greece IX.39 — References to altars and cultic remembrance of Ate in Thebes. Apollodorus, Library I.3.2 — Lineages of Nyx’s children, including Apate. Kerenyi, Karl. The Gods of the Greeks. Thames & Hudson, 1951. Jung, C.G. Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. (for archetypal shadow & delusion parallels). Neumann, Erich. The Great Mother. Princeton University Press, 1955. Hillman, James. Re-Visioning Psychology. HarperPerennial, 1975 (for mythic archetypal framing). Eliade, Mircea. The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy. Harper Torchbooks, 1971. Fabricius, Johannes. Alchemy: The Medieval Alchemists and Their Royal Art. Diamond Books, 1989.

In this contemplative and expansive episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, Deanna explores one of the great mysteries of ancient spirituality: What becomes of a goddess when her temples fall, her people vanish, and her name is no longer spoken? Moving through history, myth, cosmology, psychology, and metaphysics, the episode unravels how divine feminine energies are transformed, not destroyed, when belief fades. From the ruins of forgotten shrines to the depths of the collective unconscious, we journey into the subtle realms where goddesses endure as archetypes, intelligences, and living patterns of cosmic energy. Through narrative reflection, channeled monologue, and philosophical inquiry, this episode examines how deities shift when their cultures collapse, how divine energy redistributes according to the laws of consciousness, and why the resurgence of goddess spirituality today is both inevitable and necessary. Listeners will explore how goddesses migrate across cultures, reincarnate through new symbols and names, and continue to shape the human psyche long after formal worship ends. The episode concludes with a haunting, luminous message from the forgotten goddess herself, a reminder that the sacred feminine never disappears; she simply waits for new eyes to recognize her. A profound meditation on memory, myth, and the living pulse of the divine feminine, this episode invites listeners to reconsider what it truly means for a goddess to be “forgotten,” and why reclaiming goddess consciousness is essential for personal and collective wholeness today.

In this episode of The Goddess Divine Podcast, we explore one of the most electrifying themes in goddess traditions around the world: apotheosis, the transformation of a mortal woman into a goddess. Across cultures and centuries, this moment of becoming marks the threshold where human suffering, courage, devotion, or injustice ignites into divine presence. From Inanna’s descent and resurrection, to the deification of Egyptian queens, to the Hellenistic stories of mortal women who crossed into sacred memory, apotheosis reveals an ancient truth: the line between human and divine has always been porous, fluid, and deeply feminine. We trace how cultures honored women as embodiments of cosmic power, not only goddesses from birth but goddesses by ascent: women who became divine through ordeal, ecstatic revelation, sacrifice, or the sheer magnitude of their spiritual influence. We also reflect on the social and ritual conditions that allowed this transformation to be witnessed and sanctified, and why such stories later diminished or disappeared. Through myth, anthropology, and mystical insight, this episode considers what goddess apotheosis means for us today. How do modern women experience spiritual elevation, visionary awakening, or inner sovereignty? What does it look like to reclaim the idea that the divine feminine is not distant or unreachable,  but something that can rise from within the human story? This is an episode about remembering the pathways to divinity that women walked long before patriarchal systems closed the gates. It is an invocation, a reclamation, and an invitation to see the goddess not as a distant icon, but as the final form of our own highest, liberated self.