The Stuff New Goddesses Are Made Of
![Avia, goddess of feathered bliss [a photo-altered Ursula Andress from the 1965 movie SHE]. Where'd she come from?](https://www.cfcooper.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Avia.jpg)
Avia, goddess of feathered bliss [a photo-altered Ursula Andress from the 1965 movie SHE]. Where’d she come from?
Birders may have the answer.
We birders–or birdwatchers, to the uninitiated—have several unique expressions. We sometimes refer to ourselves as “the sacrificial birder,” when one of us is that person whose time constraints force him or her to abandon the search for a rare bird while the rest of the group continues searching. Invariably, within minutes of said person’s departure, the bird will be found. The human sacrifice has been effective; some deity has been appeased, allowing the rest of us to enjoy the thrill and beauty of the bird. (And if you recognize a familiarity between the phrase “sacrificial birder” and the name of the blog next door, that’s no accident.)
But that begs the question: What deity has been appeased?
Being one who thinks in metaphorical terms, I found my wheels spinning to come up with the answer, and Avia, goddess of feathered bliss, was born. Mind you, Avia is not a goddess of birds, not exactly; rather, she is the goddess of birding. Gorgeous (like so many of the birds) but sometimes cruel (tantalizing with birds one never gets to see), she doles out delights and disappointments seemingly in equal measure. There are times she demands her due (the aforementioned sacrificial birder) before she will grant her boon, but when she does…ah, the incomparable joy she provides!
OK, so I invented Avia just for fun, to give a name and face to the seemingly random vagaries of the hobby I love. (“No migrants today? Who pissed off Avia?!”) But in her genesis, one can begin to see how deities evolved for specific phenomena or areas of human endeavor–their attributes reflecting something of our experience of that endeavor/phenomenon and of ourselves–and how new deities may yet evolve in a similar manner. Avia isn’t real, but given time and myths about her and belief, could she become real? And what does “real” mean anyway when speaking of the divine?
Food for thought while staking out the next feathered find.
(And literally as I finished writing this while sitting in the garden, a peregrine falcon started circling overhead. It’s a sign She’s please with my work; Avia be praised!)
genius!!!
Thanks, Tracey! (I’m blushing)