My birthday is coming soon, and this year I gave myself a very special present: a reading with astrologer Kelly Hunter, whose work I have followed for a long time.
I deeply connect with her transmissions of the astros, her wisdom around the cosmic couples, and the way she speaks about myth, and stars. The reading was generous and layered. One of the many insights was about a Kupper Belt Object.
Kelly spoke about Haumea, now very close to my nodal axis, with my North Node in Virgo. Haumea is named after the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth and fertility. In astronomy, Haumea is also a dwarf planet beyond Neptune.
But what really stayed with me was this: before the name Haumea was officially accepted, a Spanish astronomical team had proposed another name for this celestial body.
Ataecina.
That was the word that caught me.
Ataecina.
It took me three times listening back to the recording before I integrated all the insights. And then something opened. For the last week I have been following this goddess almost obsessively, through articles, inscriptions, Iberian sculptures, goats, caves, sanctuaries and old stones.
What I am finding is fascinating.
Ataecina, also written as Ataegina, is an ancient goddess from the Iberian Peninsula. Close from where I am from, She appears especially in western Iberian contexts connected with Lusitanian, Vettonian and Celtici territories. Between the Guadiana and Tajo rivers. She is usually described as a chthonic goddess, meaning a goddess of the earth below, the underworld, death, and the hidden places of transformation.
But she is not only a goddess of death. She is the Goat Mother.
She is also the Goddess of rebirth, spring, fertility, agriculture, animals, healing, night and the moon. Her name has been interpreted as possibly meaning “reborn” or “she who is reborn”. This gives her a beautiful seasonal quality: the goddess who descends, disappears, and returns.
In Roman times, Ataecina was associated with Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of Persephone. Some inscriptions call her Dea Ataecina Proserpina. This connection makes sense to me: Proserpina too is a goddess of the underworld, of descent and return, death and spring, grief and renewal.
One of the strongest archaeological places connected with Ataecina is Santa Lucía del Trampal, in Alcuéscar, Cáceres. The Visigothic basilica there appears to have been built in a place with a much older sacred history. Inscriptions found at the site include altars dedicated to Ataecina, suggesting that this was once an important sanctuary for her cult. I am also very interested in the connection with water, springs and healing waters, lots of the ancient stones had U shapes, remembering the water that was going through the stones.
Goddess Ataecina, small bronze animal votive offering. Have been found lots of Goat Statues in Bronce, in the area, this are date V B.C,
I decided to write to my Auntie Soco, She has a MA in History and Art, and she loves pre-Roman art in Spain. She reminded me that this period is not easy to interpret. Much of what we know is fragmentary, and many conclusions are still based on interpretation. Let's get inspired by it!
But she also opened a beautiful path for me.
She spoke about the Phoenicians as great carriers of knowledge from East to West. Through trade and travel, they brought symbols, gods, animals, objects and ideas across the Mediterranean. She also pointed me towards Sumer and Mesopotamia, where the goat was one of the earliest domesticated animals and became a symbol of fertility, strength and life.
Sumer. Phoenicia. The Mediterranean. Iberia.
A line of goats, goddesses, waters and stars.
One sculpture that especially interests me comes from Cerrillo Blanco, Porcuna, Jaén, dated around the 5th century BCE. It shows a female figure holding animals that are often described as rams, though some interpret them as goats. Some modern writers have connected this image with Ataecina, is in the Musuem of Jaen, Spain.
Here La Dama de Elche.
L
Dama de Elche, Arte Iberico. siglos v-iv a. C.
My research also brought back two figures I studied when I was at art school: La Dama de Elche and La Dama de Baza. My Auntie Soco, who is methodical in her research, reminded me that these figures are not usually understood as goddesses. They are more often interpreted as high-status women, linked with funerary rites.
La Dama de Baza was found from a necropoleis, the Cerro de Santuario. Arte Ibero, V B.C.
. The side ornaments of the Lady of Elche remind me of circles, horns, cornucopias, portals, or vessels of abundance. I know this is my artistic intuition speaking. As the Rosquetas still are wear and use in the typical dress of the landmark.
Drawing by me July 1 -26
Ataecina may also have had a connection with justice. Some inscriptions call upon her in relation to wrongs or thefts, asking the goddess to intervene. This gives her another dimension: not only the goddess who receives the dead and brings back spring, but also the one who sees what is hidden.
Ataecina or Ategina
A water nymph who can transform into a goddess.
A goat mother.
A presence rising from underground waters, from a land of fertile land, trees, stones and springs.
She is the female divine as earth, moon, animal, body, fertility, death, justice, protection and return.
A goddess who is not only gentle.
Not only pretty.
Not only mother.
She stands between death and rebirth.
Between Spring and Autumn.
Between the underground and the stars.
And maybe this is why she is arriving in my research now.
Ataecina: she who returns.
The one who is reborn.
The one who waits underground until we are ready to hear her name again.
And may she help us cleaning the water now that we need her more than ever! Thank you Aetecina!
I will share my painting soon!
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En español!
Mi cumpleaños se acerca, y este año me hice un regalo muy especial: una lectura con la astróloga Kelly Hunter, cuyo trabajo sigo desde hace mucho tiempo.
En la lectura, Kelly habló de Haumea, un planeta más allá de Neptuno, ahora muy cerca de mi eje nodal, con mi Nodo Norte en Virgo. Haumea recibe su nombre de la diosa hawaiana del parto y la fertilidad. Pero lo que más me llamó la atención fue descubrir que, antes de que ese nombre fuera aceptado oficialmente, un equipo astronómico español había propuesto otro nombre para este cuerpo celeste: Ataecina.
Ataecina.
Esa palabra me abrió una puerta.
Desde entonces he estado siguiendo su rastro a través de artículos, inscripciones, esculturas ibéricas, cabras, cuevas, santuarios, aguas y piedras antiguas. Ataecina, también escrita como Ataegina, es una antigua diosa de la península ibérica, especialmente territorios lusitanos, vettones y célticos.
Se la describe como una diosa ctónica, conectada con la tierra profunda, el inframundo, la muerte y la transformación. Pero no es solo una diosa de la muerte. También aparece relacionada con la fertilidad, el renacimiento, la primavera, los animales, la sanación, la luna, los manantiales y las aguas subterráneas.
En época romana fue asociada con Proserpina, la diosa del descenso y el retorno, de la muerte y la primavera. Uno de los lugares más importantes vinculados a su culto es Santa Lucía del Trampal, en Alcuéscar, Cáceres, donde se han encontrado inscripciones dedicadas a ella. También en la zona entre el Guadiana y el Tajo.
También me fascina su relación con la cabra. En la zona se han encontrado pequeños exvotos de bronce con forma de animal, y la cabra aparece como símbolo antiguo de fertilidad, vida y fuerza. Mi tía Soco, que sabe mucho de Historia del Arte, me recordó que estas conexiones deben mirarse con cuidado, porque mucho de este mundo antiguo nos llega fragmentado. Pero también me abrió un camino precioso hacia los fenicios, que introdujeron diferentes animales en la peninsula. Sumeria, Mesopotamia y esa línea antigua de símbolos que viajan por el Mediterráneo.
Lo que más me conmueve de Ataecina es esta imagen: una diosa que desciende y vuelve. Una madre cabra. Una ninfa de agua que puede transformarse en diosa. Una presencia que asciende desde la tierra, las piedras y los manantiales.
Ataecina como tierra, luna, animal, cuerpo, fertilidad, muerte, justicia, protección y retorno.
No solo madre.
Una diosa entre la muerte y el renacimiento.
Entre la primavera y el otoño.
Entre lo subterráneo y las estrellas.
Ataecina: la que vuelve.
La que renace.
La que espera bajo tierra hasta que estamos preparados para escuchar su nombre de nuevo.
Y que nos ayude a limpiar las aguas ahora que la necesitamos más que nunca.
Gracias, Ataecina.
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Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid
Exvoto de bronce con forma de cabra, procedente de Malpartida de Cáceres, relacionado con Adaegina/Ataecina.
https://ceres.mcu.es/pages/ResultSearch?Museo=MAN&MuseumsRolSearch=9&MuseumsSearch=MAN%7C&hipertextSearch=1&listaMuseos=%5BMuseo+Arqueol%EF%BF%BDgico+Nacional%5D&search=simp&simpleSearch=0&txtSimpleSearch=Malpartida+de+C%EF%BF%BDceres -
Museo de Jaén / Museo Íbero de Jaén
Escultura ibérica de Cerrillo Blanco, Porcuna, conocida como la Diosa de los Carneros.
https://ceres.mcu.es/pages/ResultSearch?MuseumsRolSearch=2&MuseumsSearch=MJ%7C&hipertextSearch=1&listaMuseos=%5BMuseo+de+Ja%EF%BF%BDn%5D&search=simpleSelection&simpleSearch=0&txtSimpleSearch=Diosa+%EF%BF%BDbera -
HA Historia y Arte
“La diosa Ataecina en la Hispania romana”. Blog divulgativo que resume el culto de Ataecina, su vínculo con Proserpina, la fertilidad, la muerte y las cabritas votivas.
https://www.hahistoriayarte.com/la-diosa-ataecina-en-la-hispania-romana/ -
Arqueogestión
“El culto a Ataecina o Ataegina en la Hispania romana”. Entrada divulgativa sobre su culto, las inscripciones y los exvotos de bronce en forma de cabra.
https://arqueogestion.com/2020/04/25/el-culto-a-ataecina-o-ataegina-en-la-hispania-romana-una-resena-arqueologica/ -
Museo de Cáceres
Sala de la Segunda Edad del Hierro, con referencia a exvotos de bronce con forma de cabra dedicados a la diosa Ataecina.
https://museodecaceres.juntaex.es/web/view/portal/index/standardPage.php?id=44