GODDESS
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A goddess is a female deity.[1] In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave.
This includes themes of spinning, weaving, beauty, love, sexuality, motherhood, domesticity, creativity, and fertility (exemplified by the ancient mother goddess cult).
Many major goddesses are also associated with magic, war, strategy, hunting, farming, wisdom, fate, earth, sky, power, laws, justice, and more.
Some themes, such as discord or disease, which are considered negative within their cultural contexts also are found associated with some goddesses. There are as many differently described and understood goddesses as there are male, shapeshifting, or neuter gods.
In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship.
For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all reality, is Mahadevi (Supreme Goddess) and in some forms of Tantric Shaivism, the pair of Shiva and Shakti are the ultimate principle (with the goddess representing the active, creative power of God).
Meanwhile, in Vajrayana Buddhism, ultimate reality is often seen as being composed of two principles depicted as two deities in union (yab yum, "father-mother") symbolising the non-duality of the two principles of perfect wisdom (female) and skillful compassion (male).[2]
Polytheist religions, including Polytheistic reconstructionists, honour multiple goddesses and gods, and usually view them as discrete, separate beings. These deities may be part of a pantheon, or different regions may have tutelary deities.
Etymology
The noun goddess is a secondary formation, combining the Germanic god with the Latinate -ess suffix.
It first appeared in Middle English, from about 1350.[3]
The English word follows the linguistic precedent of a number of languages—including Egyptian, Classical Greek, and several Semitic languages—that add a feminine ending to the language's word for god.